Aurora AFX British F1 Championship Round

Brands Hatch, 27 Mar 1978

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 75A/761 [1-2] (Guy Edwards): John MacDonald (RAM Racing) 1975. Raced in UK 1975: driven by Alan Jones (3rd BARC Thruxton 17 Aug 1975) - Hexagon Garage for Damien Magee UK 1976 - Guy Edwards UK 1977; rebuilt on a March 761 monocoque, and then converted to DFV power for last few races of 1977. Edwards UK 1978 (first two races); then for Bruce Allison (five races). Also used by Desire Wilson in a test session prior to the British GP. To Terry Smith (Felton, Somerset), fitted with a 5-litre Repco engine, and used in the British Sprint Championship 1979, 1980 and 1981. Used by Smith and John Meredith British Sprint Championship 1982. To Ray Rowan 1983, and retained by him until about 1987 when the Repco engine was sold to Australia and the rolling chassis was sold via a dealer to Italy. Reemerged four years later when sold by Andrea Frasson (Rosà, Vicenza, Italy) to Daniel Pouteau (Paris, France) in December 1991. Retained by Pouteau, still apart and in still Terry Smith's livery, until sold via Bernard De Dryver to Paul Grant (Brussels, Belgium) in April 2013. Rebuilt for Masters F1 in 2015, and debut at the Spa 6 Hours in September 2015.
2. March 742 [28] (Carlo Giorgio): New to Carlo Giorgio, fitted with a very unusual Holbay Ford Pinto engine and raced in F2 in 1974, entered by Scuderia Jolly Club. Giorgio retained the car for 1975, when he used a Hart Ford BDA. He returned very briefly in 1976, when the car was used to test the new Armaroli V6 engine, but it did not qualify for its only race. In 1977, he returned for a fourth season, the March now used a Hart 420R engine, but he failed to qualify for three of his five races and did not go the distance in the other two. He raced the car again in 1978. For the 1979 season, thankfully the car's last, he fitted March 782 bodywork. It ended with a record of 30 F2 races but 13 failures to qualify and only ten classified finishes. Many years later, in 2016, the chassis was in the garage of Silvio Pederzini in Padova, Italy.
3. March 762 [752-21] (Adrian Russell): Originally intended for Trivellato but not collected so fitted with a F3 rear wing and sold instead to Markus Hotz (Lippoldswilen, Switzerland) for European hillclimbs and Swiss championship events. At the beginning of 1976, it was raced by Harald Ertl in the F2 race at Hockenheim, finishing sixth. Hotz continued with Swiss championship events but damaged the car, and returned it to the factory in part exchange for a new March 762. March sold the 752 on, unrepaired, to Roger Heavens, who rebuilt it as a 762 and intended to fit the turbocharged 1.4-litre Ford Formula 2 engine that Geoff Richardson was developing. When the car appeared, in the Shellsport G8 series with Derrick Worthington driving, it used a Richardson BDX instead. Also raced in G8 and libre events by José Maria de Uriarte. Retained for 1977 and entered by Heavens for Pablo Brea and Hervé Leguellec. Taken over by Adrian Russell (Thornton Heath, Surrey) later in 1977, and raced by him in British F1 and libre in 1978. Sold to Paul Brooks (Selby, North Yorkshire) for 1979, and raced in libre. Subsequent history unknown.
4. March 752/761 [15] (Val Musetti): New to Masami Kuwashima for Formula 2 in 1975, prepared by Roy Kennedy's team in London, and entered by Masami Kuwashima Racing. After just two races, Kuwashima returned to Japan, and the 752 was sold to Tom Walkinshaw.who had it converted by Kennedy to F5000 specification, with the installation of a 3.4-litre Ford V6 engine. Raced by Walkinshaw in the 1975 Shellsport F5000 Championship. To Val Musetti, and raced in Shellsport G8 in 1976 and 1977. Converted to F1 specification for 1978, with a Cosworth DFV engine, and referred to as a 761 that season. Wrecked at Mallory Park in August but rebuilt again for 1979, when it was described as a 771, but wrecked at Zolder at the start of the Aurora season and finally written off.
