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.
Dave 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 drove a Hawke in Formula 3, and this resulted in his father Mike Keegan taking over the company and bringing in Adrian Reynard as designer. 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.
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 Formula 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.
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).
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 raced a Hawke DL6B in Ontario regional races in 1974 and 1976. Nothing more known.
In April 2020, Island Car Club Malta posted on Facebook that Patrick Gauci and his 18-year-old son Nicky raced a Hawke DL6B in the island's speed events. Patrick Gauci had been racing the Hawke for 20 years, taking his ownership of it back to 2000 or earlier. In 2011, Patrick Gauci was competing in the 1300cc Formula class, and the Hawke was fitted with a 1200cc Kawasaki motorcycle engine. Gauci does not know much about the car's history, just that "it used to be raced in USA in the Formula Atlantic in the early 70’s and was then shipped to Malta". As the ex-Magwood DL6B's history appear to be complete, this suggests Gauci has the ex-Shea car.
Acknowledgements
Hawke Racing Cars profile Motor Racing Directory pp24-25.
If you can add to our understanding of these cars, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.
These histories were last updated on .