Sigma Series for Formula Atlantic Cars Race

Killarney, 2 May 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. March 76B [19] (Mike Domingo): Sold to Dave Charlton in July 1976 for to drive for the Scribante team in South African Formula Atlantic, sponsored by United Tobacco through its Lucky Strike brand. The March replaced Charlton's existing Modus M3, debuting at the Rand Winter Trophy in August 1976 Charlton raced the March again in 1977, and at the start of 1978, at which point Lucky Strike withdrew Charlton's sponsorship, moving it to Tony Martin. The March 76B reverted to Alex Blignaut, who retained United Tobacco sponsorship through the Benson & Hedges brand. The 76B was kept as a spare car to the March 77B he ran for Nols Neiman until the end of the short 1978 season, when the engine and gearbox were sold to Andrew Thompson. The 76B was retained by Blignaut's team in 1979 but not used that season. It was then sold to the Domingo brothers (who also owned a bitza 76B built using a spare 76B monocoque) and fitted with a Mazda engine for Roy Klomfass to race in Formula South Africa in 1980. After Klomfass turned down the drive, Domingo drove it instead. The car was driven Dave Charlton at Kyalami in August 1980 as Domingo was observing Ramadan, but failed to start after being injured in practice for the saloon car race. Domingo continued to drive the car until early 1981, when it was sold to Ivano Moavero and raced by him in 1981 and part of 1982. Then in mid-1982, Moavero bought the highly-developed ex-Duxbury 77B, and sold the 76B to Michele ('Mike') Peters who raced it through to July 1985. Peters sold the car to Terry Moss, to replace the 77B that Moss had wrecked. However, instead of racing the 76B, Moss stripped the car and used its components to build up a March 782. The 76B tub was put aside until 2010, when it was acquired from a friend of Moss by Bernard Tilanus. The tub number showed that it was the original monocoque from 76B/19, so it was reunited with its original chassis plate (which had been kept by Brian Raubenheimer) and fully rebuilt. It was later sold by Tilanus to the Scribante family. In early 2022, the Scribante family sold the 76B and their March 782 to Mark Charteris in the UK. He kept the 782 but sold the 76B to Paul Nightingale in Derbyshire.
5. 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.
6. March 77B [722-11] (Bernard Tilanus): New to Brett Lunger, and entered by Space Racing for him in F2 in 1972. Bob Sparshott's partner John 'Ace' Woodington was in charge of the F1 team, with ex-Surtees mechanic Roger Flynn. Lunger also raced the car in the Torneio do Brasil in October and November 1972. March records show that this car was sold to Guy Tunmer in December 1972, although press reports at the time said Tunmer had bought the ex-Ronnie Peterson car. Tunmer (Sandton, South Africa) had acquired the 722 for the new "F2" class of the South African national championship, and had it fitted with an 1800cc Cosworth FVC and raced it through 1973. The car was not seen in 1974, but is believed to have been kept as a spare to Tunmer's new Chevron. In 1975, it was sold to André Verwey (Johannesburg, South Africa) who planned to rebuild it with a BMW F2 engine and Hewland FG400 gearbox, but when Formula Atlantic was announced, he updated it with bright red 74B bodywork and a Nicholson BDA engine. Used in this form by Verwey in two races late 1975, and then into 1976. Sold back to the Tunmers in mid-1976 for Mervyn Tunmer to use, when it was reclothed in March 76B bodywork. Unused in 1977, but then sold to Andrew Thompson in 1978, converted to a Ford V6 engine for the new formula, and raced in that form by Bobby Scott in 1979. At this time it had mostly 77B bodywork but with a front radiator and 79B sidepods, and was sponsored by Rembrandt through its Kronenbräu 1308 Lager brand. After Rembrandt's withdrawal, it was sold to Mel Lahner's Rackrite team for 1980, and raced by Derek Ziman and John McNicol. It was rebuilt with a Mazda engine mid-season. Retained by Rackrite for 1981, when it was entered for McNicol, Ziman and Lahner, then raced by Bernard Tilanus for a few races before he left the team, then by his replacement Trevor van Rooyen, and finally McNicol took it over again. Both Tilanus and van Rooyen won races in it that season. It was retained again for 1982, when Lahner's son Wayne drove it, and by this time it was in standard March 77B bodywork, but with a 79B rear wing. It was retained by the Lahner family until 2004, when it was sold back to Andrew and Stuart Thompson.
