S.A. Drivers Championship Race

Killarney, 22 Mar 1986

Notes on the cars:

1. Ralt RT4/82 [330-2] (Wayne Taylor): 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.
2. March 78B [782-2(A)] (Bernard Tilanus): Rad Dougall's race car at Thruxton 27 Mar 1978 and presumably the one he then wrecked in practice at the Nürburgring 30 Apr 1978. Presumably "Toleman's second" 782 driven by Tiff Needell at Hockenheim 26 Sep. To Paul Smith for Formula Atlantic in 1979, but wrecked on Smith's first outing, at Mallory Park in March 1979. The car was rebuilt on a new tub fabricated by Mo Gomm, but the original tub was also repaired and retained by Smith incomplete. As the "782-2" plate remained on this car, the Gomm car is regarded here as a separate car, 'PS1'. The new 'PS1' and the remains of 782/2 were both sold to Bernard Tilanus "in the autumn of 1981" and shipped to South Africa. Tilanus raced 'PS1' for the DAW Supplies team in the Sigma Mazda series in early 1982 but then sold it to Hekro for Ian Scheckter to drive. The team then built up a second car on the original 782/2 tub, distinguished by its black dash roll hoop, and Tilanus raced that car at Killarney, Welkom and Kyalami in May 1982. It was then raced by Braam Smith for DAW in late 1982 and early 1983. In April 1983, it was sold to Billy Maloney, replacing his March 77B, and was raced by him for the rest of 1983. He retained the car for 1984, but damaged it in a practice accident at East London in August. It is believed to have been sold to Arthur Christie in January 1985. It was sold back to Bernard Tilanus for the 'Can-Am' season in 1986. After that, it went to Keith Horwood who planned to use it for a sports car project in 1987, but that did not go ahead and the car remained unused for two years. It was then rebuilt by Andrew Thompson as a show car for the Rembrandt Group's Heidelberg Motor Museum. The museum was acquired by BAT in 1999, who closed it in 2003. The following year, the car collection was acquired by Johann Rupert, son of Dr Anton Rupert and moved to the L'Ormarins Estate in Franschhoek. The Franschhoek Motor Museum, named after Johan Rupert, was opened in May 2007, and the March 782 remains on display in Ian Scheckter's 1978 livery. Scheckter's Lexington March 78B was, of course, a completely different car, and was destroyed in 1980.
3. Ralt RT4/83 [426] (Michael Bryan): 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.
4. 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).
5. 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.

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.