Weston-Super-Mare Speed Trials

Weston, 2 Oct 1971

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT35X [2] (Tony Griffiths): New to Tony Griffiths (Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands) for 1971, and fitted with a 5-litre Repco 740 V8 engine for the British Hill Climb Championship and occasional rounds of the British Sprint Championship. Won one round of each series. Retained for 1972 when Griffiths again one one round in each series. To Malcolm Dungworth (Sheffield, South Yorkshire) for 1973 when he shared it with John Cussins (Leeds, West Yorkshire). They shared the car again in 1974 and in 1975, when Cussins won a championship round at Barbon Manor, then Dungworth ran it alone in 1976 and 1977. Sold to Terry Smith in October 1977, and he raced it in the Sprint series in 1978. He raced it again in 1979, but in June he transferred the Repco engine into a March 75A/761 and the BT35X was sold to Mike Remnant in south-west England. Remnant did not race it, sticking to his BT30, and sold it to Roger Jordan who fitted a Ford twin cam and ran it in SW events from about 1981, later replacing the engine with a Rover V8. It was raced by Mark Haynes, still with the Rover V8, at Werrington Park in 1985. In 1986, Jordan sold it to Ted Walker (Dursley, Gloucestershire) who sold it to Shaun Mooney. Mooney had it restored by Simon Hadfield, fitted a Cosworth BDA, and raced it in historic racing from 1991 to 1996. In 2002, the car was sold to Japan and ran in Japanese historic events where it was noted having the name "E. Sekiya" on the side. It changed hands in 2004 and rebuilt by the Mecca racing garage at Tsukuba circuit in 2008. It was offered for sale by its Japanese owner in August 2015, and acquired by Ross Drybrough (Worthing, West Sussex). At this point it was in "F2" specification with a BDA engine. Restored and raced by Drybrough in HSCC F2 in 2022.
2. McLaren M10B [400-03] (Roy Lane): Alan McKenchnie for Mike Walker UK 1970. The monocoque was replaced (by 400-18S) so that Walker could get the lower engine mount specification used by Gethin and Ganley. The 400-03 chassis to Roy Lane (Warwick, Warwickshire) and built up with 5.5-litre Chev for the British Hill Climb Championship 1971. To Richard Shardlow (Baslow, Derbyshire) for hillclimbs in 1972 but rolled at Harewood. To John Bailey and rebuilt for Sprints during 1974 and 1975. To Harry Phillips (Coventry) 1976 for libre. Bought from Phillips by Andrew Baber (Lydney, Gloucestershire), who only used the car in demos, and then sold it in early 1984 to Ian Webb (Dorking). Webb sold it almost immediately to Roger Ealand, who raced it in 1985 and 1986. To Paul Palmer and restored by Michael Cane Ltd, then to Ed Hubbard, and then to Ean Pugh (Wales & Monaco) in 1988. However, Ean believed the car he bought was the "ex-Prophet" 400-04, not 400-03. Sold to Keith Norris in June 2020.
3. Brabham BT18 [F2-8-66] (Spencer Elton): New to Mike Hawley (Solihull, Warwickshire) and run in the RAC British Hill Climb championship in 1966, taking a very impressive overall win at Shelsley Walsh in August. Sold to Peter Fenwick in late September or early October and used by him in minor hillclimbs at the end of that season and in 1967 and 1968. The car faded from view until the beginning of 1971, when Tom Elton ran it in sprints and hillclimbs, now fitted with a Vegantune twin cam. His son Spencer Elton took over the car later in the year and preferred it to his own BT21C, taking an overall win in the British Sprint championship round at Thruxton in August. Retained by the Eltons for 1972 and fitted with a 1100cc Cosworth BDA engine for the small racing car category. Tom raced the car in 1972, 1973 and 1974, and was still running it in the 1100cc class in 1976. Subsequent history unknown.

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 British Sprint Championship results were originally provided by Paul Parker and Steve Wilkinson and are based on material drawn from Motoring News, Autosport and Speedscene magazines plus results sheets and programmes provided by former competitors and by the organising clubs.

The identification of individual cars is based on the Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 5000 and Formula Atlantic research work presented elsewhere on the site.

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

Motoring News (7 Oct 1971 p23). Also present but not in the run-offs were Dizzy Addicott (BRM P83) and Terry Sanger (Harrier) in the 'large racing car' class and Geoff Inglis (Brabham BT21B) in the 1100cc class. Aston's engine was misfiring in the Chevron B19 but MN does not mention whether that was a FVC or a BDA.