SCCA Regional (New England Region)

Lime Rock, 3 May 1975

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 722 [20] (Gerald Lieberg): Paul Keeler (Greenwich, CT) raced a #38 white-and-green March 722 in NEDiv SCCA Nationals and some Pro FB races in 1972. He was sponsored by Analube, and entered by Gracie Racing Enterprise Ltd of Greenwich, CT. Retained for 1973, when Keeler drove the Analube March at Lime Rock in July. In 1974 it was raced by Gerald Lieberg (Milford, CT) at a few SCCA races, and at the Watkins Glen Pro race. He continued to race the car in New England in 1975, 1976 and 1977. For 1978, it was bought from Lieberg by Jimmy Santos (Sunnyvale, CA), and rebuilt by Newman-Dreager to 76B specification. He raced it until 1982, and then sold it in April 1983 to Richard Lempe (aka Rick Sutherland). Lempe sold it in December 1984 to John Hafkenschiel (Palo Alto, CA), who kept it until January 1996 when it was sold to Keith Lively. Sold to a further owner in June 2001.
2. Brabham BT29 [30] (Ted Wenz): After crashing his FC car at Lime Rock in August 1969, Dexter Farley (Waldorf, MD) part-exchanged the wrecked Brabham for a new Brabham BT29 from east coast dealer Joe Grimaldi, who had recently parted from Fred Opert. Farley drove the car in Pro events in 1970 as well as competing in NEDiv FB races. He retained it for 1971 when Tom Reddy raced it a couple of times and advertised it as "ser no 30" in October 1971. He also had it in the early part of 1972 before moving to Washington state and quitting racing. The next period of the car's life is unknown but it has been identified as the BT29 bought around 1974 from Bill Wonder by engine preparer Ted Wenz and raced in 1975. Wonder had been running it for a woman driver, which must mean Diana Black (Kew Gardens, NY) who raced a Brabham BT29 in NEDiv FB in 1973 and 1974. Wenz later sold it to Texas but it re-emerged in the 1980s and was recently owned by Peter McLaughlin (Hannover, NH).
3. Royale RP20 [1] (Ronald Swartz): Planned for Manfred Schurti to race in F2 in 1973 but not completed. After 1973, it was built up as a F/Atlantic car and raced once by Tony Timmer in the British championship before being sold to Ron Swartz in the US for use in SCCA Formula B. In 1988, it was raced in the ECAR F/Atlantic event supporting the St Petersburg Grand Prix by Shelly Marrs (Sebring, FL) but by 1997 was being raced by Andy Gilberg in US vintage racing. He still had the car in 2012, now fitted with a 2-litre BDG engine.
4. Brabham BT38 (Paul Corazzo): Paul Corazzo (Wethersfield, CT) raced a Brabham BT38 in Formula B in 1975, primarily in SCCA New England Region events. When he entered the car for the Canon Camera Nationals at Lime Rock in September, it was blue/yellow and numbered #22. This is likely to be the car raced by Carmelo Crisafulli (Great Neck, NY) in NEDiv FB in 1976, as RJ Nelkin recalls buying a FB Brabham from Corazzo and selling it straight away to Crisafulli.
5. Brabham BT29 (Jeff Gay): Charles 'Chuck' Hansen (Tenafly, NJ) raced a yellow #75 Brabham BT29 in Northeast Division Formula B in 1972. Then to Erv Falk (Westport, CT), and raced by James R Modrall (Westport, CT) in Northeast Division Formula B in 1973, entered by Falk Racing. Falk then acquired Hansen's newer March 722 for Modrall in 1974, and the BT29 was entered for Jeff Gay (Norwalk, CT) in NEDiv Formula B in 1974 and 1975. Subsequent history unknown.
6. Chevron B24 [24-73-03] (Bob DeNunzio): Built for 1973 season. Bobby Brown: raced in UK 1973 (borrowed by Gethin at Oulton 13 May) and US 1973. Brown's season was curtailed by illness and a family bereavement (the B24 was advertised in Autoweek from 25 Aug 1973 to 16 November 1974) - Bob DeNuzio (Long Island, NY, US) 1974: raced in SCCA FA races in 1976 - Phil Halbert 1976: raced in SCCA events; crashed at Willow Springs 1978 - Todd Gerstenberger (Manhattan Beach, CA) 1987: rebuilt and restored 1987-1991; used extensively in historic racing since 1992. (At one point, Gerstenberger described this car as "24-72-04".)
