Players (Canadian) Formula B Series Race

Mont-Tremblant, 1 Aug 1971

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT35 [10] (Brian Robertson): New to Brian Robertson (Brockville, Ontario, Canada) and raced by him in the Canadian Formula B series in 1971, entered by Fred Opert Racing. To Al Justason (Toronto, Ontario) for Canadian FB in 1972 and 1973. To Fred Beyer (Ottawa, Ontario) for the Players (Canadian) Formula Atlantic series in 1974 and 1975. History then unknown until it was acquired from Bobby Brown in November 2006 by Kent Copeland (Dallas, TX). Brown is believed to have acquired it from Frank Costey in 2004. Copeland commented that it had been owned in Colorado in 1988, and its last races were believed to have been in 1986. It was red when acquired, but restored to a blue colour. Copeland died in July 2014 and, in May 2015, Todd Upp was advertising the car on behalf of his wife Holly. Sold in August 2022 to Stephen Temple (Santa Cruz, CA).
2. Lotus 69 (David McConnell): Raced by David McConnell (Montréal, Quebec) as part of the Jim Russell Racing Team in the Players Formula B Championship and the Molson Formula Championship in Canada in 1971. McConnell won one round of the Players series and four rounds of the regional Molson Championship, which he easily won. McConnell bought a new GRD for the 1972 Tasman championship, and the subsequent history of the Lotus 69 is unknown.
3. Lotus 69 (Jacques Couture): Raced by Jacques Couture as part of the Jim Russell Racing Team in the Players Formula B Championship and the Molson Formula Championship in Canada in 1971, winning rounds of both, and in the Seattle round of the SCCA Continental Championship. Unknown in 1972, but advertised by Fred Opert in October 1972 and again in February 1973. Thought to be the car driven by Opert customer Julio César Hidalgo in the FB race at Autodromo de San Carlo, Caracas in March 1973. Subsequent history unknown, but may be the Victor Gagliano/Bob Silvestro car from 1974 onwards.
4. March 71BM (Derek Johnson): George Brocklehurst (Montréal, Quebec, Canada) bought a March 71BM but preferred to race it only in minor events, leaving it to Derek Johnson (Montréal, Quebec) in the bigger events. Brocklehurst's car ran as a #93 Todco Racing Team entry. Although it was silver, it seems likely to have been the blue 71BM-5 shown in March records as having gone to a customer of Canadian March importer Gordie Dewar. The car was written off in Johnson's accident in the rain at Trois-Rivières in August when he wrapped it round a telephone pole. [CT]
5. Chevron B17b [17B.70.04?] (Bruce Jensen): Bruce Jensen (Kitchener, Ontario) raced a Chevron B17b in Canadian Formula B in 1971, entered by Jen-Mac Racing. His car was white, and was entered as #41. Jensen retained the car for 1972, again running as #41. Leighton Irwin recalls that in 1972, the car was modified with a sports car nose designed by Terry Welch and larger rear wing. This created too much downforce, and not realising that stiffer springs were needed, his team struggled with the car on faster circuits. Subsequent history unknown.
6. March 71BM (Randy Fraser): Wilson Southam acquired two red March 71BMs for Canadian Formula B in 1971, one for Randy Fraser and one for himself. Fraser's was the first to appear, running as the #54 Tartan Fraser entry and is most likely to have been 71BM-8. In early 1972, the car was sold to Gilles Léger (Lachute, Quebec) and updated to 722 specification by Tom Greatorex, who also prepared the car for Léger. Then to Patricia Smith (Montréal, Quebec) in 1973 entered as #51 by P.S. Translations. Subsequent history unknown.
7. Brabham BT23F [1] (Al Justason): Sold to Bill Gubelmann (Oyster Bay, NY) and fitted with a Vegantune Ford twin cam engine for SCCA 'Pro' and NEDiv Formula B. Raced through 1968 and retained for a few races in 1969 as Gubelmann's BT29 was late arriving. Sold to Al Justason (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) who used it in both the Canadian and US Pro series in 1970 and again in the Canadian FB series in 1971. Sold to Michael Houselander who appeared at two Canadian national events in 1972, Later sold to ‘Dino Delousis’ who fitted a turbocharged 2-litre Ford Pinto engine for libre events but found the car to be undrivable and stored it from about 1974 to 2004 when sold to Dave Darrow (Mississauga, Ontario) and fully restored. Retained until 2007 when sold via race-cars.com to Murray Bryden (Melbourne, Australia). Sold to David Kloster (Kinglake, Victoria) September 2011.
