Irish Formula Atlantic Series Race

Mondello Park, 14 Apr 1974

All cars are 1.6-litre F/Atl unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B25 [25-73-08] (Patsy McGarrity): New to George Silverwood and entered by his Central Garage (Mirfield) Ltd for John Lepp in British Formula Atlantic in 1973. Also used by Lepp in the first European F2 round at Mallory Park, with the 1.6 BDA still in it. Lepp's sports car racing took priority from July and the B25 was sold to Patsy McGarrity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) for Formula Ireland racing. Loaned by him to Chevron cars for John Watson to use in the F2 race at Albi. Converted back to Formula Atlantic for McGarrity to race in the 1974 Irish season, winning eight races and the All-Ireland championship. Sold on to Pat Woods (Newcastle, County Wicklow, Ireland) for 1975, and retained for two further seasons. Last seen when Woods crashed heavily in practice at Phoenix Park in September 1977, when the car was described as wrecked. Woods' daughter later told James Murray that he sold the wreckage of the B25 to Bobby Howlings. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Lotus 69 [71/69.3.F2] (Ken Fildes): New to J&J Stanton for Gerry Birrell to race in F2 in 1971. Hired to José Ferreira for the Torneio Brasiliero at the end of the year. To Brian Small in 1972, and fitted with a Cosworth BDA for Formula Atlantic races late 1972, and a handful of appearances in 1973. To Roy Baker (Ferndown, Dorset) July 1973, but again only seen in a handful of races. This is likely to be the "F2 chassis" with Hart BDA advertised by MRE (Bourne End, Buckinghamshire) in November 1973. To Ken Fildes (Clonskeagh, Dublin) for the new Irish Formula Atlantic series 1974 and 1975. Entered by Fildes for a young local lad Eddie Jordan in 1976. To Mark Birrell (Liverpool) in 1977. Acquired from Nick Overall by Richard Hinton (Albury, Hertfordshire) in early 1978, who started the restoration. Sold in 1985 via Chuck McCarty to Richard Spelberg (Dusseldorf, Germany) and retained in his collection until his death in the late 1990s. Subsequent history unclear, but this car was owned by Hermann Unold by 2005, when he raced it in HSCC DBT events. It was bought from him by Eric Peterson (Germany) in 2014, and advertised by him in April 2018. Bought in 2018 by Paul Matty and owned by him until 2021, when it was sold to Malcolm Thorne (Stanford Bridge, Worcestershire).
3. Lotus 69 [71/69.1.F2] (Walter Kinnear): New for Tetsu Ikuzawa in F2 in 1971, and prepared by his mechanic Yoshiatsu Itoh. Hired from Ikuzawa by Ronni Rossi for the Torneio Brasiliero at the end of the year. Sold via MRE to Johnny Blades in 1972, although Blades did not race it, then sold to Walter Kinnear (Gilford, County Down, Northern Ireland) for Irish libre racing in 1973, when it was fitted with a Cosworth FVC engine. Then fitted with a Cosworth BDA for Kinnear to drive in Irish Formula Atlantic in 1974, 1975 and 1976. It then went to Barclay Bingham for Irish hillclimbs, and then to Robin Dunbar, who did not use it. It was then sold to Bill Patterson (Belfast) in 1984 and restored for historic racing with the HSCC. Raced by Mike Pendlebury (Higham, Suffolk) in HSCC events from 1986 onwards. It later went to Freddy Kumschick (Schötz, Switzerland) who raced it in European Historic Formula 2 in 2000 and 2001, and then via Hall & Fowler to Irvine Laidlaw by 2003. Laidlaw sold it to Mark Davenport some time after 2006, and he raced it in the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy at Croft in 2011. It was next seen when acquired from Hall & Hall by French historic driver Jean-Marc Bussolini and entered in Historic F2 in 2013.
4. Brabham BT40 [36] (Tom O'Leary): Run by Motor Racing Developments as a second works car in Formula 2 in 1973, driven at first by Andrea de Adamich, and entered by FINA Racing Team. Raced later in the season by Gabriele Serblin and Rolf Stommelen. Sold to Tom O'Leary (Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland) for Irish Formula Atlantic in 1974. Retained by O'Leary for 1975, 1976 and 1977, then acquired by Gerry Kinnane in part-exchange for a Chevron B29 sold to O'Leary, and entered for John Ledlie, Ivor Greenwood and Derek Shortall in 1978. Next seen with Chris Charlett in Trinidad in 1981 and 1982. Returned to the UK by 2001, when it was restored by Cooper Motorsports and raced by Steve Parrott in the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy. Sold to Tim Kuchel (Australia) in 2006 and raced in Australian historic racing. Kuchel died in December 2019, and the car was sold by his family to Wayne Groeger (Fairhaven, Victoria, Australia) in December 2020.
