S.A. Drivers Championship Race

Killarney, 9 Feb 1985

Notes on the cars:

1. Lant RR84 (Mike Nish): After Wayne Lahner crashed his Lant at Goldfields Raceway in March 1984, Floris du Plessis (the father of Andre and Jan) built up a new car for him. It used a Lant monocoque, a Lant FT200-copy gearbox numbered '002' and had at least three orginal Ralt magnesium uprights. Given the '002' gearbox and other anecdotal evidence, it appears that this new car contained some parts from the previous entity Lant 'No 2' wrecked by Dave Charlton at Kyalami in January 1983. This is believed to be the car raced by Roy Klomfass at Kyalami on 2 June 1984, but exactly where else it was used remains unclear. It is then likely to be the car driven by Mike Nish at Killarney in February 1985 as the #14 entry after he crashed the team's other car at Kyalami. Then probably for Tony Martin later in the season. Photographs suggest that it was then the #22 car driven by Tony Martin and Basil Mann for Mel Lahner's team in 1986. This is then believed to be the Lant retained by Rack-Rite until about 2003 when it was sold to Alan ("AJ") Kernick. As well as the three Ralt magnesium uprights mentioned above, this car also has signs of green paint from the Hyperama livery run by Charlton and Klomfass can be seen on the wheels and on overspray on the tub. It also has a wheelbase about 3¾ inches shorter than the 1984 Lant that Kernick restored for Ben Havenga.
2. Maurer MM83 [05?] (Trevor van Rooyen): New for Kenny Acheson to drive for Maurer Motorsport in F2 in 1983, run for him by Paul Owens. Presumably the same #5 car he drove up to Donington Park in June, his last race of the season. Acheson was then given the RAM F1 drive, so Owens decided to withdraw from the F2 series. The Maurer was put up for sale and DAW chief mechanic Brian Kruger recalls that it was the second MM83 acquired by DAW for 1984. 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 Krüger recalls that it had been the ex-Kenny Acheson car. It was raced by Trevor van Rooyen through the 1984 season as DAW's #4 entry. Krüger's DAW team paperwork from Kyalami in February 1985 shows the chassis number of the car driven by van Rooyen as "MM85-05". It is believed to have been the #3 entry for van Rooyen all season, with DAW's older MM83-"02 SA" being retained as a spare car wearing #4. At the end of 1985, both of DAW's MM83s were sold to Switzerland. At some point MM83-05 was acquired by Edi Taveri (Switzerland) who ran it in events still in DAW livery and still with its Mazda engine. He used the car at Dijon in June 1998. He later used the car in historic racing in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019. Taveri died at the end of December 2022.
3. Lant RR84 (Wayne Taylor): Built in early 1984 by Rack Rite Racing team manager Dave Morgan for Wayne Taylor to race in the Formula SA series. It used a Lant tub, locally-made cast alumnium uprights, a Hewland FT200 gearbox supplied to Lant Cars, and a larger Ralt RT2 fuel cell supplied by Premier Fuel Systems. Raced by Taylor for the remainder of the 1984 season, without notable success. Retained by Taylor for 1985, when it was entered by Brian Ferris Racing, with backing from BP and Mainardi Civil Contractors. Taylor won four races, and finished second in the championship, but he also used Ferris's Ralt at an unknown number of races that year. From July onwards, Lant Cars was shown as one of Taylor's entrants, and at the Kyalami race on 27 July, Tony Martin raced a Lant in BP livery, which seems likely to have been Taylor's Lant. It is assumed here that Taylor also raced the Ralt at Aldo Scribante in August and Killarney in September. Basil Mann was due to drive "the BP/MMI Lant" at Aldo Scribante but it was canibalised for parts so that Taylor could race. For 1986, the car returned to Rack Rite and was raced by Trevor van Rooyen. The championship was then cancelled, and the car was retained by Rack-Rite until 2010, when it was sold to Ian Hebblethwaite.
4. March 842 (John Moni): After Ian Scheckter and Ken Howes left Formula SA after the 1984 season, Gavin Hards took over as team manager, and John Moni joined as driver. They purchased a second-hand March 842 for the 1985 season, which was entered for Moni by Team Gunston. The car did not work well and by the end of the season was being described as a 842/832. Nearly all the up-to-date F2 cars left South Africa in 1986, but the fate of this car remains unknown.
5. Maurer MM83 (Brian Ferris): Tony Martin raced a Maurer MM83 for Ian Martin Racing (South Coast Motors) in 1984. This car has been described as his MM82 updated, but it had the distinctive pullrod front suspension of an MM83, not the rocker-arm suspension of an MM82. Martin's primary focus in 1984 was racing in IMSA, so the Maurer was raced by Graham Duxbury and Ben Morgenrood when Martin was unavailable. The car went to Brian Ferris for 1985, who also entered it as an MM83. Subsequent history unknown but it is said to have been exported to the UK.
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. 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.
8. March 832 (Ken Critchfield): 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.
9. Lant-Ralt RT4 (Ivano Moavero): Ivano Moavero bought a new Lant monocoque for the 1983 season and it was built up for him by Eddie Pinto using Ralt components, new RT4-size Marston bag tanks and a new Hewland FT200. The resulting car was usually entered as a Ralt, and although it was entered for a number of events in 1983, it did not race that season. It was finally raced by Moavero during the 1984 season, when he was sponsored by Niall's Car Radio. Later that season, Moavero acquired the ex-Graham Duxbury March 832, and the Lant was then driven by Niall Bernic. Moavero raced the Lant again in the 1985 season. The car went to Bill Dunlop in 1986, when it was raced by Allan Dunlop. Dunlop then swapped it for Trevor Trautmann's Chevron B29. Trautmann considered using it to build a 'Can-Am' sports car, but the project did not proceed. It was subsequently sold to Vicky Chandhok in India, who raced it at Madras in 1989. It was next seen with John Payne in the UK, who raced it in Sprints between 1994 and 1996. It was then sold to Cyril Orme-Lynch in Ireland, and by 2005 was owned by Peter and Simon McKinley in Ireland. Peter noted that the car carried the chassis number "RR 8302", but other Lants do not carry a number in the same position. Simon McKinley ran the car in hillclimbs in 2013 and 2014, using a 2.4-litre Millington engine with Warrior head. In April 2015, he crashed the Lant during the Clare Motor Club Hillclimb and was killed.
10. March 77B [722] (Michael Bryan): Built up in March 74B specification by André Verwey (Johannesburg, South Africa) for Garry Ainscough (Bulawayo, Rhodesia) to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in 1976. It has been suggested that it was built from a March 722, chassis 722/17, but evidence for this proving elusive, and it is possible that a tub number, such as AM72-17, has been misinterpreted. Ainscough raced the car again at the start of 1977, but it then disappeared again until 1980, when Alan Macdonald bought a March 722 from Tony Martin and updated it with a Mazda engine and wing-car sidepods for the Sigma Series. It was reported to be the "ex-Ainscough" March. Macdonald sold it to Dave Hart's Team Valvoline for 1981 after Hart lost his drive in the Hekro March 802. Kent Dyson bought it from Hart for the last race of the 1981 season and retained it for 1982, intending to update it to 77B specification. Ian Hebblethwaite then reports that it went to Keith Horwood for Michael Bryan in 1985, and then to Lew Baker who was the last to race it. In about 1988, it was sold via Brian Raubenheimer in South Africa to David McLaughlin in England. Its history after 1988 is still to be resolved.

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 Marius Matthee. Top 6 aggregate positions only from Adri Bezuidenhout's 'Wheels' yearbook.