Hawke DL6A and DL6B car-by-car histories
Joe Difalco's Hawke DL6 at Mosport Park in 1974. Copyright Peter Viccary (gladiatorroadracing.ca) 2021. Used with permission.
The Hawke DL6 was built in DL6A specification for British Formula Atlantic and DL6B specification for Canadian Formula B. Gary Magwood was Hawke importer for Canada, but made enough negative comments about his own car to ensure it had very limited sales.
David Lazenby worked for Lotus for much of the 1960s, as mechanic for Jim Clark in F1 in 1963 and becoming General Manager of Lotus Components Ltd in 1968. He then left to start his own business, David Lazenby & Company Ltd, and designed a Formula Ford car for 1969, the Hawke DL1, which went into production as the Hawke DL2. Tony Roberts moved from Lotus to become Hawke sales manager, and the company was very successful in Formula Ford in 1969 and 1970. In 1971, Hawke moved from its small workshop in Waltham Cross to larger premises at Hoddesdon, and expanded the company's range to include the DL5 for Formula Super Vee, DL6 for Formula B and Formula Atlantic, and DL7 for Formula 5000.
The prototype Hawke DL6 was sold as a DL6A to John Day for the British Formula Atlantic series. Day was only in his second season of racing, and was moving up from a Morgan 4/4. He planned to use a Racetune BDA, but when the car finally appeared, it was using a Ford twin cam. The second car went to Canadian distributor Gary Magwood, who had won the 1970 Canadian Formula Ford championship in a Hawke, but the DL6B arrived three months later than he was expecting, which disrupted his season. Magwood's assessment of the DL6B was that it was fragile and overweight. He took pole position at one race, but apart from a couple of wins in regional races, his only respectable finish was third place at Trois-Rivières at the end of August. Despite this, his sponsor Rick Shea bought a second DL6B which he raced occasionally. None of the three cars built achieved any real success, but one continued to appear in regional races in Ontario, and another raced on in Scottish hillclimbs.
Hawke had over-expanded, and had to be rescued by a capital injection by Mac McKinstry at the end of 1971. A multi-purpose monocoque design was planned for Formula Three, Formula Atlantic and Formula B, but instead the company focused its attention on Formula Ford in 1972 and 1973. In 1974, Rupert Keegan raced and frequently crashed a Hawke DL11 in Formula Ford, and his close involvement with Hawke resulted in his father Mike Keegan taking over the company and bringing in Adrian Reynard as designer. A Hawke DL18 was built for Rupert to drive in Formula 3 in 1976, but he preferred a new Chevron B34 instead. Despite continuing success in Formula Ford, Keegan decided to wind up the company in 1979.
If you can add to our understanding of these cars, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.
Andrew Thompson and David Lazenby with the first Hawke DL6. Copyright Stuart Thompson 2035. Used with permission.
Ted Dzierzek in his Hawke DL6A at Ingliston in May 1974. Copyright Colin Lourie 2024. Used with permission.
New for John Day for British Formula Atlantic in 1971, entered by Chris Tennant. Day announced the car in April, but the first known appearance was at Castle Combe on 12 June, where he failed to start the Formula Atlantic race but later finished third in a Formule Libre race. He also appeared at Oulton Park in July, but spun off at Cascades during the Formula Atlantic race and his engine dropped a valve before the Formule Libre race. He was not seen after that until the end of September the following year, when he made a couple more appearances.
The car was sold to Ted Dzierzek (Kirkliston, Edinburgh, Scotland) who entered it as a Hawke Atlantic in hillclimbs and Formule Libre races in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Dzierzek moved to an ex-F3 Ensign for 1976, and the Hawke was advertised by Bobby Howlings' Cheshire Sports Cars Ltd (Congleton, Cheshire) in March 1976 as a "1972 Atlantic car" with Holbay twin cam engine.
Subsequent history unknown but see the Patrick Gauci car, which was imported into Malta from the UK some time in the mid-1970s.
Driven by: John Day and Ted Dzierzek. First race: Castle Combe, 12 Jun 1971. Total of 26 recorded races.
Gary Magwood in his Hawke DL6B at Mont-Tremblant in July 1971. Copyright Archives Autocourse.ca 2025. Used with permission.
New to Gary Magwood (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and raced in Canadian Formula B in 1971, with Castrol sponsorship. For 1972, Don Mason (Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario) traded his Formula A Chinook for Magwood's Hawke, but Magwood has no recollection of acquiring a Chinook. Raced by Mason in the 1972 Players Canadian Formula B series. According to a later advert for the car, it was owned by Ludwig Heimrath (Scarborough, Ontario) between 1973 and 1992, and then sold via Jacques Rivard (Ontario) to Scott Yturria (Elmhurst, NY). It was partially restored for Yturria by Skip Weld in Florida, then sold to Al Hughes (Texas) in 1998 and raced by him. Then to Ron Hornig (Laramie, Wyoming), restored by JD McDermott of Front Range Motorsports, and maintained for Hornig by J&L Fabricating (Puyallup, WA). Sold by Hornig to Ric Baribeault (Houston, TX) in January 2025. Entered by Baribeault for the 2025 COTA SpeedTour at Circuit of The Americas, Thu, Oct 30 - Sun, Nov 2, 2025.
