MCD Open Single Seater Championship Race

Brands Hatch, 19 Sep 1976

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T400 [HU8] (Keith Holland): New to McKechnie Racing Org and raced by Richard Scott and Bob Evans in UK series 1975. To Len Gibbs for Keith Holland UK 1976 and early 1977. To Gerry Amato, then Allan Kayes for Group 8 in 1977. Then unknown until 'found in a garage in Cambridge' by Mike Connor and raced in a libre race at Castle Combe in April 1980. This must be the car Peter Allnutt drove in a libre race at the same circuit in August 1980. Next seen with Mick Hill 1982, who converted it into a "BMW M1" with 7.4-litre Chevrolet V8 for "GT" racing: raced in Donington GT series 1983 (shared between Hill and Kevin Riley). Also raced in Thundersports, co-driven by Riley 1983 and 1984 … advertised by Straight Six (Tony Hildebrand) 1986 … David Sheppard: raced in Thundersports, co-driven by Gary Dobbin, 1989 … Ian Higgins (Boston, Lincolnshire) about 1990, and taken apart to recreate the Lola T400. To Shayne Windelburn (Auckland, New Zealand) around 1991. Raced by Windelburn in Australian and New Zealand historics from 2000 (or earlier), and raced regularly in the F5000 Tasman Revival from its start in November 2003, when he won the feature race at the opening round, to the 2017/18 season. More information about Lola T400 HU8
2. McRae GM1 [015] (Chris Featherstone): Longer wheelbase car built for Graham McRae and raced in the 1973 British season. To Ian Ward Racing early 1974 and modified as "Ward KS1" but not raced in this form. It was then sold to Chris Featherstone and raced by him once at the end of 1974, then through the 1975 and 1976 seasons. After a single race at the start of 1977, the car was raced by Keith Holland in four races later in the year, and then by Featherstone in the Australian Rothmans series in February 1978. To Gary Dumbrell (Australia) 1978, then to Bob Tomlinson 1978, and then to Salt Walther 1979 for the 1979 Rothmans series, but it may be that Lee Seaton of Thomson Motor Auctions owned it though this period. Sold to Ray Gibbs (Australia) September 1979 and kept by him until sold to Stuart Lush (Auckland, New Zealand) 2000, and raced at Historic Sandown that year and in 2001. Lush raced it in the Tasman Cup Revival series from 2003 to 2015, during which time it was also raced by Chris Hyde in the 2009/10 season and by Greg Thornton in the 2012/13 season. Lush also raced the car in England during the Kiwis' visits to the UK in 2005 and 2008, and at Road America in 2014. Lush sold it to its former driver Garry Dumbrell in 2016, and after Dumbrell died in October 2021, it was sold to Peter Brennan (Melbourne, Australia) in December 2021. More information about McRae GM1-015
3. Brabham BT30 [11] (Philip Guerola): Sold to John Watson (Craigavad, County Down, Northern Ireland) for F2 in 1970, replacing a Lola T100 that Watson had used with great success in Irish libre. Retained for F2 in 1971, during which time it was partly updated to BT36 specification. To Bob Howlings (Congleton, Cheshire) for libre 1972 and fitted with a 1800cc Cosworth FVC mid-season. Sold to Tony Dean (Leeds, West Yorkshire) in August so he would have a car for the Rothmans 50,000. To Phillip Guerola (Bickley, Kent) 1973 and raced in libre until the end of 1976. Advertised ("ex-Watson") as a rolling chassis from an Aylesbury number in January 1978 and bought by Barrie Dutnall (Medway, Kent) in 1979 or 1980 but not used. Advertised by Dutnall as a rolling chassis in June 1981. Said to have been owned by Jon Bradburn, David Rishworth (Leamington, Warwickshire) and Kelvin Lambeth before bought by David McLaughlin in or before 2003. To David Brown (Ashford, Kent) 2003. To Ian Gray (Mansfield, Nottinghamshire) 2004.
4. March 74B [712M] (John Bowtell): John Bowtell (Witney, Oxfordshire) raced a March "73B" in British libre racing in 1975. He recalls that it was a 1971 car with 1973 modifications, and came from a garage in Salisbury, which would suggest a connection to Mike Sullivan of Riverside Garage in Salisbury, who ran a 712M in 1974 but who sold three Marches after that season. Bowtell modified the car over the next few seasons. He retained the car for 1976, initially for Indylantic, and then in Shellsport Group 8 races and libre, usually entering it as a 74B. He continued with it in libre in 1977, winning at least five races, and reappeared again with it in 1978, before replacing it with a "77P" for 1979. Subsequent history unknown.
