CASC North American Formula Atlantic Series Race

Montréal, 26 Sep 1981

All cars are 1.6-litre F/Atl unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Ralt RT4/82 [266] (Kevin Cogan): New to Ralt American for Kevin Cogan to drive in the Canadian GP Formula Atlantic support race at Montréal in September 1981. He won the race. Then sold to Steve Overton (Belleville, IL) and raced in Midwest Division SCCA Nationals from 1982 to 1984. Also raced by Overton in the ECAR race at St Louis International Raceway in October 1985. [CT]
2. Ralt RT1/78 [127] (Rick Bell): New to Rick Bell (Lakeville, CT) and used in the 1978 Labatts Formula Atlantic championship. Retained for 1979, again in the North American Pro series. Retained for a third season in 1980, and again raced regularly in the North American Pro series. In 1981, he sold the car, and believes it went through three other drivers until it was bought by a friend of Bell's. Bell has been racing the car in historic racing, mainly at Lime Rock, since then.
3. LM Special [March 71BM-2] (Mauro Lanaro): New for Bill Gubelmann (Oyster Bay, NY) and used in British Formula Atlantic at the start of the season, winning at Oulton Park 21 March, and then in the SCCA Pro Formula B series. The car was often described as a 712M but it seems more likely that he used the same 712BM all season. Also raced with a BDA in the Formula A race at Lime Rock in Sep and in one round of the Canadian series. Sold via Joe Grimaldi's The Race Shop to Frank Del Vecchio (Trumbull, CT) and used in NEDiv FB and in a couple of rounds of the Pro series. Sold back via Joe Grimaldi at the end of 1972; Frank thinks it went to a Canadian, and it is very likely to have been the car driven by Ken Huband, Norm Joy and David Westgate in 1973 and 1974. Sold to Mauro Lanaro (Montréal, Quebec) to replace the 71BM he lost in a transporter fire in 1974. Significantly modified in 1976 as the Lanaro Special with triangular sidepods, a different nose, and with its Cosworth BDA engine laid on its side. This car went through many evolutions, and was still being raced by Lanaro right up to 1995 when it was used in a vintage event. Lanaro eventually rebuilt to original 71BM specification about 1999. In late 2018, it was part of a package of cars bought from Lanaro by David Clubine (Brantford, ON), and was sold to a collector in Ontario.
4. Ralt RT1/78 [146] (Andy Mahood): A white Ralt RT1/78 invoiced to Ralt importer Brian Robertson in early December 1978. To Bob Earl (Novato, CA) and raced at a SCCA National at Riverside in February 1979, where it was described as new. However, when Earl raced it at Long Beach in April, it was called "ex-Cogan". Raced by Earl in the 1979 North American series, sponsored by National Treaty Services and entered by NTS Racing. Raced by Earl at Macau in November 1979. Retained for the 1980 North American series, when it was entered by Earl Motor Racing, and again raced at Macau as part of the Flying Tigers Racing Team. Towards the end of 1980, it was again described as a ex-Cogan. Sold to Andy Mahood (Vancouver, BC) and raced in ICSCC and SCCA events in 1981 and 1982. Sold to Martin Pang (Seattle, WA) and raced in WCAR events in 1984, 1985 and 1986. [CT]
5. March 76B/77B [76B-11] (Ron Levanduski): New to Isola Racing for Seb Barone (Portland, CT or Dilliner, PA) to drive as the team's #28 entry in 1976, but run by Doug Shierson Racing. Barone crashed the car at Trois-Rivières in September and was not seen in it again. According to former Ecurie Canada/James Morgan mechanic Graham Scott, this car was rebuilt, updated to Ecurie Canada specification and sold to James Morgan for the 1977 season, together with the ex-Gilles Villeneuve spare car. Exactly how these two cars were used is unknown, but it is assumed here that Morgan himself raced the ex-Villeneuve car in early 1977 SCCA Nationals, entered as #56, and the ex-Barone car was fielded as the #65 for Bill Prout to use at first, then taken over by Bobby Rahal. Rahal then took over the #56 car for the Pro series, leaving the ex-Barone car as a spare car, presumably the one raced by Morgan at Lime Rock in September (#65). This car is unknown in 1978 and 1979, but was acquired in 1980 by Ron Levanduski (Elmira, NY), who drove a March "773" in SCCA Regional and National Formula Atlantic races at his local Watkins Glen in 1980. He retained the car for 1981, when he also used the "76B/77B" in the CASC Formula Atlantic series race at Montréal in September. He appeared in it again a few times in 1982. An advert described the car as being both ex-Villeneuve and ex-Rahal, indicating it was one of the James Morgan team cars in 1977, but it was also described in a press report as the car used by James Hunt at Trois-Rivières. In June 1988, Levanduski mentioned in his 'Trackside' column in the Elmire Star-Gazette that the ex-Villeneuve 76B, which he still owned, had been restored to its 1976 Direct Film livery and was due to go on display at the Gilles Villeneuve Museum which was opening on 24 June. In May 2012, Levanduski mentioned the car again in his column, saying he had owned it since 1980, that it was chassis 11, and that Villeneuve had driven it just once in a race, at Westwood in 1976. In 2014, a feature on Levanduski mentioned that he had once a race at Watkins Glen in a 76B that was "later driven by James Hunt of the move 'Rush' fame to a third place finish at Trois-Rivières"! The chassis plate on the car in the museum confirms that it is chassis 76B-11, so the ex-Barone car.
6. Chevron B39 [39-77-08] (Dean Lundgreen): New to Fred Opert Racing and used in the Labatts Formula Atlantic Championship. One of two cars run by the team for Keke Rosberg, this one having narrower track, but Rosberg used a B34 at four races that season and exactly how he used this B39 remains uncertain. Retained by Fred Opert Racing for the 1978 New Zealand series, where it was Rosberg's main race car as he easily won the championship. Then believed to be the car raced by Divina Galica at Long Beach in early 1978. It was sold to Dean Lundgreen (Franklin, MN) later in 1978 and raced in SCCA Nationals, scoring 13 points that season. He scored 15 points in 1979, and continued to race the car in 1980 and 1981. Advertised by Lundgreen in April 1982 and February 1983 as "Rosberg's Tasman winner". Sold to Mike Rand (Amherst, Massachusetts) later in 1983, then sold on to Joe Ostrowski (Trenton, NJ) who raced it from 1984 to 1986 at least. The car remained in Ostrowski's garage until 2004, when he sold it to Mark Wehrman. It was then sold to Lee Brahin (Philadelphia, PA) in 2006 and raced by him in red bodywork with non-standard sidepods in 2008 and 2009. Then to Martin Lauber (Tiburon, CA) in August 2011 and raced by him in pink Excita livery (but still with the same distinctive sidepods) from 2012 to 2019. It was sold to Laurent Parmentier (Los Angeles, CA) in January 2020, and raced by him in 2020 and 2021.

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.

North American Formula Atlantic race results have been compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Formula and On Track, information drawn from Canadian newspapers and results sheets where available.

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.

Individual sources for this event

Chris Townsend's sources include Autosport 1 Oct 1981 pp46-47 and On Track magazine 25 Feb 1982 p14.