Race for Historically Interesting Grand Prix Cars

Donington Park, 24 Apr 1983

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Surtees TS19 [04] (Willie Green): 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.
2. McLaren M29C [2] (John Foulston): After the McLaren M28s were abondoned, McLaren M29/2 was new at the 1979 German GP for Patrick Tambay. It was updated to M29B then M29C specification for John Watson in 1980, then to M29F spec in 1981 as a spare car. Arnold Glass then bought this and a sister M29C for British F1 in August 1981, retaining it as a spare for 1982. It was then sold to John Foulston, who raced it in HSCC F1 in 1983 and 1984. It was then sold to an Italian owner, and remained in Italy for many years. It returned to competition in Masters F1 with its new owner in early 2018.
3. Brabham BT6 [FJ-5-63] (John Narcisi): David Prophet (West Bromwich) in Formula Junior 1963. Also appeared at Karlskoga in August and in South Africa in December in F1 specification with a 1500cc Ford engine. To Graham Eden (Coventry, Warwickshire) for Formula 3 in 1964. Eden first raced the car at Snetterton in mid-March 1964 but at Mallory Park two weeks later he crashed the car heavily in practice. When asked in 2013, Eden recalled that the car was "virtually brand new" and that it was "written off" in what he described as "the worst crash I ever had". He was in hospital for several days and did not race seriously again for two years. Duncan Rabagliati has a note that the car went back David Prophet but if it did go back to Prophet, it is likely that it needed to be completely rebuilt. History then unclear until April 1966 when raced by Peter Blankstone in hillclimbs. Raced again early 1967 before Blankstone acquired a Brabham BT18. Subsequent history unknown but believed to be the 1500cc Brabham "BT3/18" driven by Mrs Terry Dunn in sprints and hillclimbs from 1968 to 1974. A car with this chassis number later run in historic racing by John Narcisi (Bromley, Kent) in the 1980s. That car later to Barrie Gillies and wrecked at Phoenix Park in September 1997. Repaired and later owned by David Brown (Ashford, Kent) until sold to Graham Adelman (Free Union, VA) in 2013.

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.

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 5 May 1983 p56.