British Sprint Championship Round

Duxford, 1 Jul 1973

Notes on the cars:

1. McLaren M10A/B [300-08] (Johnty Williamson): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-08.
2. Brabham BT35 [35] (Tony Harrison): New to Mike Hawley (Solihull, Warwickshire) and fitted with a Hart twin cam engine for the RAC British Hill Climb Championship from August 1971 onwards. Hawley fitted a Cosworth FVA Formula 2 engine for 1972, and was a regular 1600cc class winner in the British championship that year. To Tony Harrison and fitted with a Hart BDA engine, again to 1600cc capacity. To David Render (London) for 1974, and fitted with a 1800cc BDA engine for Sprints, while also running his Brabham BT29X in the 1600cc class. Retained with a 2-litre BDA for 1975, when it became his main car, and for the early part of 1976 before Render borrowed a F1 Lotus 76 instead. It was retained to 1978 and then advertised in October 1978 by Bobby Howlings' AMCO dealership. It then went to Bob Sharrott in the West Indies, before returning via Ted Walker and Peter Watts in the late 1980s. It was with John Harper in 1991, who raced it in historic events with a BDA engine, then sold to Georges Legein (Belgium) in 1993, who converted it to F3 specification. To Jean-Luc Burlion (Belgium) in 2005, then to Cédric Cordemans (Belgium) in 2009. It reappeared when sold in 2012 by Kris Perdu (Belgium) to Kurt Vanderspinnen (Belgium), who raced it as a F3 car in Dutch Historic Monoposto Racing events in 2014 and 2016. Sold by Vanderspinnen to Michael Rasper (Cologne, Germany) in October 2021.
3. Lola T142 [SL142/22] (John Ravenscroft): See full history: Lola T142 SL142/22.
4. Brabham BT29X [37] (David Render): New to Tony Griffiths (Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands) and fitted with a 1.8-litre Cosworth FVC as the "BT29X" for hillclimbing. Damaged in a practice accident at Silverstone on its debut and said to have been rebuilt on a BT30 chassis, although this is disputed. Raced by Griffiths in British Hill Climb Championship events in 1970, often entered as the BT30Y. Sold to Spencer Elton (Westbury, Wiltshire) by February 1971 but not used until mid-1972, when it had a 1.6-litre Vegantune engine. To David Render (London) as a 1600cc backup to his 2-litre Brabham BT35 and used from 1973 to 1976. Then unknown until acquired by Peter Robinson (Studley, Warwickshire) to replace BT30-26 in late 1979. Sold to Julian Majzub (Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire) when Robinson retired c1983 so Majzub could retrive some of the parts from BT30-26. Sold to Richard Jones (Pitchcombe, Nr Stroud) winter 2007/2008.
5. Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] (Dave Hartley): New to Clive Baker near the end of the 1966 season, after Baker had given up on the Stockbridge Racing Cooper T83 in May. Built with a Ford twin cam engine for libre racing and first reported winning a libre race very comfortably at Castle Combe at the end of August. The nearly-new car was sold to Bryan Eccles (Solihull, Warwickshire) for 1967 and fitted with a 3.5-litre Oldsmobile V8 engine for hillclimbing. Eccles won a number of events, including the Shelsley Walsh championship hillclimb in August. To Chris Cox for 1968 and used in libre racing. Then to Tony Charnell for 1969 but not seen. It returned to hillclimbing in 1970 when owned by Richard Thwaites (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire) and then in 1971 with Dave Hartley who also used the Brabham-Buick in sprints. Hartley continued to run the car regularly in the British Sprint Championship until 1975. He took class wins in Longton & District MC's Isle of Man hillclimb in 1977 and 1978. Next seen when advertised by Jim Johnston in January 1988. According to a later advertisement for the car (then called F2-42-66), it was owned after Johnstone by Peter Speakman (also the owner of F2-22-66), and was then bought back by Jim Eccles in the early 2000s. It was later sold to Simon Durling, who had it fully rebuilt and used it in the Pre-1971 racing car class. After an accident, it was sold to John Green as a project and extensively rebuilt again. Adam Sykes advertised the car in early 2023, and in May 2023 announced that it had been sold.
6. Merlyn Mk 12A [109?] (Peter Bull): New for Bob Gerard's quasi-works F2 team in 1968, and raced early in the season by John Cardwell. This car was updated to MK 12A specification for 1969 and run alongside Gerard's Brabham BT23C for Robin Widdows and others. Advertised by Gerard Racing in January 1970 but not seen again until Pete Tester ran it in a libre race at Lydden in early 1973. Used by Peter Bull (London) in sprints that summer, by which time it had a BRM engine of some sort, and then advertised by Bull in September with a 1600cc Ford twin cam engine and FT200 gearbox. Bull bought a Brabham BT30 for 1974 and the later history of the Merlyn is unknown.
7. Brabham BT21 Quattro (Tony Bradwell): Originally intended for the 1968 hillclimb season for Bryan Brown, this car was built by Chas Beattie on a Brabham BT21 chassis using Tony Marsh's four-wheel drive system and powered by a 4.5-litre Oldsmobile V8 engine. The BT21 chassis could have been a very late production chassis, or a second-hand F3 car. The car was often called a BT21X, in the same way that Brabham used BT30X, BT35X and BT36X to denote hillclimb special orders, but it was definitely not the BT21X F3 car that Tim Schenken drove at the Brands Hatch Boxing Day meeting at the end of 1968. Unused by Bryan Brown and sold to Peter Blankstone (Wolverhampton) for 1969. Raced by Blankstone in hillclimbs in 1969 and 1970, finishing second in two RAC rounds in 1970. Sold to Tony Bradwell for 1971 and used in sprints and hillclimbs for another four seasons. Subsequent history unknown but unverified web sources indicate that it went from Bradwell to M. R. Chadney in 1980, to R. G. Romeril in 1983, to Graham Galliers (Shrewsbury, Shropshire) 1985, then Graham Henson (Poulton Le Fylde, Lancashire) from 1994 to 1997. Both Chadney and Romeril are Channel Island hillclimbers; Galliers and Henson also hillclimbed it. It was offered for auction by H&H in 2006 when it was claimed to be "BT21X-1" with a history starting in 1966 with Tim Schenken. This is presumably the BT21X run by Donald Duncan in Richard and Trisha Pilkington's TOPS Club events between 2003 and 2007. 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.