SCCA National (Arizona Region)

Phoenix International Raceway, 27 Feb 1977

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 77B [1] (Jeff Wood): New to Jeff Wood (Studio City, CA) for the 1977 South Pacific Division Formula B season and then the Labatts Formula Atlantic Championship. Entered at different times that season by Great Plains Motor Racing, Steve Jennings Team, Robert Wood and R&R Racing. Sold for 1978 to Allen Karlberg (Seattle, WA). Karlberg recalls selling it to Don Courtion of Seattle, WA, a gentleman racer who never raced the car. Then unknown until 1989, when Nancy James (Fremont, CA) raced it as a C Sports Racer.
2. March (Wally Farrell): Wally Farrell (San Bernardino, CA) raced a Formula B March in SCCA events in California in 1977, and appeared on entry lists at least in 1978. The car was black, wore #95, had 75B-ish sidepods, and a cockpit surround that appears the same as the one created by Richard Paul for his 73B-derived March bitza in 1975. The front of Farrell's tub shows that it had a 1973 or 1974 monocoque. The nose appears to be a works F2 742 nose. This may be the "742" that Ozzie Pohl ran in late 1975 and early 1976, which Paul believes he may have sold to Pohl. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Brabham BT40 [33] (John Angus): New to Ted Titmas (Van Nuys, CA) for the British Formula Atlantic series in 1973, but not raced until late in the season. This is presumably the "brand new", "never used" BT40 advertised from Reigate and London numbers in June 1973. Titmas ran the car in September and October, and Cyd Williams used it for one race in October. Titmas reappeared with the car briefly at the end of the 1974 season. He then took the car to the US, and entered it for Ron Dykes to drive in Californian Formula Atlantic races in 1976. To John Angus for 1977 (or to Wilbur Bunce and run by him for Angus). Then to Marc Bahner 1978, who restored it with a stock nose and sold it to George Seydel. In early 1980 it was sold to Finish Line editor Bob Schilling. Later owners have been given as Ken Patch, Perry Sands, Kevin Roggenbuck, who raced it in the 2011 Pacific Northwest Historics, and then David Rugh. Rugh sold it to Chris Rose (Mill Valley, CA) in 2018.
4. Lola T360 [HU15] (Sans Thompson): Sold via Carl Haas and Pierre Phillips to Tom Weichmann (Kent, WA) and raced in the first two rounds of the Players Canadian Formula Atlantic series, but not raced again in 1975. Advertised by Phillips at the end of 1975, and next seen when advertised by J Rogers (Portland, OR) in May 1976 when it was described as "ex-Weichmann" and still only "raced twice". Sold to Sans Thompson (Banks, OR), the Phillips team's chief mechanic, and used in ICSCC races in 1977. Advertised by Thompson in October 1978. Sold in early 1979 to Bill Mol (Vashon, WA) and raced in ICSCC that year, entered by Burien Imports Ltd. Also raced by Jack Scher (Seattle, WA) at two ICSCC races. Raced by David Dedrickson (Bellevue, WA) in ICSCC in 1980.
5. GRD 373 (Jules Williams): In late 1975, Jules Williams of Automotive Development (Orange, CA) announced that he would be running the ex-Tony Brise GRD 373 in Formula C car in Southern Pacific Division Nationals in 1976. The car was to be powered by an 1100cc Fiat engine developed by PBS Engineering (Garden Grove, CA) with a four-valve head based on the company's 1300cc C Sports Racing engine. Williams qualified for the SCCA Runoffs at Road Atlanta but retired after a single lap. He returned in the car in 1977, when he finished second in the Division. He scored points again in SPDiv in 1979 with the "PBS".
6. Ralt RT1/76 [10?] (Kevin Cogan): New to Brian Robertson's Quick-Trans/Gabriel International Warranty team in the middle of the 1976 season, replacing the team's Lola T460s, and run for Craig Hill at Mosport Park in August 1976, a round of the 1976 Players Canadian Formula Atlantic series. Then used by Kevin Cogan in the IMSA race at Laguna Seca in late 1976 and retained as his main car in 1977 when he also had RT1/75-10 as a spare car. Then retained by Cogan as an unused spare car in 1978, and advertised by him in October 1978. Retained again as a spare car in 1979, and still owned by Cogan in early 1980. [CT]
7. March 722 (Marc Bahner): A new March 722 bought by Russ Mayberry (Woodland Hills, CA) from Max Mizejewski's MRE in the spring of 1972, but only given its maiden outing at Willow Springs in November. Mayberry was a Scottish-born TV director who had made his reputation on Ironside and would move onto many other TV cop dramas such as Kojak, The Rockford Files and Magnum, PI. The car was maintained for him by Jim Hall (Costa Mesa, CA), who was working at Ken Swanson's Swanson Motor Racing, and Hall had regular races in the car as well, Hall typically racing it in the Sunday National after Mayberry drove it in the Saturday Regional. The car was orange and was raced by Mayberry and Hall entered as #90 in southern Californian Formula B up to mid-1975. Hall qualified for the Run-Offs in 1974, finishing 10th at Road Atlanta. Mayberry bought a BDA engine for it for 1975. For 1976, Mayberry bought Bud Turner's A Sedan Camaro, and the 722 was sold to Mark Bahner. Bahner sold it to Kenny Hedman of Hedman Hedders, but got the car back after it was wrecked, rebuilt it and sold it on again. This is presumably the March that Bahner raced in SCCA Formula B in 1977. Subsequent history unknown.
8. 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 77-N-5P. Official results from SCCA records at the IMRRC.