7. March 802 [7] (Tommy Dunn): 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.
8. March 76B [19] (Ivano Moavero): Sold to Dave Charlton in July 1976 for to drive for the Scribante team in South African Formula Atlantic, sponsored by United Tobacco through its Lucky Strike brand. The March replaced Charlton's existing Modus M3, debuting at the Rand Winter Trophy in August 1976 Charlton raced the March again in 1977, and at the start of 1978, at which point Lucky Strike withdrew Charlton's sponsorship, moving it to Tony Martin. The March 76B reverted to Alex Blignaut, who retained United Tobacco sponsorship through the Benson & Hedges brand. The 76B was kept as a spare car to the March 77B he ran for Nols Neiman until the end of the short 1978 season, when the engine and gearbox were sold to Andrew Thompson. The 76B was retained by Blignaut's team in 1979 but not used that season. It was then sold to the Domingo brothers (who also owned a bitza 76B built using a spare 76B monocoque) and fitted with a Mazda engine for Roy Klomfass to race in Formula South Africa in 1980. After Klomfass turned down the drive, Domingo drove it instead. The car was driven Dave Charlton at Kyalami in August 1980 as Domingo was observing Ramadan, but failed to start after being injured in practice for the saloon car race. Domingo continued to drive the car until early 1981, when it was sold to Ivano Moavero and raced by him in 1981 and part of 1982. Then in mid-1982, Moavero bought the highly-developed ex-Duxbury 77B, and sold the 76B to Michele ('Mike') Peters who raced it through to July 1985. Peters sold the car to Terry Moss, to replace the 77B that Moss had wrecked. However, instead of racing the 76B, Moss stripped the car and used its components to build up a March 782. The 76B tub was put aside until 2010, when it was acquired from a friend of Moss by Bernard Tilanus. The tub number showed that it was the original monocoque from 76B/19, so it was reunited with its original chassis plate (which had been kept by Brian Raubenheimer) and fully rebuilt. It was later sold by Tilanus to the Scribante family. In early 2022, the Scribante family sold the 76B and their March 782 to Mark Charteris in the UK. He kept the 782 but sold the 76B to Paul Nightingale in Derbyshire.
9. Maurer MM80 ["02"] (Vernon Bricknell): Vernon Bricknell acquired a Maurer MM80 for the South African Sigma Series in 1981. The car was identified in at least five different entry lists in early 1981 as "Maurer MM80-02", indicating that it was chassis MM80-02, but the car is believed in South Africa to have been chassis MM80-04. Raced by Bricknell through the 1981 season, and raced again at some events in 1982. The car was then retained by Bricknell in his aircraft hanger until being sold in the mid 1990s to his friend Neil Watson-Smith in Durban, and then on to Gordon Capper. The car was restored by Duncan Thersby. The car was later acquired from Capper by Graham Vos (Johannesburg, Gauteng), and sold by him to Reg Anderson (Cape Town, Western Cape) at some point before 2006.
