OldRacingCars.com

British Sprint Championship Round

Longridge, 23 Mar 1975

ResultsTime 
1 David Franklin 1.6-litre Ensign LNF3/73 [72.8 (B)] - Ford BDA Holbay
76.59s
2 Simon Riley (F5000) 5-litre McLaren M10A/B [300-16] - Rover V8
(see note 1)
79.64s
3 Dave Hartley 3.5-litre Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] - Buick V8
(see note 2)
4 Allan Staniforth 1.1-litre Terrapin Mk7 - BMC
C1 Anthony Taylor (libre) 1.6-litre Lotus 69
1st in class
C1 Geoff Deakin (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre March 713M [8] - Cosworth
#80 (see note 3)
1st in 1600cc racing car class
Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. McLaren M10A/B [300-16] (Simon Riley): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-16.
  2. 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.
  3. March 713M [8] (Geoff Deakin): New for James Hunt, replacing the 713S he had raced earlier in the season. The 713M was run as part of a newly constituted team run by Chris Marshall, based at his Sloan Marshall Garages in London and entered as Team Rose Bearings with Baty Group. Hunt won first time out, at Crystal Palace in June, and also at Brands Hatch in August, but the car was heavily damaged in a crash during practice at Snetterton in October. Repaired and used by Bob Evans in the Boxing Day meeting at Brands. Bought from the March factory by Anthony Binnington and raced in F3 through 1972. Then to Nick Crossley for one race early in 1973 before his new 733 was ready. To Peter Stahl (Ascot, Berkshire) and raced in the 1600cc class in hillclimbs in 1973. Stahl later went abroad on business and his wife sold the March to Geoff Deakin (Penrith, later Carlisle) who hillclimbed it between 1975 and 1977. It was in 742 bodywork by 1977, and Deakin called it a "742X". Deakin recalls selling the car to a fellow hillclimber who crashed it badly the following year, taking out one side of the monocoque. Photographs show that Deakin's car exactly matches the "742X" hillclimbed by Ken Ayers (Twyford, Berkshire) in 1978 and crashed by him at some point. After this accident, the car was rebuilt on another 1971 March tub, and run with 1975 bodywork until a second accident at Le Val des Terres in July 1979. The car was then rebuilt using a 1975 March monocoque and 76B bodywork, effectively ending its link to the original 713M.

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.