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SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B/C Race

Mid-Ohio, 27 Sep 1970

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT29 [36?] (Matt Spitzley): Matt Spitzley (then from Aspen, CO), had a Brabham BT29 for 1970 entered by his Spitzford Racing team (Detroit, Michigan). For 1971 the car was sold to Mike Rand (Riverside, CT/Greenwich, CT) who raced it in NEDiv FB, finishing third overall. It then went to Peter Regna in New Jersey for 1972, after which Regna recalls selling it to Ken Duclos. Duclos, however, does not remember buying it.
2. Brabham BT29 [5] (Nick Craw): Nick Craw (Washington,DC) bought one of the first Brabham BT29s from local Brabham dealer Fred Opert, a car identified by Ted Walker of the Brabham Register as chassis BT29-5. Craw raced in SCCA events from August 1969 onwards, finishing second in the SEDiv FB championship by a single point, and in two Pro races. He continued with a BT29 in 1970 in Pro racing as part of Fred Opert Racing and to the best of his and Opert's recollection, used the same car. He bought a Brabham BT35 for 1971 but before this arrived in the US, he raced the BT29 once more, winning a National at Summit Point in April 1971. The car appeared in Fred Opert's stock list on 1 May and was then sold to Gary Gove (Tacoma, WA) who raced it in SCCA Regional and ICSCC events in 1971 and 1972, It was reportedly crashed in 1972 and its later history is presently unresolved.
3. Brabham BT29 [33] (Mike Hall): This Brabham BT29, believed to be chassis BT29-33, was bought new by Michael F. Hall (Chicago, IL) and used in SCCA racing where Hall won the 1970 CenDiv FB title. He also raced it in the Pro series in the latter half of the season. Hall retained the red-and-yellow BT29 for the first half of 1971 but replaced it with a new BT35 in August and sold the BT29 to Phil Geraldi (Valley Stream, NY), who had previously raced a LeGrand in NEDiv FB. Geraldi raced it for the rest of 1971 and in 1972 then sold it to Charles J. Derbes III (Metairie, LA) in the spring of 1973. Derbes won the SWDiv Formula B title in this car in 1974 and attended the Run-Offs, finishing 12th. He was second in the Division in 1975 and tied with Warren Pauge for the 1976 title. Chaz Derbes has retained the BT29 ever since, still owning it in 2012.
4. Brabham BT29 (Syd Demovsky): Syd Demovsky (Chicago, IL) raced a yellow #11 Brabham BT29 in Pro events in 1970. At the end of the year the car was sold via Joe Grimaldi (Race Shop) to Peter Nye (Ann Arbor, MI) who fitted it with a HRE twin cam and raced it in Pro events and in some SCCA events through 1971. At the end of that season he sold it less engine to Jim Lloyd (Indianapolis, IN) who converted it to Formula C and won the CenDiv FB title in 1972 and 1973. Lloyd retained the car and later restored it to Formula B specification for vintage racing.
5. Brabham BT29 (Graham Baker): Graham Baker moved from New Zealand to the US for a season of Formula B in 1970. He bought a new green Brabham BT29 from Chip Gompf and Wayne Mitchell, one of three new BT29s they had in stock. He was entered by Charlie Hayes Racing Equipment as #82 for his first race, at Edmonton in May, but was then self-entered as #82 for the next eight races as #67 before ending the season as part of the Bonphil Racing Industries team. Hayes sold the car for Baker at the end of the season to a non-racer in Laguna Hills who appears to have retained it, unused, for three years. In late 1973/early 1974, CSCC racer Jeff Alkana learnt from engine specialist Steve Jennings about the car and he bought it with Frank Monise, who needed a new BT29 having wrecked his earlier BT29-41. Monise raced the car for several more seasons with Ford twin cam and BDA engines before selling it around 1976 to Tito D'Oporto and Gary Green and replacing it with a March.
6. Brabham BT29 (John Girdler): Bill Gubelmann (Oyster Bay, NY) bought one of the first Brabham BT29s to arrive in the US and debuted it in the Pro race at Lime Rock 1 Sep 1969, winning comfortably. He raced it three more times that season but then decided to join Gene Mason's works-assisted Tecno FB team for 1970. The BT29 was advertised and, based on the identical, orange, yellow and white livery, was sold to John G. Girdler (Southampton, NY) who raced it in a handful of Pro events and probably also in SCCA events during 1970. Girdler upgraded to a new March for 1971 so the Brabham may have been traded to Joe Grimaldi. Subsequent history unknown.
7. Brabham BT21C (John R Babchek): John R. Babchek (Romulus, MI) upgraded from his old Cooper T76 to a white-and-blue Brabham BT21C in either late 1969 or early 1970. The BT21C is likely to have been second hand but it has not yet been indentified.
