OldRacingCars.com

British Sprint Championship Round

South Cerney, 28 Apr 1974

ResultsTime 
1 Dave Harris 5-litre McLaren M10B/M14D [400-06 (A)] - Chevrolet V8
40.23s 1st in large racing car class
2 David Render (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre Brabham BT35 [35] - Ford BDA
(see note 1)
40.58s 1st in 1600cc racing car class
3 Bob Rose 5.7-litre McLaren M14D [1] - Chevrolet V8
41.16s 2nd in large racing car class
4 Rob Turnbull (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre Brabham BT35 [6] - Ford BDA
(see note 2)
41.68s 2nd in 1600cc racing car class
5 John Ravenscroft 5.7-litre McLaren M10B [400-12] - Chevrolet V8
42.33s 3rd in large racing car class
6 Clive Bracey 5-litre Vebra Mk1 - Chevrolet turbo
42.54s
7 Martin Steele (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre March 702 [6] - Cosworth FVA
(see note 3)
42.7s 3rd in 1600cc racing car class
8 Johnty Williamson 5.7-litre Surtees TS11 [02] - Chevrolet V8
42.83s
9 Dave Hartley 3.5-litre Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] - Buick V8
(see note 4)
43.69s
10 Philip Anstruther (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre March 702 [1] - Cosworth FVA
(see note 5)
45.53s
Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. Brabham BT35 [35] (David Render): New to Mike Hawley (Solihull, Warwickshire) and fitted with a Hart twin cam engine for the RAC British Hill Climb Championship from August 1971 onwards. Hawley fitted a Cosworth FVA Formula 2 engine for 1972, and was a regular 1600cc class winner in the British championship that year. To Tony Harrison and fitted with a Hart BDA engine, again to 1600cc capacity. To David Render (London) for 1974, and fitted with a 1800cc BDA engine for Sprints, while also running his Brabham BT29X in the 1600cc class. Retained with a 2-litre BDA for 1975, when it became his main car, and for the early part of 1976 before Render borrowed a F1 Lotus 76 instead. It was retained to 1978 and then advertised in October 1978 by Bobby Howlings' AMCO dealership. It then went to Bob Sharrott in the West Indies, before returning via Ted Walker and Peter Watts in the late 1980s. It was with John Harper in 1991, who raced it in historic events with a BDA engine, then sold to Georges Legein (Belgium) in 1993, who converted it to F3 specification. To Jean-Luc Burlion (Belgium) in 2005, then to Cédric Cordemans (Belgium) in 2009. It reappeared when sold in 2012 by Kris Perdu (Belgium) to Kurt Vanderspinnen (Belgium), who raced it as a F3 car in Dutch Historic Monoposto Racing events in 2014 and 2016. Sold by Vanderspinnen to Michael Rasper (Cologne, Germany) in October 2021.
  2. Brabham BT35 [6] (Rob Turnbull): New to Nick Cook and used in the British Formula Atlantic series in 1971. Retained for early 1972, but Cook does not appear in the UK after the end of April and this is probably the car taken to the USA to use in the SCCA series in 1972. Used by Rob Turnbull in British hillclimbs in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976. Sold to Andrew Fraser (Newton Abbot, Devon), and shared by him and Tim Painter in Sprints in 1977. Retained by Fraser for 1978 and 1979, and appeared at Wiscombe Park events in 1980 and 1982. Then via David McLaughlin to Keith Norman about 1984 and used by him in HSCC events in the 1980s and 1990s. To Rob Haze (Netherlands) between 1992 and 1995, and then back to Norman again. To John Dunham April 2001, then to Ben Tyler 2003, then Peter Shaw 2004, then Dr John Monson 2007.
  3. March 702 [6] (Martin Steele): Although given the number 702/6 by March, this was the development F2 car built using the very first Arch Motors frame. It raced just once in 1970 when Howden Ganley appeared in it at Mantorp Park in August. At the start of 1971, it was fitted with a Vegantune twin cam for Formula Atlantic, and was driven by David Morgan at the Mallory Park round in March, taking pole position and winning. He was second in the next race at Castle Combe, but then the car was advertised by March, and bought by John Nicholson, who used it for the rest of that season. Advertised by Nicholson (Ashford, Middlesex) in August 1972. Bought from Nicholson in October 1972 by Martin Steele (Faringdon, Oxfordshire) and