Polar Grand Prix of Sweden Formula 3

Anderstorp, 8 Jun 1975

All cars are 2-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 743 [22] (Bob Arnott): New to Ippokampos Racing for Australian racer Buzz Buzaglo to use in British and European F3 in 1974. Used by Tom Pryce at the Monaco GP F3 support race. Sold to Bob Arnott for 1975 and retained for the first few weeks of the 1976 season. Sold to Colin Myles (Holmes Chapel, Cheshire) and fitted with a 1098cc Hart engine for hillclimbs from 1979 or earlier.
2. GRD 373 [372 010-F3] (Jan Ridell): Raced by Canadian David McConnell in the 1972 Tasman series, using 2-litre Hart BDA engines. McConnell had a new B72 on order, and his plan was to sell the prototype to Jacques Couture. When that fell through, 010 was converted to F3 and sold to Mo Harness. Harness had won the 1971 Formula Ford Johnsons Wax Euro Trophy but turned down the test drive that had been offered as a prize with Ken Tyrrell and an F2 March. After a brief relationship with GRD, he then used an old BT28 F3 car in the first half of 1972 before acquiring sponsorship from Revolution Wheels and returning to GRD mid-season. Harness raced the GRD in British Formula 3 using Leabro engines. He then sold it to Jac Nellemann for Swedish F3 in 1973. In 1974, the car went to Jan Ridell, who raced it in Swedish 3, now using 2-litre Vegantune engines. Retained by Ridell for 1975, when he used Billgren BMW engines. Retained again by Ridell for 1976. To Dick Berg for Swedish F3 in 1977 and 1978, again with the Billgren BMW engines. Next seen in 1980, when it was raced by Mats Karlsson, now using Vegantune twin cams. Retained by Karlsson for 1981.
3. March 753 [15] (Hervé Regout): Originally a car belonging to the B&O team in 1975, when used by Hervé Regout. Chassis number for this car and its sister, driven by Pierre Dieudonné, were observed by AF at Oulton Park 4 October 1975. Sold in 1976 to Phil Silverstone, and retained until early 1978 at least. At the beginning of 1978 Ian Flux joined Cloud Engineering, who ran Phil Silverstone, and in the absence of anything better he used this car, which Silverstone had replaced with a Ralt, for the first race of the Vandervell series. See Autosport 9 Mar 1978 p41.
4. Brabham BT38C [14] (Lars "Lasse" Karlsson): New to Ulf Svensson for European F3 in 1972, using Holbay engines and sponsored by Team Mum for Men. According to Magnus Haggstam, this car went to Lasse Karlsson for 1973 and raced by him in F3 until at least 1975. Then to Kaal Wirgin in 1976, and raced by him Swedish Formula 3 Championship races in 1977 and 1978, before he acquired a newer Argo. The car was next seen in 2000, when it was acquired by Carsten Frimodt (Denmark). It was restored to F2 specification with an 1860cc engine and was raced by Frimodt in Sweden in 2006 and 2007. Frimodt sold it to another Dane who sold it to Dr Sami Hamid (Vienna, Austria) in 2010. It was restored for him by Marcel Biehl of Biehl Racing (Moenchengladbach, Germany) to proper F3 specification. It was sold to John Albiston (Elgin, Scotland) in 2018, who modified it to Formula Atlantic specification and used to win the Scottish Historic Hillclimb and Sprint Championship in 2019 and 2020.
5. Brabham BT41 [14] (Tommy 'Slim' Borgudd): New to Ulf Svensson in 1973.
6. Merlyn Mk 22 [440/F3/73] (Lars-Åke Olsson): New to Håkan Dahlqvist for British and European F3 in 1973, and described as a "Mk 22". Dahlqvist won the Swedish F3 title in this car. Retained by Dahlqvist for Swedish F3 in 1974, when it was also driven at one race by Matts Nygren. To Lars-Åke Olsson for Swedish F3 in 1975. To Thomas Gunnarsson for Swedish F3 in 1976. To Thorbjörn Bäck for Swedish F3 in 1977. Subsequent history unknown, but in about 1987 or 1988, Richard Parkin located the car in Sweden and brought it back to England. He sold it to Anthony Taylor about a year later, and Taylor restored it to Formula B specification, using it briefly in HSCC historic racing. Taylor's understanding was that it was Dahlqvist's Swedish F3 championship winning car. The car was later sold via Chris Alford about 1994 or 1995. Richard Taylor, Anthony's son, recalls that it might have gone to Canada.
7. March 753 [14] (Pierre Dieudonné): Originally a car belonging to the B&O team in 1975, when used by Pierre Dieudonné. Chassis number for this car and its sister, driven by Hervé Regout, observed by AF at Oulton Park 4 October 1975. Sold to Ken Silverstone for the 1976 season [Autosport 2 Sep 1976 p33 says his car is ‘ex Dieudonné.) To Wyatt Stanley in mid 1977 and retained by him for the 1978 season.
8. Brabham BT41 [14] (Christer Friberg): New to Ulf Svensson in 1973.
9. GRD 375 [098-F3] (Ian Taylor): Raced by Ian Taylor and Donald MacLeod in 1975, then to Ian Rimmer for Formula 4 in 1977 and 1978. It was owned by Jim Ward, John Smith and Roger Hurst during the 1980s and 1990s before being rebuilt by Peter Denty Racing (Thetford, Norfolk) in 1995 and sold to Erwin Mundt (Germany) in 1997.

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.

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

Autosprint 10 Jun 1975 p27