Irish Formula Atlantic Series Race

Mondello Park, 15 Jun 1975

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

Notes on the cars:

1. 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.
2. Chevron B29 [29-75-07] (Patsy McGarrity): New to Patsy McGarrity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and raced in the Irish Formula Atlantic series in 1975, entered by Savoy Motors. McGarrity also raced the car in libre at Ingliston and in the British GP support race in July. Retained for 1976 when he again drove it in the Irish series, plus Irish hillclimbs. In September it was sold to Derek Shortall (Malahide, County Dublin), who raced it for the first time at Kirkistown in October. Shortall raced it in the Irish series in 1977, and in September sold it to Joey Greenan, who made his debut in the car at Kirkistown in October. However, Greenan did not race the car in 1978, and it reappeared in the hands of John Smith (Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) when the Irish series visited Donington Park in April 1978. Raced by Smith for the rest of the season and advertised by him in October. In late May 1979 it was sold to Dave Rackham (Rochester, Kent) and used by him in the British series, but in only his second race he crashed it heavily at Oulton Park in July. Rackham replaced it with a B42 but advertised for parts for the rest of the year. The surviving parts of this car were probably acquired by John and Jim Blackwell (Seattle, WA) when they bought Rackham’s Argo in late 1980.
3. Chevron B25 [25-73-12] (John Pollock): New to Brett Lunger and run for him by Space Racing in F2 in 1973, starting at Nivelles-Baulers in June. To Nick May (Sutton, Surrey) in 1974, and converted to Formula Atlantic specification for the British series. Then to Gerry Kinnane (Belfast, Northern Ireland), and entered for John Pollock to race in the 1975 Irish Formula Atlantic series. Sold to Bill Gowdy (Banbridge, County Down, N. Ireland) for 1976, but crashed twice that year. Crashed again during 1977, and at some point in this period, the car is believed to have had a new chassis. Sold by Gowdy to Paddy Farrelly (Lucan, Dublin) for 1978, and again used in Formula Atlantic, but now quite uncompetitive. Sold to Tony Skinner (Terenure, Dublin, Ireland) and raced at Phoenix Park in 1981. He raced it again early in 1982, but then moved over to a friend's B42 later in the season. Tony sold the B25 to Cyril Lynch, who fitted a 4.4-litre Rover V8 engine, and first ran the car in the Galway MC Ballyvaughan in mid-1983. For 1984, Lynch ran the car for Shay Lawless, who dominated the Pioneer Hi-Fi Hill Climb Championship, setting nine records. It was sold to Paul Deveney for 1985, and he continued to run it in hillclimbs. The hillclimb championship was cancelled after 1986, and the Chevron was sold to Ken Moore (Iver Heath, Bucks), rebuilt by Bob Egginton of ASD in 1988/1989, and used in libre racing at Lydden. Then to Lew Wright (Haslemere, Surrey) who got HSCC papers for the car in 1999. By 2001, it was with Nick Overall (Petworth, West Sussex) who entered it in HSCC Derek Bell events, and still had it in 2006. Sold to Markus Kalbermatten (Grellingen, Switzerland) in 2006, and used in historic Bergrennen.
4. 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).
5. Chevron B25/B27 [25-73-05] (Harold McGarrity): Used by Martin Webb for the first half of the British Atlantic season but without a great deal of success, and also in libre events. Sold to Chris Skellern (Worcester) for libre races, hill climbs and sprints in 1974. Sold to Harold McGarrity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) for the 1975 Irish Formula Atlantic season. Retained by McGarrity for 1976, and also appeared a few times in 1977. Subsequent history unknown but a strong candidate for the 'B27' of Bosco O'Brien in 1978.
6. 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.

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.