used in sprints in 1973 and the first half of 1974. Sold in July 1974 to Peter Fisk (Cambridge) who raced it in speed events from 1974 to 1979. The car was fitted with a BDA engine, and Fisk sometimes shared with Robert Glass, also of Cambridge. Fisk advertised the car in October 1980 and sold it back to Steele in March 1981. Steele restored it and used it in UK historic racing in 1985 and 1986. Retained until sold in November 1998 to Mike Scott (Exeter, Devon) who drove it in FORCE events in 2003, and later appeared with it in Masters events in 2006. Sold in 2009 to Satoshi Onishi (Miharuno, Japan) and used by him in Japanese historic events.
  4. Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] (Dave Hartley): New to Clive Baker near the end of the 1966 season, after Baker had given up on the Stockbridge Racing Cooper T83 in May. Built with a Ford twin cam engine for libre racing and first reported winning a libre race very comfortably at Castle Combe at the end of August. The nearly-new car was sold to Bryan Eccles (Solihull, Warwickshire) for 1967 and fitted with a 3.5-litre Oldsmobile V8 engine for hillclimbing. Eccles won a number of events, including the Shelsley Walsh championship hillclimb in August. To Chris Cox for 1968 and used in libre racing. Then to Tony Charnell for 1969 but not seen. It returned to hillclimbing in 1970 when owned by Richard Thwaites (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire) and then in 1971 with Dave Hartley who also used the Brabham-Buick in sprints. Hartley continued to run the car regularly in the British Sprint Championship until 1975. He took class wins in Longton & District MC's Isle of Man hillclimb in 1977 and 1978. Next seen when advertised by Jim Johnston in January 1988. According to a later advertisement for the car (then called F2-42-66), it was owned after Johnstone by Peter Speakman (also the owner of F2-22-66), and was then bought back by Jim Eccles in the early 2000s. It was later sold to Simon Durling, who had it fully rebuilt and used it in the Pre-1971 racing car class. After an accident, it was sold to John Green as a project and extensively rebuilt again. Adam Sykes advertised the car in early 2023, and in May 2023 announced that it had been sold.
  5. March 702 [1] (Philip Anstruther): The first production March 702 was used by Chris Amon in the opening race as part of Malcolm Guthrie's team and then by Ronnie Peterson for the rest of the season. Unseen in 1971 but presumably the "ex-Peterson" car that Geoff Inglis (Yatton, Somerset) used for sprinting in 1972. Advertised by Inglis in February 1973 when it still had its FVA engine. To Spencer Elton (Westbury, Wiltshire) and sold by him to Dave Harris for sprints in 1973. Then back to Elton and next to Philip Anstruther (Bristol) who ran it in sprints in 1974. Anstruther sold it back to Elton yet again and it was advertised by him in March 1975. Next seen when advertised from Birmingham in 1981 as an "abandoned sprint and hillclimb project" and then from Devon in 1983. Reappeared in 1985 when raced by Ian Giles in HSCC events when its papers said it had previously been used by Dave Harris in hillclimbs. Then to Simon Brien in Ireland in 1986, to Lew Wright by 1989, then to Tony Birchenough 1991, and driven by Martin Birrane. It was sold to Steve Hitchins in 1992, and it is reported that this car was the one raced by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Grave in historic racing in the 1990s, was still with him in 2004, and still in France in 2010. In April 2013, Eric Charles (Dubai, UAE) reported that he had acquired 702/1.

Sources

Note that 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' published results.

The British Sprint Championship results were originally provided by Paul Parker and Steve Wilkinson and are based on material drawn from Motoring News, Autosport and Speedscene magazines plus results sheets and programmes provided by former competitors and by the organising clubs.

The identification of individual cars is based on the Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 5000 and Formula Atlantic research work presented elsewhere on the site.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.