Aurora AFX British F1 Championship Round
Silverstone, 7 Oct 1979
| Results | Laps | Time/Speed | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gordon Smiley | Surtees TS20+ [02] - Cosworth DFV V8 #22 John Surtees Garages |
35 | 48m 07.14s 127.96 mph |
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| 2 | Rupert Keegan | Arrows A1 [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 #16 Charles Clowes Racing |
35 | 48m 14.22s |
|||||
| 3 | Geoff Lees | Wolf [WR4] - Cosworth DFV V8 #12 Theodore Racing |
35 | 48m 24.09s |
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| 4 | Bernard de Dryver | Fittipaldi F5A [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 #5 RAM Racing |
35 | 48m 53.30s |
|||||
| 5 | Desiré Wilson | Tyrrell 008 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 #1 Melchester Racing |
34 | ||||||
| 6 | Tiff Needell | Chevron B41 [41-79-01] - Cosworth DFV V8 #6 Graham Eden Racing |
34 | ||||||
| 7 | Giacomo Agostini | Williams FW06 [001] - Cosworth DFV V8 #9 Team Agostini |
34 | ||||||
| 8 | Guy Edwards | Fittipaldi F5A [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 #4 RAM Racing |
34 | ||||||
| 9 | David Purley | Shadow DN9 [3B] - Cosworth DFV V8 #27 Lec Refrigeration Racing |
34 | ||||||
| 10 | Norman Dickson | (F2) 2-litre March 792 [20] - Hart 420R #30 Dicksons of Perth (see note 1) |
33 | ||||||
| 11 | Brian Robinson | (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-08] - Hart 420R #19 A. G. Dean (Racing) |
33 | ||||||
| 12 | Neil Bettridge | Arrows A1 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 #2 Melchester Racing |
32 | broken rear top link | |||||
| 13 | Richard Jones | Surtees TS19 [04] - Cosworth DFV V8 #33 Smith & Jones (see note 2) |
32 | ||||||
| R | Hervé Regout | (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-09] - Hart 420R #25 RAM Racing |
24 | gearbox | |||||
| R | Kim Mather | (F2) 2-litre March 772P/782 [U2] - Ford BDG Richardson #15 Pontin Racing (see note 3) |
23 | spark box | |||||
| R | David Kennedy | Wolf [WR6] - Cosworth DFV V8 #11 Theodore Racing |
11 | accident | |||||
| R | Emilio de Villota | Lotus 78 [1 JPS15] - Cosworth DFV V8 #3 Madom F1 Team |
10 | spun, could not restart | |||||
| AP | Bob Evans | Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 Charles Clowes Racing |
Also practiced | ||||||
| T | Brian Robinson | (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-19] - Hart 420R |
(Only used in practice) | ||||||
| T | Guy Edwards | Fittipaldi F5A [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 |
(Only used in practice) | ||||||
| T | Rupert Keegan | Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 Charles Clowes Racing |
(Only used in practice) | ||||||
All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.
| Qualifying | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rupert Keegan | (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:17.07 | ||
| 2 | David Kennedy | (F1) 3-litre Wolf [WR6] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:17.19 | ||
| 3 | Gordon Smiley | (F1) 3-litre Surtees TS20+ [02] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:17.20 | ||
| 4 | David Purley | (F1) 3-litre Shadow DN9 [3B] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18.02 | ||
| 5 | Guy Edwards | (F1) 3-litre Fittipaldi F5A [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18.28 | ||
| 6 | Neil Bettridge | (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18.36 | ||
| 7 | Emilio de Villota | (F1) 3-litre Lotus 78 [1 JPS15] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18.69 | ||
| 8 | Geoff Lees | (F1) 3-litre Wolf [WR4] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18.80 | ||
| 9 | Bernard de Dryver | (F1) 3-litre Fittipaldi F5A [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18.95 | ||
| 10 | Giacomo Agostini | (F1) 3-litre Williams FW06 [001] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:19.58 | ||
| 11 | Desiré Wilson | (F1) 3-litre Tyrrell 008 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:20.19 | ||
| 12 | Tiff Needell | (F1) 3-litre Chevron B41 [41-79-01] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:20.65 | ||
| 13 | Norman Dickson | (F2) 2-litre March 792 [20] - Hart 420R | 1:22.43 | ||
| 14 | Brian Robinson | (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-08] - Hart 420R | 1:23.49 | ||
| 15 | Hervé Regout | (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-09] - Hart 420R | 1:23.88 | ||
| 16 | Kim Mather | (F2) 2-litre March 772P/782 [U2] - Ford BDG Richardson | 1:24.43 | ||
| 17 | Richard Jones | (F1) 3-litre Surtees TS19 [04] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:24.61 | ||
| - | Guy Edwards(T) | (F1) 3-litre Fittipaldi F5A [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:18:52 | ||
| - | Rupert Keegan(T) | (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 | 1:19:07 | ||
| - | Brian Robinson(T) | (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-19] - Hart 420R | 1:25.24 | ||
Notes on the cars:
- March 792 [20] (Norman Dickson): New to Norman Dickson (Perth, Scotland) and raced in the F2 section of the 1979 British F1 series, prepared by Colin Bennett. Due to be raced by Angelo Piccione at the Misano in August but he was too slow in testing. Sold to Paul Gibson in October 1979 and used mainly in libre racing at Croft but also appeared in rounds of the British series at Thruxton and Monza. Sold to Bob Leckie (Aberdeen, Scotland) for libre racing in 1981 but sold on in mid-season to John Bothamley who used it in the last few races of the Ingliston season. Taken to John Maguire in Coventry that winter who used the engine, gearbox, suspension, uprights, brakes and other components in the construction of a GT car for 1982, with Maguire's space frame chassis and Lotus Esprit bodywork. The tub, nose, rear wing, sidepods and rear bodywork were returned to Scotland and sold to Norrie Galbraith who planned to fit the running gear off his March 782 and put it in the 792 tub. Unfortunately Galbraith was killed in the 782 just weeks later. The 782 tub was scrapped but 792 tub and the remains of the 782 were sold to Bobby Howlings who eventually sold them to Willy Widar in Belgium. The 782 parts and 792 tub were evidently then built into a car which took the identity of 782-26. With its components scattered, the 792 has effectively ceased to exist.
- Surtees TS19 [04] (Richard Jones): 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.
- March 772P/782 [U2] (Kim Mather): New for Marc Surer to race in the final F2 race of the 1977 season, at Donington Park in October 1977. Then to Patsy McGarrity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) for Irish Formula Atlantic in 1978, using a Fred Smith BDA engine. To Kim Mather (St Helens, Lancashire) for 1979 and raced in F2 and Aurora British F1 that year. Also raced by sponsor David Ward (Hesketh Bank, Lancashire) in libre racing. Crashed heavily by Ward at Aintree in July, and rapidly rebuilt on a 782 or 783 tub for Mather to use for the rest of the season. Mather recalls that the 783 was sold to Jim Evans, but Evans has no recollection of this. The damaged 772P tub is claimed to have been sold to the Seattle area and rebuilt into a car that was later owned in Canada. Neither of these stories has yet been confirmed.
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 11 Oct 1979 pp27,29,31. Autosport lists chassis numbers for all cars but calls Kim Mather's car "772P/782 U1" instead of U2. Its engine is given as a Richardson BDG. Brian Robinson had the ex-Gaillard/Devaney Chevron B48 ('08') recently acquired from Bob Howlings but also used his 'regular B42/19" in the first practice session.