SCCA National (Cincinnati Region)

Mid-Ohio, 19 Jul 1969

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT21C (Mike Hayman): Mike Hayman (Washington, DC) raced a Brabham BT21C occasionally in Formula B in 1968 and 1969. He scored just nine points in NEDiv in 1968, and four in 1969, and none of his Pro race entries in the orange-and-blue Brabham resulted in starts. He advertised the car as a BT21C with Vegantune engine in CP&A 30 August 1969. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Brabham BT10 [F2-5-64] (Allen Treuhaft): Bought by Frenchman Jacques Maglia for F2 in 1964 but Maglia did not like the car and in September, he swapped it for David Prophet's Lotus 32. Prophet had also bought a BT10 so kept F2-5-64 as a rental car; it was driven by Syd Fox at Snetteron in late September and then by Bill Bradley, Bruno Deserti and Peter Sutcliffe in F2 in 1965. Raced again by Bradley in early 1966, but last seen in F2 in July 1966. Sold via Fred Opert to Eva H Kirk (Toledo, Ohio), and raced for her by Allen Treuhaft (Toledo, Ohio) in Central Division Formula C from 1967 to 1969, still using its SCA engine. Treuhaft recalls that the car was bought late 1966 or early 1967 from Opert to replace a Cooper that had become obsolete since the arrival of the ex-F2 SCA engines. Treuhaft ran the car in Opert's colours of yellow with a wide blue stripe. When raced by Treuhaft, the car was fitted with one of two special Cosworth SCA engines built for Team Lotus with Lucas fuel injection. History then unknown until 1972 when its SCCA Log Book shows that it was sold by Harry C. Kahn to F. Nelson Petrey and raced at Lime Rock, Bryar and Watkins Glen. It was later purchased from the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia Transportation museum) by Ian Carpenter who sold it to Rafael Costa. The car was maintained by David Irwin (Evergreen, CO) for Costa but at the time believed to be a BT16. Later acquired by Irwin. Sold to Mark Shillingburg (Evergreen, CO) late 2007.
3. Forjay (Formcar) (Joe Gillespie): Joe Gillespie (Dayton, OH) drove a 'Forjay' Formula B special in 1968, built from an improved Formcar chassis and what Gillespie described in an advert in CP&A 28 Dec 1969 as a Porsche 912 engine. He kept the car for 1969.
4. Brabham BT21B [31] (Fred Harris): New to Dale Lang (Wilton, CT/Woodstock, VT) and raced inSCCA Formula C in late 1968. According to later advert for the car, it was sold to Lang by by Fred Opert Racing in June or July 1968, already in FC configuration with an 1100cc engine. The advert reveals that Lang shared the car with Fred Harris (New York, NY), and that it was used in both in FC and FB specification, the latter using a Vegantune twin cam engine. After Harris drove it in the FC class at the SCCA Runoffs at Daytona in November 1969, Lang returned it to Opert in trade for a new Brabham BT29. Opert sold it to Russell Freed (McKees Rock, PA) who raced it in SCCA FC from 1970 to 1975. In 1972, he had moved to Coraopolis, PA and was entered by Bonnie Freed. Eventually, the car was sold in February 1986 to Bruce Parker, who restored it to Formula B specification but did not race it. In 1988, it was sold to Don Orosco, and from him to Dick Barbour, who used it in historic racing. Richard Schoenfeld then bought it in May 1989, selling it to Everett Anton Singer the following September. Singer almost immediately sold it to Irwin Lui. In Juky 2007, it was sold on to David Mitchell (New Zealand), who had it rebuilt by Higgins Motorsport with a new Ford twin cam engine. In December 2012, it was bought by David Watkins (Perth, Australia), who raced it at Hampton Downs in Jauary 2013, then in England later that year. Watkins meticulously researched the car's history, allowing the Motorsports Market advert to be so informative. He sold it to Daniel Chapman in Texas in February 2015.
5. Cooper T76 [T75 F2-4-65] (John R Babchek): New to Tyrrell Racing Organisation for John Surtees to race in F2 in 1965. Raced later in the season by Bob Bondurant and Chris Amon. To Reg Howell (Dayton, OH) May 1966 to be used in SCCA racing. Sold to Dick Leppla (Cleveland Hgts, OH), fitted with a Cosworth twin cam and Colotti T46 5-speed gearbox and entered in Formula B events for David Dours (Hudson, OH) in 1967, but described by them as a T76. It was one of the quickest FB cars in the east of the US at the start of 1967 and Dours won at Cumberland in May but it was no match for Chuck Dietrich's brand new McLaren M4A in Central Division. Later fitted with a Vegantune engine and won at Mid-Ohio in September. To John R. Babchek (Romulus, MI) for CenDiv Formula B from 1968 to 1970. He advertised the car in June 1970 as an "ex-Surtees team car" with Vegantune engine, and again in April 1974 when it was just described as a T76 rolling chassis . History unknown until it was "found in the basement of a house in Kentucky" by Murray Batson (Australia) in 1978 and moved to Australia. Then via Bruce Sutton 1981 and Murray Richards (Murrumbeena, Victoria) 1992 to Bob Harborow (Camberwell, Victoria) 1994.

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

CP&A? Full results sheet [S243]