Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières

Trois-Rivières, 6 Sep 1970

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT29 (Brian Robertson): Brian Robertson (Brockville, Ontario) bought a Brabham BT29 late in 1969, debuting it at Sebring in December. He raced it extensively in 1970, taking in the Quebec and national Canadian series as well as rounds of the SCCA Pro series. He was entered by Fred Opert Racing Canada, a business in which he was a partner with Opert. Robertson upgraded to a BT35 for 1971 and his BT29 is likely to have been sold via the Opert operation. It does not appear in Opert's early 1971 advert so one possibility is that it was BT29/23, the car Evan Noyes took to the Tasman series.
2. Lotus 59C [59-F2/XB-41] (Craig Hill): New to Craig Hill (Mississauga, Ontario) and run in the Canadian Road Racing Championship and the SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B, entered by Bill Brack Racing Enterprises. Hill ran in a team with Brack's Formula 5000 Lotus 70, with both cars in marching Castrol GTX livery. Unlike the two JRDS cars, which were entered as Lotus 69Bs, Hill's car first raced in Lotus 59 bodywork and was generally billed through the season as the "Castrol GTX Lotus 59". For 1971, the car was sold to Max Nerrière (Toronto, Ontario), who raced it in the Players Canadian Formula B series. Retained by Nerrière for 1972 and for 1973. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Lola T142 (Russ Murray): Ross Murray (Dorval, Quebec): entered at Mosport 23 August 1969 and St Jovite 7 Sep 1969, but there is no evidence that he was present at either. The car was entered as #61, but the colour is unknown. Ed Butt, who did the chassis set up for Murray, recalls that it was a brand new car. Murray made his first known appearance in the non-championship Oak Cup Trophy races at Mosport in May 1970, then at Rockcliffe Airfield, the fourth round of the 1970 Canadian series, and also appeared at Trois-Rivières, Lime Rock and Mosport later in the year. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Stebro-Chevron B17B (Peter W. Broeker): Peter Broeker (Pointe-Claire, Montréal, Quebec) raced a Chevron B17b in Canadian Formula B in 1970, often descibing it as a Stebro. It replaced Broeker's earlier B14, so the two cars were often confused. The B17b was raced by Craig Fisher and John Powell (both Toronto, Ontario) in 1971, entered by Penguin Racing Enterprise. The later history of the car is not known. Although it has been suggested that this was the car Broeker raced in 1974, when he returned to Formula Atlantic, that car appears to have been his older B14 updated.
5. Brabham BT21C (Bruce Jensen): Bruce Jensen (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada) raced a yellow #41 Brabham BT21C in Canadian and US Formula B events during 1970. He bought the car from Brabham dealer Fred Opert and it was yellow with a black stripe. It came with a Vegantune but that blew up and was replaced by a BRM twin cam. Jensen bought a Chevron B17 for 1971 and the Brabham is believed to have gone back to Fred Opert in that trade.
6. McLaren M4A (Kris Harrison): Brian Robertson (Brockville, Ontario) bought a McLaren M4A for 1968 and raced it in both the US SCCA Pro series and in local Canadian races, generally as #35 and with support from Indusmat Inc. He reappeared with the car in July and August 1969 before replacing it with a new Brabham BT29. To Kris Harrison (Montréal, Quebec) for a handful of events in September 1970 at Trois-Rivières and Mont-Tremblant. Harrison would later found Ecurie Canada, the team that launched Gilles Villeneuve's career. Subsequent history of the McLaren unknown
7. Brabham BT21C (Bill Bovenizer): Bought from Fred Opert by Bill Bovenizer (Toronto, Ontario) and raced in Canadian Formula B events in 1970. Bill believes Horst Kwech may have raced it before he did. He sold it to Reg Forth for 1971 who continued to race it in Canadian events. Subsequent history unknown.
8. Kiki Mk 6A (Tony Simms): Doug McArthur (Toronto, Canada) built a number of one-off racing cars in the late 1960s. These included a Mk 2 that raced in Formula C, a Mk 3 which had a Ford 289 engine and was said to resemble an overgrown Lotus 7, and a Mk 4 that ran in Formula B until Doug Durrell demolished it at Mont Tremblant in July 1969. For 1968, local papers noted that McArthur was planning a Formula A car with a spaceframe chassis and Chevrolet engine. The car was first seen in Canadian Formula A in 1969, when it was driven by Tony Simms (Willowdale, Ontario). It had a mild steel space frame with a few stressed aluminum panels around the cockpit plus the undertray, and used a Hewland LG gearbox and McLaren wheels. The Chevrolet V8 engine was prepared by Dave Billes at Performance Engineering. Simms returned with the car in 1970, but its only documented appearance was at Trois-Rivières in September. It was then sold to John Powell, who was moving up from racing a MGB. Unfortunately, the car got airborne while testing at Harewood Acres and was destroyed. Some surviving components were being used in a Kiki Mk 8 until Powell's budget ran out.
9. Chevron B9/B15b (Bill Eagles): Bill Eagles (Lasalle, Quebec) raced a Chevron "B9/B15B" in Molson events in 1970 and in the Players FB series in 1971. This may have been the ex-Wayne Kelly B9 but could also have been Peter Broeker's "B9/B14/B15" that he raced in 1969 and then retured to briefly in 1974. Nothing more known.
10. Brabham BT29 (Peter Roberts): Peter Roberts (Granby, Quebec) raced a Brabham BT29 in 1970, appearing as #71 in the main Canadian series and as #1 in the Molson (Quebec Region) Championship. His best results came in the Molson series with two third places at Mont-Tremblant. Roberts had earlier raced a BT29 that he had borrowed from "an Ontario racer" but whether this 1970 car was the same one is unknown. Robert did not continue in Formula B after 1970 and after sitting around unused for 18 months, the BT29 was sold to Derek Johnson (Montreal, Quebec) who was making a comeback after injury. The Montreal Gazette quoted Johnson's chief crew Bob Beale saying that nobody had driven it for a year, and Roberts' mechanic John Lo Bosco confirmed that Roberts' BT29 went to Johnson. Johnson bought the car the Friday before the opening race at Sanair and it was rented by Ian Coristine for that race after his new March 722 could not be readied in time. Raced by Johnson for the rest of the 1972 season. Subsequent history unknown.

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.

Results for this series originally proved very difficult to complete, due in part to the poor coverage in Canadian magazines such as Track & Traffic. Wolfgang Klopfer provided Autoweek reports, Don Markle uncovered material in the archives then maintained by the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame (CMHoF), Jim Ibey found what he could from Track & Traffic, Tom Johnston provided scans of entry lists and reports from a variety of sources, and Michael Gee transcribed motor sports news articles at Vancouver's main library.

Since those early efforts, Mike Adams and Dominic St-Jean have provided official results sheets uncovered in the CMHoF and Trois-Rivières archives, and complete results have now been found for R1 Mosport 18 May 1969 (official results), R2 St Jovite 25 May 1969 (Autoweek), R6 Harewood Acres 17 Aug 1969 (official results), R9 Mosport Park 13 Oct 1969 (official results), R2 Westwood 31 May 1970 (Autoweek), R3 Edmonton 14 Jun 1970 (Autoweek and also the official results), R4 Rockcliffe 1 Jul 1970 (Autoweek and the official results), R5 Harewood 9 Aug 1970 (Wheelspin 27 May 1970 edition and the official results), R6 Trois-Rivières 06 Sep 1970 (official results) and R7 Mosport Park 11 Oct 1970 (official results).

Please email Allen if you can add anything.