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SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B/C Race

Mexico City, 27 Jun 1971

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT29 (Rudolfo Junco): Noted Mexican driver Freddy van Beuren entered Formula B in 1971 driving a Chevron B18 as part of Fred Opert's team. However, he also had a Brabham BT29 as a backup car and he loaned this car to Rudolfo Junco after Junco's car had been destroyed in an accident at Monterrey the previous week.
2. Brabham BT35 [32] (Raúl Pérez Gama): Raúl Pérez Gama was one of several Mexican customers of Fred Opert racing in the early 1970s. For 1972, he had a brand new orange-and-yellow Brabham BT35 and raced as part of the Fred Opert Racing team in Pro Formula B events with entry number #66. He retained the car for the two Bogotá races in early 1972 after which BT35-32 has been indentified as the car driven in SCCA events by Gordon Strom (Santa Cruz, CA or Sunnyvale, CA) in 1972 and for the following three seasons, retaining the car's original orange and yellow colours throughout. For 1976, Strom acquired a Chevron B29 and the Brabham may have been traded back to Fred Opert.
3. Chevron B15B [FB-69-4?] (Jim Grob): Jim Grob (Ft Lauderdale, FL but later Pompano Beach, CA) raced a Chevron B15B in Pro racing in 1969 and also scored 24 points in Northeast Division FB, representing Northern New Jersey Region. The car was red and white, implying it was chassis 15B.69.4. He retained the car for 1970 and again for 1971, then mainly focusing his efforts on SCCA Divisional racing, finishing second to Hugh Kleinpeter's sister car in 1970 and then winning the Division in 1971. He changed to a B20 for 1972.
4. Brabham BT29 [38] (Mike Eyerly): The early history of this car is unknown but it is believed to be the blue-and-red Brabham BT29 entered by Bunny Ribbs (San Jose, CA) for Mike Eyerly in FB in 1971 (#63) and 1972 (#80). Jon Milledge also drove Ribbs car at Brainerd in Sep 1972. Ribbs, father of future Trans-Am star Willy T. Ribbs, advertised the car at the end of 1972. The next owner is unknown but the car was quickly on to Skip Jones who remembers buying it in San Francisco and that Ribbs had previously been involved. Jones raced the car in Regional events in 1973, winning the 1973 ICSCC Formula B championship, and then sold it to Allen Karlberg (Seattle, WA) who fitted a BDA for the 1974 season and raced it in SCCA Formula A and in Canadian Formula Atlantic. Jones believes that the car was sold and campaigned in eastern Canada with Kimberly Clark livery by Monique Proulx. Proulx drove Karlberg's March 712M in a Pro Atlantic race supporting the US GP at Watkins later that year so may have driven the older BT29 in local events.
5. Brabham BT29 (Steve Louden): Larry Harley (Dallas, TX) bought a Brabham BT29 for the 1970 season, using it in the Southwest Division FB title race - where he finished just a single point behind winner Roy Maze - and in a couple of Pro events. After finishing ninth in the Run-Offs, the car passed to Steve Louden (also Dallas) who raced it in 1971 and 1972, winning the SWDiv title in 1971 and tying in 1972.
6. Brabham BT29 [45] (Doug Brenner): This is one of a pair of late BT29s acquired by California dealer Charlie Hayes which remained unraced during 1970. It was sold it March 1971 to Doug Brenner (Pasadena, CA) and raced in Pro events and in SCCA Nationals that season. Brenner raced the yellow Brabham in the two Bogotá races in early 1972 and then sold it to Phil Palm and Ron Pohl 1972 who retained Brenner's entry number of #26 and raced the car in 1972. They sold it to Bill Summers who raced it in mainly Regional races at Elkhart Lake, Brainerd, and Blackhawk Farms. The next owner was Bob Mijolevic and around this time the car was fitted with a Mazda engine and used in autocross. Mijolevic last raced the car in 1982 but after that the history is largely unknown until it was bought by Cy Moreland who in turn sold it to Dave Burch (Los Altos, CA). By that time it had been rebuilt on a replacement Marc Bahner chassis. In 2009 it was reported to have been sold via Bahner to an Australian owner.
7. March 71BM [2] (Bill Gubelmann): Shown in March build records as "white, Bill Gubelmann". Bill Gubelmann raced the car in early rounds of the British series before returning with it to the USA, and it is seen to be white in photographs.
8. Brabham BT29 [1] (John Angus): John Angus bought the first BT29, ordering the car as early as late summer of 1968 but taking delivery in August 1969. He ran it in Regionals in late 1969 before participating in the Pro series in 1970. He swapped from a Vegantune to a Racing Services engine for 1971 and continued in Nationals. Angus continued with the car in 1972, when Ron Dykes also drove it in the Bogotá races and again in 1973, when the car continued to be competitive at National level.
9. Brabham BT29 [46] (Allan Lader): Allan Lader had raced as part of the Fred Opert team during the latter half of 1970 but in 1971 he returned to running his own car with Pacifico Inc backing. He again raced a Brabham BT29, his third, and continued his run of excellent results by winning the opening two rounds of the Pro series from pole. At the third round, at Mexico City, he crashed heavily and the BT29 was wrecked. Lader quickly bought a new Brabham BT35 and the wrecked BT29 frame went via Opert to Carl Whitney and some components from it were salvaged to be used on the Formula C BT29 that he built up for the 1972 season. The remains of the wreck were sold (with another wreck) to Ken Duclos to help keep his FB BT29 running. Marty Handshy (Ridgefield, CT) then bought both sets of remains from Duclos. It is unclear how this car was identified as BT29-46 but a reproduction plate was created at the time of the restoration when the frame was reconstructed by Lime Rock Motors in 1999. He reatined the car until some time between 2004 and 2007 when it was sold to Shelby Mershon (Springfield OH).

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.