10. Ralt RT2/79 [152] (Mel Lahner): 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.
11. Chevron B25 [25-73-02?] (Wayne Lahner): Chassis number observed by the Formula 1 Register (F1R) on the #7 Team Gunston car of Brian van Hage in the 1973 South African Formula 1 championship (F2 class). This car was raced by Ian Scheckter at the start of the 1973 season, then by Piet de Klerk, Andrew Thompson and Brian von Hage after Scheckter moved to the team's #8 car. These two cars remained with the team for 1974, now run by Ken Howes as Team Lexington. Chassis 73-02 is believed to have been the car driven by Guy Tunmer in 1974, and then by Roy Klomfass in 1975. At the end of 1975 it was sold, with chassis 73-03, to the Domingo brothers and converted to Formula Atlantic for 1976. Although it has not been possible to determine the exact usage of the two cars, it is assumed here that 73-02 was the #8 car raced by John Nicholson, Alan Domingo and Yunus Domingo in 1976. In 1978, one of the B25s was sold to Mel Lahner, and entered by his Rackrite team for Mike Hoffmann to drive. Not seen in 1979, but then converted by Andrew Thompson to Mazda rotary engines for the new South African 'Atlantic' rules. Raced by various drivers in this form in 1981 and 1982. In the absence of any other information, it is assumed that 73-02 was the first choice car, wearing #10 in 1980 and #15 in 1981. Sold to Thompson in 1983, and retained until the mid-1990s when it was restored, and sold to Gary Dunkerley in 1998. Sold on in December 2006 about 2005 to a 'racing trust' owned by Anthony Corin (Pretoria) and Peter Lindenberg. They sold it to New Zealand some time around 2016.
12. Chevron B34 [34-76-08] (Roley Nöffke): New to Basil van Rooyen for the South African Formula Atlantic series, sponsored by Wrangler Jeans. Van Rooyen significantly modified the car during the season, with a March nose and side radiators. Retained for 1977, again with Wrangler Jeans sponsorship. Van Rooyen recalls that he sold the car to Tony Martin, and it was at some point during this time that the car was raced by Desiré Wilson in the first few races of the 1978 series. It was raced by Tony Martin at some races in 1979 as an alternative to his unsatisfactory B45, but Bernard Tilanus recalls that "the tub was damaged when Tony fell asleep and went off the road writing the trailer and car off". Tilanus explained that Martin bought a replacement tub from Chevron and built a standard B34. It was entered for some late-1980 races as a spare car for Martin, and retained in early 1981 as a spare to Martin's new Maurer MM80. The B34 was then sold to Roley Nöffke, who raced it in 1981. At the end of the season, Mike Needell took over the drive, still entered by Nöffke's Roray Racing, and he drove it through the 1982 season. Tilanus reports that it later went to Keith Horwood. Tilanus then bought the car and sold it to Mike Fergusson, but the restoration was still incomplete when Fergusson died. It was then bought by Colin Frost, who took it to Andrew Thompson to complete the restoration.
13. March 77B [11] (Brian Ferris): New for Rupert Keegan to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in early 1977, run for him by the Doug Shierson team and entered as Team Uniewinkels. Then run by Martin Flint and Roger Taylor for John Gibb to race for the rest of 1977. Retained by Flint & Taylor's Team Uniewinkels for 1978, when it was driven by Roy Klomfass. Moved to Alex Blignaut's Team Texan for the start of the 1978/79 season, still with Klomfass driving, as a spare car to the team's new March 79B. The 77B was then sold to Dave Hart's Team Valvoline. Hart fitted it with a BMW engine for the new Formula South Africa in 1979, then converted to a Mazda engine for 1980. It was then sold to Brian Ferris, who raced it in 1981 and in early 1982 before his new Ralt RT4/82 arrived. The 77B may have been raced by Ferris's friend Klaus Grogor in the latter half of 1982. In January 1983, it was sold to Fred Goddard who ran it for several drivers as part of his Petromark team over the next two seasons, including Braam Smith, Roy Carr, Derek Irving and Danie Mulder. It was unused in 1985, then driven by Ivano Moavero in 1986. Then retained by Goddard who took it with him to the UK when he emigrated in 1989 to set up Fred Goddard Racing. After Fred's death in July 2007, the 77B passed to his son Earl Goddard, and he sold it to Nick Beer around 2013.
14. March 802 [6] (Dave Charlton): 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.

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 contributed by Tony Kent. Rand Daily Mail 4 May 1981 p2. Adri Bezuidenhout's 'Wheels' yearbook gave aggregate position for the two races: Martin, Duxbury, Taylor, Van Rooyen, M. Domingo, Moavero.