Autumn Frost Nationals (Washington Region SCCA National)

Summit Point, 9 Oct 1971

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lotus 69 [71/69.4.FB] (Bob Hebert): New to "J Silver" in March 1971 with red bodywork according to the Lotus built record. This would have been John Silver, owner of the Barrington House restauarant in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, who sponsored Bob Hebert (Monterey, MA). Raced by Hebert in Northeast Division SCCA Nationals in 1971 and 1972. Sold to George Liebman Jr (New York, NY), who raced it in New England Region NARRC Formula B at Lime Rock in April 1973, but it appears it was borrowed back by Hebert for the Lime Rock National on 7 July where he raced it with Liebman's entry number #77. Then raced by Liebman at a New York Region SCCA Regional at Bridgehampton in October 1973, having earlier been entered in such a car for the Pro FB race that supported the Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Subsequent history unknown, but Jeff Hailand (Clayton, MO) ran a Formula B Lotus 69 in historic racing between 2014 and 2018 that was registered with the Lotus Formula Ford Register as chassis "71/69/4FB".
2. Brabham BT35 [9] (Nick Craw): New to Nick Craw, and raced initially in the British Formula Atlantic series at the start of 1971 before moving to the North American SCCA series in May. Borrowed by Alan Lader for the 1971 SCCA Runoffs. Raced by Craw at Bogotá in early 1972, then sold to Bob Schutt (Kirkwood, MO) for Midwest Division SCCA FB in 1972 and 1973. Sold to Dorsey Schroeder (Manchester, MO) and raced by him 1974, 1975 and 1976. Then to Mike Mahan in 1976 or 1977 for autocross, and next to Greg Scharnburg in 1980, also for autocross. In October 2001, it was bought from Scharnburg by Mike Winebrenner (Sellersburg, Indiana).
3. March 71BM [15] (Mike Rand): New to US dealer Joe Grimaldi and supplied in red bodywork. New to Mike Rand (Greenwich, CT) in time for the SCCA Runoffs, where he crashed in practice. Raced in Pro FB and SCCA Nationals in 1972. Sold to Charlie Gibson (Poughkeepsie, NY) for 1973, and again raced in Pro FB and in SCCA Nationals. Retained again for 1974, when it was run in the Canadian series in 73B specification. Also raced more rarely in 1975, before Gibson advertised it in early 1976. According to current owner Simon Perkins, it was sold for 1976 to "Eric Schneider who only did a few events and then neglected the car when he went off to college". In 1989, Charlie Gibson reacquired the car and resold it to Chris Smith, who had it refurbished by Derek Matthews at Ark Racing in 1989/1990. After racing it occasionally, Smith sold it to Perkins (North Newington, Oxfordshire) who did a few US Vintage races in 2002 and 2003 before bringing the car back to the UK in 2004. He has since raced it in HSCC and European F2 races.
4. Brabham BT29 (Wayne Ricciardi): Wayne Ricciardi (N. Haldon, NJ) raced a Brabham in NEDiv Formula B in 1971, his car being identified as a BT29 in the CP&A report on the June National at Thompson. He appeared on the entry list for the Watkins Glen National in August as #17 entered by Raceshop (Midland Park, NJ) in a yellow Brabham.
5. Lola T240 (John F. Sirmons): John Sirmons (Weston, CT) and Vincent Dileo (Greenwich, CT) shared a white Lola T240 in Formula B in 1971, Sirmons racing it in SCCA Nationals and Dileo in Canadian FB events in the latter part of the 1971 season. Dileo retained the car for 1972, racing in NEDiv SCCA FB events and in the Pro event at Watkins Glen in August. Bought from Dileo by Tom Frasca in 1974 but a year later crashed at Lime Rock and totalled. Frasca scrapped the tub and parted out the other components.
6. Brabham BT21B (Russell Freed): Russell Freed (McKees Rock, PA) raced a Brabham in SCCA Formula C from 1970 to 1975. In 1972, he had moved to Coraopolis, PA and was entered by Bonnie Freed. He qualified for the Runoffs in 1970, where his car was identified on the entry list as a Brabham BT21B.
7. Lola T240 (Chuck Sarich): Chuck Sarich (McLean, VA/Rockville, MD) drove a silver/black/orange #57 Quicksilver Racing Ent Inc Lola T240 in the 1971 US FB Pro series. 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

The Straightpipe Nov 1971 pp16-17, Competition Press & Autoweek 30 Oct 1971 p10. The F/SCCA race was held on the Saturday due to a compressed schedule after heavy rain.