Goldfields "100"

Goldfields Raceway (Welkom), 11 Feb 1978

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

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B34 [34-76-02] (Evan Boddy): New to Tony Martin for the 1976 South African Formula Atlantic championship, entered by Team Bic/South Coast Motors. Retained by Martin for 1977 as a spare car to his new B39 and raced only once that season, as a South Coast Motors entry for Evan Boddy at Kyalami in October. Raced by Boddy during 1978, entered again by South Coast Motors Racing. Raced again by Boddy in 1979, again entered by South Coast Motors.
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. The car was retained for 1980, but destroyed in a garage fire.
3. March 76B [1] (Dave Charlton): Presumed to be the car of Ian Scheckter, used in the 1976 South African season. Racing tradition has it that Scheckter always had the first car of any of March's production runs, and South African expert Ian Hebblethwaite suggests that Scheckter had both the first chassis of the 76B and 77B production. A/S report of the race at Welkom in February 1976 says that Scheckter's car is "the first of the production examples". Badly damaged in testing accident after the race at Aldo Scribante in March 1976, and at Roy Hesketh Scheckter appears in a car that is described as "brand new" by Autsport and as having a "new tub" by Motoring News. Subsequent evidence suggests that the latter was the case, and the rebuilt car, if it still carried a plate, probably kept the identity of chassis 1 to avoid fresh import duties on a new car. The remains of the old tub were sold to the Domingo brothers, who built it up with spares to become 76B-1A in 1977. Sold to Len Booysen in 1977, and loaned by him to Dave Charlton and Bernard Tilanus in 1978.
4. Chevron B34 [34-76-08] (Desiré Wilson): New to Basil van Rooyen for the South African Formula Atlantic series, sponsored by Wrangler Jeans. Van Rooyen significantly modified the car during the season, with a March nose and side radiators. Retained for 1977, again with Wrangler Jeans sponsorship. Van Rooyen recalls that he sold the car to Tony Martin, and it was at some point during this time that the car was raced by Desiré Wilson in the first few races of the 1978 series. It was raced by Tony Martin at some races in 1979 as an alternative to his unsatisfactory B45, but Bernard Tilanus recalls that "the tub was damaged when Tony fell asleep and went off the road writing the trailer and car off". Tilanus explained that Martin bought a replacement tub from Chevron and built a standard B34. This car "was sold to Rolly Nofke, then to Keith Horwood". Tilanus then bought the car and sold it to Mike Fergusson, but the restoration was still incomplete when Fergusson died. It was then bought by Colin Frost, who took it to Andrew Thompson to complete the restoration.

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.

Individual sources for this event

Entry list from programme kindly provided by Richard Coe.