Driven by: Gary Magwood and Don Mason. First race: Edmonton (R1), 20 Jun 1971. Total of 9 recorded races.
Later unresolved Hawke DL6Bs
Two more Hawke DL6B drivers appeared later, and it looks quite possible that these both owned a third DL6. Gary Magwood mentioned in an interview that despite Magwood's problems with the DL6B, Rick Shea later bought his own, presumably chassis DL6B/3. This would be the #43 Hawke that Shea had at Sanair in May 1972, and that Brian Pegg raced at Mosport Park in October. As an advert for the ex-Magwood car appears to give a completely ownership history for his DL6B/2, it is likely that the Rick Shea car was then the DL6B raced by Joe Difalco in Regional Ontario events between 1974 and 1976.
Rick Shea (Markham, Ontario, Canada) sponsored Gary Magwood's season of Formula Ford in 1970, and also bought a Hawke DL6B for himself to drive either later in 1971 or for 1972. His only known race with the car was at Sanair in late May 1972, where he qualified 15th out of the 17 cars that set a time, and did not finish the race. As Shea was entered at #43, this must be the car that Brian Pegg entered and drove at Mosport Park in October 1972. He was 23rd out of 25 in qualifying, and retired from the race. Subsequent history unknown.
Driven by: Rick Shea and Brian Pegg. First race: Sanair (R1), 28 May 1972. Total of 2 recorded races.
Joe Difalco and his Hawke DL6 at a regional event at Ontario in 1976. Copyright Peter Viccary (gladiatorroadracing.ca) 2021. Used with permission.
Joe Difalco raced a Hawke DL6B in Ontario regional races in 1974 and 1976. Nothing more known.
Patrick Gauci's Hawke with Kawasaki engine. Copyright Patrick Gauci 2025. Used with permission.
There has been an ex-Formula Atlantic Hawke racing in Malta since the mid-1970s. It was brought to the island by Joe Martin of Burton Performance Parts for his son John to drive in local hillclimbs. According to John's brother Tony, it came from the UK. Exactly when the Hawke arrived in Malta has been the subject of great debate, but it was certainly there by December 1977, when John Martin finished third in the Mtahleb hill climb behind two visiting Italian competitors.
The car was bought from Joe Martin in the late 1970s by Joseph 'Noni' Grech, who replaced the Lotus engine with a BDA engine. He raced it in 1980, and some time after that sold it to Joe Saydon. According to David Anastasi, an expert on Malta motor racing history, the Hawke went to Vince 'Belula' Borg for the 1983 season. Borg had raced Martin's previous car, a Royale RP3, with great success in 1982. He transferred his 2-litre Ford Pinto engine from the Royale to the Hawke for 1983.
Public motor racing in Malta was banned in 1985 after spectators were injured in an accident at Mtahleb. The Hawke remained in Malta during this time, and had a number of owners who could not use it. After motor racing resumed, it was acquired by Mark Camilleri, who recommissioned it with a 1.9-litre Peugeot Mi16 engine. After he raced it a couple of times, the Hawke was damaged in a towing accident. It was still dismantled when bought from Camilleri by Patrick Gauci in 2000. He repaired it, making new parts as required, and new bodywork, and raced it from 2001 to 2008, when the Peugeot engine failed. He then installed a 1.2-litre Kawasaki ZX12R engine and gearbox, and has continued to race the car in that specification. Patrick's son Nicky Gauci also races the car. Still with Gauci in October 2025.
Driven by: John Martin. First race: Mtahleb, 4 Dec 1977. Only one recorded race.
Acknowledgements
Background on Hawke comes from the Hawke Racing Cars profile in Mike Kettlewell's Motor Racing Directory pp24-25, and 'They make racing cars: Hawke Racing" by ARM (Andrew Marriott) in Motor Sport (December 1971, p1255). Knowledge of John Day's car is primarily from Autosport, and the history of Gary Magwood's comes from Canadian press reports (via newspapers.com) and from Canadian Motorsport Bulletin. Knowledge of Joe Difalco's Hawke comes entirely from Peter Viccary's pictures on his valuable gladiatorroadracing.ca website. The history of the Patrick Gauci was developed from Patrick's own knowledge of the car's history and Joe Anastasi's series of posts on "Malta Motor Sport History" covering the period from the early 1970s to 1985.
Thanks also to Stuart Thompson for his picture of his father working with David Lazenby on the first DL6, to Colin Lourie and Dominic St-Jean (editor of the excellent autocourse.ca) for allowing use of their pictures, to Louie Shefchik for his update, and to Dan Rear for picking up (some of) my mistakes.
If you can add to our understanding of these cars, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.
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