OldRacingCars.com

Irish Formula Atlantic Series Race

Kirkistown, 23 Aug 1975

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Harold McGarrity Chevron B25/B27 [25-73-05] - Ford BDA
(see note 1)
15 09m 47.0s
93.67 mph
2 John Smith March 722 ["18"] - Ford BDA
(see note 2)
15 09m 49.0s
3 John Pollock Chevron B25 [25-73-12] - Ford BDA
Gerry Kinnane (see note 3)
15 09m 53.4s
4 Walter Kinnear Lotus 69 [71/69.1.F2] - Ford BDA
(see note 4)
15 10m 04.6s
5 Bill Gowdy March 74B [U1] - Ford BDA
(see note 5)

R Patsy McGarrity Chevron B29 [29-75-07] - Ford BDA Fred Smith
(see note 6)
3 Damaged nose cone
DNS Jay Pollock Crosslé 26F [26F-73-01] - Ford BDA
Did not start

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

Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. 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.
  2. March 722 ["18"] (John Smith): John Smith (Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) bought a new March 722 for Formula Ireland racing in 1972, using a 1840cc Broadspeed Ford BDA engine. The engine proved expremely troublesome, and Smith rarely started a race. The car was reported to be chassis 722-18, but this is the same number reported for Mike Beuttler's car in F2. The car was next seen in 1974, when Smith had converted it to Formula Atlantic specification with an Alan Smith BDA. He raced it in the Irish Formula Atlantic series from 1974 to 1977. Sold to Joe Greenan (Belfast, Northern Ireland), who appeared in Irish Formula Atlantic in 1978 with a car described by Autosport as "an elderly but nicely turned out March of circa '72 vintage". The car was also driven by Arnie Black in a race at Kirkistown that year. It was then sold to Jimmy O’Boyle, who used it for many years and enjoyed great success in the Northern Ireland hillclimb and sprint championships. John Smith was keen to get the car back, and when O'Boyle retired, he sold it back to Smith. The car was rebuilt, and in 2007 it was used in the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy by John's son Darwin Smith. Used in HSCC and European F2 racing from 2007 to 2019.
  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 [71/69.1.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.
  5. March 74B [U1] (Bill Gowdy): New to Harry Stiller Racing and entered for Bev Bond in a few late-season 1973 Formula Atlantic races, but only appeared once. Rebuilt by March to 74B specification over the winter and appeared as 74B chassis 'U1' for Bond in 1974, until he announced his retirement in June 1974. Alan Jones took over the drive for the rest of the season and won three races. Advertised by AW Brown (London) in January 1975. Briefly to Frank Blanchard in early 1975 but then to Bill Gowdy (Belfast, Northern Ireland) for Irish Formula Atlantic. To Gerry Kinnane for Des Donnelly to drive in 1976, then to Eddie Jordan (Dundrum, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland) for 1977. Subsequently to Colin Simpson (Dundee, Scotland) for Scottish hillclimbs in 1978 and 1979, when it was fitted with a 1800cc Cosworth BDE. It was then sold to Graham Brown, a Scot who emigrated to Australia and took two Formula Atlantic cars with him. Brown raced it in Scottish hillclimbs in 1980 before it went. Raced by Geoff Nicol in Australian Formula Pacific in 1981, and by John Blennerhasset in 1982. Then to Michael Miller, brothers Peter and Terry Simms, then the Kendall family, then to Bryan Miller in 2002. Sold by Bryan to Richard Carter (Berry, NSW) in September 2018, and shortly afterwards sold to Richard Ellingworth.
  6. 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.

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.