5. Surtees TS19 [04] (Alo Lawler): Alan Jones received a new car, Surtees TS19/04, in time for the 1976 Austrian GP, and raced this for the rest of the season. It was raced by Vittorio Brambilla in the South American races at the start of 1977, before being sold to Olympus Cameras for Divina Galica to race in Shellsport Group 8. It was acquired by Alo Lawler in 1978, but was quickly sold to John Cooper, then to Robin Smith. Smith updated it to "TS20S" specification in 1980, and added sports car bodywork for a couple of Can-Am events in 1981. It was sold to Ken Moore and then Rod Tolhurst, both of whom ran it in HSCC F1 in 1983 for Willie Green and John Narcisi. Its next seven owners did not race it, but it returned to competition in TGP in 1999, then raced regularly until 2012. It returned for Monaco in 2016.
6. Chevron B35D (Kim Mather): In early 1977, Gilles Villeneuve raced a Chevron B39 in South African Formula Atlantic which was crashed during testing before the series started, then rebuilt on a new monocoque because of handling problems, before being damaged again in an accident with Ian Scheckter at Killarney on 19 February. The car was rebuilt, possibly on a further new chassis, and sold on but another car also emerged from this and was sold to Kim Mather (Haydock, St Helens, Lancashire) in the summer. It was described as an "ex-works development Chevron B35D" that had been "used by Villeneuve in South Africa". Mather built it up using B35 suspension and a 2-litre Richardson BDA engine and called it a "B35D" or "B35D". He raced this in Shellsport G8 libre racing in 1977, and competed in the Donington Park F2 race at the end of the season. Retained for 1978 when Mather used it in the Aurora BF1 series and in libre. Then sold to Ken Brill who raced in the Aurora series in 1979 before crashing it heavily into the wall at Redgate Lodge at Donington Park in June. Brill had to be cut from the mangled footwell of the car, and it was not seen again.
7. March "762" [742-20?] (Nigel Clarkson): New to the CSAI's Equipe Nationale as a spare car but sold on unused to Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi, who raced it twice in F2 late in 1974. Pesenti-Rossi raced the car again in 1975 but was more focused on his F3 campaign with a March 743. After a single F2 race with the 742 at the start of 1976, Pesenti-Rossi acquired a 762 and a 763, and the 742 was not seen again. Reports that it went to the Brambillas are now thought to be incorrect. In early 1978, Nigel Clarkson (Cirencester, Gloucestershire) ran a F2 March in the Aurora series. This was described as a 762 when he failed to qualify for the two Easter races but was identified as a 742 with BDX engine when it reappeared in September. Clarkson recalls that "the car was a disaster having been put together from a bunch of bits by an Australian John Gillmeister" and believes it later became a Special Saloon. According to Kevan McLurg, Scot Ron Cummings bought a dismantled March 742 from Clarkson in 1980, and this was used as a basis of such a Special Saloon, a Lotus Esprit that he raced in 1982 with an 1800cc Cosworth engine. He then fitted a 3400cc Ford GAA to it, and raced it in this form from 1983 to 1988. He then bought a March 802 in AC bodywork and the 742-based Esprit was driven by Ricky Gauld (Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) in GT racing at Ingliston in 1989 and 1990. Gauld bought the March from Ron Cummings, recalling that it was "an ex Super Saloon", and used it in March form in hillclimbs in 1994. By 2009, the car was owned by Kevan McLurg and was in pieces.

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.

These results were compiled primarily from the race reports in Autosport during the season, with some additional information from the results section of Autocourse, and some details compiled by Jeremy Jackson from a variety of sources, including Autosport, Motoring News and the Formula One Register books. All the chassis identities were taken from research elsewhere on this site.

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 30 Mar 1978 pp41-42 listed all the finishers and retirements, and gave a full grid, plus the single non-qualifier. Quentin Spurring provided a more even-handed report.