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SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B/C Race

Brainerd, 15 Aug 1971

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT35 [39] (Allan Lader): Bought by Allan Lader in 1971 to replace the Brabham BT29 he had wrecked at Mexico City in June. Entered by Pacifico Inc. (Gresham, OR) Based on an annotation in a rae program, this car is believed to be BT35-39 but a F3 car appeared in Germany in 1972 said to have the same chassis number. Presumably the Brabham BT35 entered by Pacifico for Frank Fitch at Riverside 24 Sep 1972 and, by extension, the Brabham raced by Fitch in other west coast events in 1972.
2. Brabham BT35 [9] (Nick Craw): Chassis number given for Nick Craw's car in Autosport report of Arco Trophy race at Castle Combe, April 12, 1971, where the car debuts. [AS 15 Apr 1971 p20] Report says car is being taken over to North America, so presumably the BT35 used by Craw in races there in 1971, entered by Fred Opert.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Brabham BT29 [36?] (Mike Rand): 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.
6. Brabham BT29 [33] (Philip Geraldi): 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.
7. Brabham BT29 [41] (Dick Doherty): Bought new by Allen Karlberg (Seattle, WA) and raced in Formula B in the Pacific Northwest in 1970. Sold to Dick Doherty (Hollywood, CA) for Ron Dykes (Marina del Rey, CA) to race in early 1971 SoPac Div SCCA Nationals, where he was unbeatable in the category, and then by Doherty himself later in 1971 and in early 1972. Believed to have gone to Byron Hatten (Altadena, CA) na draced by him some time between mid-1972 and mid-1973 after which it was bought by Frank Monise Jr (Pasadena, CA). Monise raced it in 193/74 before crashing it heavily at Laguna Seca and wrecking the frame. He bought a second BT29 and eventually sold the remains of BT29-41 to Barry Blackmore (San Marino, CA) who had it rebuilt with a new frame fabricated by Wayne Mitchell and stamped 'W12191'. This rebuilt, rechassised car was sold to Australia and was with Mitch Evans (Auckland, NZ) by 2009.
8. Brabham BT29 (Rudolfo Junco): After Rudolfo Junco's wrecked his usual Brabham BT29 in an accident in the warm up session at the FB race at Monterrey, Mexico, in June 1971, he was allocated another BT29 as part of the Fred Opert Racing operation. This #80 car was advertised by Opert later with mention that it was the car driven by Bill Brack at Mosport Park 19 Sep 1971. It was then sold and may be the #80 car owned by Bunny Ribbs and entered by his Bunny Ribbs Plumbing & Heating for Mike Eyerly and Jon Milledge in 1972. If so, it is chassis BT29-38.
9. 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.
10. Brabham BT29 (Peter W Nye): 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.
11. 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.

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.