Vandervell British Formula 3 Championship Race

Mallory Park, 28 Sep 1980

All cars are 2-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Ralt RT3/80 [198] (Stefan Johansson): Sold to Project Four for Stefan Johansson 15 Aug 1980. Used to win 1980 championship. Sold to West Surrey Racing for Jonathan Palmer, 1981. Won 1981 championship. Retained by WSR and used by Enrique Mansilla in early 1982, then leased to Osamu Nakako [Motoring News 15 Jul 1982 p15). For sale Autosport 14 Oct 1982 p68 '1981 champ winning car' to Gerry Amato Autosport 18 Nov 1982 p13 'ex Johansson, Palmer'.
2. Ralt RT3/80 [183] (Daniele Albertin): A works car finished July 1980 for Tommy Byrne to run at British GP support race. Sold to Tiga for Daniele Albertin to run. Used by James Weaver in 1981 and then sold to Mike O'Brien. To Tony Trevor for 1982 (Autosport 18 Feb 1982 p7; Motoring News 11 Mar 1982 p14 'ex O'Brien, Weaver') badly damaged at Thruxton in April and probably scrapped. Trevor only reappears at Silverstone 27 June in what Autosport (1 Jul 1982 p8) calls 'a replacement built up from a pile of bits, most bought from Dave Scott's team who had built up a new car during the close season'. These bits may, themselves, have come from the remains of RT3/192 which Scott may have destroyed in testing in 1980, plus surplus parts from RT3/250. We should presume that 183 ceases to exist after April 1980 unless observation of the plate can be found on Trevor's late 1982 car.
3. Ralt RT3/80 [197] (Eddie Jordan): Sold to Eddie Jordan 7 Aug 1980 and used by him in latter part of 1980 season. Sold to Terry Gray for 1981 season (Autosport 15 Jan 1981) but only lightly used. For sale Autosport 30 Apr 1981 p61. Sold to Dave Price for Fred Krab to run in Euro series, debut Zandvoort round. For sale by DPR 'new tub in Aug' Autosport 14 Jan 1982 p62. Sold to Phil Dowsett to run in 1982 UK series (Autosport 4 Mar 1982 p38; Motorig News 4 Mar 1982 p3 'ex DPR Krab/Tragardh'); sold late season to Leo Andersson (Autosport 28 Oct 1982 p15).
4. Ralt RT3/80 [187] (Wyatt Stanley): Sold to Wyatt Stanley 22 May 1980 and used in 1980 British series. To Roy Kennedy Racing ('ex Stanley' Autosport 2 Jul 1981 p4) for various rental drivers. Retained 1982.
5. Chevron B38 [38.77.24] (Eddie Heasell): New to Alan Docking Racing for Philippe Colonna to race in British F3 in 1977. Retained by the Docking team for 1978, and raced by Philip Bullman and by Colonna in British F3. Unknown in 1979 but purchased by Eddie Heasell in early 1980 for British F3 and libre. Retained for libre in 1981.
6. March 773/783 [773-3] (Tony Norton): March build records show sold to Unipart, 23 December 1976. Only one 773 is consigned to Unipart in the build records. Assumed that Taylor as senior driver would take the new car, a fact borne out by occasional references in 1977 to Needell being in a 763, the team's original car.
7. March 793 [783-5] (Gerry Amato): Shown in March records for 1978 as delivered to Daniel Herregods, 19 January 1978, colour yellow with tub 78M25. To Rob Wilson in 1979 to replace his tiring Ralt RT1 and updated to 1979 specification. Autosport notes ‘ex Herregods’ and chassis number noted by F1R at Snetterton in August 1979. Sold to Gerry Amato for 1980 season, Autosport notes his car as ‘ex Wilson 1979’. Retained by Amato until 1982 then sold to Greg and Tim Atkinson.

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 British Formula 3 results have been compiled by Chris Townsend using the main British magazines Autosport and Motoring News but also the US magazine On Track which carried surprisingly good coverage of the British series.

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 2 Oct 1980 p47