Ponca City Grand Prix (Oklahoma Region SCCA National)

Ponca City, 4 Jul 1976

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 BT38 [‘33’] (Warren "Bud" Pauge): A "new chassis" replacing the ASCA team's Brabham BT38 wrecked by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud at Rouen. It was raced by teammate Adam Potocki at Imola, where Potocki failed to qualify, and was then Jaussaud's car for the rest of the season. ASCA entered Jaussaud in the Brazilian F2 Torneio, but he was involved in the startline accident at the second Interlagos race, and the Brabham was badly damaged. According to Chris Townsend's research, this car was acquired by Fred Opert Racing and raced by Héctor Rebaque in the Caracas Formula B race in March 1973, then by Brian Robertson in the JAF Grand Prix in May 1973. It is not clear what else Opert used it for in 1973, but in January 1974, he sold it to John Bernadine (Tulsa, OK) for SCCA Formula B. Then to Warren Pauge (Hacienda Heights, CA) in August 1975, replacing his well-used Brabham BT21. Pauge retained the BT38 for many years, even running it as a Can-Am car once in 1982. After he finally stopped racing it in 1988, he sold it to Marc Bahner, then it went to George Steven in 1992, Tom Stapleton about 2008, and Paul Skilowitz (Stuart, FL) in 2016.
3. March 74B [743-1] (Barry Findley): Built up as a 743 for Tom Outcault (Cranford, NJ) to race in NEDiv SCCA Formula B and at the Pro FB race at Road America in August. Rebuilt to 75B specification for 1975 and raced in the Pro series and in CenDiv FB (after Outcault moved to Middletown, OH). Advertised by Joe Grimaldi's The Race Shop (Adrian, MI) as a 74B in February 1976. Sold to Barry Findley (Little Rock, AR) for 1976, and run in MidWest Div FB and then in Southwest Div in 1977 after Findley moved to Texas. Possibly the only FB car to race in four different Divisions in four years. Sold in 1977 to James Allan 'Al' Michelet (New Orleans, Louisiana) and raced in SCCA in 1977 and 1978 - and, possibly, in 1979. Barry Findley's son Brian recalls that Michelet wrote off the car at Texas World Speedway. However, Michelet continued to score points in Southwest Division Formula Atlantic in 1979, 1980 and 1981 in a March, and it is unclear when the 743/74B was wrecked and when he bought his newer March 80A. Michelet died in 2011.
4. 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.
5. Merlyn Mk 21 [394/FB/72] (David Pence): New to Porter Brownlee (Little Rock, AR) in late 1972 for SCCA Formula B. Raced in Midwest Division FB in 1973, 1974 and 1975, qualifying for the Runoffs each season. To David Pence (Little Rock, AR) for FB in 1976 and 1977. Subsequent history unknown. A later advert for the car says that "by the early 1990s, chassis 394/FB/4 belonged to Chicago privateer John Mayes. He loaned it to British restorer James Denty, who fitted a 1600cc Cosworth BDA engine and raced the yellow Merlyn in Historic F2 in 2000. It was sold to an unknown owner in 2001, and raced by Peter Shaw in 2001 and 2002, and by John Dunham (Basingstoke, Hampshire) in 2003. It was offered for sale by H and H in 2004, and after this spent some time in Denmark before being acquired by Kurt Buess (Switzerland). When Buess retired from racing, he sold the car to Hans-Rudolf Howald (Heimenhausen, Switzerland) in 2010. Howald used the car in hillclimbs in Switzerland and France.

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-42S. Official results provided by Rocky Entriken and from SCCA records at the IMRRC.