Pacific Coast Division SCCA Formula A 1965

The one place Formula A cars definitely existed in 1965 was on the west coast, where Rod Carveth had "Brutus", a Lotus 24 with a 3-litre Oldsmobile V8 engine; Wayne Jones had a Lotus 35 with a 2.5-litre Climax FPF; Don Radbruch had the ex-Indy Cooper T54 with a Buick engine; and Pete Lovely had his venerable Cooper T51 with 2.5-litre Ferrari 625LM engine. Unfortunately, even with Harry McIntosh's Elva willing to make the trip from Colorado, at no point did these cars assemble in sufficient numbers to score points in National races.

Other cars that had run in libre in 1964 had disappeared for now, including J Frank Harrison's very potent Lotus 21 with Ford 289ci engine and Bill Webb's Ausper T3 which had raced with a 3.5-litre Buick V8 before being crashed.

1965 Schedule

This would be the Pacific Coast Division's last season as it would be split into Northern and Southern Divisions for 1966. The two most powerful Californian clubs, Cal Club in Los Angeles and SFR in San Francisco had pushed hard for a split the previous season when they realised that they would only be allowed 12 Nationals (the new name for Divisionals) per season and argued that would not be enough big meetings for them to break even. Also the distances between the three main centres (LA, SF and Oregon) were too great. The split was resisted in late 1964 by the Divisional Board but was forced through the following year.

Also in late 1965 Cal Club withdrew their approval for the FRA's Pro events, effectively banning SCCA drivers from competing in them.