British Sprint Championship Round

Duxford, 30 Jun 1974

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT35 [35] (David Render): 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.
2. Brabham BT35 [6] (Rob Turnbull): New to Nick Cook and used in the British Formula Atlantic series in 1971. Retained for early 1972, but Cook does not appear in the UK after the end of April and this is probably the car taken to the USA to use in the SCCA series in 1972. Used by Rob Turnbull in British hillclimbs in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976. Sold to Andrew Fraser (Newton Abbot, Devon), and shared by him and Tim Painter in Sprints in 1977. Retained by Fraser for 1978 and 1979, and appeared at Wiscombe Park events in 1980 and 1982. Then via David McLaughlin to Keith Norman about 1984 and used by him in HSCC events in the 1980s and 1990s. To Rob Haze (Netherlands) between 1992 and 1995, and then back to Norman again. To John Dunham April 2001, then to Ben Tyler 2003, then Peter Shaw 2004, then Dr John Monson 2007.
3. Brabham BT30 (Peter Bull): In early 1973, Chris Choat wrecked John Hardesty's Brabham BT23C in a libre race at Silverstone and Hardesty returned to the London dealer that had sold him the BT23C and bought a newer BT30. The identity of the dealer and the previous history of the BT30 have not yet been determined. Hardesty, who entered his cars in the name of his family company, Feltham Glassworks, and Choat shared the car in libre racing from September to December 1973 but then traded it to MRE (Racing Services) Ltd (Bourne End, Buckinghamshire) for a Brabham BT36. Advertised by MRE in March 1974 "complete with rebuilt FVA and FT200" and sold to Peter Bull (London). Bull did not buy the FVA, but had the car fitted with a Holbay twin cam engine. Bull appeared at a number of sprints between April 1974 and mid-1975 when he sold it to a prestige car showroom in Wimbledon. This is probably the car advertised by Road & Track Ltd as a "ready to race" BT30 with Holbay twin cam, from Hounslow in west London in January 1977. This may be the same car that was advertised by Richard Colton (Wellingborough, Northamtonshire) of Steel King Ltd in July 1978 and then March 1979 with "new unused steel Holbay works 1600 twin cam" engine, in "immaculate works colours". However, this car had smaller wheels that Bull's so the Holbay may be a coincidence. Subsequent history unknown.
4. March 702 [6] (Martin Steele): Although given the number 702/6 by March, this was the development F2 car built using the very first Arch Motors frame. It raced just once in 1970 when Howden Ganley appeared in it at Mantorp Park in August. At the start of 1971, it was fitted with a Vegantune twin cam for Formula Atlantic, and was driven by David Morgan at the Mallory Park round in March, taking pole position and winning. He was second in the next race at Castle Combe, but then the car was advertised by March, and bought by John Nicholson, who used it for the rest of that season. Advertised by Nicholson (Ashford, Middlesex) in August 1972. Bought from Nicholson in October 1972 by Martin Steele (Faringdon, Oxfordshire) and used in sprints in 1973 and the first half of 1974. Sold in July 1974 to Peter Fisk (Cambridge) who raced it in speed events from 1974 to 1979. The car was fitted with a BDA engine, and Fisk sometimes shared with Robert Glass, also of Cambridge. Fisk advertised the car in October 1980 and sold it back to Steele in March 1981. Steele restored it and used it in UK historic racing in 1985 and 1986. Retained until sold in November 1998 to Mike Scott (Exeter, Devon) who drove it in FORCE events in 2003, and later appeared with it in Masters events in 2006. Sold in 2009 to Satoshi Onishi (Miharuno, Japan) and used by him in Japanese historic events.

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.