OldRacingCars.com

British Sprint Championship Round

Curborough, 21 Apr 1974

ResultsTime 
1 Bob Rose 5.7-litre McLaren M14D [1] - Chevrolet V8
32.58s
2 David Render 1.6-litre Brabham BT29X [37] - Ford BDA Vegantune
(see note 1)
32.61s
3 John Ravenscroft 5.7-litre McLaren M10B [400-12] - Chevrolet V8
32.62s
4 Dave Harris 5-litre McLaren M10B/M14D [400-06 (A)] - Chevrolet V8
33.55s
5 Rob Turnbull 1.6-litre Brabham BT35 [6] - Ford BDA
(see note 2)
33.84s
6 Johnty Williamson 5.7-litre Surtees TS11 [02] - Chevrolet V8
34.2s
7 John Parsons (F5000) 5-litre Lola T142 [SL142/22] - Chevrolet V8
(see note 3)
34.39s
8 Alan Richards (1100cc racing car) 1.1-litre Gryphon 3AR - Ford s/c
35.36s
9 Tony Sofiano (F5000) 5-litre Lola T142 [SL142/22] - Chevrolet V8
(see note 4)
37.86s
10 Dave Hartley 3.5-litre Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] - Buick V8
(see note 5)
39.88s
Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. Brabham BT29X [37] (David Render): New to Tony Griffiths (Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands) and fitted with a 1.8-litre Cosworth FVC as the "BT29X" for hillclimbing. Damaged in a practice accident at Silverstone on its debut and said to have been rebuilt on a BT30 chassis, although this is disputed. Raced by Griffiths in British Hill Climb Championship events in 1970, often entered as the BT30Y. Sold to Spencer Elton (Westbury, Wiltshire) by February 1971 but not used until mid-1972, when it had a 1.6-litre Vegantune engine. To David Render (London) as a 1600cc backup to his 2-litre Brabham BT35 and used from 1973 to 1976. Then unknown until acquired by Peter Robinson (Studley, Warwickshire) to replace BT30-26 in late 1979. Sold to Julian Majzub (Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire) when Robinson retired c1983 so Majzub could retrive some of the parts from BT30-26. Sold to Richard Jones (Pitchcombe, Nr Stroud) winter 2007/2008.
  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 for Historic F2 in 1999. To John Dunham (Basingstoke, Hampshire) April 2001, then to Ben Tyler 2003, then Peter Shaw 2004, then Dr John Monson 2007.
  3. Lola T142 [SL142/22] (John Parsons): See full history: Lola T142 SL142/22.
  4. Lola T142 [SL142/22] (Tony Sofiano): See full history: Lola T142 SL142/22.
  5. 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.

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.