EON Classic (St Louis Region SCCA National)

Mid-America Raceway, 9 May 1976

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 76B (James King): James King (East St Louis, IL) had a #47 March 76B in 1976, entered by his own Raggedy Ann Motorsport but run by Doug Shierson Racing. King crashed the car at Trois-Rivières in September while trying to pass Tambay and it was not seen again. King went to England for 1977, to race a works March in Formula 3. The wrecked 76B is likely to have ended up with Shierson, so is likely to have been repaired and sold. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Chevron B27 [27-74-03] (Keith Feldott): New to Doug Shierson Racing via Fred Opert for Chip Mead (Dayton, OH) to race in Formula Atlantic, initially in the opening races of the British series, then in North America. The car was blue and ran in North America as #23. Sold to Keith Feldott (LaGrange, IL) and raced in SCCA Central Division Formula B in 1975, scoring 11 points to finish ninth in the division. Retained for 1976, when Feldott finished second at Mid-America Raceway and at Grattan Raceway in May, and again at Grattan in July to finish the season on 37 points, tied for second in the division, and racing at the Runoffs. Retained again for 1977, but seen more rarely as Feldott moved into Trans-Am. Subsequent history unknown.
3. March 75B (Ted Johnson): Chip Mead (Dayton, OH) raced a red #17 March 75B as part of the Doug Shierson Racing team in the Players Canadian series 1975 with backing from Zonin wines. He also raced the car in CenDiv Formula B, finishing in a tie for second place for the title. H. T. Mead Jr, who was 25 years old and worked for his father's investment company, had previously raced for Doug Shierson Racing in 1974 in a Chevron B27. Advertised by Chip Mead with a Nicholson/McLaren BDA in December 1975 and January 1976. This car was raced by Ted Johnson (Arlington Heights, IL) in an SCCA National at Mid-America Raceway in May 1976, when a photograph shows that it was still in Mead's distinctive livery. Sold soon after to Glenn Guerra (Barrington, IL) who raced it in Midwest Council and SCCA Central Division Formula B in 1976, winning the MCSCC event at Blackhawk Farms in late May, and scoring scoring three points for his fifth place finish (fourth in the FB class) at Indianapolis Raceway Park in June. Guerra scored three points again in the SCCA division in 1977, and competed in Midwest Council events at Blackhawk Farms, winning two races. He also appeared at least once in MCSCC events in 1978, and scored three points in SCCA CenDiv in 1979. Subsequent history unknown.
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. Brabham BT35 [9] (Dorsey Schroeder): New to Nick Craw, and raced initially in the British Formula Atlantic series at the start of 1971 before moving to the North American SCCA series in May. Borrowed by Alan Lader for the 1971 SCCA Runoffs. Raced by Craw at Bogotá in early 1972, then sold to Bob Schutt (Kirkwood, MO) for Midwest Division SCCA FB in 1972 and 1973. Sold to Dorsey Schroeder (Manchester, MO) and raced by him 1974, 1975 and 1976. Then to Mike Mahan in 1976 or 1977 for autocross, and next to Greg Scharnburg in 1980, also for autocross. In October 2001, it was bought from Scharnburg by Mike Winebrenner (Sellersburg, Indiana).
6. Chevron B17b (Barry Geng): Barry Geng (Burlington, Iowa) ran a Chevron B17b in Formula C in the late 1970s. He was noted by Rocky Entriken's column in The Salina Journal as the winner of the Formula C class in the SCCA National at Mid-America Raceway in May 1976 in a Chevron B17, but Geng's name does not appear in the end-of-season tables for Formula C in either 1976 or 1977. Guy Revesz won the FSV class at that MAR race, and this could be the "B17" that Revesz had driven in FC from 1973 to 1975. Geng, a pharmacist, died in March 2017, but before his death he told Wayne LaFrenz that he crashed the B17b at Road Atlanta, and acquired a Chevron B15b to replace it. The B17b was stripped of useful parts and the frame passed to Lee Putnam (Burlington, Iowa), who stored it until he gave it to LaFrenz, who had acquired all Geng's other B17b parts. The car has a chassis plate "FB-70-3", suggesting it is the ex-Peter Broeker car.
7. Brabham BT38B [18] (Steve Fossett): Thomas M. Shelton (Plantation, FL/Fort Launderdale, FL) raced a red-and-white Brabham BT38B in South-East Division FB in 1972. The car arrived relatively late in the season and was still being described as immaculate and new at the Palm Beach National in September. Tom recalls that the engine broke at the Road America Pro race in August 1973, and he diverted to Chicago on his way home and traded the car to Carl Haas. Haas sold it to Mikeal Bystrom Jr (Minneapolis, MN), who had previously raced a Brabham BT18 in FC, and still recalls the chassis number of the BT38B as being BT38B/18. He broke the Hart twin cam at his first race and fitted a BDA instead, racing it in US Pro races in 1974 and then in the Canadian series in 1975. He sold it to Steve Fossett (Chicago, IL), then a commodities trader in Chicago, but later more famous for his ballooning exploits. Fossett raced it in SCCA Formula Atlantic in 1977.
8. McKee Mk 18 ['1'] (Ed Midgley): New for Dick DeJarld (Joliet, IL) in 1972, and raced in SCCA Formula A events. Appeared at the Michigan Pro F5000 event in 1973 but did not qualify from the heat. Raced by DeJarld until sold to Ed Midgley (Geneva, IL) for 1976, when it was also raced by Jerry Hansen at Blackhawk Farms. To Robert Goulet (Wauwatsoa, WI) for 1977, and raced in SCCA Formula A. Goulet converted the McKee to sports car bodywork for 1979, appearing at Brainerd in July that year in the ASR class. Raced in Can-Am in 1980 and 1981, then renamed the "Sabre 001" for Can-Am again in 1983, and again in 1985. To Bob McKee and raced by Bill Scott in CAT races in 1986 and 1987. Then restored to its original specification for new owner Tom Simpson (Peoria, IL), and used in vintage racing, appearing at the Chicago Historic Races at Road America in 1988. It ran alongside several other McKee cars in historic races at Road America in the early 1990s, and also ran at HSR Mid-Ohio in August 1993. After a 20-year gap, Simpson ran the Mk 18 again in historic events in 2006.
9. Chevron B15 (Chuck Grauel): In 1972, Steve Hughes (Wichita, KS) finished fourth in Midwest Division Formula C, in a Chevron. He was a regular runner in FC in 1973, but regularly retired or failed to start, finally scoring points at Fort Sumner in September 1973, where he won the FC class, giving him enough points to qualify for the Runoffs. He attended the Runoffs, where Formula magazine's reporter described the car as a Chevron B15, suggesting a F3 car still with its original 1-litre engine. Chuck Grauel, who raced against Hughes, described the car as a B15B, so it could have been an ex-Formula B car converted to smaller engine, but he also said it was "ex-Gethin". Hughes appeared in Midwest Division's FC table again in 1974, with four points. Grauel (Kansas City, KS) later acquired the car, and won the Division FC title with it in 1976. Once during that season, the car was described as a B9, which would make more sense of the "ex-Gethin" history, as Gethin drove several B9s not no B15s. Grauel advertised it in December 1976, when it had Lucas downdraft engines and a Hewland Mk8 gearbox. 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 76-N-16S. Official results provided by Rocky Entriken.