SCCA National (San Diego Region)

Holtville Aerodrome, 21 Mar 1976

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 76B [2] (Cliff Hansen): Cliff Hansen (Laguna Beach, CA) campaigned a blue/red #6 March 76B in 1976 as part of the Doug Shierson Racing operation. Hansen retained the car for the start of the 1977 season, until his new 77B arrived, and then kept the 76B as a spare, needing it at St-Félicien and at Trois-Rivières after crashing the 77B. Its history in 1978 is unknown, but it is believed to be the car raced by Tom Contino (Ontario, CA) between 1979 and 1981, then sold by him in October 1981 to Damon Meek (Los Gatos, CA), who raced the car in SCCA Nationals in 1982 and has identified it as "76B-02" and ex-Cliff Hansen. Meek sold it to Lee Follansbee (San Jose, CA) and it would be the 76B raced by him in the Sears Point Pro race in 1984. Sold by Follansbee to Michael Olsen (Santa Clara, CA) who raced it at Sears Point in October 1988. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Lola T460 [HU7] (Dennis Firestone): New to Wilbur Bunce Racing, and raced by Richard Melville and Dennis Firestone in IMSA and Canadian Formula Atlantic in the first half of 1976. Reappeared in early 1977 for Dennis Firestone in an SCCA National, then to Sam Nicolosi (San Diego) for the rest of the year. Retained by Nicolosi for 1978 for SCCA Nationals and Regionals. Advertised by Nicolosi in September 1978. Subsequent history unknown, but Nicolosi recalls that he sold it to "a racer in SCCA North Western region".
3. March 722/75B [722-33] (Les Hill): New to Dick Doherty (Hollywood, CA) and raced in Pro FB in 1972, as well as Cal Club SCCA events. Retained for Cal Club events in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Rebuilt by Wilbur Bunce to 75B specification for 1976, and run by him in Californian SCCA races for Dennis Firestone to drive, and later in Pro Formula Atlantic races in California for Ron Dykes, Rocky Moran, and Bob Lazier. It was red, and wore #10, #70 and #87 during the season. Sold to Ted Titmas (Van Nuys, CA) in early 1977, and run by him as a hire car in 1977, but Titmas had two cars in 1977, one red and one orange, and it is unclear which was which. Subsequent history unknown.
4. March 74B (Jeffrey Alkana): Don Breidenbach (Oakland, CA) raced a white March 74B in SCCA National and later in Pro races in 1974 but early that season his car was described as a 732 so this 74B may have been a mid or late-season replacement for the older car. Retained for the early 1975 race at Riverside and then sold to Bob Gledhill (Utah). Somehow the deal with Gledhill unwound because Breidenbach advertised the car again at the end of 1975, alongside his newer 75B. Jeff Alkana (Azusa, CA) recalls buying it from Breidenbach and he raced it in SCCA events in early 1976. Alkana then bought Breidenbach's newer 75B and he recalls selling the 74B to Jim Van Horn (Orange, CA). However, Van Horn drove an older March 71BM updated to 76B from 1977 to 1980. Subsequent history unknown.
5. Brabham BT29 (Mike Fazzi): Mike Fazzi (Costa Mesa, CA) raced a red Brabham BT29 with Ford twin cam engine in SCCA Regionals and Nationals in California in 1975 and 1976. He advertised the car in November 1976, noting that it had updated bodywork.
6. Brabham BT29 (Frank Monise): Graham Baker moved from New Zealand to the US for a season of Formula B in 1970. He bought a new green Brabham BT29 from Chip Gompf and Wayne Mitchell, one of three new BT29s they had in stock. He was entered by Charlie Hayes Racing Equipment as #82 for his first race, at Edmonton in May, but was then self-entered as #82 for the next eight races as #67 before ending the season as part of the Bonphil Racing Industries team. Hayes sold the car for Baker at the end of the season to a non-racer in Laguna Hills who appears to have retained it, unused, for three years. In late 1973/early 1974, CSCC racer Jeff Alkana learnt from engine specialist Steve Jennings about the car and he bought it with Frank Monise (Pasadena, CA), who needed a new BT29 having wrecked his earlier BT29-41. Monise raced the car for several more seasons with Ford twin cam and BDA engines before selling it around 1976 to Tito D'Oporto and Gary Green and replacing it with a March.
7. Lola T460 [HU3] (Steve Jizmagian): New to Steve Jizmagian (San Francisco, CA) and raced in SCCA Nationals and IMSA Formula Atlantic races in 1976. Retained for 1977 for Californian SCCA Nationals and Regionals. Retained again for 1978, again for Californian SCCA Nationals and Regionals. Retained by Jizmagian for 1979, but destroyed in an accident at Westwood in June 1979. What was left was broken for spares.
8. Chevron B27 [27-74-07] (Jim van Horn): Chevron build record says sold via Fred Opert to George Sabin. Used by Alan Lader as well in 1974. Sold to Bobby Fisher (Lafayette, CA) for 1975 and used in some early-season Nationals and one Pro race. To Jim Van Horn (Orange, CA) for 1976 and run in west coast Pro and SCCA racing. Then a strong candidate for the car of Californian Mike Morris in SCCA races in 1977 though this may have been the ex Hayes car from 1975-76. Either this or the Hayes car likely to be the B27 for sale by Crosslé Cars Pacific in 1982. In February 2007, Emmet "Bud" Morrison (Tempe, AZ) bought what he believes to be B27-74-07 from Neil Johnson via Fantasy Junction (Emeryville, CA).
9. Surtees TS8 (Kenneth Rich Amick): Rich Amick (La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego, CA) entered an orange Surtees TS8 for the Riverside SCCA National in February 1976. He that raced a Formula A Surtees at Holtville Aerodrome in March 1976, and Kenneth R Amick (Spring Valley, CA) raced a Surtees TS8 at the SCCA National at Riverside in February 1977. Rich Amick also raced it at Phoenix two weeks later. Amick then advertised the car in Autoweek 23 Apr 1977, mentioning that the "spares include tubs", and later in the season raced a FSV Lola. The two most likely sources for Amick's car are TS8/006, last seen with Dick Ferguson, just up the coast in Los Angeles, or TS8/008, last seen with Stuart Forbes-Robinson in Huntington Beach, CA, also in Greater Los Angeles, at the end of 1974. The Ferguson car seems most likely, as that had other tubs with it when acquired by Chuck Haines in 1990. However, this could also be the car that went to Dale Mahar in the Los Angeles area later in 1977, in which case it was the mystery chassis TS8/010.

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-1P. Official results from SCCA records at the IMRRC. Also Finish Line April 1976 p5, which only gives the winner and the Cal Club finishers.