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Bogotá Formula B race

Bogotá, 5 Mar 1972

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B18 [18.F2.71.1] (Brian Robertson): Chassis number given [AS 3 Jun 1971 p12] for the works car of Chris Craft at Crystal Palace F2 race, 31 May 1971, where it is also described as the ex-Redman works development car used in South Africa. John Powell's car at Brands Hatch, 27 Dec 1971 is described by MN as "the ex works development B18 which Redman raced in South Africa last winter". Powell was shaking the car down before taking it back to Canada, where he used it in the FB series in 1972. It was used by Brian Robertson at Bogota (Montreal Gazette). Paul Wheatley's car for 1973 is described in Canadian Motorsport Bulletin’s season preview as ex Powell.
2. 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.
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. Brabham BT29 [1] (Ron Dykes): 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.
5. Chevron B20 [71-1] (Jim Grob): The prototype Chevron B20 was completed in Formula B specification delivered to Jim Grob (Ft Lauderdale, FL) in time for the 1971 Run-Offs. Grob then raced the orange car at the Bogotá races in early 1972 and then in Southeast Div and Pro FB in 1972. He retained the car for 1973 and 1974, racing it in a total of four Run-Offs, before selling it to Peter Symonds (Rowley, MA) for the 1975 season. Symonds only raced it four times: two SCCA Regionals in 1975 and another two in 1976. Its next owner was Jack Van Dell who raced it in Regionals in 1985. It was sold to Pierre Haverland (Belgium) in 1988 and then to Nelson Todd in Northern Ireland in 2000. Mick Henderson bought it in 2007 and still has it in early 2013.
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.

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.