South African Formula Atlantic race

Roy Hesketh, 2 Dec 1978

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

Notes on the cars:

1. March 78B/79B (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-chassis 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 79B [2?] (Trevor van Rooyen): Trevor van Rooyen raced a March 79B for Team Gunston from December 1978 onwards in South African Formula Atlantic. Blignaut withdrew from racing when the new Formula SA rules came into force in June 1979 and the 79B 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 an owner in Texas. Subsequent history unknown.
3. 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 through 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.
4. 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 Lauderdale, 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.
5. 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. 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.
6. 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 still being researched.
7. 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, and also retained for 1980 as a backup for 34-76-08, but apparently unused that season. Sold in early 1981 to Stan Chandler, who commissioned SCM's engine specialist Piet Bredenhann to fit a Mazda rotary engine. The car was entered for John Banks to drive at Kyalami and at Goldfields Raceway in May 1981, at Kyalami in May 1982, and possibly at other races. Shortly after that last entry, it was sold to Ken Critchfield. The car was involved in an accident later in 1982 or in early 1983, and the engine and gearbox were then used by Fred Goddard to rebuild his March 802. The damaged Chevron tub and salvageable suspension components were returned to John Banks who retained it in its damaged state until selling it to Mike Budd in 1995. Budd was rebuilding the car for Gary Dunkerly, and after Mike's death in 2022, the restoration was taken over by his son Ryan.
8. Chevron B34 [34.76.08?] (Tony Martin): 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. It was entered for some late-1980 races as a spare car for Martin, and retained in early 1981 as a spare to Martin's new Maurer MM80. The B34 was then sold to Roley Nöffke, who raced it in 1981. At the end of the season, Mike Needell took over the drive, still entered by Nöffke's Roray Racing, and he drove it through the 1982 season. Tilanus reports that it later went 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.
9. Wheatcroft R18 [003] (Bernard Tilanus): New to Alex Blignaut for Nols Nieman to drive in the 1976 South African Formula Atlantic series, sponsored by Benson & Hedges. The team had the older R18/002 as a spare car. Retained for 1977, when it was also driven by Royce Love and Grant Maben. Retained again for 1978, when it was probably the car raced by Keith Zeeman for Blignaut's team. Sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team for Bernard Tilanus to drive from October 1978 onwards. When the new Formula SA rules were introduced, the R18 was the first chassis to be fitted with a Mazda engine. Driven by Peter Morrison in early 1980, but Tilanus took over the car again after his newer March 78B was destroyed. Later in 1980, Tilanus swapped the car for Soon Weeks' March, and Weeks continued with the Wheatcroft in 1981. Weeks is believed to have had an accident in the car, after which he kept it until 1986 when he sold it to Dave Hart in Natal, complete with the same BMW M10 engine that Hart had used in his March 77B back in 1979. The car then passed to John Hatfield (Pinetown, Kwazulu-Natal) who was looking for a Hewland FT200 for his Chevron B61 and an engine for a Chevron B8. Around 1990 Hatfield also acquired the remains of R18-002 from Trevor Trautmann (via Roger Pearce). Trautmann had had a new monocoque for the car fabricated locally in 1983. Hatfield then consolidated the remains of both cars into the new monocoque, fitted the chassis plate from 002 and restored it to rolling chassis condition. The subsequent history of the 003 monocoque and parts is unknown. It was last seen leaning against a wall at Hatfield's Status Cars workshop in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. However, in June 1993, Alan Goodman (Reading) drove a Wheatcroft R18, reportedly chassis 003, in a Historic F3 race at Thruxton.

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 were originally compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Autosport and Motoring News plus information supplied by a wide range of contributors. One of the contributors was later found to have used erroneous information, and the results have in some places been reworked using reports and results in South African newspapers such as the Rand Daily Mail.

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 7 Dec 1978 p7. Chris Townsend also credited the Peter MacIntosh archive, which may be responsible for the 5th to 8th place finishers, which are not mentioned by Autosport. The Rand Daily Mail only mentioned first and second finishers.