Coppa Città di Enna

Enna-Pergusa, 15 Aug 1972

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B21 [B19 71-32] (John Bridges): The last new B19 to appear in Europe, B19-71-32 was new for Red Rose Racing boss John Bridges to drive at Jarama 7 Nov 1971. It had the wider B21-spec chassis required to meet 1972 regulations so was retained by Red Rose Racing as a fourth entry in 1972. It was driven mainly by Bridges in 1972 but also by Niki Bosch, Paco Josa and John Watson in European 2-litre events. At the end of the 1972 season it was sold to Bobby Howlings and was almost certainly the car driven by Howlings and John Hine at Vallelunga 25 Mar 1973 and then by Hine at Paul Ricard 8 Apr 1973. The car then disappears from Howlings' Ember Racing team, possibly to Japan or possibly to fellow wheeler-dealer Tony Dean.
2. Lola T290 [HU22] (Guy Edwards): The works assisted Barclays International entry, chassis HU22 was driven by Guy Edwards in 1972. It was then sold to Dorset Foods and driven by Tony Birchenhough, Brian Joscelyne and Lee Kaye in 1973 events and this continued into 1974, when Claude Crespin joined the driving group, and 1975, when Ian Bracey became a regular driver. Each year the car was updated at the Lola factory to the latest specification and different chassis plates were added to ensure it gained the best possible prize money. The car was raced at Le Mans every year from 1976 to 1980 and continued to race in Internationals right up to 1983. It was then sold to Nick Mason and stored until brought back to Le Mans for demonstration runs in 1992 and 1993. Birchenough now cares for the car and it appeared at the Le Mans Classic in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
3. Lola T290 [HU10] (Jean-Louis Lafosse): Chassis HU10 was new at at Dijon in June 1972 replacing chassis HU3 crashed at Vallelunga in April. It was used through the rest of 1972 under the Scuderia Filipinetti banner wearing Flint livery and with FVC and later Chevy Vega EA engines. Also used by Lafosse in French hillclimbs in 1972. Lafosse retained the car for the first race of 1973 and it was also raced by Marie-Claude Beaumont at Clermont-Ferrand in June 1973. In 1975, the car was acquired by Hans-Markus Huber in Switzerland and used in Swiss national racing throughout the late 1970s. He retained the car until about 2005/2006 when he sold it to the US. In 2007, Lola Heritage recorded that HU10 was owned by Jeff Lewis.
4. Chevron B21 [72-7] (Paco Josa): Red Rose Racing acquired two Chevron B21s for the start of the 1972 sports racing season, chassis B21-72-7 and B21-72-8. Of these, 72-7 was initially assigned to José Maria Juncadella and raced by him in the 2-litre championship. At Dijon in June, Juncadella took over 72-8 from John Hine, and the team's third driver Niki Bosch was promoted into 72-7. He raced the car for the remainder of the season, including the finale at Jarama in November. Subsequent history unknown, but likely to be the car that went to Henk Bosman.
5. Chevron B21 [72-15] (Dieter Quester): A reputedly lightweight car built for BMW to test a new 2-litre version of their Formula 2 engine. Entered by Bosch Racing Team Vienna for Dieter Quester who took pole on three of his four appearances in the car and won at Salzburgring on 21 May 1972. Crashed at Enna 15 Aug 1972 and heavily damaged. Later sold by BMW to Vasek Polak in the US and repaired by Hans Adam, Mark Flores and Bruce Ponder. It was raced in SCCA BSR racing in 1974 and 1975 by Ponder and later used in Can-Am in 1979 by Hurley Haywood. The car was retained in the Polak collection until it was sold back to BMW and restored to original specification for their museum. The car was raced by Hubert Hahne at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2001.
6. Chevron B21 [72-8] (José Maria Juncadella): One of two Chevron B21s acquired by Red Rose Racing for the 1972 sports racing season, 72-8 was driven by John Hine in the early 2-litre races, and shared by him and team principal John Bridges in long-distance events. Hine got a new Chevrolet Vega-engined car at Dijon in June, and 72-8 was taken over by José Juncadella for the rest of the year. This is almost certainly the car shared by Hine and Dave Charlton in the Springbok series in November and December. In 1973, the car appeared at the first race for José's brother Javier Juncadella but Roger Hire then became involved with the team and he provided a new B23 and his relatively recent B21 instead of the ex-Red Rose B21. The fate of the B21 is not known.

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.