S.A. Drivers Championship Race

Kyalami, 10 Oct 1984

Notes on the cars:

1. Maurer MM83 [05?] (Trevor van Rooyen): DAW Supplies acquired a second Maurer MM83 for the 1984 season. This car was reported to have been significantly strengthened, compared with the pre-season version that DAW had acquired a year earlier. DAW chief mechanic Brian Kruger recalls that it was the ex-Kenny Acheson car. It was raced by Trevor van Rooyen through the 1984 season. At the end of 1985, both of DAW's MM83s are reported to have been sold to Walter Brun in Switzerland.
2. Ralt RT4/82 [330-2] (Bernard Tilanus): New to Pete Fouché's Pretoria Brick Racing in mid-1982 for Wayne Taylor to race in the Formula South Africa series. Severely damaged in practice at Kyalami in early September when Taylor went off on oil. Rebuilt on a new monocoque for Taylor for 1983. In August 1983, Taylor "parted company" with Pretoria Brick and moved to Brian Ferris's team. He continued the drive the same Ralt for the rest of the season, renting it from Pretoria Brick, but now painted blue. The car was hired to Bernard Tilanus for 1984, and run for him by Fred Goddard with sponsorship from Camec Cranes. He retained the Ralt for 1985, again run by Goddard and with sponsorship from Duckhams and Camec, although the car was entered as a Lant RR84 at two races early that season. In 1986, the car was hired by Wayne Taylor, who had sponsorship from BP and Whoosh, and started the season very well, winning the first three races. The car was then written off in a testing accident, and Taylor rented RT4-325 to replace it. Taylor returned the remains of 330 to Pretoria Brick. The Ralt tub was so badly damaged that it was thrown away and an unused Lant tub then sat with the parts as a potential future project. This stayed with Piet & George Fouché until around 2005 when the complete rear end of '330 was sold to Fanie Brand (Cape Town) who intended to use it to upgrade a Tiga Sports 2000. This package included the Hewland FT200 which was verified as the original fitted to 330, together with Ralt rear uprights, brakes and other parts. The remaining front end parts were thrown away, and the unused Lant tub ended up hung on the wall of a garage.
3. March 832 (Ian Scheckter): New to Ken Howes' Team Gunston for Ian Scheckter to drive in the South African Sigma series in 1983. It arrived as a monocoque and front suspension and was completed using the rear end of a March 822. Raced by Scheckter for the rest of the 1983 season, easily winning the championship. Retained by Scheckter and Howes for 1984, again winning the title. Scheckter then left the Sigma series again, and Howes acquired a newer March 842 for new driver John Moni to drive in 1985. The March 832 was sold by Team Gunston to Michele Peter, who raced the car in 1985. It was then exported by Gavin Hards to Marcus Hotz in Switzerland. By 2004, it had been acquired by Felix Haas, when it still had its Mazda engine and was still in the red #7 livery used by Peter during 1985. A few years later, the car was sold to Jakob Eckhart (Switzerland) who fitted a turbo Mazda engine. Some time after that, it was sold to Lance Robinson (Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire), who restored it and has tested it since, but not raced it.
4. Lant RR83 ['3'?] (Dave Charlton): Built new in early 1983 for Rack Rite Racing to use the Formula South Africa series, presumably built to replace the Lant wrecked by Dave Charlton at Kyalami in January. It is believed to have been first raced by Charlton at Killarney in April 1983, then by Roy Klomfass at Kyalami on 31 May 1983. It is very difficult to know for sure what happened next, but the most likely scenario is that Klomfass drove the team's older Ralt on 16 July, and the new Lant ended up being raced by Bernard Tilanus for Fred Goddard's Petromark team. Tilanus recalls swapping cars with Klomfass after that race, which would suggest Klomfass drove the new Lant at the remaining races of 1983. The history of the car from this point onwards is uncertain. In 1984, this is likely to be the #14 Lant raced by Roy Klomfass early in the season, then taken over by Matt Keyser from the Aldo Scribante race onwards. Assuming Keyser stayed with the same car in 1984, this is likely to have been the #13 Lant 83A raced by Dave Charlton in the final race of the 1984 season, and would then be the car retained by Rack-Rite for 1985, when it was raced by American Mike Nish at Kyalami in January 1985 and crashed heavily at Wesbank corner.
