Aberdeen & District MC Hill Climb

Fintray, 11 Aug 1974

Notes on the cars:

1. GRD 273 [051-F2] (Doug Thomson): New to Tom Wheatcroft for driver Roger Williamson in F2 in 1973, and used as a T-car at the opening race. The two cars travelled in Wheatcroft's transporter, but at the start of the season were looked after by GRS International chief mechanic Alistair Dimmock. By June, the cars were run by the team's own mechanics, Rick Olivant, formerly with Surtees, and Trevor Foster from Gerard Racing. If it is correct that chassis 052 was destroyed in Williamson's accident in practice at Nivelles-Baulers, then 051 was the team's unused spare after Wheatcroft bought a new March 732. To Doug Thomson for 1974, and fitted with a Ford BDA for Formula Atlantic and hillclimbs. Badly damaged when crashed in practice at Oulton Park in October 1974, and Thomson recalls that the tub was a write off. He acquired a new tub from GRD over the winter and rebuilt the car. It was then sold early in 1975 as a rolling chassis to dealer Mike Gue, who Doug believes sold the car to someone in South Africa. It appears however, that the car went to North America, where it was next seen being raced by Russell Thomson (Vancouver, BC, Canada) in the ICSCC's Formula B class in 1979. It then passed to Graeme Hutton (Vancouver, BC) who raced it in one late-season 1979 event and at least once in 1980, again in ICSCC Formula B. Bought from Hutton in 1990 by Robert Morris (Seattle, WA) and stored at his workshop since then.
2. Chevron B17 [17.70.08] (Alan Thomson): New to Ken Sedgley and raced in British F3 and libre racing in 1970, using Holbay engines. Retained for 1971 and converted to the new 1600cc F3, again with Holbay engines, but rarely seen. Sold to John Finch (Chesterfield) in July 1971 and used in F3 for the rest of the season. Updated to B17c specification and retained by Finch for 1972, now sharing with Graham Lynch, but did not actually race very often. Converted to Formula Atlantic specification for 1973 but used with more success in Formule Libre. Sold to Alan Thomson (Edinburgh, Scotland) in early 1974, still with its Holbay twin cam engine, and used in Scottish and northern English sprints and hillclimbs, winning the Scottish Hillclimb championship in 1975 and 1976. It was then sold to Russell Paterson (Glasgow, Scotland) for hillclimbs and sprints in Scotland in 1977 and then in libre races at Croft and Ingliston in 1978. It is reported to have been wrecked at some point. Later via dealer Bobby Howlings (Alderley Edge, Cheshire) to "M Wakefield-Brand" in 1978, then to David Pullen (Guildford, Surrey) in 1991. Raced by Pullen in HSCC Classic Racing Car Championship events in 2004. The car was made available by Pullen for a test by Alexander Sims in Autosport in February 2011. Later owner Jonathan Sharp reports that Pullen "sold the car to a lady for somebody to drive it at which time it was in a very poor state". Its next owner was John Pearson who "did one race at Brands Hatch before deciding single seaters weren't for him", and he sold it to Jim Blockley (Stroud, Gloucestershire) in 2015. Raced by Blockley in HSCC racing until sold by him to Jonathan Sharp (Alderley Edge, Cheshire) in September 2021 to use in the HSCC Historic F3 series plus selected events in Europe.
3. Brabham BT35 [44] (Jim Campbell): Husband-and-wife hillclimbers Gray and Agnes Mickel (Glasgow, Scotland) bought a new Brabham BT35 for hillclimbs in 1972. It was fitted with a Hart twin-cam and first appeared at the Kinkell Braes hill climb in March 1972. Retained by the Mickels for 1973 and used in British and Scottish championship hillclimbs, acquiring a Hart BDA engine some time during that year. The car was advertised by the Mickels in November 1973 and was bought by Jim Campbell (Bothwell, Scotland) 1974 who raced it until 1978. It was then used by Chris Dowson (Pershore, Worcestershire) in hillclimbs in 1979 and 1980. Fred Edwards (Warboys, Cambridgeshire) bought it in 1985 and used it in Monoposto and HSCC events until 1991 but it was then unused until bought by David Irwin (Evergreen, Colorado) in 2001. Irwin still had it in 2004. It was restored by J&L restorations and had moved to Don Roose (Bainbridge Island, Washington) by 2005. Advertised by Roose in 2007. Sold to Allen Nicholas (California) in December 2009 and used in west coast historic events. Sold by Nicholas to Peter McLaughlin (New Hampshire) in December 2014 but not raced. Sold to David Smoker (South Australia) in April 2016.

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

AS 22 Aug 1974 p57