British Formule Libre 1981

There were four Formule Libre championships in Britain in 1981: the high-profile Donington Open series; a new Northern series co-promoted by the BARC and SMRC; the long-standing Ingliston series; and the well-established BRSCC's Northern championship. Val Musetti took the Donington title, Andy Barton the BARC/SMRC and Ingliston titles, and David Muter the BRSCC title. There was virtually no libre racing at Silverstone, Thruxton, Snetterton, Castle Combe or Brands Hatch, and it had almost died out at Mallory Park and Cadwell Park, but it continued in 1981 at Ingliston, Croft, Aintree and also at Lydden. The anticipated closure of Croft, which had already led to BARC dropping it from their calendar for 1981, was brought forward from 1982 to the end of 1981.

The Donington Open

The Donington Open became a championship in 1981 after the two well-supported test races in 1980 and intended to take advantage of the cancellation of the MCD's Aurora AFX British F1 series and bring in grids of F1 and F2 cars as well as cars from the British Formula Atlantic series. Unfortunately it did not work out as expected and grids needed to be filled out with Clubmans and FF2000 cars. Val Musetti easily won the title in his Fittipaldi F5B, the only F1 runner to take the series seriously. Andy Barton beat Musetti in the final race to take second in the series in his Formula 2 March 782/792, with Brian Robinson third overall in his F2 Chevron. The series was not continued so Robinson converted his Chevron B48 into a Lotus Esprit for Donington's GT championship in 1982 and Barton, after a further year dominating northern libre racing in a March 802, took the same step for 1983.

Donington Open races

19 Apr 1981 > Donington Park

07 Jun 1981 > Donington Park

05 Jul 1981 > Donington Park

20 Sep 1981 > Donington Park

1981 Donington Open Formule Libre Championship table

The points system was the normal 9-6-4-3-2-1 but with an extra point for fastest lap. In each case, the race winner also took that extra point. A points table in Autosport (7 Jan 1982 p25) credited Warren Booth with four of the points that reports had given to Robinson, but this is likely to be an error.

BARC/SMRC Northern Formula Libre championship

Only a few weeks after the BARC Yorkshire Centre announced it was pulling out of circuit racing at Croft, and therefore ending the libre series it ran with the SMRC, the national BARC announced that it would be co-promoting with the SMRC three 'Northern' championships for 1981 to include races at Mallory Park, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park and Ingliston, but oddly not at Croft. The three series were for libre, which received top billing, Modsports and Clubmans, but the libre series would only visit Mallory, Oulton and Ingliston. Knockhill, like Croft, was left out. Rick Gorne, the BARC's Competition Director, seemed unaware that the Yorkshire Centre had been running something very similar with the NSCC and then the SMRC the previous two seasons.

Caledon Coal was later announced as sponsor of the libre series. 13 rounds were announced but the May 10 meeting at Mallory Park went ahead without a libre race and the final round, also at Mallory, had just one starter, a Formula Ford, and even when combined with Super Vee and Clubmans could only fill half the grid.

The races

28 Mar 1981 > Oulton Park

05 Apr 1981 > The Glasgow Herald Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

26 Apr 1981 > The Glasgow Herald Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

09 May 1981 > Oulton Park

17 May 1981 > Lothian Chemical Company Challenge for Libre Cars at Ingliston

06 Jun 1981 > Oulton Park

21 Jun 1981 > Mallory Park

03 Aug 1981 > Oulton Park

16 Aug 1981 > The Mogil Motors Trophy Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

13 Sep 1981 > Ingliston

11 Oct 1981 > The Marlboro Trophy Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

25 Oct 1981 > Mallory Park

1981 Caledon Coal Formule Libre Championship table

The championship had two classes, split at 1600cc. The points system was 9-6-4-3-2-1 for each registered finisher in each class, but was 6-3 only if there were less than three registered starters, such as at the opening round where only Duffield and Muter were registered. Unregistered runners scored nothing even if they registered later, so Evans scored no points for his win at Ingliston in April. Bonus points were awarded for setting fastest lap in class and for bettering the class record, so Musetti scored 11 points at Mallory Park in June and Barton repeated that trick at Oulton Park in August. The end-of-year prize fund was £500, £200 and £100 for the first three places.

Scottish Libre championship

A separate Scottish title continued, with second billing behind the new BARC/SMRC series.

Championship rounds

05 Apr 1981 > The Glasgow Herald Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

26 Apr 1981 > The Glasgow Herald Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

17 May 1981 > Lothian Chemical Company Challenge for Libre Cars at Ingliston

26 Jul 1981 > The Akai Atlantic Challenge for Libre Cars at Ingliston

16 Aug 1981 > The Mogil Motors Trophy Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

13 Sep 1981 > Ingliston

11 Oct 1981 > The Marlboro Trophy Race for Libre Cars at Ingliston

Glasgow Herald Scottish Formule Libre Championship events shown in bold

Championship table

BRSCC Northern Formula Libre championship

The BRSCC continued its series of libre races at Croft, Aintree and Cadwell Park, but started the season with dismal fields and had to share grids with the FF2000 series. the series only flickered into life when Jim Crawford used the June Croft meeting to test his F2 Toleman TG280 and took 1.7 seconds off the outright lap record, leaving it at 58.9s. When Croft and Ingliston meetings clashed, almost everyone headed for Scotland, and when this happened on 13 September, Stuart McPherson was the only libre starter at Croft. The only decent libre grids at Croft in that season were at Darlington & DMC's 'Battle of Britain' race meeting on 31 August and at the "final" meeting on 25 October. Dave Muter won the title, largely as a result of attending more meetings than anyone else.

Championship table

(Of course it wasn't the final Croft meeting, but nobody knew that then. Croft was used for rallycross in 1982, the Darlington & District MC again leading this new activity, and after Croft successfully held the FIA European Rallycross Championship in 1994, it was decided to restore the tarmac circuit, and circuit racing returned in 1995. In 2006, the BARC bought the circuit, and despite an attempt in 2009 by a handful of local residents to limit racing, the circuit remains in use today.)