South African Formula Atlantic race

Roy Hesketh, 27 May 1978

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

Notes on the cars:

1. 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 start of the 1978/79 season, still with Klomfass driving, as a spare car to the team's new March 79B. The 77B was 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. It 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 to the UK when he emigrated in 1989 to set up Fred Goddard Racing. After Fred's death in July 2007, the 77B passed to his son Earl Goddard, and he sold it to Nick Beer around 2013.
2. 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-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.
3. 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. After the end of that season, in June 1978, the car was damaged during a display exhibition at a shopping centre car park that had been converted into a mini race track for publicity purposes. Thompson built another 77B from spares (77B/'AT') for Scott to drive in the 1978/79 season, and the next time 77B/17 was seen was when it was hired to Tommy Dunne during that 1978/79 season but crashed at Welkom in June. The wreck was pushed to the back of Thompson's workshop and was not raced again. The salvaged tub and parts have remained in South Africa.
4. 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 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. The 77B was fitted with a Mazda engine and 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. Maloney crashed the car at some point, and acquired a March 782 to replace it in April 1983. The 77B was sold to Klaus Grogor's House of Sports Cars team for Grogor to drive in the 1983 season, 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 Treccani during the 1990s and sold to Andrew and Stuart Thompson in 2000.
5. Wheatcroft R18 [003?] (Keith Zeeman): 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.
6. 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 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.
7. 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, still with its BDA engine. It was then rebuilt with a Mazda engine for 1980, but was damaged at Kyalami in January. The car was rebuilt, but the Domingos also acquired Alex Blignaut's 76B/19 which was built up for Roy Klomfass to drive. When Klomfass declined the drive, Mike Domingo moved to the ex-Blignaut car, leaving his original car redundant. The ex-Scheckter tub and associated spares were sold in mid-1980 to Vernon Bricknell as spares for the March 76B-1 he had just acquired from the DAW Supplies team. When Bricknell sold 76B-1 to the Pretoria Brick Racing Team in early 1981, the remains of the Domingo car remained with Bricknell until damaged when the building in which they were being stored collapsed. The tub was scrapped and the remaining parts sold to Trevor Trautmann for a sports car project. At this stage, the Domingo 76B had effectively ceased to exist.
8. 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 the United Tobacco Company's Lucky Strike brand, 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.

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.

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.