British Sprint Championship Round

Talbenny, 16 Sep 1979

Notes on the cars:

1. March 782 [9] (David Franklin): Manfred Winkelhock's works car at Thruxton 27 Mar 1978 and presumably all season. He had an all-new chassis at Donington 25 Jun after his Rouen write-off but it presumably retained the same number. To David Franklin for hillclimbs in 1979, 1980 and 1981. Then with Fred Davies in 1982. Later with Bill Morris 1987-1990.
2. McRae GM1 [012] (Dave Harris): See full history: McRae GM1/012.
3. March 772/782 [6] (Ted Williams): New to AFMP-Euroracing, fitted with a Hart 420R and raced by Ricardo Zunino in F2 in early 1977. When AFMP collapsed, the car was taken over by mechanic Tony Harvey for Zunino to drive at Vallelunga, Pau and Mugello. Then run by "March Racing" for Zunino for the last half of the season. Sold to Ted Williams (Bristol) for sprints and hillclimbs in 1978, still using a 2-litre Hart engine. Retained for 1979, when it was partly updated to 782 specification. Sold to Martin Bolsover (Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire) for 1980, and fitted with a 1600cc BDA engine and again entered as a 772/782. Bolsover fitted his BDA to a new Pilbeam for 1981, and the March was not seen in 1981, 1982 and 1983. It reappeared in 1984 when raced by Roy Woodhouse, and fitted with a turbocharged 3.5-litre Rover engine. Alan Payne (Birmingham, West Midlands) won a sprint at Curborough in June 1984, when sharing this car with Woodhouse. Raced by Woodhouse in sprints in 1985 and 1986, after which he transferred the engine into a newer March 822. When that car was wrecked at the end of 1988, he returned to the 772 for 1989, 1990 and 1991, only for the car to be comprehensively demolished at the Weston sprint at the end of 1991.
4. March 75A/761 [1-2] (Terry Smith): John MacDonald (RAM Racing) 1975. Raced in UK 1975: driven by Alan Jones (3rd BARC Thruxton 17 Aug 1975) - Hexagon Garage for Damien Magee UK 1976 - Guy Edwards UK 1977; rebuilt on a March 761 monocoque, and then converted to DFV power for last few races of 1977. Edwards UK 1978 (first two races); then for Bruce Allison (five races). Also used by Desire Wilson in a test session prior to the British GP. To Terry Smith (Felton, Somerset), fitted with a 5-litre Repco engine, and used in the British Sprint Championship 1979, 1980 and 1981. Used by Smith and John Meredith British Sprint Championship 1982. To Ray Rowan 1983, and retained by him until about 1987 when the Repco engine was sold to Australia and the rolling chassis was sold via a dealer to Italy. Reemerged four years later when sold by Andrea Frasson (Rosà, Vicenza, Italy) to Daniel Pouteau (Paris, France) in December 1991. Retained by Pouteau, still apart and in still Terry Smith's livery, until sold via Bernard De Dryver to Paul Grant (Brussels, Belgium) in April 2013. Rebuilt for Masters F1 in 2015, and debut at the Spa 6 Hours in September 2015.
5. March 76A [1] (Paul Edwards): For Chris Cramer and fitted with 3.4-litre Cosworth-Ford GA V6 engine for British hill climbs. Cramer British Hill Climb Championship 1976, 1977, 1978 - Paul Edwards: British Sprint Championship 1979 (6 Run-Offs); updated to 78A specification: British Sprint Championship 1980 (5 Run-Offs) - Nigel Bigwood: British Sprint Championship 1981 (6 Run-Offs), 1982 (7 Run-Offs and one win at Lydden Hill in May 1982) - Tim and Tony Barry 1983: raced by Alan Kayes at Mallory Park libre 19 Jun 1983 (retired); Brands Hatch libre 14 Aug 1983 (2nd); run by Tony Barry at Brighton Speed Trials 10 Sep 1983 (3rd). Later run by Tony Barry at Mallory Park Sprint round 28 Jun 1986 (8th). Retained by the Barry brothers 2005 and raced by Tim in the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy. In December 2012, the car was nearing the end of what Tim called "a protracted rebuild including an extensively refreshed tub" and returned to racing in 2014.
6. March 75/76B (Ken Ayers): Ken Ayers (Twyford, Berkshire) rebuilt his 1978 March "742X" with a 1975 March monocoque and 76B bodywork for the 1979 season, effectively ending its links with the original 713M identity. The new car then damaged again and rebuilt on a third tub using 1976 bodywork. Ayers advertised the car in November 1980 as a "75/76B rolling chassis, completely rebuilt by Lyncar 1980". It is possible that Ayers had acquired the ex-Howard Rose March 75/76B, as Rose was from Wokingham, just three miles from Ayers' team's base at Hurst, near Reading. Subsequent history unknown.

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.