British Sprint Championship Round

Yeovilton, 22 Sep 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 for Historic F2 in 1999. To John Dunham (Basingstoke, Hampshire) April 2001, then to Ben Tyler 2003, then Peter Shaw 2004, then Dr John Monson 2007.
3. Brabham BT18 [F2-8-66] (Tom 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.
4. Brabham BT21B [28] (Gerry Wilkins): New to Frank Lythgoe Racing for Dave Berry (Colwyn Bay) to race in British F3 in 1968. To Alan Rollinson for 1969 and won six races at the start of the British F3 season. Sold to Norman Foulds (Fleetwood, Lancashire) in June 1969 and used in British F3 for the rest of that season. With dealer Bobby Howlings (Congleton, Cheshire) in early 1970, then used briefly by Nick Cook in early 1971 before his new BT35 was ready. Next seen in early 1972 when Spencer Elton (Westbury, Wiltshire) had fitted one of his Vegantune twin cam engines and ran the car in hillclimbs. Sold by Spencer to Gerry Wilkins (Bath, Somerset) for hillclimbs in 1973 and 1974. It returned to Spencer and was advertised by him in 1976 and then reappeared with Les Stone (Basingstoke, Hampshire) at Harewood in July 1976. Used by Stone in sprints and hillclimbs from 1977 to 1980. By 1987, the car was with Simon Harratt (Blandford, Dorset) who raced it at Gurston Down that year, and also in 1991. The car was raced by Simon, his wife Jane, and later daughter Melissa, in speed events for many years, for much of that time Simon being BARC SW chairman and Jane being competition secretary. After Simon died in 2016, the car was sold to Grant Cratchley (Cheltenham, Gloucestershire).
5. Brabham BT15 (Peter Ashley): Billy Reid (Bangor, County Down) raced a 1600cc Brabham Ford twin cam in hillclimbs in Northern Ireland in 1967. He first appeared at the IMRC Enniskerry Hill Climb in late April, finishing fifth, but at the Omagh MC's Syonfin Hill Climb in June he hit the bank at McDermott's Bend and rolled the car, suffering two broken fingers. Motoring News called it a "1598 Brabham BT18 t/c" but it seems unlikely that it was so new. Autosport just called it a 1.6 Brabham. Irish motor racing historian Simon Thomas remembers it as being a BT14. Later owner Ed Irvine initially described it as a "BT12" but thinks BT10 may be correct and his memory is that the car had a longer wheelbase and cockpit and had been built for a very tall person. Thomas adds that Reid only hillclimbed the car a couple of times so its activities in 1968 and 1969 are unknown. Irvine (Conlig, County Down), the father of later F1 star Eddie Irvine bought the car from Reid and ran it in the Formula Impala category in Northern Ireland in 1970 with a 1-litre engine. Sold as a rolling chassis to John Wood and moved to England, where it was identified by Alain Fenn at MRD as a BT10 during a rebuild. Wood used it in Monoposto in 1971, 1972 and 1973. Then to Peter Ashley, who ran in sprints and hillclimbs in the southwest of England from late 1973 to 1975. Subsequent history unknown.
6. March 702 [1] (Philip Anstruther): The first production March 702 was used by Chris Amon in the opening race as part of Malcolm Guthrie's team and then by Ronnie Peterson for the rest of the season. Unseen in 1971 but presumably the "ex-Peterson" car that Geoff Inglis (Yatton, Somerset) used for sprinting in 1972. Advertised by Inglis in February 1973 when it still had its FVA engine. To Spencer Elton (Westbury, Wiltshire) and sold by him to Dave Harris for sprints in 1973. Then back to Elton and next to Philip Anstruther (Bristol) who ran it in sprints in 1974. Anstruther sold it back to Elton yet again and it was advertised by him in March 1975. Next seen when advertised from Birmingham in 1981 as an "abandoned sprint and hillclimb project" and then from Devon in 1983. Reappeared in 1985 when raced by Ian Giles in HSCC events when its papers said it had previously been used by Dave Harris in hillclimbs. Then to Simon Brien in Ireland in 1986, to Lew Wright by 1989, then to Tony Birchenough 1991, and driven by Martin Birrane. It was sold to Steve Hitchins in 1992, and it is reported that this car was the one raced by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Grave in historic racing in the 1990s, was still with him in 2004, and still in France in 2010. In April 2013, Eric Charles (Dubai, UAE) reported that he had acquired 702/1.

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.