Buckeye Sprints (NEOhio Region SCCA National)

Mid-Ohio, 7 Sep 1969

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT16 (Dave Dours): Dick Leppla (Gates Mills, OH) raced a Brabham BT15 with Cosworth MAE engine in Central Division Formula C in 1968. He raced as either #14 or #44 so this would be the same car driven by Dave Dours (Hudson, OH) at Mid-Ohio in September. Leppla (then Cleveland Heights, OH) advertised the car in CP&A 7 Dec 1968 as a Brabham BT15 with rebuilt MAE engine and Hewland Mark 6 six-speed gearbox. This may be the same car as the "BT16" raced by Dours for Leppla in 1969 and may even be the BT18 raced by Leppla in late 1970.
2. Brabham BT29 (Chet Freeman): Chet Freeman (Columbus, OH) bought one of the earliest Brabham BT29s to arrive in the US and used it in SCCA Central Division FB, accumulating 25 pts and narrowly winning the Division. Freeman then sold the car back to Fred Opert where it was advertised in November (French Blue, Vegantune engine, Cen Div FB champ, less than 4 months old). Subsequent history unknown but note that Freeman bought a second BT29, chassis BT29-42, in June 1970.
3. Chevron B15b [FB-69-4?] (Jim Grob): Jim Grob (Ft Lauderdale, FL but later Pompano Beach, CA) raced a Chevron B15b in Pro racing in 1969 and also scored 24 points in Northeast Division FB, representing Northern New Jersey Region. He retained the car for 1970 and again for 1971, then mainly focusing his efforts on SCCA Divisional racing in Southeast Division. He finished second to Hugh Kleinpeter's sister car in 1970 but then won the Division in 1971. He changed to a new Chevron B20 for 1972.
4. Brabham BT21B (Wayne Ricciardi): Wayne Ricciardi (N. Haldon, NJ) raced a Brabham in Formula C in 1969, this being his first season after completing driving school. His Brabham was identified in a Fred Opert Racing advert as a BT21B. It was last seen at Virginia International Raceway in September 1969 when Ricciardi crashed and broke his leg. The Brabham was described as heavily damaged. Ricciardi drove a BT21 in 1970 and it is not clear whether this was the same car.
5. Brabham BT15 (Harry Reynolds): Harry Reynolds (Pottstown, PA) drove a FC Brabham in 1968 which was identified in the Lime Rock 7 Jul 1968 results sheet as a BT15 and in the Mid-Ohio 21 Jul 1968 results sheet as having a MAE engine. Reynolds told Candian researcher Rupert Lloyd Thomas that it came from Fred Opert and was virtually new. He believed it may have been driven by Bobby Brown at some point and may originally have been bought for Ford of France. He recalls the chassis number as "3". The car went from Reynolds to Randy Neiman (Pottstown, PA), who converted it to Formula Ford. Neiman drove it in a Regional at Cumberland in July 1971. Subsequent history unknown.
6. Brabham BT18 (Evan Noyes): Evan Noyes Jr drove a #75 Brabham BT18 in Central Division and Midwest Division SCCA Nationals in 1969. His home town was given as Indianapolis, IN during 1969, then Carmel, IN in early 1970, then Cedarville, Michigan later in 1970. His car was usually just called a Brabham, but the results sheet for the National at Blackhawk Farms in July identified it as a BT18, and several press releases also said it was a BT18. Noyes ran a Brabham BT29 as part of Fred Opert Racing in 1970, so the BT18 may have been traded to Opert. Subsequent history unknown.
7. 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.
8. Brabham BT21B (Fred Harris): Frederick D. Harris (New York, NY) raced a Brabham in NEDiv Formula C in 1969. It was later identified in a Fred Opert advert as a BT21B with a Broadspeed engine, presumably its original Ford F3 engine, that had been rebuilt at the Brabham factory the previous winter. That would imply that the car spent 1968 racing in Europe. Nothing more known.
9. McLaren M10A [300-09] (Bob Esseks): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-09.
10. Brabham BT21C (Karl Kohnke): Karl Kohnke (Chicago, IL) raced a blue #6 Brabham BT21C in SCCA Nationals and Regionals in the western part of Central Division during 1969. He ended the CenDiv FB season with 15 points for a second place behind Fred Opert at Milwaukee in June and a class win at Blackhawk Farms in August. He also won a Regional at Blackhawk Farms. The SCCA points table identified his Brabham as a BT21C. Nothing more known.

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

Results sheet provided by Richard Page of the Formula One Register . Also Competition Press & Autoweek 27 Sep 1969 p15.