8. March 71BM [1] (Ian Coristine): Gordie Dewar was appointed March importer into Canada for 1971 and his first purchase, chassis 71BM-1, went to Delta Racing Developments for Ian Coristine (Montréal, Quebec) to race in the Players FB series. Coristine finished the season fifth in the red #50 March but crashed in practice for the final race, at Circuit Ste-Croix in October. The car went to Reg Scullion (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Montréal, Quebec) for 1972 and it was entered for him by Kris Harrison's Ecurie Canada, and prepared by Andy Roe and Tom Greatorex. Ecurie Canada had also bought Wilson Southam's engine manufacturing business, acquiring Greatorex with it, and were preparing the engines in Scullion's car. Scullion started the season racing in Nationals in Texas before returning to Canada for the Players season. He ended the Canadian season in ninth place but then returned to the US to finish second in the SCCA Run-Offs. He retained the car for 1973 as a Scullion-Donolo Racing entry, and it was raced by partner Louis "Lou" Donolo (Montréal, Quebec) once or twice. Subsequent history unknown.
9. Lotus 59/69 [59-F2/XB-42] (Eligio Siconolfi): New to Jacques Couture (Laval, Montréal, Quebec) and raced in the SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B series and the Quebec Region Molson Championship during 1970. The car was entered by Jim Russell RDS (Canada) Ltd, and generally wore #86. Sold to Eligio Siconolfi (Montréal, Quebec) for 1971 and raced in the Players Canadian Formula B series and the Quebec Region Molson series. The car was acquired from Siconolfi by Mauro Lanaro (Montréal, Quebec) who took some time restoring it, and then raced it in regional events in Canada in 1973. Lanaro recalled to Joe Griffin in 2021 that "after a bad accident at Mosport, I sold what was left it to Peter Draggfy". Peter Dragffy is known to have had several Lotus 59/69s in the 1980s.
10. Brabham BT35 [19] (Maurice McCaig): New to Maurice McCaig (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), and raced in the Canadian Formula B series in 1971 and 1972. To Hugh Cree (Georgetown, Ontario) for Canadian FB in 1973, and then for Canadian Formula Atlantic in 1974. Advertised by Cree in November 1974, when it had a 1972 big valve Hart. History then unknown until it was advertised in Victory Lane August 1990 by Bill Schley (Hartland, WI), who described it as a "very original car in excellent condition" with a Hart BDA and FT200. Oddly, in the same edition of Victory Lane, Bob Hildreth and Ken Petrie from a Denver, Colorado number advertised a BT35 with the same "# 35-19" serial number, which was "original unrestored" and "in storage for 12 years".
11. Brabham BT35 [18] (Roy Folland): New to Roy Folland (Montréal, Quebec) and raced in the Canadian Formula B series in 1971, prepared by mechanic Andy Aitken. Some reports suggest Folland raced an older BT29 towards the end of that season, but an article in the Montreal Gazette in late August only mentions a BT35. An annotation to the entry list for the Canadian GP support race in September identified this car as chassis BT35/18. To Bill Eagles (Lasalle, Montréal, Quebec, Canada) for the 1972 Canadian FB series, entered by Tex-Made Racing Team. Then to Scott MacKenzie for 1973, entered and supported by Bryant Cougle of Astro Sports, but crashed heavily at Edmonton in June. The chassis was too badly damaged to be repairable, and MacKenzie suffered neck injuries that brought his season to an end. The car was then used as a source of spares for the team's replacement BT35, before being sold. It was acquired by Doug DeFresne (Portland, OR) in 1979, when it still had Astro Sports bodywork with it. It was acquired by Bob Slusher (Portland, Oregon) in September 2005.
12. Lotus 59 [59-F2/XB-41] (Max Nerrière): New to Craig Hill (Mississauga, Ontario) and run in the Canadian Road Racing Championship and the SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B, entered by Bill Brack Racing Enterprises. Hill ran in a team with Brack's Formula 5000 Lotus 70, with both cars in marching Castrol GTX livery. Unlike the two JRDS cars, which were entered as Lotus 69Bs, Hill's car first raced in Lotus 59 bodywork and was generally billed through the season as the "Castrol GTX Lotus 59". For 1971, the car was sold to Max Nerrière (Toronto, Ontario), who raced it in the Players Canadian Formula B series. Retained by Nerrière for 1972 and for 1973. Subsequent history unknown.
13. Chevron B9/B17b (Bill Eagles): Bill Eagles (Lasalle, Quebec) raced a Chevron "B9/B15B" in Molson events in 1970 and in the Players FB series in 1971. This may have been the ex-Wayne Kelly B9 but could also have been Peter Broeker's "B9/B14/B15" that he raced in 1969 and then retured to briefly in 1974. Nothing more known.