5. March 832 (John Moni): John Moni bought a March 832 from an Italian F2 team and fitted a Mazda engine for the 1984 Formula South Africa series. He raced the car in 1984 with Duckhams Oil sponsorship. At the end of that season, Moni joined Team Gunston and exported the 832 to Switzerland, acquiring a newer March 842 for the 1985 season. The subsequent history of the 832 after it reached Switzerland is unknown.
6. March 832 [15] (Klaus Grogor): New to James Gresham Racing for Enrique Mansilla to drive in Formula 2 in 1983. To Klaus Grogor and fitted with a Mazda engine for the South African Sigma series in 1984. Retained by Grogor for 1985. Grogor appeared again on entry lists in early 1986. The car was then converted into a Sportscar/Thundersports configuration for 1987 and 1988 in South Africa and driven by Grogor and Mike Rossouw with Autoquip sponsorship. It was reverted to single-seater specification and exported by Groger to Europe in 1989. It was acquired (possibly via Gavin Hards) by John Brannigan in England, and sold to Peter Thurston, who fitted a turbocharged Mazda engine and raced it in libre events at Lydden in 1990 and 1991. It was then acquired by Ron Cumming (Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) and used in libre events with a BMW F2 engine. In 2001, it was acquired from Cumming by Peter Hammond and sold to Kevan McLurg in 2007, and then to Herbert Schnell in Germany in 2008. It returned to McLurg in 2015, and was sold to Peter Kernick in South Africa in November 2016.
7. Ralt RT4/83 [426] (Braam Smith): New to Pretoria Brick Racing and fitted with a Mazda engine for George Fouche to drive in the 1983 Formula South Africa series. For 1984, it was rented to Braam Smith, and run for him by Fred Goddard, although entered by Pretoria Brick. It was entered again for Braam Smith at the opening round of the 1985 season, but does not appear in any results for that season. It was rented by Michael Bryan for 1986, with sponsorship from Whoosh Pool Cleaners, but the sponsorship fell away quite quickly, and Bryan returned the Ralt to Pretoria Brick. It was then retained by George Fouche for many years, but was not used again. In 2005, Fouche sold it to Jimmy Price, and in 2011 it passed to Barry Scott, who raced it in South African historic events. In 2017, it was bought by Peter Kernick.
8. March 802 [6] (Ken Critchfield): 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.
9. Ralt RT4/82 [325] (Brian Ferris): New to Brian Ferris in mid-1982 for the Formula South Africa series, where he was entered by his own Dealer Lamborghini operation. Ferris retained the Ralt for the 1983 season, when he was usually entered by Dealer Maserati. Ferris missed the first half of the 1984 season, but had returned by the time of the East London race in August. In 1985, this was one of two cars available to Wayne Taylor to race in the South African series. His car was always entered as a Lant but photographs show he used the Ralt at Goldfields in March and at Kyalami in July, so it is likely he used it at other races. It is assumed here that he also raced the Ralt at Aldo Scribante in August and Killarney in September. Taylor rented a different Ralt for the start of the 1986 season but crashed the Ralt in private testing, writing it off, and returned to chassis 325 for the second half of the season, winning the title with it. Taylor's career then took him to the US, and the Ralt was left in storage with a friend for many years. Around 2006, it ws nearly stolen, so Taylor decided to sell it. It was bought by Colin Ellison, and its identity was confirmed at that point by its FT200 gearbox number. Subsequently sold to the Scribante family collection where it awaits a full restoration.
10. Lant RR84 (Bill Maloney): Believed to have been a new car raced by Roy Klomfass at the Formula South Africa race at Kyalami on 28 July 1984 for Rack Rite Racing. It was loaned to Bill Maloney and raced by him at Goldfields in September. Then bought by Maloney and raced by him through the 1985 season, when it was described as a Lant RR85, but it is possible that his 1985 car was a new chassis. The car has a Lant chassis and a Lant-built gearbox, a copy of the Hewland FT200, numbered '003'. Maloney used the car again for the 1986 South African 'Can-Am' season, still in single-seater form. He then fitted it with open sports car bodywork and it in the sports car series that replaced the national series in 1987 and 1988. He then fitted closed bodywork and raced it as a Group C car in 1989, In the early 1990s, it was sold to Dorino Treccani, and returned to single seater specification. In about 2018, it was restored by AJ Kernick for owner Ben Havenga (Cape Town, South Africa).
