Molson Championship Race

Rockcliffe Airfield, 1 Jul 1970

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Stebro-Chevron B17B (Peter W. Broeker): Peter Broeker (Pointe-Claire, Montréal, Quebec) raced a Chevron B17b in Canadian Formula B in 1970, often descibing it as a Stebro. It replaced Broeker's earlier B14, so the two cars were often confused. The B17b was raced by Craig Fisher and John Powell (both Toronto, Ontario) in 1971, entered by Penguin Racing Enterprise. The later history of the car is not known. Although it has been suggested that this was the car Broeker raced in 1974, when he returned to Formula Atlantic, that car appears to have been his older B14 updated.
2. Brabham BT23F [1] (Al Justason): Sold to Bill Gubelmann (Oyster Bay, NY) and fitted with a Vegantune Ford twin cam engine for SCCA 'Pro' and NEDiv Formula B. Raced through 1968 and retained for a few races in 1969 as Gubelmann's BT29 was late arriving. Sold to Al Justason (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) who used it in both the Canadian and US Pro series in 1970 and again in the Canadian FB series in 1971. Sold to Michael Houselander who appeared at two Canadian national events in 1972, Later sold to ‘Dino Delousis’ who fitted a turbocharged 2-litre Ford Pinto engine for libre events but found the car to be undrivable and stored it from about 1974 to 2004 when sold to Dave Darrow (Mississauga, Ontario) and fully restored. Retained until 2007 when sold via race-cars.com to Murray Bryden (Melbourne, Australia). Sold to David Kloster (Kinglake, Victoria) September 2011.
3. Brabham BT29 [34] (Ken Huband): Ken Huband (Ottawa, Ontario) ran a red/black #15 Brabham BT29 in Canadian and US Formula B in 1970, first appearing at Mont-Tremblant 24 May 1970. He retained the car in 1971 and in 1972. Huband advertised the BT29 in CP&A 21 Oct 1972 as "Brabham BT29/34", implying it was chassis 34. Several BT29 owners had mentioned the chassis numbers of the cars in adverts, presumably to emphasise the newer cars. Peter Nye arranged the sale of the car to Bill Wolfe, a dentist in Austin, Texas, but Wolfe later pulled out of a deal with Nye to assemble the car for him. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Brabham BT16 [F2-1-65] (William Pickthorne): Driven by Alan Rees for Roy Winkelmann Racing in 1965. Presumably Rees raced the same car all season. Bought in 1966 from Winkelmann by Bob Fuller (Connecticut), fitted with a Cosworth Mk 12 and raced in FB in 1967. To Steve Brownstein (New York) for 1968 and raced again in FB with the Mk 12. Then traded to Fred Opert for a new Chevron. To Bruce Jensen and raced in Canadian FB in 1969 and then to Bill Pickthorne (Ottawa, Ontario) who raced it in 1970 and at the beginning of 1971. It was then stored for 18 years until bought by Murray Wivell (Brantford, Ontario) in October 1989. Restored and used in US vintage racing for ten seasons, initially with the Ford twin cam engine and then with a Cosworth SCA for the last two seasons. Sold to Ivan Scotti (Zurich, Switzerland) November 2004. This is presumably the ex-Alan Rees BT16 run at the 2013 Solitude Revival by Bruno Weibel of Schaffner Racing.
5. Brabham BT29 (Brian Robertson): Brian Robertson (Brockville, Ontario) bought a Brabham BT29 late in 1969, debuting it at Sebring in December. He raced it extensively in 1970, taking in the Quebec and national Canadian series as well as rounds of the SCCA Pro series. He was entered by Fred Opert Racing Canada, a business in which he was a partner with Opert. Robertson upgraded to a BT35 for 1971 and his BT29 is likely to have been sold via the Opert operation. It does not appear in Opert's early 1971 advert so one possibility is that it was BT29/23, the car Evan Noyes took to the Tasman series.
6. Brabham BT21C (Bill Bovenizer): Bought from Fred Opert by Bill Bovenizer (Toronto, Ontario) and raced in Canadian Formula B events in 1970. Bill believes Horst Kwech may have raced it before he did. He sold it to Reg Forth for 1971 who continued to race it in Canadian events. Subsequent history unknown.
7. Brabham BT29 (Peter Roberts): Peter Roberts (Granby, Quebec) raced a Brabham BT29 in 1970, appearing as #71 in the main Canadian series and as #1 in the Molson (Quebec Region) Championship. His best results came in the Molson series with two third places at Mont-Tremblant. Roberts had earlier raced a BT29 that he had borrowed from "an Ontario racer" but whether this 1970 car was the same one is unknown. Robert did not continue in Formula B after 1970 and after sitting around unused for 18 months, the BT29 was sold to Derek Johnson (Montreal, Quebec) who was making a comeback after injury. The Montreal Gazette quoted Johnson's chief crew Bob Beale saying that nobody had driven it for a year, and Roberts' mechanic John Lo Bosco confirmed that Roberts' BT29 went to Johnson. Johnson bought the car the Friday before the opening race at Sanair and it was rented by Ian Coristine for that race after his new March 722 could not be readied in time. Raced by Johnson for the rest of the 1972 season. 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.

The 1971-1973 Canadian Formula B race results have been compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Canadian Motorsport Bulletin, results sheets where available and from information drawn from Canadian newspapers.

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.