Brandkop Trophy

Brandkop, 8 Apr 1978

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

Notes on the cars:

1. March 77B [8] (Trevor van Rooyen): New to Eddie Pinto and Team Gunston for Roy Klomfass to race in South African Formula Atlantic in 1977, using Swindon BDA engines. Retained by Team Gunston in 1978 for new driver Trevor van Rooyen. Retained again by Team Gunston for the 1978/79 season, when it was a spare car to Van Rooyen's new March 79B and was driven that season by Basil Van Rooyen at Kyalami in October 1978 (when Trevor was unwell), by Dave Charlton at Killarney later that month, and then by Trevor at two races. Later in 1979, it was fitted with a Ford V6 engine for the new 'Formula South Africa', and was raced twice by John Love. It was unused in 1980, then sold to Jeff Waberski after his DAW Supplies team's ex-Ian Scheckter March 78B was destroyed in a transporter fire. Raced by Bernard Tilanus for DAW Supplies from June 1981 onwards. It was raced by Dave Charlton for DAW around March/April 1982, then by Billy Maloney as a DAW entry later in 1982. It was then sold to Klaus Grogor's House of Sports Cars team for 1983, and then retained by Grogor unused through 1984 and 1985. It was then sold to Gary Harrison who intended to convert it into a sports car for the 'Can-Am' series that absorbed Formula SA in 1986, but he only used in single seater form. The car was acquired by Dorino Trochanni during the 1990s and sold to Andrew and Stuart Thompson in 2000.
2. Chevron B45 [45-78-01] (Tony Martin): New to Tony Martin and used in the South African Formula Atlantic series in 1978, initially wearing Chevron B39 bodywork. Retained for 1979, but Martin also had an older Chevron B34 which was used at several races. The B45 was then fitted with a 3-litre Ford V6 engine for the new Formula South Africa that started in July 1979. Martin started the 1980 season in his older B34, now with a Mazda engine, but this car was damaged in a road accident so the B45 was fitted with a Mazda engine and Martin used it for the latter part of that season. The B45 was later destroyed in a garage fire.
3. March 77B [18] (Nols Nieman): New to Alex Blignaut for Nols Nieman to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in early 1977, with Benson & Hedges sponsorship. Retained by Blignaut's Benson & Hedges team for Nieman again in 1978. Raced for Blignaut by Derek Bell, in November 1978, then given by Blignaut to Tony Martin's South Coast Motors team in 1979 as a spare car. It was run for Des Alley, Billy Scheepers, Roy Moss and Bernard Tilanus up to July 1980, when it was sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team for Wayne Taylor to drive. Then in October 1980, it was sold on to Mel Lahner's Rackrite Racing. Taylor moved with the car, and raced it at Kyalami on 4 October and then in the first few months of the 1981 season. It was then taken over by Trevor van Rooyen who found the weight penalty on his ground-effect March 802 was too great. He raced the 77B for the rest of the 1981 season. It was retained for 1982, when Rackrite ran the car for Andre du Plessis and Mike Domingo. It was retained again for 1983, when driven by Gavin Lahner and Kevin Heath. It was not used again after that, but was retained by Mel Lahner until sold to Andrew Thompson in 1984. It was later restored for Ian Schofield.
4. March 76B [1] (Basil van Rooyen): New to Ian Scheckter for South African Formula Atlantic in 1976. Sold to Len Booysen for the 1977 season, then loaned by Booysen to Dave Charlton to drive. During this time is was bought from Booysen by Ken Gillibrand, who then loaned to DAW for Bernard Tilanus to drive in April and May 1978. It was unused in 1979, and advertised by Gillibrand in August. Sold later in 1979 to Soon Weeks who fitted the 2-litre BMW engine from Dave Hart's March 77B and raced it in this form in early 1980. Then swapped with Bernard Tilanus and the DAW team for DAW's Wheatcroft R18, and fitetd with a Mazda engine. Raced several times by Tilanus but he then left the team after a disagreement and was replaced by Trevor van Rooyen, who raced the 76B for the rest of 1980. It was sold to Vernon Bricknell at end of that season, and raced by him in early 1981 until his new Maurer MM80 arrived. The 76B was then sold yet again, this time to Fred Goddard's Pretoria Brick team for Wayne Taylor to drive, until Hekro's March 802 was acquired for him. Pretoria Brick retained the 76B for 1982, when it was raced by Andre & Jan Du Plessis, Roy Carr and Basil Mann. It was sold to Alan Dunlop for 1983, and he raced it until 1985. It then passed to Neville Riddell and most of its components were used in a sports car built for Riddell by Lew Baker. All that was left was the tub, and this was sold to Fred Goddard who is believed to have stripped it to keep the bulkheads as spares. At this point the car no longer existed.