11. March 76B [19] (Michele Peter): 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.
12. March 77B ['AT'] (Roy Moss): 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.
13. March 76B [1] (Allan Dunlop): New to Ian Scheckter for South African Formula Atlantic in 1976. Sold to Len Booysen for the 1977 season, then loaned by Booysen to Dave Charlton to drive. During this time it was bought from Booysen by Ken Gillibrand, who then loaned to DAW for Bernard Tilanus to drive in April and May 1978. It was unused in 1979, and advertised by Gillibrand in August. Sold later in 1979 to Soon Weeks who fitted the 2-litre BMW engine from Dave Hart's March 77B and raced it in this form in early 1980. Then swapped with Bernard Tilanus and the DAW team for DAW's Wheatcroft R18, and fitted with a Mazda engine. Raced several times by Tilanus but he then left the team after a disagreement with Jeff Waberski and was replaced by Trevor van Rooyen, who raced the 76B for the rest of 1980. It was sold to Vernon Bricknell at the end of that season, and raced by him in early 1981 until his new Maurer MM80 arrived. The 76B was then sold yet again, this time to the Pretoria Brick team for Wayne Taylor to drive, until Hekro's March 802 was acquired for him. Pretoria Brick retained the 76B for 1982, when it was raced by Basil Mann, Kevin Heath and Roy Carr. It was sold to Alan Dunlop for 1983, and he raced it until 1985. It then passed to Neville Riddell and most of its components were used in a sports car built for Riddell by Lew Baker. All that was left was the tub, and this was sold to Fred Goddard who is believed to have stripped it to keep the bulkheads as spares. At this point the 76B no longer existed.
14. Maurer MM81 [01?] (Keith Horwood): Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team acquired a Maurer MM81 partway through the 1982 Formula South Africa season for Bernard Tilanus to drive, replacing his March 782. DAW acquired a newer Maurer for 1983, and the MM81 was raced by Trevor van Rooyen in the early part of the season. In early March 1983, DAW dropped Tilanus from the team and van Rooyen became No 1 driver, taking over Tilanus's newer Maurer. The MM81 was then sold to Roley Noffke of Roray Racing for Matt Keyser to drive for the rest of 1983. Keyser raced it again for the first few months of 1984 until he moved to the Rack Rite team. The Maurer was sold to Keith Horwood later in 1984, and retained by him for the 1985 and 1986 seasons. The car was then exported, and is understood to have gone to the UK. Other sources report that it went to Germany.
15. March 77B [11] (Willie Hepburn): 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.
16. March 832 (Ivano Moavero): New to Ken Howes' Team Gunston for Graham Duxbury to drive in the South African Sigma series in 1983. Like the Ian Scheckter car, it arrived as a monocoque and front suspension, and was completed using the rear end of Duxbury's March 82A. Raced by Duxbury for the remainder of the 1983 season. To Ivano Moavero in 1984, and raced by him and also by Ian Scheckter when he borrowed it for the second heat at Killarney in September 1984. Sold to Ken Critchfield for the 1985 season. The March 832 is believed to have been exported by Gavin Hards to John Brannigan in England. Brannigan received three March 832s in total and it is unclear which was which. He sold one or two of these to John Churchill for a Lancia Stratos GT car project, and it is possible that the Duxbury car was one of those. Subsequent history unknown.
17. March 792 [79A-27] (Steve Herbst): 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

Grid sheet contributed by Ian Hebblethwaite. Adri Bezuidenhout's 'Wheels' yearbook gave the top six as: Van Rooyen, Tilanus, Scheckter, Charlton, Moni and Grogor. Laps, race time, and average speed from 'The Winners Book' by James O'Keefe.