Sigma Series for Formula Atlantic Cars Race

Welkom, 28 Feb 1981

Notes on the cars:

1. Maurer MM80 [03?] (Tony Martin): New for Eje Elgh to drive for the MM Mampe Racing Team in Formula 2 in 1980. After Markus Höttinger's death at Hockenheim, Elgh was the team's only driver at the next two races, but was then injured when testing a F2 Tiga F280 at Silverstone. His car was taken over by Patrick Gaillard at Pau in late May and at Silverstone two weeks later. He was then replaced by Beppe Gabbiani, who is believed to have driven MM80-03 for the remainder of the 1980 season. This car is likely to be the "ex-Gabbiani" car sold to Tony Martin in South Africa. Raced by Martin through the 1981 Sigma Series. Martin acquired a newer Maurer MM81 for 1982 and the MM80 was not seen in 1982 or early 1983. It was used by Clive Cooke in the latter part of the 1983 season, and then sold to Keith Horwood later in 1984 for Dermot Leslie to race in 1985, alongside Horwood racing his ex-DAW MM81. The MM80 was exported from South Africa to England at the end of 1986, and was one of the two MM80s acquired by Stuart Ridge in 1988. One of Ridge's cars, used in Historic F2 in 1993, was noted as 'MM80-03'.
2. Ralt RT2/79 [152] (Bernard Tilanus): New to Toleman Group Motorsport for Brian Henton to drive in the 1979 Formula 2 championship. Henton won at Mugello in this car but used chassis 154 later in the season. The sister cars 153 and 154 were sold for the 1981 season, but 152 is believed to have been retained as a test car. Sold to Mel Lahner for 1981, and entered by his Rackrite Shelving team for Bernard Tilanus to drive in Formula South Africa. Tilanus scored three wins and two second places in the first five races, but Mel Lahner then "relegated" Tilanus to the team's 722/77B and drove the Ralt himself. Wayne Taylor also drove it once at Kyalami in May after damaging his March 77B in practice, and then Roy Klomfass drove the Ralt at Aldo Scribante in August, where he won both races, and at two later races. The car was later dismantled and the tub panels flattened out to provide templates for a series of Ralt copies commissioned by Lahner, built in South Africa and called Lants.
3. March 77B [18] (Wayne Taylor): New to Alex Blignaut for Nols Nieman to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in early 1977, with Benson & Hedges sponsorship. Retained by Blignaut's Benson & Hedges team for Nieman again in 1978. Raced for Blignaut by Derek Bell in November 1978, then by Sarel van der Merwe in May 1979, after which it was given by Blignaut to Tony Martin's South Coast Motors team as a spare car. It was entered for Billy Scheepers in January, then rented to Roy Moss for the Goldfields race in February. Bernard Tilanus then borrowed it for the Killarney race in March after his DAW March 78B had been destroyed in a transporter fire. In July 1980, it was sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team for Wayne Taylor to drive. Then in October 1980, it was sold on to Mel Lahner's Rackrite Racing. Taylor moved with the car, and raced it at Kyalami on 4 October and then in the first few months of the 1981 season. It was then taken over by Trevor van Rooyen who found the weight penalty on his ground-effect March 802 was too great. He raced the 77B for the rest of the 1981 season. It was retained for 1982, when Rackrite ran the car for Andre du Plessis and Mike Domingo. It was retained again for 1983, when driven by Gavin Lahner and Kevin Heath. It was not used again after that, but was retained by Mel Lahner until sold to Andrew Thompson in 1984. It was later restored for Ian Schofield.
4. March 77B ['AT'] (Graham Duxbury): Built by Andrew Thompson in South Africa in 1978 using an unused monocoque that had been supplied as a spare for Ian Scheckter's March 77B/7. Thompson acquired the tub and all the other 77B spares from Ken Howes before 77B/7 was sold back to the UK. He built all these into a new car using the Hewland FT200 gearbox from the ex-Dave Charlton/Alex Blignaut March 76B/19. The resulting car was raced by Bobby Scott through the 1978/79 season, sponsored by Rembrandt through its Sportsman Lager and then Kronenbräu 1308 Lager brands. It was rented from Thompson by Graham Duxbury for a race in October 1979, still with its BDA engine, and then sold to Hagen Wulf and Ivor Raasch who fitted a Mazda engine for the 1980 season. It was also raced by Allan McDonald that season. It was then sold to Graham Duxbury who raced it very successfully in 1981. Retained for the first few races of 1982 until Duxbury's new March 82A arrived and then sold to Ivan Moavero who used it for the rest of that season. Sold to Steve Herbst for 1983, but in August he swapped it for Roy Moss's March 792. Raced by Moss until the end of 1984. He then sold it to Terry Moss, who was unrelated, for the 1985 season, but Moss crashed the car at Kyalami in April, destroying the front of the monocoque. Moss built up a March 782 using parts salvaged from the 77B, but the tub was scrapped. The 77B effectively ceased to exist at this point.
