Vandervell British Formula 3 Championship Race

Silverstone, 27 Aug 1979

All cars are 2-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 773 [U1] (John Bright): March works records show this as Mario Ferraris' works car for 1977 built on tub AM773-14 and rebuilt after Ferraris' Monaco accident on tub AM773-65. Sold in March 1978 to Neasrader Film Production for Richard Morgan according to the works records. Motoring News 30 Mar 1978 p11 says that Morgan's car is ex King, but we know from reports and the works records that King's main car was 773-U2. However, that car was damaged in the 1977 season and it is possible that King used 773-U1 after its rebuild as Ferraris' damaged wrist took longer to recover than the car did. Sold to John Bright in 1979 to replace his wrecked 773-13 and its identity eventually perhaps blurred with that car in a rebuild after a heavy accident.
2. March 783 [14] (Fermin Veléz): Shown in March records for 1978 as delivered to Rushen Green Racing 14 April 1978, colour red, with tub 78M71. This is presumably the car used by Serra at Donington 30 April 1978, where Motoring News describes it as a new and unsorted chassis being readied for Monaco, and at Silverstone the following day where the Autosport report also describes it as new and used the day before at Donington. Sold to Fermin Velez for 1979, run by Brian Lewis Racing, with the chassis number observed by F1R at Snetterton in August 1979.
3. March 783 [5] (Rob Wilson): Shown in March records for 1978 as delivered to Daniel Herregods, 19 January 1978, colour yellow with tub 78M25. To Rob Wilson in 1979 to replace his tiring Ralt RT1 and updated to 1979 specification. Autosport notes ‘ex Herregods’ and chassis number noted by F1R at Snetterton in August 1979. Sold to Gerry Amato for 1980 season, Autosport notes his car as ‘ex Wilson 1979’. Retained by Amato until 1982 then sold to Greg and Tim Atkinson.
4. Chevron B38 (Benoît Morand): Benoît Morand raced a Chevron B38 in Swiss F3 events in 1978, and then in British F3 in 1979. His car was nearly always described as a B38, and the few ocassions it was described as a B43 probably referred to it having been updated.
5. Ralt RT1/76 [29] (Osamu Hatagawa): Ralt records show as sold to Geoff Brabham in 1976, probably being delivered in early June. Used by him until the end of 1978 then sold to Ken Thorogood's Hub of the Universe Racing for Osamu Hatagawa to use in British races.
6. March 773/783 [773-3] (Ken Eady): March build records show sold to Unipart, 23 December 1976. Only one 773 is consigned to Unipart in the build records. Assumed that Taylor as senior driver would take the new car, a fact borne out by occasional references in 1977 to Needell being in a 763, the team's original car.
7. Chevron B34 [34-76-29] (David Brotherston): New to Rupert Keegan in July 1976 and raced in the British F3 series with British Air Ferries sponsorship, winning three races and clinching the BP BARC title for Keegan. To David Brotherston (Edinburgh, Scotland) for 1978, and raced in the British F3 series. Brotherston continued to use the car in 1979 and 1980, again in British F3, after which he sold the car to Bob Howlings. Then to Bob Baxter (Saffron Walden, Essex) for Formule Libre towards the end of the 1981 season. Later to Alastair Ferguson, and used by him in TF3 in 1987. It was unused from the late 1990s until 2007, when Ferguson sold it to Hugh Price. Price had it completely rebuilt to Keegan's BAF livery with a view to racing it in the Classic F3 series in 2008. It was sold to Bruce Bartell in 2009, and raced by him in HSCC events, then by his son Maxim Bartell in Classic F3 from 2014 to 2017.

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.