Trophée International Paul Ricard

Paul Ricard, 18 Apr 1971

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T212 [HU22] (Helmut Marko, Jean-Pierre Jabouille): Bought by Karl von Wendt Racing for 1971 and entered for Helmut Marko at the first few races, winning the opening round at Paul Ricard in April and qualifying on pole for the next round at the Salzburgring. The car was damaged at Silverstone in June and Marko used the team's sister car HU23 thereafter. HU22 returned to the team and was raced by Jean-Pierre Jabouille at the Nürburgring in September (where Autosport noted that it was the car that had won the opening round) and by Gijs van Lennep at Zandvoort a few weeks later. The car was taken as a spare to the Springbok series but raced at Kyalami by Gijs van Lennep and Jackie Pretorius. Subsequent history unknown but said to have been sold to a Greek hillclimber. A car with this number bought from the US by Ian Giles then sold to Bryan Jedinak in the US in 2005 before returning again to the UK via Giles again and bought by Neil Primrose in 2009.
2. Lola T212 [HU23] (Karl von Wendt, Jean-Pierre Jabouille): One of two Lola T212s bought by Karl von Wendt Racing for 1971 and the team car originally allocated to Von Wendt himself. Raced at Paul Ricard in April by Von Wendt and Jean-Pierre Jabouille and then at Salzburgring in May by Gijs van Lennep. As Von Wendt had retired from driving, HU23 was not take to Silverstone in June but when Helmut Marko damaged the other team car, HU22, at that race, he moved over to HU23 for the rest of the season. He won in this car at Clermont-Ferrand, Hockenheim and Imola in June and July and also raced at Nürburgring and Zandvoort in September. Presumably Marko's car at the ADAC-Sauerland-Bergpreis in October. Then shipped to South Africa for the Springbok series and raced by Marko and John Love in six events. Subsequent history unknown but said to have been sold to a Belgian driver and crashed at some point in the 1970s. A car with this number owned by Ian Webb in the early 1980s and rebuilt on a reskinned monocoque for use in historic racing, initially by Richard Eyre and then John Foulston. Nicola Foulston sold it to a M. Defornay in 1986 but it is then unknown until owned by Richard Griot (Seattle, WA) in the late 1990s then to Walt Cox (Seattle, WA) 2005, Steve Read 2008 and Gregoire Audi 2010.
3. Chevron B19 [71-9] (John Lepp, Guy Edwards): Sold to Central Garage (Mirfield) Ltd for John Lepp to drive in the 1971 European 2-litre series. Sold to James Gray for 1972 with Peter Gaydon as co-driver and then to Ian Harrower and James Bell for 1973 and 1974. Sold to Tony Wadsworth and rebodied with an Imp body as the Special Saloon "Chimp" and driven by Jonathan Buncombe. Banned almost immediately and sold to Paul Howarth for historic racing in 1977. Then raced by Vin Malkie from 1978 to 1982 after which it was raced by James Wallis (Edenbridge, Kent) in 1983 and 1984. The car's history becomes increasingly murky after this point. For more on this car, see 'Chevron B19 71-9'.
4. Chevron B16 (Rein Zwolsman, Ed Swart): Ed Swart's Canon Racing Team bought a new Group 5 Chevron B16 for 1971 for Rein Zwolsman to drive in the European 2-litre Sports Car series alongside's Swart's own Group 6 Chevron B19. Zwolsman and Swart co-drove the car to second in class at the opening round at Paul Ricard but the car was comprehensively destroyed in a huge accident at Salzburgring five weeks later when Zwolsman hit the guard rail and was hugely lucky to emerge unhurt.
5. Chevron B16 [DBE-10] (Heinz Derflinger, Dieter Soucek): Brian Redman raced a new works Chevron B16 in 1971, chassis DBE10, winning at Paul Ricard and finishing second at two other races. Vic Elford drove it at Mugello in after which Redman moved to the new B16 Spyder. For 1971, the B16 was sold to Austrian Heinz Derflinger and entered by Bosch Racing Team for him and Dieter Soucek at Paul Ricard in April 1971. Derflinger then crashed heavily in the second race, at Salzburgring in May and Motoring News reported that the car was broken in half. In August, Derflinger appeared in a new B19, replacing the wrecked B16.
6. Chevron B16 [DBE-4] (Brian Robinson, John Littler): Brian Robinson ran a Chevron B16 in 1970 and 1971 before upgrading to a Chevron B21 for the 1972 season. He sold the B16, still complete with its early FVC, to John White (Byfield, MA) who raced it in BSR racing for several seasons.
7. Lola T212 [HU18] (Jo Bonnier): One of two cars delivered to Ecurie Bonnier and raced under the Scuderia Filipinetti banner. HU18 is identified by Sport Auto as Jo Bonnier's personal car and is likely to be the car used at Paul Ricard April 1972 by Claude Ballot-Léna. A surviving Bonnier invoice shows that HU18 was sold to Enzo Osella in May 1972 and a 2011 advert by Marcel Roks quotes a 1985 HVIF which identifies HU18 as the car then owned by Roberto Filannino and Pasquale Barberio. Barberio raced a 1300cc Lola T212-Abarth in Italian domestic racing in 1973 and the Roks advert says he kept the car until 1976. Later owners are given as a Mr. Girollami 1976, Stefano Sebastiani 1982, Victor Myette 1994, Andy Wolfe (Cambridge, UK) 1998 and the current owner in 2001.
8. Lola T210 [SL210/14] (Terry Croker): Terry Croker bought SL210/14 in August 1970 to replace his Lola T70 for use in the Interserie championship. Croker used it in the 1971 European 2-litre series, sharing with Guy Edwards at the Nürburgring in September. It was sold to Rolf Skoghag for 1972 who continued to race it until June 1973. It is then reported to have passed through the hands of Mike Gue and John Webb before reaching Bill Sainsbury (Vancouver, Canada) for 1976. After racing in DSR in 1976 it is reported to have passed via MacKenzie Racing 1977 and at least one other Canadian owner to Robert Grant (UK) in 1985 who sold it to Bengt Ljungbergh (Sweden) later that year. Ljungbergh retained it to 2007 when it was sold via Chris Fox to Geoff Lister. It was for sale in November 2010.
9. Gropa CMC Mk 2 [CH-DBE-53] (Mike Gribben): Whitley Bay tailor Johnny Blades bought a Chevron B8 for 1968 but fitted with a F2 Cosworth FVA engine for 1600cc Group 6 racing instead of GT racing. He raced this to the end of 1969 and then sold it to Mike Gribben who raced it in standard form in 1970 and then had it converted to a Gropa for 1971. John Markey bought it in 1972, converted it to BMW power and raced it in the Motoring News Sports/GT series in 1973. In 1975, Markey sold it to Colin James who fitted a 2-litre Martin V8 engine and raced it a few times in 1975 and 1976. Its subsequent history is currently unknown - one of very few Gropas still missing. One possibility is that it was the Gropa that went to Nolan Pitts (Plymouth, Devon) for 1977.

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.

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 22 April 1971 pp16-17.