5. March 76B ['1A'] (Mike Domingo): A car built up by Mike Domingo at the start of 1977 using a monocoque that Ian Scheckter had damaged when testing 76B/1 after the race at Aldo Scribante in March 1976. The Domingo's car is usually referred to as "76B/1 (A)" as it built around the first tub from 76B/1. It was raced by Mike Domingo through 1977, 1978 and 1979. In late 1979 it was converted to use a Mazda engine, and was raced by him in this form in 1980 and early 1981. It was then sold to Ivano Moavero and raced by him in 1981. Then in 1982, Moavero bought the ex-Duxbury 77B, and sold the 76B to Michele ('Mike') Peters and raced by him through to July 1985. At some point during this time, it was rebuilt using the monocoque from 76B/19, which had last been raced in 1979. Peters sold the resulting car to Terry Moss, to replace the 77B that Moss had wrecked. However, instead if racing the 76B, Moss stripped the car and used its components to build up a March 782. The 76B tub was put aside until 2010, when it was acquired from a friend of Moss by Bernard Tilanus. The tub number showed that the tub was from 76B/19, not from 76B/1, so it was reunited with its original chassis plate and fully rebuilt.
6. March 77B [17] (Bobby Scott): New to Andrew Thompson in South Africa, and raced by Bobby Scott in South Africa Formula Atlantic in 1977, with sponsorship from Sportsman Lager. Retained by Thompson and Scott for the 1978 season. At the end of that season, in May 1978, Thompson built another 77B from spares (77B/'AT') and the next time 77B/17 was seen was when it was hired to Tommy Dunne later in 1978 (now in the 1978/79 season) but crashed. The wreck was pushed to the back of Thompson's workshop and was not raced again. Subsequent history unknown.
7. March 77B [11] (Roy Klomfass): New for Rupert Keegan to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in early 1977, run for him by the Doug Shierson team and entered as Team Uniewinkels. Then run by Martin Flint and Roger Taylor for John Gibb to race for the rest of 1977. Retained by Flint & Taylor's Team Uniewinkels for 1978, when it was driven by Roy Klomfass. Moved to Alex Blignaut's Team Texan for the 1978/79, still with Klomfass driving, as a spare car to the team's new March 79B.Raced once for Blignaut by Sarel van der Merwe, then sold to Dave Hart's Team Valvoline. Hart fitted it with a BMW engine for the new Formula South Africa in 1979, then converted to a Mazda engine for 1980. The car was then sold to Brian Ferris, who raced it in 1981 and in early 1982 before his new Ralt RT4.82 arrived. The 77B may have been raced by Ferris's friend Klaus Grogor in the latter half of 1982. In January 1983, it was sold to Fred Goddard who ran it for several drivers as part of his Petromark team over the next two seasons, including Braam Smith, Roy Carr, Derek Irving and Danie Mulder. It was unused in 1985, then driven by Ivano Moavero in 1986. Then retained by Goddard who took it with him the UK when he emigrated. Still with him in 2003.
8. March 76B [1] (Dave Charlton): New to Ian Scheckter for South African Formula Atlantic in 1976. Sold to Len Booysen for the 1977 season, then loaned by Booysen to Dave Charlton to drive. During this time is was bought from Booysen by Ken Gillibrand, who then loaned to DAW for Bernard Tilanus to drive in April and May 1978. It was unused in 1979, and advertised by Gillibrand in August. Sold later in 1979 to Soon Weeks who fitted the 2-litre BMW engine from Dave Hart's March 77B and raced it in this form in early 1980. Then swapped with Bernard Tilanus and the DAW team for DAW's Wheatcroft R18, and fitetd with a Mazda engine. Raced several times by Tilanus but he then left the team after a disagreement and was replaced by Trevor van Rooyen, who raced the 76B for the rest of 1980. It was sold to Vernon Bricknell at end of that season, and raced by him in early 1981 until his new Maurer MM80 arrived. The 76B was then sold yet again, this time to Fred Goddard's Pretoria Brick team for Wayne Taylor to drive, until Hekro's March 802 was acquired for him. Pretoria Brick retained the 76B for 1982, when it was raced by Andre & Jan Du Plessis, Roy Carr and Basil Mann. It was sold to Alan Dunlop for 1983, and he raced it until 1985. It then passed to Neville Riddell and most of its components were used in a sports car built for Riddell by Lew Baker. All that was left was the tub, and this was sold to Fred Goddard who is believed to have stripped it to keep the bulkheads as spares. At this point the car no longer existed.

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' original results.

The South African race results have been compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Autosport and Motoring News plus information supplied by a wide range of contributors.

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.