Aurora AFX British F1 Championship Round

Brands Hatch, 28 Aug 1978

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 742/752 [15] (Richard Jones): Sold to Trivellato Racing Team and raced by Gabrielle Serblin in F2 in 1974. Retained by Trivellato as a spare car for 1975 and raced by Alberto Colombo, Francesco Cerulli-Irelli, Serblin and "Gimax" (Carlo Franchi). Raced by Gimax at a few Italian F2 races in 1976 and 1977 then to Richard Jones and Robin Smith for the Aurora AFX series in mid-1978, using the Cosworth BDG (or BDA) engine from the pair's Chevron B31 sports car that had been wrecked at Le Mans. Also raced by fellow sports car racer Tony Charnell at the end of 1978. Later to Jim McGaughey and rebuilt as a Renault 5GT special saloon for 1981. When the special saloon's career ended, it was acquired by the Higgins Brothers of Lincolnshire, and was bought from them by Ian Jones in 1990, by which time it was in a very sorry state. Jones reskinned the monocoque using the original bulkheads, fabricated new suspension parts, and fitted late-1974 (long-nose) F2 bodywork. Jones sold it to Richard Evans in 2010, and by 2012 it was completed with a Gathercole BDG in Stebel livery and was raced in the Derek Bell Trophy races at the HSCC Superprix at Brands Hatch. Shared by Evans and Andrew Smith in Historic F2 from 2013 onwards.
2. March 782 [26] (Stephen South): To Stephen South for F2 mid-1978 and fitted with a Hart 420R, but South was under-financed and only appeared occasionally. Took pole position at the Brands Hatch Aurora race in late-August. Sold to Adrian Russell (Thornton Heath, Surrey) for 1979 and used in F2, libre and Aurora until August when sold to Scot Jim Stevenson who ran it in libre, mainly at Ingliston, in late 1979 and early 1980. Then to Roger Philpott for hillclimbs in 1981, now with a 2.3-litre Hart engine, but again sold mid-season when Roy Lane pursuaded Philpott in August 1981 to exchange the 782 for Lane's new but underperforming March 802/812. Raced by Lane for the rest of the season, finished second in the Doune hillclimb in October. Sold to Norrie Galbraith for 1982 and upgraded to 79B specification but heavily damaged in Galbraith's fatal accident while filming for Scottish TV at Doune in September. The tub was scrapped but the remains of 782-26 went via Bobby Howlings to Willy Widar in Belgium and were at some point rebuilt on the tub from 792-20, which Galbraith had acquired shortly before the crash. This 782/792 went to Leo Schildkamp (Heerlen, Netherlands) in 1993, then to Per-Owe Soderberg (Laxå, Sweden) in 1994 and then Thomas Fridlund (Arvika, Sweden) in 2001. Then to John Bladon December 2005, and sold by him to Matthew Slinn December 2006. Slinn had plans to rebuild the car to 782 specification using a 78B tub.
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 762 [15 as '22'] (Brett Riley): New to Richard Robarts in June 1976, fitted with a Hart 420R engine and raced in European F2 and Shellsport G8 in 1976 when Robarts was sponsored by Myson. For some reason this car wore chassis plate 762-22, which was its monocoque number, instead of its actual chassis number 762-15. It was used once more by Robarts in early 1977 and March records then show it being sold to Dr Joseph Ehrlich in February 1978. It was raced for Ehrlich by Brett Riley in two Aurora AFX British F1 races, at Mallory Park in July and Brands Hatch in August, but at the latter race he skated off at Westfield and the car was badly damaged. Parts from the car may have been used in the Ehrlich RP5 built towards the end of 1979.
5. March 772P [U1] (Norman Dickson): New for the works March F2 team in 1977, fitted with a works BMW engine, and raced by Patrick Neve in the opening F2 race at Silverstone, qualifying and finishing third. Then raced by Alex Dias Ribeiro at Thruxton, taking pole position and again finishing third. Jochen Mass took over the drive for Hockenheim and the Nürburgring, winning both races, after which Ribeiro drove it once more at Vallelunga. Bruno Giacomelli, who had been racing a works March 772-Hart, then took over the 772P-BMW for the next six races, winning at Mugello in June. Driven again by Ribeiro at Donington Park in October. Sold to Norman Dickson (Perth, Scotland), fitted with a Hart 420R, and used with great success in libre, Retained by Dickson as a hire car in 1979. To George McMillan (North Berwick, Scotland) for 1980, and fitted with a Swindon BDX engine for libre over the next three seasons. Retained unused in 1983 when McMillan raced a Ralt RT2, and then sold to someone "down south" to use as a GT or Special Saloon. The car reappeared in France a little later, having been acquired by hillclimber Jean-Jacques Lecorre. It was stored briefly in the garage of Alain Prat, and then sold to Jean-François Pelletier (Chinon, France), fitted with a Cosworth BDD, and raced by him from 1984 to 1990. This car was advertised in France in January 2016, with no explanation of where it had been since 1990. By this time it had been restored to Giacomelli's SCAINI livery. It was next seen in 2019, when raced by Pascal Gerbout in Hstoric F2.

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 31 Aug 1978 pp38-39 listed all the finishers and retirements, and gave full practice times. Marcus Pye again reported, and was decidedly more upbeat.