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Aurora AFX British F1 Championship Round

Snetterton, 23 Sep 1979

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Rupert Keegan Arrows A1 [2] - Cosworth DFV V8
#16 Charles Clowes Racing
55 55m 07.07s
114.77 mph
2 Ricardo Zunino Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8
#17 Charles Clowes Racing
55 55m 08.81s
3 David Kennedy Wolf [WR6] - Cosworth DFV V8
#11 Theodore Racing
55 55m 31.88s
4 David Purley Shadow DN9 [3B] - Cosworth DFV V8
#27 Lec Refrigeration Racing
55 55m 38.90s
5 Bernard de Dryver Fittipaldi F5A [2] - Cosworth DFV V8
#5 RAM Racing
55 55m 54.59s
6 Desiré Wilson Tyrrell 008 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8
#1 Melchester Racing (see note 1)
55 55m 56.97s
7 Giacomo Agostini Williams FW06 [001] - Cosworth DFV V8
#9 Team Agostini
55 56m 02.16s
8 Emilio de Villota Lotus 78 [1 JPS15] - Cosworth DFV V8
#3 Madom F1 Team (see note 2)
54
9 Brian Robinson (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-05] - Hart 420R
#19 A. G. Dean (Racing)
49
R Derek Warwick (F2) 2-litre March 792 [11] - Hart 420R
#77 Theodore Racing
41 Battery
R Robin Smith Surtees TS19 [04] - Cosworth DFV V8
#33 Smith & Jones (see note 3)
36 Accident
R Guy Edwards Fittipaldi F5A [3] - Cosworth DFV V8
#4 RAM Racing
35 Engine
R Gordon Smiley Surtees TS20+ [02] - Cosworth DFV V8
#22 John Surtees Garages
28 Engine
R Hervé Regout (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-09] - Hart 420R
#25 RAM Racing
20 Engine
R Neil Bettridge Arrows A1 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8
#2 Melchester Racing
13 Brakes
R Marco Micangeli Williams FW06 [002] - Cosworth DFV V8
#10 Team Agostini
7 CV joint
R Kim Mather Chevron B41 [41-79-01] - Cosworth DFV V8
#6 Graham Eden Racing
0 CV joint
T/S Guy Edwards Fittipaldi F5A [4] - Cosworth DFV V8
(Spare - not used in practice)

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Qualifying
1 Rupert Keegan (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:56.28
2 Ricardo Zunino (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:56.64
3 Emilio de Villota (F1) 3-litre Lotus 78 [1 JPS15] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:56.85
4 Guy Edwards (F1) 3-litre Fittipaldi F5A [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:56.97
5 David Kennedy (F1) 3-litre Wolf [WR6] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:57.11
6 Bernard de Dryver (F1) 3-litre Fittipaldi F5A [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:57.64
7 Gordon Smiley (F1) 3-litre Surtees TS20+ [02] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:57.79
8 Derek Warwick (F2) 2-litre March 792 [11] - Hart 420R 0:57.92
9 Desiré Wilson (F1) 3-litre Tyrrell 008 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:58.10
10 Giacomo Agostini (F1) 3-litre Williams FW06 [001] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:58.51
11 David Purley (F1) 3-litre Shadow DN9 [3B] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:59.01
12 Marco Micangeli (F1) 3-litre Williams FW06 [002] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:59.59
14 Kim Mather (F1) 3-litre Chevron B41 [41-79-01] - Cosworth DFV V8 1:00.37
14 Hervé Regout (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-09] - Hart 420R 0:59.63
15 Neil Bettridge (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 1:01.90
16 Robin Smith (F1) 3-litre Surtees TS19 [04] - Cosworth DFV V8 1:01.90
18 Brian Robinson (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-05] - Hart 420R 1:02.16

Notes on the cars:

  1. Tyrrell 008 [3] (Desiré Wilson): First appearing at the 1978 South African GP, Tyrrell 008-3 was Patrick Depailler's regular car through 1978, and was the car in which he won the 1978 Monaco GP. It was sold to Melchester Racing for 1979, and raced by Desire Wilson in Aurora British F1. It was then acquired by Nick Mason, and raced by John Brindley in the 1982 BF1 series, in HSCC Historic F1 in 1982 and 1983, and in the one-off the MCD British Open race in 1983. Mason sold the car in October 1991, and it returned to historic racing in 1993. It has raced regularly in historic racing ever since, appearing at Monaco in 2002 and in 2008.
  2. Lotus 78 [1 JPS15] (Emilio de Villota): After being used by Gunnar Nilsson and Mario Andretti in the first few races of 1977, Lotus 78-1 became the spare car and was then retired mid-season. It was sold to Hector Rebaque for 1978, but became his spare car after he acquired 78-4. It was then sold to Emilio De Villota for Aurora British F1 in 1979, where it was a regular race winner. Norman Dickson bought it for 1980, again for Aurora, and it was sold to Lotus collector Bill Friend at the end of 1981. It was raced by Bill's nephew Roger Friend in HSCC racing. It was sold to Switzerland in 1988, then moved to Italy in 1998. In early 2018, it moved again, to a major collector.
  3. Surtees TS19 [04] (Robin Smith): 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.

Sources

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' original 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.