7. PRD (Lotus 59) [59-FB-15] (Phil Raeder): In 1970, John F. Sirmons (Weston, CT) and Vincent Dileo (Greenwich, CT) shared a Lotus 59C, Sirmons driving it in rounds of the SCCA Continental Championship, and Dileo competing in SCCA Nationals and in Area 1 Regional Championship races. This is almost certainly the car used by Ian Ashley to win a libre race at Brands Hatch in November 1969, as the car was said to be for an American customer, and Sirmons' car was later said to be a former Ashley car. Dileo won two Area 1 races at Thompson Raceway in July and August, but Sirmons had little success in Pro events. Sirmons and Dileo acquired a Lola T240 for 1971, and the Lotus is likely to have gone to Lola agent Carl Haas in trade. The car is unknown in 1971, but may have remained in stock with Carl Haas, because at some point in 1972 it was acquired from Haas by Phil Raeder (Delmar, NY), his Formula C Lotus 35 being traded in the other direction. Raeder fitted a Renault Alpine Gordini engine and ran the car in Formula C, qualifying for the Runoffs in 1973 where he finished in an impressive fourth place. He was entered during this time by Terri Novotny. Raeder then updated the car with Lotus 69 bodywork and other modifications and ran it as the PRD in 1974 and 1975, still with its Gordini engine. Pearce Raeder recals that the car was then sold to Walter Nelson (No. Haledon, NY/Great Neck, NY). Nelson raced a Lotus in Northeast Division Formula C in 1976, 1977 and 1978. Photographs show that it had Lotus 69 bodywork but Lotus 59 front suspension mounts, consistent with it being the ex-Raeder car. The car was later acquired by Chuck Sieber (McLean, VA), who used it in Solo II events from 1981 to 1989. He had bought the car less engine, and used a 1760 Ford twin cam, followed by an 1840cc BDA. Sieber sold the car to Ian Giles (Didcot, Oxfordshire) at the end of 1990. Its history over the next six years is unknown, but by 1996 it had been acquired by Peter Studer in Switzerland, and he restored it to F2 specification, using the Gold Leaf Team Lotus livery that was used in Formula 3. The car was still owned by Studer when he died in May 2018.
8. Lola T100 [SL100/7] (Ron Raneri): Rebuilt from SL100/1 or SL100/3 for Escuderia Nacional CS for Formula 2 in 1968, and raced by Jorge de Bagration, with sponsorship from Calvo Sotelo. This is likely to be the car advertised by Charlie Hayes in April 1970 "ex-Alex Soler Roig European F2 car", as Soler-Roig was de Bagration's better-known teammate. By the time the advert appeared, Soler-Roig had done a deal to drive for Lotus in F1. It was next seen in May 1975 when Ron Renari (White Plains, NY) raced a Formula B Lola in SCCA Regionals at Lime Rock. He raced the car again in 1976, and advertised it as an "ex-Alex Soler-Roig Lola T100". It is reported to have gone to Stewart Bone, a Pontiac Fiero collector in NY state, and he sold it to Tim Gaffney in 1992. After having the monocoque restored by Simon Hadfield, Gaffney raced it in 2003. Sold in 2009 to Dean Baker (Bowmanville, Ontario), who raced it once at Watkins Glen, but found it needed a thorough restoration and put it aside until he got to that.
9. March 73B (Diana Black): Jas Patterson (Roslyn Heights, NY) raced a March 722 in British Formula Atlantic in early 1973 and after a couple of accidents in the car reappeared for the British GP support race in July in a March 73B. He raced this car for the remainder of the 1973 season, and retained it for 1974, again running in the British Formula Atlantic series. He then raced the 73B at the US Grand Prix Formula B support race in October 1974. Photographic evidence shows that this was the March 73B raced by Diana Black (New York, NY) in minor Formula B races at Lime Rock and Bridgehampton in 1975 and 1976. Later in 1976, she moved to the former Bobby Brown Chevron B34, and the March was sold to David Laemmle (Wiscasset, ME) who continued to race it in SCCA Regionals that year. Laemmle recalls that he sold it to someone from New York state. Subsequent history unknown.
