Race of Champions

Brands Hatch, 17 Mar 1974

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T330 [HU17] (Ian Ashley): See full history: Lola T330 HU17.
2. Chevron B24 [24-73-06] (Steve Thompson): Built for 1973 season. Alan Brodie for Steve Thompson: raced in UK 1973, UK 1974 - Dennis Leech (Exeter, UK): raced in UK 1975 (heavily crashed in practice at R15 Mallory Park 12 Oct 1975 and not seen again). Subsequent history unknown but presumably wrecked.
3. Chevron B28 [28-74-02] (Peter Gethin): See full history: Chevron B28 74-02.
4. Lola T330 [HU21] (Clive Santo): See full history: Lola T330 HU21.
5. Chevron B24 [24-73-01] (Tony Dean): Built for 1973 season. Tony Dean: raced in UK 1973, US 1973, UK 1974 (crashed at R1 - Dean then buys B24-73-08), also used to settle a bet at the BARC Harewood hill climb 4 Aug 1974; UK 1975 (driven by Dean 3 races, Alain Peltier 1 DNS, Roelof Wunderink 1 DNS). Presumably the car raced by Dean at the Easter Rufforth meeting, winning the libre event. Raced by Dean at Aintree 19 Apr 1975, setting a new circuit record as he won the libre race by over a lap. Crashed and written off by Wunderink Zandvoort (practice) 17 May 1975. Wreckage scrapped.
6. Lola T330 [HU18] (Lella Lombardi): See full history: Lola T330 HU18.
7. Lola T330 [HU4] (Damien Magee): See full history: Lola T330 HU4.
8. Chevron B28 [28-74-01] (Teddy Pilette): See full history: Chevron B28 74-01.
9. March 74A [1] (Mike Wilds): Dempster Developments UK 1974: for Mike Wilds at R1 (second), then retubbed for R2 (second). Tested by Taylor prior to R3 Silvestone 6 Apr. For Wilds at R3 (sixth) then replaced by newer 74A/2 and returned to Bicester. Probably for Wilds again after destruction of 74A/2: three or four races (R10, R11, R13?, R14). To Mick Hill UK 1975 - Bill Blackledge (then based in Jamaica) 1976 and then via John Gunn Feb 1977 to Tom Jones: raced in Can-Am 1977 (2 races), SCCA FA 1978, Can-Am 1979 (2 DNS), Can-Am 1980 (1 DNS); retained 2010.
10. Lola T332 [HU34] (Guy Edwards): See full history: Lola T332 HU34.
11. Trojan T101 [102] (Vern Schuppan): See full history: Trojan T101/102.
12. Lola T332 [HU37] (Brian Redman): See full history: Lola T332 HU37.
13. Trojan T102 [1] (Keith Holland): Built in late 1973, but unsold until March 1974. To Ian Ward Racing for Keith Holland to race in UK in 1974. It proved fast in practice, but due to variety of problems failed to start its first five races. It had only started four races when Ian Ward withdrew from F5000 in late June. The team and car reappeared at the last four races of the season for Steve Thompson to drive. After that, the car was acquired by Mick Hill, who used the front suspension and the whole back end for his 1976 "VW Beetle" super saloon project. Everything he didn't use was eventually acquired by Roger Hurst (Folkestone, Kent) and he advertised this in 1984. The whole project was acquired by Tim and Tony Barry (Sittingbourne, Kent) in 1985 and has been owned by them ever since. Tim Barry raced the car in libre in 1987 and 1988, and also in HSCC racing in the 1990s. He returned to the Trojan for HSCC Derek Bell events since wrecking the brothers' March 76A in an accident in 2005, but Tim describes it as "as much of a pain in the butt as it was when new".
14. Trojan T101 [104] (Patrick Sumner): See full history: Trojan T101/104.

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.

3-litre Formula 1 Non-championship events 1966-1983

These results were initially compiled by Allen Brown, but these were in the very basic form required to track individual car histories. Since then further details, such as laps completed, qualifying times and so on, have been added from Rob Ryder's extensive database.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 21 Mar 1974 pp10-12,14 (by Pete Lyons). Motoring News 21 Mar 1974 pp9-10 (by 'AH' Alan Henry). Motor Sport April 1974 pp317- (by 'DSJ' Denis Jenkinson). Sport Auto Avril 1974 pp33-35 (by Gérard Crombac). Autocourse 1974/75 pp162-163. Autosport only gave the 12 finishers and Motoring News only the 12 finishers and four other runners, so the remaining starters are from Autocourse. Lyons and Henry gave detailed reports allowing all the cars to be identified but Jenkinson, in his first F1 report since August 1973, only identified a few. Sport Auto gave no chassis numbers.

As Brands Hatch would be hosting the British GP later in the year, plenty of F1 teams wanted to use the event as part of their preparation. The 16 entries comprised one Lotus, all three McLarens, two Brabhams, two Ferraris, just one BRM, two Shadows, and then one each from Surtees, Ensign, Hesketh, Embassy-Hill and Lyncar. A number of new Formula 1 projects were nearing completion, and there was something of a race to see who would follow Lola to be the 23rd 3-litre Formula 1 constructor. The Hesketh took pole position here, a quite astonishing performance, the Lyncar was also on the grid, the Amon was expected but did not arrive after an accident in testing, the Maki had only been revealed the previous Friday, the Rondel/Token was nearing completion and the Trojan was still in the wings.