5. GRD B73 [054-F2] (Alan Clennell): New to Hiroshi Kazato, and run for him in 1973 F2 events by GRS International. Kazato used Racing Services alloy Ford BDA engines at first, then moved to Cosworth BDG, and then had a new car built to take a Schnitzer BMW, retained chassis 054 as a spare. Chassis 054 is thought to have been sold to Chris Oates for 1974, and the "ex-Kazato" car that he ran in Formula Atlantic for Richard Morgan and then Frank Sytner, but this may have been an older car. Chassis 054 reappeared in 1976 when it was run in libre racing by Alan Clennell, described as a B73 and using Swindon BDA engines. Retained by Clennell for sprints and hillclimbs in 1977 and 1978. Advertised by Clennell (Southam) as an ex-works 273 in November 1978. Subsequent history unknown.
6. Lola T460 [T450 HU1] (B. Russell): New to Ardmore Racing, fitted with a Swindon BDX F2 engine and raced by Ray Mallock in the opening Shellsport Group 8 race at Mallory Park in March 1976. As the race started, Mallock was pushed into the pits Armco and the Lola was heavily damaged. It was repaired at Lola and hired by Ian Ashley for the F2 race at Thruxton in April, but the car's handling was so poor in practice, he elected not to race it. It was returned to the factory, and was still there awaiting modifications in early June. Then converted to Formula Atlantic specification and sold to Adrian Russell (Thornton Heath, Surrey) for Indylantic and Group 8 in 1976, and in libre for the first half of 1977. Then fitted with a 2-litre Swindon BDX bought from Val Musetti, and used in Shellsport G8 for the remainder of the season. To David Render for 1978, and used in sprints and hillclimbs with a 1600cc BDA but only rarely used from 1978 to 1983. Sprinted by Jonathan Skinner and Anthony Lane later in 1983, and in 1984. Sprinted by Mike Lane from 1984 to 1986. Sold by Lane to Rod Fisher for sprints with a 2-litre BDA in 1988 and 1989. Sold by Fisher to David Dedrickson in about June 2001, and run in Seattle area historic events.
7. Chevron B29 [29-75-17] (Martin Birrane): New to Peter Williams (Brentwood) and raced in the British Formula Atlantic series in 1975, but crashed at Brands Hatch in April and not seen again that season. Entered by Williams' Coin News for Jim Crawford in early 1976 and then sold to Martin Birrane (Ballina, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland) who raced it in G8 and in Atlantic in 1976 and 1977. To Laurence Jacobsen (Glasgow, Scotland) for 1978, fitted with a Swindon BDX and entered by him for Bryce Wilson in libre that year. Converted back to Atlantic spec and raced by Bryce, Jacobsen and Graham Hamilton in 1979. In 1980, Jacobsen had the monocoque shortened and fitted the car with a plastic Sunbeam Stiletto body and Cosworth BDG engine, and raced it in GT racing in Scotland as a Hillman Imp. The car was later sold to Eric Munnoch who raced it with a 3.5-litre Rover V8 in 1982. For 1983, it was fitted with a supercharger and entered as a Davrian Stiletto. He returned with the car for 1984, but was not seen again after the first race. The tub somehow returned to Jacobsen and was sent to ex-Chevron engineer Nigel Dickson to be repaired, but this job was still incomplete when the monocoque was sold by Jacobsen to Sandy Watson. John Bradshaw remembers buying the remains of this car from Watson some time around 2006, when "it consisted of aluminium folded panels, uprights and wishbones with some instruments and a chassis plate, apparently driven by Bryce Wilson in his teenage years". He sold it on to Colin Thorpe, and in March 2010, HSCC News reported that Thorpe had rebuilt the car, which was not thought to have raced since the 1980s, and it would be raced by his son Ollie Thorpe in 2010. It was later sold by Ollie Thorpe via Ken Thorogood to Clive Wood, and by 2020 it was being rebuilt for Wood by Dan Eagling for historic F2 racing with a Richardson BDG. However, Wood crashed the car at Donington in March 2021 and while it was being repaired bought a March 782.

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.

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

Autosport 23 Sep 1976 p37. Autosport said that there were "ten cars actually on the grid" but did not name the other four.