Aurora AFX Championship 1980
Emilio de Villota joined RAM Racing who acquired a pair of Williams FW07s for him and Chilean Eliseo Salazar, while Guy Edwards moved to the Clowes team to race the ex-Rupert Keegan Arrows A1s, now run by Ian Dawson's GRID. Desiré Wilson took over Theodore Racing's now rather aged Wolf WR4 and Ray Mallock bought the Surtees TS20+ as Team Surtees had withdrawn. Behind those five, the field was pretty thin.
De Villota easily won the championship, and such was the FW07s superiority that Salazar pipped Edwards to second place in the championship. Wilson started the season in spectacular form, qualifying third at the opener on Good Friday and then splitting the FW07s on the grid at Brands Hatch three days later and taking a deserved race win, still to this day the only time a woman has won a proper F1 race. Her funding did not last the whole season. Mallock also started well but destroyed the Surtees TS20+ at Thruxton in May and although he bought Wolf WR6, his return was too late to have a bearing on the title race.
Val Musetti had some good results in a heavily modified Fittipaldi F5A, as did Norman Dickson in the Lotus 78, but the few other F1s were well off the pace. The F2 contingent were able to pick up good results when the leading F1s retired, and Jim Crawford scored a popular win in the rain at Oulton Park in September in his Chevron B45. Poor Kim Mather had a terrible season in his flexing March 802. The strength in depth from 1979 had disappeared, and in September MCD announced that the series was to be "suspended". MCD would change their focus to Formula Atlantic.
The races
04 Apr 1980 > Oulton Park
07 Apr 1980 > Brands Hatch
20 Apr 1980 > Silverstone
05 May 1980 > Mallory Park
26 May 1980 > Thruxton
29 Jun 1980 > Monza
27 Jul 1980 > Mallory Park
10 Aug 1980 > Snetterton
25 Aug 1980 > Brands Hatch
07 Sep 1980 > Thruxton
21 Sep 1980 > Oulton Park
05 Oct 1980 > Silverstone
1980 Aurora AFX Championship table
| 1 | Emilio de Villota | (F1) Williams FW07- Cosworth DFV V8 (F1) Fittipaldi F5A - Cosworth DFV V8 | 85 pts | 5 wins |
| 2 | Eliseo Salazar | (F1) Williams FW07- Cosworth DFV V8 (F1) Williams FW07B- Cosworth DFV V8 | 52 pts | 3 wins |
| 3 | Guy Edwards | (F1) Arrows A1 - Cosworth DFV V8 | 51 pts | 2 wins |
| 4 | Jim Crawford | (F2) Chevron B45 - Ford BDX | 24 pts | 1 win |
| 5 | Giacomo Agostini | (F1) Williams FW06 - Cosworth DFV V8 | 22 pts | |
| 6 | Desiré Wilson | (F1) Wolf WR4 - Cosworth DFV V8 (F1) Wolf WR3 - Cosworth DFV V8 (F1) Lotus 78 - Cosworth DFV V8 | 21 pts | 1 win |
| 7 | Norman Dickson | (F1) Lotus 78 - Cosworth DFV V8 | 12 pts | |
| 8 | Val Musetti | (F1) Fittipaldi F5A - Cosworth DFV V8 (F1) Fittipaldi F5B - Cosworth DFV V8 | 11 pts | |
| 9 | Brian Robinson | (F2) Chevron B48 - Hart 420R (F2) Chevron B42 - Hart 420R | 10 pts | |
| 10= | Ray Mallock | (F1) Surtees TS20+ - Cosworth DFV V8 (F1) Wolf WR6 - Cosworth DFV V8 | 8 pts |
The championship was held over 12 rounds using a 9-6-4-3-2-1 points system, plus 2 points for pole position and 1 point for fastest lap. Points table from Autocourse 1980/81 p233 except that Autocourse printed Mather's name twice instead of Walger.