Ponca City Grand Prix (Oklahoma Region SCCA National)

Ponca City, 6 Jul 1975

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T360 [HU8] (J Robert Young): New via North American agent Carl Haas to Robert Young (Snowmass Resort, CO) to replace Young's earlier Lola T242, but apparently not raced until 1975, having sat in stock in late 1974. Young used the car mainly in SCCA Midwest Division Formula B, winning the Division in 1975, 1976 and 1977. It was retained by Young until just after he won the Lake Afton GP in August 1978, then sold to Ron Clawson (Canon City, CO) who raced it at La Junta in early September. The car's SCCA Logbook shows further ownership changes were to Jerry King 4 Sep 1982, Kenny Dahlmann 3 Oct 1988, Keith Young Jan 1990, Steve Torrance 18 Apr 1990, Randy Johnson (Dallas, TX) 28 Mar 1992 and then Cecil Boyd, by which time the car had been fitted with a replacement Marc Bahner monocoque. For a time this car was claimed to be the ex-Bobby Rahal car, a confusion that has now been resolved. Sold to Russell Sewell (Australia) 2008 and then to Leigh Turner (Western Australia) 2009. History then unknown until a car with this chassis number raced in the Formula Atlantic class of the HSCC Formula 2 series by Nick Pink in 2017 and 2018.
2. Brabham BT21 (Warren "Bud" Pauge): Warren Pauge (Hacienda Heights, CA) appeared in southern Californian SCCA Formula B from the start of 1972 in a Brabham "BT21", taken to mean a BT21A. He raced the car up to mid-1975, when he replaced it with a newer BT38. As the SCCA introduced logbooks in 1972, this car would have been stamped with a Cal Club number. Both BT21A/5 and BT21A/7 have such numbers. Subsequent history unknown.
3. March 703 [2] (David Carter): Described in March records as a Works F3 for Tom Walkinshaw, first run in early June 1970 and in Petonyer colours. Raced by Walkinshaw until he crashed it heavily at Brands Hatch at the end of August. Rebuilt on a new frame and presumably the car that Walkinshaw raced at Thruxton in November, his first race since the Thruxton accident. Almost certainly the car sold to Fred Ashplant (Wayne, NJ) and raced in SCCA Formula C in 1971, fitted with a 1000cc Lucas engine. However, at the Runoffs at Road Atlanta in November, Ashplant drove Walter Nelson's car, equipped with a 1100cc BDA built by Vegantune. In 1972, Tom Watson (Richardson, TX) acquired 703/2 and used it in Formula C at a few SCCA events in Southwest Division. He won the division in 1972, against minor opposition, and also qualified for the Runoffs in 1973. In 1974, the car was raced at least once in Nationals by "household engineer" Karen Watson (Richardson, TX), which was sufficient to qualify for the Runoffs. She placed 13th at Road Atlanta, the only woman out of the 440 qualifiers. In March 1975, the car went to David Carter (Tulsa, OK), and he won the Mid-Am Regional title in the car in 1975. He advertised it in December 1977 when it had a SCA engine, but still a Hewland Mk 8 gearbox. It was sold to Gerry Strickfaden (Los Alamos, NM) February 1978, who converted it to C Sports Racing specification with a Datsun engine. Acquired by Ben Treadway (Roswell, GA) from a friend in Atlanta, GA in 1984, and raced briefly as a CSR. In 1990, the car was restored to F3 specification for him by David Irwin, and raced once in SVRA in 1992. Sold in January 2005 to Patric Capon (Bickley, Kent). Sold by Capon in March 2009 to John Counsell (Coleby, Lincolnshire), who raced it in Historic F3 in 2010-2011. Counsell sold it in June 2012 to Simon Armer, who raced it in HF3 from 2013 onwards.
4. Brabham BT29 (William Brown): Bill Brown (Memphis, TN) raced a Brabham BT29 in Midwest Division Formula B in 1973. After faiuling to start for his first three Nationals, he won the Lake Afton SCCA National in mid-August 1973, then scored two more for fifth place at Mid-America Raceway in September, qualifying for the 1973 Formula B Run-Offs. Memphis is on the border of three Divisions, Southeast, Southwest and Midwest, and Brown faced a long haul to any National. He attended the Run-offs where he finished 10th. Previously, Brown had raced a Temple in Formula Super Vee and qualified for the Run-Offs in 1972. Brown scored points in FB in a Brabham again in 1974 and 1975, and raced at Mid-America Raceway in May 1976. He moved to a FSV Lola for 1977. This is probably the Dr. William Russell Brown, a former SCCA racer, who died in 2004. Nothing more is known about the Brabham BT29.
5. March 71BM (Fred Lee): Fred Lee (Tulsa, OK) ran a Formula B March 71BM in the SCCA Drivers School and Regional event at Greater Southwest Raceway in January 1975, winning his sufficiently impressing his instructors that his school requirements were waived. He then won the FB class in the SCCA Regional held at Hutchinson's Sunflower Aerodrome in Oklahoma on 3 May 1975. He was then listed as a non-starter at the Ponca City Grand Prix in Oklahoma in July 1975 with a #54 Formula B March, and his licence aplication shows him competing at the Dallas Region National in June 1975. In 1976, he raced the #54 March in two SCCA Nationals at Hutchinson, the Hutchinson Grand Prix and the Prix des Plaines, also at Lake Afton in Kansas in August and at Dallas in September. Lee was a member of NeOkla (Northeast Oklahoma) Region. 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.

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

SCCA Sanction 75-N-34S. Official results kindly provided by Rocky Entriken. Ten FA, FB, FC and FSV had their own race. Also The Daily Oklahoman 7 July 1975 page 19 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/452104160)