Forward Trust Formula Three Championship

Brands Hatch, 15 Sep 1974

All cars are 2-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 733 [723-1] (Brian Henton): New to the STP March Racing Team for Roger Williamson to drive in two late-1971 rounds of the British F3 series. The drive was taken over by James Hunt for the 1972 season, then by Russell Wood at Monaco and the next few races, and then by Jochen Mass. To Buzz Buzaglo for 1973, updated to 733 specification and raced in British F3. To Chris Oates for 1974 but not raced by him. In September 1974, the car was quicky prepared for Brian Henton to drive at Brands Hatch, as his usual works March 743 had been hired out to a Brazilian driver. Henton won the race, but then returned to his usual car for the rest of the season. The Oates car was then rebuilt by March as a 743 for Ken Silverstone to race in 1975. It was given a new 743 chassis plate by March at this piunt, so it's connection to 723-1 effectively ceases, and it should be regarded as a new car from that point.
2. GRD 374 [089-F3?] (Marcos Moraes): New to Team Brasil for Marcos Moraes to race in British F3 in 1974. Also raced by his elder brother Luis Correira Moraes after Marcos Moraes was injured while testing. The car was identified as 089-F3 during 1974. Sold for 1975 to Doug Bassett and continued in British F3, but identified now as 090-F3. Bassett reappeared briefly at the start of 1976 in this car. Subsequent history unknown.
3. GRD 374 [094-F3] (Alex Dias Ribeiro): New to Alex Dias Ribeiro in July 1974, replacing his earlier car crashed at Cadwell Park, and raced in British F3 in 1974 with Hollywood sponsorship. Ribeiro joined the March Engineering F3 team for 1975, so sold his GRD and transporter to Brian Henton. Henton ran the GRD as a hire car for Derek Cook at Monaco in 1975 and for Mike Tyrrell at Brands Hatch a week later, after which it was sold via Mike Gue to the US, where it was bought by Jim Fikse (Seattle, WA). Fikse converted the car to Formula C, with a 1100 cc Cosworth BDJ engine, but crashed it in an early race outing and it needed to be extensively rebuilt, reportedly with a new monocoque. It was repaired in time to be used by Mike Gilbert to win the FC class at the 1976 SCCA Runoffs. It was sold to Peter Gates in March 1977, who raced it in NEDiv FC until the end of 1978. According to the logbook, later owners are Modjean, Jaworski, Slyvester and Greene. Then bought by Bob Darcey (Lakewood, CO) in 1999.
4. Brabham BT41 (Patrick Neve): Robert Joubert had a yellow-and-black Brabham BT41 that he and Patrick Neve drove in British F3 in the latter half of the 1974 season, entered by JNM Racing.
5. Elden Mk16 [155/16001/73] (Jorge Koechlin): Completed for Gordon Smiley to drive in the 1974 British Formula Atlantic series, using Hart BDA engines and entered by Elden International Racing. After missing two races in June, Smiley made his debut in the car at Thruxton on 7 July, qualifying ninth and finishing fifth. He was described by Autosport as "unbelievably hairy" at the Brands Hatch race two weeks later, and then crashed at Silverstone the following weekend. The car was next seen at Brands Hatch in September, when it had been fitted with a Ford twin cam engine and converted to Formula 3 specification for Peruvian driver Jorge Koechlin to drive, with backing from the Bondurant Racing School. Koechlin had been driving a Elden-Scholar Mk10C in Formula Ford with some success until a massive accident at Brands Hatch in May. He competed in four F3 races in September and October. It was then converted back to Formula Atlantic specification and sold to Bruce Kramer (Rockford, Illinois). Describing the car as an "Elden PH75-B", he raced it in SCCA Nationals in 1975 but failed to qualify from his heat in his only Pro race, at Trois-Rivières. It was retained by Kramer for 1976 and 1977, again appearing in SCCA Nationals but without notable success. He was 11th in Central Division in 1976 but failed to score a point in 1977. Subsequent history unknown, but in January 2009 'capri' on 10 Tenths said he had the Mk16 in the Chicago area, his father having "purchased it in the early 1980s in pieces".
6. March 743 [22] (Buzz Buzaglo): New to Ippokampos Racing for Australian racer Buzz Buzaglo to use in British and European F3 in 1974. Used by Tom Pryce at the Monaco GP F3 support race. Sold to Bob Arnott for 1975 and retained for the first few weeks of the 1976 season. Sold to Colin Myles (Holmes Chapel, Cheshire) and fitted with a 1098cc Hart engine for hillclimbs from 1979 or earlier.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

These British Formula 3 results have been compiled by Chris Townsend using the main British magazines Autosport and Motoring News but also the US magazine On Track which carried surprisingly good coverage of the British series.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.