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Grand Prairie Grand Prix (Arkansas Region SCCA National)

Stuttgart Airport, 25 Apr 1976

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Jerry Schaub (FSV) 1.6-litre Lola T324 VW
#57
22 30m 50.9s
2 Jackie Cooper (F/Atl) 1.6-litre March 74B - Ford BDA
#11 (see note 1)
22 1st in FB
3 Barry Findley (F/Atl) 1.6-litre March 74B [743-1] - Ford BDA
#45 (see note 2)
22 2nd in FB
4 David Pence (F/Atl) 1.6-litre Merlyn Mk 21 [394/FB/72] - Ford BDA
#43 (see note 3)
21 3rd in FB
5 James George (FSV) 1.6-litre Lola T324 VW
#53
20 2nd in FSV
6 Herm A. Johnson (FSV) 1.6-litre Lola T324 VW
#60
19 3rd in FSV
7 John Saucier (FC) 1.1-litre Tui BH3 - Kawasaki
#61
16 1st in FC
8 Porter Brownlee (F/Atl) 1.6-litre March 73B [10] - Ford BDA
#44 (see note 4)
15 4th in FB
R Chuck Grauel (FC) 1.1-litre Chevron B15 - Ford
#5 (see note 5)
FC
R Mike Wright (FSV) 1.6-litre Winkelmann WDV1 VW
#76
FSV
DNS Charlie Derbes III (F/Atl) 1.6-litre Brabham BT29 [33] - Ford twin cam
#30 (see note 6)
Did not start
(FB)

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. March 74B (Jackie Cooper): Jackie B. Cooper (Valley Park, Kansas) drove a March 74B in MidWest Division SCCA races in 1974. Cooper was a a 42-year-old commodity broker, and member of Wichita Region, who had joined the SCCA in 1970 and raced Formula Ford and FSV before acquiring the 74B. He scored a total 20 points in Nationals, for two second places and two third places. He did not race in 1975, but was third in the Division in 1976, scoring 40 points. Unknown between 1977 and 1980, but it reappeared with John Saucier (Midwest City, Oklahoma) in 1981, still in Cooper's livery. Saucier raced it in Midwest Division Formula Atlantic between 1981 and 1984, after which it may have gone to Ron McKinsey. It is believed to have turned up in Belgium many years later, in 742 specification.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. March 73B [10] (Porter Brownlee): New to James King (East St Louis, IL) and used in Central Division SCCA Formula B, one round of the Players Canadian series, and the Watkins Glen Pro race in October. Raced briefly in SCCA Nationals in early 1974 before his new Chevron B27 arrived from England, then leased to Ric Forest and Fred Phillips for the 1974 Players Canadian series. King took over the car again for 1975, rebuilt it on a new tub, fitted a March 742 nose and side radiators, and raced it in the Players Canadian series. It then went to Porter Brownlee (Little Rock, AR) who raced it in Midwest Division Formula B in 1976 and 1977. After blowing the engine, he sold it to Mike Winn (Little Rock, AR) who raced it for one season before selling it to Chuck Blair (North Little Rock, AR), who had previously maintained it for Brownlee. Blair ran it a couple of times before selling it, scoring two points in Midwest Division Formula Atlantic in 1980. Subsequent history unknown.
  5. 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.
  6. Brabham BT29 [33] (Charlie Derbes III): This Brabham BT29, believed to be chassis BT29-33, was bought new by Michael F. Hall (Chicago, IL) and used in SCCA racing where Hall won the 1970 CenDiv FB title. He also raced it in the Pro series in the latter half of the season. Hall retained the red-and-yellow BT29 for the first half of 1971 but replaced it with a new BT35 in August and sold the BT29 to Phil Geraldi (Valley Stream, NY), who had previously raced a LeGrand in NEDiv FB. Geraldi raced it for the rest of 1971 and in 1972 then sold it to Charles J. Derbes III (Metairie, LA) in the spring of 1973. Derbes won the SWDiv Formula B title in this car in 1974 and attended the Run-Offs, finishing 12th. He was second in the Division in 1975 and tied with Warren Pauge for the 1976 title. Chaz Derbes has retained the BT29 ever since, still owning it in 2012.

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-14S. Official results provided by Rocky Entriken