SCCA National (Northwest Region)

Seattle, 24 Sep 1972

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lotus 69/49B [69.F2.5] (Pete Lovely): New to Jochen Rindt Racing Ltd, managed by Bernie Ecclestone, for John Mikes and Graham Hill to race in F2 in 1970. According to Richard Spelberg's research, this car was Hill's previous Lotus 59B chassis 59-F2-20 converted to Lotus 69 specification for 1970. Also driven by Eugenio Baturone at Montjuich Park. Retained by Ecclestone for Hill to race in the first few F2 races of 1971, then sold to Pete Lovely and fitted with the rear end of his Lotus 49B for suitable races at his home track in Seattle, and for the 1971 US GP. After Lovely died in 2011, the car was sold by his daughter to Peter Gleeson (Seattle, WA), a BMW collector originally from England.
2. Lotus 69 [71/69.2.FB] (Gary Gove): New to William Monson (Kent, WA) in February 1971 with pale yellow bodywork according to the Lotus built record. Raced by Monson in the SCCA Continental Championship and SCCA Nationals in 1971 but after only a few races he suffered a major accident at Laguna Seca in June 1971 when he clipped the bridge and was in hospital with significant injuries. He returned to racing but crashed again in an SCCA Regional at Portland in August, seriously damaging the car. This time he retired from racing and sold the wrecked Lotus to Gary Gove (Tacoma, WA). Gove's racing partner Pete Lovely was then in the process of fitting a F1 DFV engine to his 1970 F2 Lotus 69 and Gove was able to use the F2 rear end to repair Monson's car. The result was a very quick car and in 1972 Gove raced it in ICSCC and NW Regional events plus at least one National, the Kent (Seattle) National in September. In 1973, Gove won the NorPac title in the Lotus and then sold it to Jon Norman (Oakland, CA) who won the 1975 NorPac FB title and was second in 1976. Norman also took the car to the SCCA Runoffs in 1975, finishing a remarkable fourth, and raced it in several Pro Formula Atlantic races. Norman raced it at least once in SCCA events in 1977 before replacing it with a much newer March 76B. 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.

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.