OldRacingCars.com

Aurora AFX British F1 Championship Round

Oulton Park, 21 Sep 1980

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Jim Crawford (F2) 2-litre Chevron B45 [45-78-04] - Ford BDX Swindon
#77 Plygrange Racing (see note 1)
65 1h 15m 46.81s
85.12 mph
2 Kim Mather (F2) 2-litre March 802 [22] - Hart 420R
#11 Theodore Racing
65 1h 16m 13.69s
3 Val Musetti Fittipaldi F5B [3] - Cosworth DFV V8
#15 Colin Bennett Racing
65 1h 16m 35.22s
4 Guy Edwards Arrows A1 [2] - Cosworth DFV V8
#1 C. W. Clowes Racing
65 1h 16m 41.43s
5 Brian Robinson (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-08] - Hart 420R
#19 Grange Performance Cars
63
6 Divina Galica (F2) 2-litre March 792 [3] - Hart 420R
#13 Divina Galica (see note 2)
59
R Warren Booth (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-01] - Hart 420R
#29 Warren Booth
39 accident
R Emilio de Villota Williams FW07 [1] - Cosworth DFV V8
#7 RAM Racing
38 broken steering clevis
R Eliseo Salazar Williams FW07B [6] - Cosworth DFV V8
#8 RAM Racing
18 leaking brake caliper
R Bobby Howlings (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-05] - Hart 420R
#20 Bob Howlings Racing Cars
2 split oil filter
R Leon Walger Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8
#2 C. W. Clowes Racing
1 wishbone
R Roy Baker (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-05] - Hart 420R
#24 Roy Baker
0 engine
DNS Richard Jones Surtees TS19/TS20S [04] - Cosworth DFV V8
#12 Scotcircuits Ltd. (see note 3)
Did not start
(engine oil leak)
DNA David Leslie (F2) 1.6-litre Ralt RT4/80 [185] - Ford BDA Nicholson
Hope Scott Garage
Did not arrive
DNA Ray Mallock Wolf [WR6] - Cosworth DFV V8
#16 Cliff Smith Racing
Did not arrive
DNA Tony Trimmer BRM P207 [02] - P202 V12
#30 John Jordan
Did not arrive

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Qualifying
1 Eliseo Salazar (F1) 3-litre Williams FW07B [6] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:53.91
2 Emilio de Villota (F1) 3-litre Williams FW07 [1] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:53.95
3 Guy Edwards (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:54.16
4 Val Musetti (F1) 3-litre Fittipaldi F5B [3] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:55.59
5 Kim Mather (F2) 2-litre March 802 [22] - Hart 420R 0:55.62
6 Jim Crawford (F2) 2-litre Chevron B45 [45-78-04] - Ford BDX Swindon 0:55.97
7 Leon Walger (F1) 3-litre Arrows A1 [4] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:56.04
8 Divina Galica (F2) 2-litre March 792 [3] - Hart 420R 0:56.54
9 Brian Robinson (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-08] - Hart 420R 0:57.39
10 Warren Booth (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-01] - Hart 420R 0:58.19
11 Richard Jones * (F1) 3-litre Surtees TS19/TS20S [04] - Cosworth DFV V8 0:59.60
12 Roy Baker (F2) 2-litre Chevron B48 [48-79-05] - Hart 420R 1:00.02
13 Bobby Howlings (F2) 2-litre Chevron B42 [42-78-05] - Hart 420R 1:01.02
 
* Did not start

Notes on the cars:

  1. Chevron B45 [45-78-04] (Jim Crawford): New to Fred Opert Racing for North American Formula Atlantic as a second car. Used as a spare by Keke Rosberg and as his race car at Lime Rock. Also raced by Eje Elgh and by Arturo Merzario at Trois-Rivières. Raced by Rosberg at Macau in November 1978. Advertised by Opert from ATS Engineering, where he had moved to become team manager, in March 1979 as a lightweight B45 with 1979 rear suspension and F2 fuel tanks. Then sold to Mike Peers and entered in the revived British series for Jim Crawford in 1979, winning five races and finishing second in the championship. Fitted with a BDX engine for 1980 and run by Plygrange Racing for Crawford in the F2 class of the Aurora series. Stayed with Plygrange for 1981 when raced by Vin Malkie (Northwich, Cheshire) in libre racing. Reappeared in 1983 when raced by Duncan Gray in the British Formula Atlantic series. It was entered by Peers himself in libre in 1984. Then to Steve Raine for Sprints, co-driven by Robin Boucher, and then hired to Bob Fearnley's RK Racing for Tiff Needell to drive in a pair of races in India in early 1985. Then reportedly to Stuart Ridge for 1986. To John Lloyd then to Simon Hadfield (Shepshed, Leicestershire) but damaged in an accident at Mallory Park. Restored with original Excita condoms bodywork and sold in 1998 to Jeff Wright, a Scotsman then living in Canada. Still with Wright (Wilmington, NC) in 2014 and raced regularly in vintage racing. By 2019, the car had moved to Scotland and was owned by George Coghill (Halkirk, Highland) and was prepared by Steve Worrad (Whitchurch, Shropshire) for sprints.
  2. March 792 [3] (Divina Galica): New to Divina Galica for F2 in 1979. Retained for F2 and Aurora British F1 in 1980.
  3. Surtees TS19/TS20S [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.

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 25 Sep 1980 pp27-28. Marcus Pye's report gave the full practice times, chassis numbers (for all except Edwards' and Walger's Arrows), all finishers and all retirements. John Webb, MD of Motor Circuits Developments, announced on the Friday of the meeting that the Aurora series would be "suspended" after this season.