10. Brabham BT38 (Walter Binger): For 1974, Donald Wirth (Laurel, NY) bought a Brabham BT38 from Fred Opert Racing in 1974 fitted with a new 1100cc Hart BDA engine for Northeast Division Formula C. The car had previously been used in F3 in Europe, so would have been a BT38C. It was sold to Wally Binger (W. Hempstead, NY) for 1975, and raced again in NEDiv FC but after Binger's first daughter was born in September 1977 he sold the car back to Wirth. Wirth crashed the car at Bridgehampton in 1978 or 1979, and the engine bay was badly damaged. The car was sold to someone in the New England area, but was still unrepaired when last seen.
11. Rondel M1 [201] (Ron Ignatowski): The prototype Rondel was used for testing in late 1972, before the first production cars were built. It was taken to Hockenheim 8 April 1973 as team spare, and to Pau as a spare for Tim Schenken, but not raced. Its history is then unknown until 1974, and it appears it has been acquired by Fred Opert to use as a set of spares. After Mike Rand crashed his car, wrecking the monocoque, 201 was supplied to Ron Ignatowski (Milford, CT), who rebuilt Rand's car on 201's tub with a BRM 1-litre engine and used it in SCCA Formula C. In 1980 it was sold to Randy Zimmer (Buffalo, NY) as the basis for his Can-Am car. He raced it with a Volkswagen engine in 1982 and then with a Mazda rotary engine from 1983 to 1986. Zimmer then entered it for Jim Del Russo in the 1987 CAT championship, and raced it a few more times himself in 1989, 1990 and 1994. Then retained for many years until Zimmer sold it to Seann Burgess (Markdale, Ontario) in 2019.
12. Chevron B29 [29-75-20] (Joe Sposato): New to Joe Sposato (Ridgefield, CT) and used in SCCA Northeast Division Formula B in 1975, entered by Spoasto Motoracing (Waccabuc, NY). Also used in one Players Canadian Formula Atlantic race at Mosport. Retained for 1976, again in NEDiv SCCA Nationals and for two IMSA Formula Atlantic Championship races. To John Higgins (Elizabeth, NJ) for 1977, and raced in NEDiv SCCA events. Presumably the Chevron he raced in 1978. Chris Townsend advises that the car then went to Mike Cronin, and was retained by him until it was sold to Mike Malley (Greenville, NC) in April 2001. Malley crashed the car at Summit Point in 2003, breaking his back, and the car was then rebuilt using "a new tub by Chevron" and sold to Dick Ward (Australia) in 2007 or 2008. Ward raced it in events at Waneroo Park from 2009 to 2014, before selling it to Gwyn Pollard in the UK in 2015. Pollard had the car extensively rebuilt by Vin Malkie, then fitted a Gathercole BDG and raced the car in HSCC racing from 2016 to 2019, prepared by Gerry Wainwright Motorsport.
13. March 705 (James Rowley): James Rowley (Shelter Island, NY) raced a March 705 at a handful of events in the northeast of the US from 1973 to 1975. His car was identified as an orange 705 at Bridgehampton in August 1973, and as a 705 again at Bryar Motorsports Park in 1974.
14. Lotus 69 [71/69.7.FB] (Tim Coconis): New to "Lotus East/Hogan" in April 1971 with white bodywork according to the Lotus built record. Lotus East boss Fred Stevenson recalls that this car was sold to Ted Coconis (Weston, CT), a very successful graphic designer. Coconis raced the car in Formula B in Northeast Division in 1971 and 1972. The car was driven by Ted's son Tim Coconis (Palo Alto, CA) in the Canadian FB series 1973, when father and son raced as a team with two Lotus 69s. Tim returned with it in 1975, both in SCCA Nationals and in the Players Formula Atlantic series, but it was completely wrecked in an accident at the SCCA National at Watkins Glen in August 1975, injuring Tim Coconis. Tim disassembled the car, discarding the wrecked chassis and selling the engine and gearbox, and stored what was left until the 1980s, when it was bought by Bill Dolson (Estancia, New Mexico), later the owner of race-cars.com. A new chassis was fabricated by Peter Denty, and a new Hewland FT200 acquired, but restoration did not progress far. In August 2001, the project was advertised on race-cars.com, and was sold in May 2003 to Dave Bean (San Andreas, CA) who was still restoring this car before he died in August 2017.

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.