Goldfields "100"

Goldfields Raceway (Welkom), 11 Nov 1978

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

Notes on the cars:

1. March 78B (Ian Scheckter): Ian Scheckter had a new Team Lexington March 78B for the start of the South African Formula Atlantic series. He retained the car for the 1978/79 season (October to May) and by December 1978 it had been updated with the same sidepods as the new March 79B. When Scheckter acquired a new F2-chasis 79A, the 78B/79B was sold to Clive Cooke, who raced it for the first time at Kyalami in January 1979. The car was due to be converted to a BMW engine for the Formula SA series, but Cooke did not appear. Sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team in 1980, and fitted with a Mazda engine for Bernard Tilanus to drive. He won three of the first four races of the season, but while the March was being taken to Killarney for the Cape South Easter Trophy in March 1980, the transporter caught fire just outside Parys and exploded. The March was "completely destroyed" according to press reports, and the team's second car, a Wheatcroft R18 that was being towed on a trailer, was also badly damaged.
2. 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.
3. March 79B [1?] (Roy Klomfass): Roy Klomfass raced a March 79B for Alex Blignaut's Team Texan from October 1978 onwards in South African Formula Atlantic. It was said to be the first production 79B, so presumably chassis 79B-1. When the Formula SA rules were introduced in June 1979, it was fitted at first with a 2-litre BMW engine but this was not a success and it was quickly fitted with a Ford V6. At the end of the season, it is believed to have been sold with other South African Formula Atlantic cars to Ted Titmas (Van Nuys, CA). Chris Townsend reports that the car was sold to brothers Tom and Steve Shelton (Fort Launderdale, FL) and is likely to be the car driven by Tom, as Steve had already owned chassis 79B-10 since the start of 1979. The two 79Bs were advertised together at the end of 1981, and the ex-Titmas car went to Ron Levanduski (Elmira, NY) who raced it for the next five seasons. Levanduski sold it to Joe Ostrowski (Trenton, NJ) in July 1987. Ostrowski sold the car at the end of 1989 when he bought a newer March 81A. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Chevron B45 [45-78-01] (Tony Martin): New to South Coast Motors for Tony Martin to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in 1978, sponsored by Lucky Strike and 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. It was also rebuilt by Ken Gillibrand as a "wing car", but this was not a success and it was rebuilt to more standard specification. It was fitted with a Mazda engine for 1980 and entered by South Coast Motors for Len Booysen to drive in the first few races of the season, but Martin had to take over the car when his preferred B34 was damaged in a towing accident. He was very successful in the car that season, but reports only gave it as a BP Racing Propart Chevron or a BP McCarthy Chevron, so it's unclear when he used his rebuilt B34. Martin bought an ex-F2 Maurer MM80 for 1981. The B45 was later destroyed in a garage fire.
5. March 77B [18] (Derek Bell): 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 by Sarel van der Merwe in May 1979, after which it was given by Blignaut to Tony Martin's South Coast Motors team as a spare car. It was entered for Billy Scheepers in January, then rented to Roy Moss for the Goldfields race in February. Bernard Tilanus then borrowed it for the Killarney race in March after his DAW March 78B had been destroyed in a transporter fire. In July 1980, 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.
6. March 76B ['MD'/"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. In August 1980, Dave Charlton drove the car at Kyalami as Domingo was observing Ramadan, but failed to start after being injured in practice for the aloon car race. Domingo continued to drive the car until early 1981, when it was sold to Ivano Moavero and raced by him in 1981 and part of 1982. Then in mid-1982, Moavero bought the highly-developed ex-Duxbury 77B, and sold the 76B to Michele ('Mike') Peters who raced it 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.
7. March 77B ['AT'/"17A"] (Bobby Scott): Built by Andrew Thompson in South Africa in 1978 using an unused monocoque that had been supplied as a spare for Dave Charlton's March 77B/7. Thompson acquired the tub and all the other 77B spares from Ken Howes before 77B/7 was sold back to the UK. He built all these into a new car using the Hewland FT200 gearbox from Alec Blignaut's March 76B/19. This car was raced by Bobby Scott though the 1978/79 season. It was rented from Thompson by Graham Duxbury for a race in October 1979, still with its BDA engine, and then sold to Hagen Wulf and Ivor Raasch who fitted a Mazda engine for the 1980 season. It was also raced by Allan McDonald that season. It was then sold to Graham Duxbury who raced it very successfully in 1981. Retained for the first few races of 1982 until Duxbury's new March 82A arrived and then sold to Ivan Moavero who used it for the rest of that season. Sold to Steve Herbst for 1983, but in August he swapped it for Roy Moss's March 792. Raced by Moss until the end of 1984. He then sold it to Terry Moss, who was unrelated, for the 1985 season. Moss built up a March 782 using parts salvaged from the 77B, but the tub was scrapped. The 77B effectively ceased to exist at this point.
8. Modus M3 ['MD'/"022A"] (Yunus Domingo): Mike Domingo built up a Modus M3 for 1976 using the first monocoque from Modus M3/022, which was replaced after an accident in July 1975. Raced by Mike Domingo in the South African Formula Atlantic series in 1976. Sold to John Simpson for 1977, but he crashed the car in practice at Welkom, his second event. The car returned to Team Domingo and was eventually repaired. It was raced by Yunus Domingo at least twice in 1979, and then by Jan Klinkert at Kyalami in May 1979. Subsequent history unknown.

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

Autosport 16 Nov 1978 p8, Motoring News 23 Nov 1978 p23, Rand Daily Mail 13 Nov 1978 p3, with some data from 'The Winners Book' by James O'Keefe. Chris Townsend also credited the Peter MacIntosh archive.