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SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B/C Race

Riverside, 24 Sep 1972

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT35 [32] (Gordon Strom): 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.
2. Brabham BT35 [39?] (Frank Fitch): 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.
3. Brabham BT29 [44] (Larry Wright): This late BT29 remained unused in 1970 and was sold by Charlie Hayes to Larry Wright (Riverside, CA) in Dec 1970, taking Wright's Chevron B15 in part exchange. Wright raced the orange-and-yellow #83 Brabham in Pro events and in SCCA National and Regional events on the west coast. In June 1973, he wrecked the car in practice for a National at Laguna Seca and replaced it with the ex-Archie Snider BT29. The damaged chassis went to Marc Bahner in 1974 who eventually repaired it and sold it to Lou Pavesi in 1980. It later passed to Steve Pike in Australia in 1993 and then to Jim McConville in 1998.
4. Brabham BT29 [45] (Phil Palm): 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.
5. 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.
6. Brabham BT29 (Jon Milledge): Jim Gutfreund (Des Moines, Iowa) bought a new Brabham BT29 for 1970 and ran it in Midwest Div Formula B, winning two races and leading the division until his BRM-built Ford twin-cam blew. He sold the car to Archie Snider for 1971 and Snider continued with the BRM engine until joining forces with Jon Milledge who crewed the car for Snider in Regionals while racing it in Nationals and in Pro events. They continued with the car through 1972 and into 1973, before Snider replaced it with a GRD. It then went to Larry Wright to replace his earlier BT29 that he'd wrecked in June 1973. Wright kept the car until 1974 after which he retired and sold the car to "an unknown guy who lived in the Sierra Madre area of So Cal, near Pasadena".
7. 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.