5. March 73B [712M-5] (Arthur Collier): New to Mike Beuttler, and raced in F2 in 1971 entered by Clarke Mordaunt Racing with Alistair Guthrie. This must be the ex-Beuttler 712M acquired by Hesketh Racing, and raced by James Hunt at the Rothmans 50,000, and then in the remainder of the F2 season. Sold by Hesketh to Ray Mallock, and updated by March to 73B specification for Mallock to race in British Formula Atlantic in 1973. The car was later rebuilt on the 73B tub that had been used as a bodywork buck. Via A.W. Brown Racing to Arthur Collier 1974 for Irish Formula Atlantic, then to Patrick Woods mid-season. Borrowed by Patsy McGarrity for the Boxing Day race at Mondello Park at the end of 1974. The car was later said to have returned to the UK via AW "Monkey" Brown, then moved through the trade to Roger Andreason, who sold it to his friend Charles Richards to be used in Monoposto in 1978. From there, it moved towards historic racing, but leading to some confusion as the car by now had a 73B tub and 73B bodywork. Its life in historic racing requires further confirmation.
6. March 722 [4] (Tony Martin): New to the ELF Coombs Racing team for 1972, and raced in F2 by Jean-Pierre Jabouille and François Cevert. Sold to Roy Courtney (Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) for 1973 and fitted with a 1600cc Cosworth BDA, but only seen rarely in Irish racing. To Tony Martin (Dun Laoire, County Dublin, Ireland) for 1974, and raced in Irish Formula Atlantic until crashed heavily at Mondello Park in August. According to Eddie Fitzgerald, the car went to Austin Kinsella (Blessington, County Wicklow) for another couple of seasons of Atlantic, and was then sold to Cyril Lynch (Terenure, Dublin) who used it mainly in hillclimbs from 1978 to 1979. While Lynch owned it, it was also raced by Vivien Candy at Mondello Park in 1979. It left Ireland when sold via AW 'Monkey' Brown to Mike Gue, then to Lew Wright, and then to Peter Denty (Thetford, Norfolk) by 1984. Denty sold it via Ted Walker to Mike Jones, who ran it in Sprints in the north of England in the early 1990s. Jones died in 2004, and the car was sold by his Estate to Todd Willing (Melbourne, Australia) in 2006.
7. Lotus 69 [69/71.4.F2] (Dermot O'Leary): New to LIRA, a new team set up by Justin Haler and Chris Witty, with support from the Lotus factory and financial backing from John Kendall. This new car was raced by Richard Scott in F2 in 1971 alongside teammate Reine Wisell in a 1970 Lotus 69. When LIRA collapsed, Scott ran the car privately later in the season. Sold to Patsy McGarrity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) for Irish libre in 1972, then to Dermot O'Leary (Clonee, County Meath, Ireland) for races at Mondello Park in 1973. O'Leary replaced the Cosworth FVA with a BDA for Irish Formula Atlantic in 1974, again just racing at Mondello Park. The car was bought from an advert in Autosport by David Fletcher (Ashdon, Essex) and Steve Bradley (Cambridge) of Ashtune Race Hire and raced by Bradley in Formule libre and Formula Atlantic in 1975, mainly at Silverstone. It then went to Terry Scannell and Colin Thorpe, and was run by Thorpe for Craig Dennis (Rainham, Essex) to drive in Monoposto from 1977/78 to 1981, when the car was crashed at Snetterton in 1981 and was not repaired. The remains were acquired from Thorpe about 1993 by Peter Denty (Thetford, Norfolk), who restored it for German customer Eberhard Metke. It was sold in 2000, but the next owner is not yet known. Subsequent history unknown.
8. March 722 [41] (David Lambe): New to Tom Wheatcroft Racing for Roger Williamson to race in F2 in 1972, but Williamson's main aim was the F3 title, so the 722 was little used. To Patsy McGarrity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) for 1973, and used in Formula Ireland races. To David Lambe (Dublin, Ireland) in August 1973, and converted to Formula Atlantic specification for 1974, when it was also raced once or twice by Tom O'Leary. In 1986, this car turned up in England in the hands of David Tilley, who told speed event historian Steve Wilkinson that it had come from Patsy McGarrity in Ulster and was "the ex-Wheatcroft car for Roger Williamson". Tilley replaced the 1600cc engine with a 3500cc Rover V8 for 1988, then sold the car to Barrie Gilles (Lydney, Gloucestershire), who raced it in 1989. Subsequent history unknown.
9. March 73B [8] (Des Donnelly): New to Colin Vandervell (Purley, Surrey) and raced with great success in the Formula Atlantic in the UK in 1973, winning four races, and securing the Yellow Pages Championship. Sold to Des Donnelly (Naas, County Kildare, Ireland) for the Irish Formula Atlantic series, and raced by him in 1974 and 1975. This must be the March "74B" advertised by Gerry Kinnane in Belfast in June 1976. There is then no mention of the car in 1976 or 1977, but in 1978, the car was raced by Ken Fildes (Clonskeagh, Dublin), and it had been owned by Kinnane for part or all of this period. Sold to Graham Brown, who took it to Australia when he emigrated in 1979, and raced by him in Western Australia in 1980 and 1981. Also raced by Joe Ricciardo in 1981. To Rod Housego, and raced by him in Western Australia in 1982 and 1984. Acquired by Richard Carter in 1988, and restored. Raced by Carter in HSRCA events from 1999 to 2002. Later to George Makin (Melbourne), and raced by Andrew Makin in historic events from 2003 onwards.

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.

The Irish race results for 1974 were originally compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Autosport and Motoring News reports plus the information supplied by a wide range of contributors.

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.