8. Chevron B17B (Fred Opert): Fred Opert ran a team five-car team in 1970 which included a Chevron B17B for himself and a sister car for Mike Eyerly. Opert's personal car was sold to Tom Outcault (Cranford, NJ) for 1971 who used it in NEDiv events and also in the Pro race at Road America in Aug 1971. Last seen when advertised by Outcault in Nov 1971.
9. Brabham BT29 (Evan Noyes): Evan L. Noyes Jr . (Cedarville, MI) entered a yellow Brabham BT29 for Sebring 28 Dec 1969 but did not arrive, implying his car was not quite ready on time. He ran through the 1970 Pro season as a member of the Fred Opert Racing team driving a canary yellow BT29 and also raced in CenDiv events, finishing second to Michael Hall. He also finished second at the Run-Offs. This is not the same car that Noyes then took to the Tasman series in January 1971 as his US car was on Fred Opert's stock list on 1 May 1971 with a comment that it had not raced since the Run-Offs.
10. Chevron B15B [FB-69-7?] (Doug Brenner): A new Chevron B15B was prepared for Reine Wisell to race - and win - at Sebring 28 Dec 1969, probably chassis 15B.69.7. Doug Brenner bought this car for 1970 and raced in the Pro series and then sold it to Bryon Hatton for 1971.
11. Chevron B14 (Jim Trueman): In Sep 1970, a young Jim Trueman (Amlin, OH) raced a blue and silver Chevron in the Mid-Ohio 'Pro' Formula B race. Trueman would later found the Red Roof Inn motel chain and use his ensuing wealth to form the Truesports racing team and win the Indy 500 in 1986. After the 1970 season, he sold the Chevron to one-time F1 driver Tom Jones (Euclid, OH) who understood it to be a B14 and entered it as such. He raced it in 1971 and 1972 and then traded it to Ed Zink for the remains of the McLaren M22 that Zink's nephew Harry Ingle had crashed at Road America. The later history of the Chevron is unknown.
12. Brabham BT29 [12] (Dale Lang): Dale Lang (Wilton, CT) drove a crimson Brabham BT29 during the latter half of the 1970 season but the early chassis number suggest that the car have seen service before Lang's first observed race at Road America 18 Jul 1970. Fred Harris also drove Lang's car on at least one occasion. The car passed to east coast wheeler dealer Joe Grimaldi (Glenrock, NJ), presumably in trade for the new March 712M that Lang bought, and then on to Charlie J. Derbes III (Metairie, LA) who raced BT29-12 in two Nationals, at Summit Point 18 Apr 1971 and at Savannah 16-17 May 1971, but crashed heavily at the latter race. Charlie has retained the car but it remains unrebuilt to 2012.
13. Brabham BT29 [30] (Dexter Farley): After crashing his FC car at Lime Rock in August 1969, Dexter Farley (Waldorf, MD) part-exchanged the wrecked Brabham for a new Brabham BT29 from east coast dealer Joe Grimaldi, who had recently parted from Fred Opert. Farley drove the car in Pro events in 1970 as well as competing in NEDiv FB races. He retained it for 1971 (advertising it as "ser no 30" in October 1971) and the early part of 1972 before moving to Washington state and quitting racing.
14. Brabham BT29 (Randy Fraser): Randy Fraser (Piedmont, Quebec/Rhode Island) raced a blue-and-silver #54 Brabham BT29 in 1970 as part of Team IRI and with sponsorship from Multimetals. He appeared in both the Canadian and US Pro series but focused on the US series after the first few races. He moved to a new March 71BM for 1971 but the Brabham remained unsold. It appeared in his advert in CP&A in Novemeber 1971 when it was described as a rolling chassis in parts. This may well be the car bought by fellow Quebecois Derek Johnson which Canadian Motorsport Bulletin noted had been unraced during 1971. If so, it was raced once by Ian Coristine at the start of 1972 and by Derek Johnson for the rest of the season.

Sources

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' orginal results.

1970 US FB results were compiled from Autoweek reports by Jim Thurman; 1971 results were transcribed from Autoweek by Allen Brown and 1972 results were compiled by Chris Townsend from an SCCA results publication.

The US Formula B series did not continue in 1973 but a race was organised in Caracas in March 1973 that fits here probably better than anywhere else, as do the occasional SCCA F/Atlantic and FB races in 1974 and 1975.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen if you can add anything.

Individual sources for this event

Some information added by the Mansfield News Journal, 24 Sep 1970, p28, which describes Ron Stanwicks' March as a March 705 and Bill Rasinen's Lotus as a Lotus 18.