5. March 802 [6] (Trevor van Rooyen): New for Mike Thackwell to drive as part of the ICI March Racing Team in F2 in 1980. After Thackwell moved into F1 in August, the 802 was raced by Jo Gartner, Howdy Holmes and Michael Korten in the last three races of the season. Sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW team in South Africa for 1981, fitted with a Mazda engine and raced by Trevor van Rooyen in Formula SA in 1981. To Fred Goddard's Petromark for 1982, but in mid-season its rear end was used to build up the ex-Scheckter March 822 that Goddard had acquired. The rest of 802-6 was sold to Ken Critchfield, who rebuilt it using the rear end salvaged from his damaged March 802-7. Raced by Critchfield in 1984, and again in 1986. The car was then acquired by Gavin Hards and exported to the UK to John Brannigan in late 1986 or early 1987. Brannigan sold the car, still with its Mazda engine, to Richard Fuller, who used it in libre racing. In late 1989, it was bought from Fuller by Chris Drewett (Harbury, Warwickshire) and refitted with a BMW engine that came with it for hillclimbs. By this time the car had a March 812 nosecone and cockpit, and what Drewett recalled as "very dodgy sidepods". Raced by Roger Ealand in the Jochen Rindt Memorial Trophy historic F2 race at Thruxton in June 1993. Drewett traded the car for a TVR to Clive Greenhalgh (Birmingham) in 1993. The car was offered for sale by the Brooks auction house in June 1999. Subsequent history unknown.
6. March 802 [7] (Dave Hart): New for Manfred Winkelhock to drive as part of the ICI March Racing Team in F2 in 1980. Sold to Hekro Engineering in South Africa for 1981, fitted with a Mazda engine and raced in Formula SA in early 1981 by Dave Hart. Tommy Dunn then took over the drive, but damaged the car in practice at Kyalami on 9 May. It was repaired but Dunne then also left the team. The 802 was next driven by Ian Scheckter at Kyalami in late June but he declined to start after practice. It was not seen again in 1981 until the final race, when it had been sold to Pretoria Brick Racing and was entered for Wayne Taylor. The car was run by Eddie Pinto in 1982 as a Pretoria Brick Racing entry for Taylor to drive. When the team's new Ralt RT4/82 arrived, the March was sold to Lew Baker in July 1982, and used by him for the rest of 1982 and in 1983. Sold to Ken Critchfield in May or June 1983 and raced by him for the remainder of that season. Believed to have been wrecked early in 1984. Critchfield bought the sister car 802/6 so he could continue racing, and the monocoque from 802/7 was thrown away.
7. March 792 [79A-27] (Jan du Plessis): New to Team Lexington for Ian Scheckter to drive in South African Formula Atlantic in 1979. The new "wing car" was delivered in time for Scheckter to race it in the Highveld 100 at Kyalami on 27 January, and he won five of his first six races in the car. It was fitted with a Fiat engine for the start of Formula SA but this was quickly replaced with a Mazda rotary engine, and Scheckter won the last four races of the season. The 79A was sold to Bokomo Racing for Tommy Dunne in 1980. It was then sold to Pieter Fouché's Pretoria Brick team, where it was raced by Jan du Plessis in 1981 and by Roy Carr in 1982. In mid-1982, Fouché reorganised the team to focus on a Ralt RT4/82 for Wayne Taylor, and the 79A was sold to Roy Moss. He raced it for the remainder of 1982 and through 1983, during which time he fitted a March 802 rollhoop. It was then sold to Steve Herbst who converted it to flat-bottomed specification by removing the sidepods. He also fitted side-mounted radiators and a March 802 nose. He ran it in this form in 1984 and 1985. The tub and bodywork were later exported by Gavin Hards to John Brannigan, but by the time they arrived the chassis plate was no longer with them. John's stock book from the time shows that he sold it all to Richard Parkin as a kit, but as the car Richard received had no chassis plate but a 1980 nose and 1980 rollhoop, he advertised it as an 80A. He remembers getting no interest in it and believes he may have sold it through the trade, perhaps to Roger Hurst. 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 Formula South Africa race results from 1979 to 1986 have been compiled by Allen Brown and Ian Hebblethwaite using many official results sheets from Ian's archive, as well as race reports in Autosport and Motoring News until their reports stopped in 1979, and then in the Rand Daily Mail and other South African publications. Adri Bezuidenhout's 'Wheels' yearbook, which listed the surnames of the top six finishers at each race but gave no other details, has been useful for races at Aldo Scribante and Goldfields Raceway where it has proved more difficult to find information. Articles in Formula South Africa race programmes have also proved very useful. Please help us complete that collection of scans.

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

Entry list needed. Autosport 12 Mar 1981 p49 contained aggregate results only. The finishing positions for this Heat can be derived from points tables in the programmes for the 28 March and 2 May events. Adri Bezuidenhout's 'Wheels' yearbook gave aggregate position for the two races: Martin, Tilanus, Duxbury, Van Rooyen, Taylor, Hart