14. Chevron B17b (John Powell): Peter Broeker (Pointe-Claire, Montréal, Quebec) raced a Chevron B17b in Canadian Formula B in 1970, often descibing it as a Stebro. It replaced Broeker's earlier B14, so the two cars were often confused. The B17b was raced by Craig Fisher and John Powell (both Toronto, Ontario) in 1971, entered by Penguin Racing Enterprise. The later history of the car is not known. Although it has been suggested that this was the car Broeker raced in 1974, when he returned to Formula Atlantic, that car appears to have been his older B14 updated.
15. Lotus 69 [71/69.7.FB] (Ted Coconis): New to "Lotus East/Hogan" in April 1971 with white bodywork according to the Lotus built record. Lotus East boss Fred Stevenson recalls that this car was sold to Ted Coconis (Weston, CT), a very successful graphic designer. Coconis raced the car in Formula B in Northeast Division in 1971 and 1972. The car was driven by Ted's son Tim Coconis (Palo Alto, CA) in the Canadian FB series 1973, when father and son raced as a team with two Lotus 69s. Tim returned with it in 1975, both in SCCA Nationals and in the Players Formula Atlantic series, but it was completely wrecked in an accident at the SCCA National at Watkins Glen in August 1975, injuring Tim Coconis. Tim disassembled the car, discarding the wrecked chassis and selling the engine and gearbox, and stored what was left until the 1980s, when it was bought by Bill Dolson (Estancia, New Mexico), later the owner of race-cars.com. A new chassis was fabricated by Peter Denty, and a new Hewland FT200 acquired, but restoration did not progress far. In August 2001, the project was advertised on race-cars.com, and was sold in May 2003 to Dave Bean (San Andreas, CA) who was still restoring this car before he died in August 2017.
16. Brabham BT21C (Reg Forth): Bought from Fred Opert by Bill Bovenizer (Toronto, Ontario) and raced in Canadian Formula B events in 1970. Bill believes Horst Kwech may have raced it before he did. He sold it to Reg Forth for 1971 who continued to race it in Canadian events. Subsequent history unknown.
17. Brabham BT29 [34] (Ken Huband): Ken Huband (Ottawa, Ontario) ran a red/black #15 Brabham BT29 in Canadian and US Formula B in 1970, first appearing at Mont-Tremblant 24 May 1970. He retained the car in 1971 and in 1972. Huband advertised the BT29 in CP&A 21 Oct 1972 as "Brabham BT29/34", implying it was chassis 34. Several BT29 owners had mentioned the chassis numbers of the cars in adverts, presumably to emphasise the newer cars. Peter Nye arranged the sale of the car to Bill Wolfe, a dentist in Austin, Texas, but Wolfe later pulled out of a deal with Nye to assemble the car for him. Subsequent history unknown.
18. Lola T240 (Vincent Dileo): John Sirmons (Weston, CT) and Vincent Dileo (Greenwich, CT) shared a white Lola T240 in Formula B in 1971, Sirmons racing it in SCCA Nationals and Dileo in Canadian FB events in the latter part of the 1971 season. Dileo retained the car for 1972, racing in NEDiv SCCA FB events and in the Pro event at Watkins Glen in August. Bought from Dileo by Tom Frasca in 1974 but a year later crashed at Lime Rock and totalled. Frasca scrapped the tub and parted out the other components.
19. March 71BM [10?] (Wilson Southam): Wilson Southam ran a team in Canadian Formula B in 1971. He bought two March 71BMs and raced this one himself. Southam was expected to run the car again in 1972, and it was fully updated to 722 specification by Tom Greatorex, well known in Canada as Kris Harrison's Can-Am mechanic. In February 1972, he loaned the car to Gus Hutchison for the two Formula B races in Bogotá. Southam sold his operation to Ecurie Canada for 1972, and this car is believed to have gone with it. Subsequent history unknown, but believed to be the car driven by Ian Coristine for Ecurie Canada in 1972 and 1973.
20. March 71BM (Derek Johnson): George Brocklehurst (Montréal, Quebec, Canada) bought a March 71BM but preferred to race it only in minor events, leaving it to Derek Johnson (Montréal, Quebec) in the bigger events. Brocklehurst's car ran as a #93 Todco Racing Team entry. Although it was silver, it seems likely to have been the blue 71BM-5 shown in March records as having gone to a customer of Canadian March importer Gordie Dewar. The car was written off in Johnson's accident in the rain at Trois-Rivières in August when he wrapped it round a telephone pole. [CT]

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.

The 1971-1973 Canadian Formula B race results have been compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Canadian Motorsport Bulletin, results sheets where available and from information drawn from Canadian newspapers.

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.