Gran Premio di Mugello

Mugello, 22 Sep 1974

Notes on the cars:

1. Alpine A441 [4411] (Gérard Larrousse): Team Archambeaud acquired a new A441 for 1974 for lead driver Gérard Larrousse. The car was used as a test chassis for the 2.1-litre turbo engine and won at Mugello at the beginning of 1975. It was kept as a backup car for Le Mans in 1976 but it is not yet certain whether chassis 4411 then became chassis 4420.
2. Alpine A441 [4410] (Alain Serpaggi): Société Alpine entered two new A441s in 1974 and chassis 4410 was Jean-Pierre Jabouille's car for the first race and then became Alain Serpaggi's regular car for the rest of the season. This car was sold to 'Jimmy' Mieusset for the 1976 French hillclimb season and then to Jean Ortelli for 1977 and 1978, after which it was on display in the Mougins museum, still owned by Ortelli. The car was still in the Musée de l'Automobile at Mougins in June 2008 and appeared at Retromobile in 2010.
3. March 74S [10] (Jean Ragnotti): Built new for 1974, fitted with a BMW engine and entered by March Engineering for Jean Ragnotti in the European 2-litre Sports Car championship, with Antar sponsorship. Fitted with a Richardson FVC after the first few races, and later with a Cosworth BDG. Retained by March for 1975, fitted with a Hart 420R engine, updated to 75S specification and plated as '75S-U2' for John Lepp to race. The car was retained again for 1976, now to 76S specification and reportedly using the identity '76S-1', now raced by Lepp as part of the Ultramar team. Sold to Bobby Brown (Hicksville, NY) for the 1977 Can-Am season, now using the identity '77ST-1'. Sold to Greg Sorrentino (Troy, Michigan) and raced in 1979. In 1980, it was converted to centre-seat specification with a new body fabricated by Dave Craddock and campaigned in this form by Sorrentino in 1981, described as a March 802. To Charlie Monk (Sarnia, Ontario) for 1982, and then via John Adams Racing & John Kalagian to J. Byron Walker (Detroit, Michigan). Raced by Walker in 1983 and 1984 before being stored. Walker later acquired the 1977 bodywork from EB Lunken, who had used it on his March 73S, and found Lepp's Ultramar livery under the layers of paint. In 2013, Walker was in the process of restoring the car to its 1975 specification.
4. Alpine A441 [4412] (Jean-Pierre Jabouille): The third A441 was the regular car of Société Alpine team leader Jean-Pierre Jabouille. This car was sold to Japan in 1975 and was raced by Jabouille at Fuji in October and by Beaumont at Fuji a month later. The car remained in Japan and raced in 1976, 1977 and 1978, winning the Fuji 500 km in April 1978 driven by Hasemi and Hoshino. It is believed to have remained in Japan.
5. Lola T294 [HU74] (Giovanni Morelli): According to Lola records, HU74 was sold to I.P.E. Italy. IPE was the sponsor of Giovanni Morelli's cars in Italy in 1973 and 1974. The car was fitted with a Ford-based Armaroli Negrini engine.
6. Lola T292 [HU58] (Jean-Louis Lafosse): Acquired in May 1973 by Jean-Louis Lafosse to run in 2-litre racing as part of Ecurie Filipinetti, who also ran Lafosse's Gitanes-backed 3-litre Lola T282. The project was badly effected by the death of Georges Filipinetti. Lafosse retained the car for the 1974 season and after an unsuccessful run with Osella, moved to the ROC team and raced the T292 at Mugello in September fitted with one of ROC's Simca engines. The car appears to have become part of the ROC equipe and was raced by Xavier Lapeyre at Jarama in October and is believed to have stayed with ROC through 1975. Then likely to be the "ex-Filipinetti" Lola T292 with which Georges Morand won the 2-litre class at Le Mans in 1976. After that it appears to have gone via Heini Mader to Michel Elkoubi and been used in French national races in 1977, for example at the Treffort hillclimb. It was rebuilt for Le Mans again in 1978 as one of Elkoubi's two Pronuptia entries. However, it is unclear which of the #24 and #25 entries it was and, because of this, its later history has not yet been determined.
7. Lola T292 [HU63] (Mauro Nesti): In August 1973, Mauro Nesti crashed the March 73S with which he'd been dominating Italian hillclimbing and his sponsor Cebora bought a T292, chassis HU63, to replace it. The car was updated to T294 spec for 1974 and Nesti was enormously successful in it for the next three seasons, winning his class in the European Hill Climb Championship in 1975 and 1976. It has been suggested that Nesti had a new T296 for 1977, but it is quite possible that the old T292 was the car he drove in 1977 (taking his third title), 1978 and the early part of 1979 before acquiring a brand new T298 HU98. The subsequent history of the T292 is unknown.
8. Lola T294 [HU67] (Javier Juncadella): This car was sold new to Roger Heavens for 1974 and was entered under the Escuderia Montjuich Tergal banner for Javier Juncadella. It was also raced by Hervé Leguellec, Richard Lloyd and Manrico Zanuso. In January 1976, it was advertised by Heavens, noting that it had last raced in the Boxing Day meeting at Brands Hatch. Martial Legou told Philippe Rafesthain, as reported on the Autodiva thread, that he bought this car from Heavens via Leguellec after the 1975 season. According to Philippe's research, this car later ran as the #25 Pronuptia entry at Le Mans in 1978.
9. Chevron B26 [74-08] (Rafael Barrios): After the closure of Red Rose Racing, Roger Hire struck a deal to run works-assisted Chevron B26s in 1974 under the name Forge Mill Racing. John Lepp ran the main car and Rafael Barrios joined the team to run a second B26, now positively identified as chassis 74-08. This car only raced once in 1975 but was then bought by Robin Smith to be used in endurance and Interserie in 1976. Gary Gove (Tacoma, WA) acquired it for Can-Am in early 1977 and raced it for three seasons, winning the Pacific Coast title in 1978 and the last BSR title at the Run-Offs. It went to John Graham in Canada for the 1981 season and then to Luc Behar-Bannelier for 1982. The B26 was sold to Gil Baird for Thundersports in England in 1983 then to Richard Piper for another three seasons during which time it was converted to DFV power before moving to Ireland in the late 1980s where it stayed for nearly 15 years. It was sold back to the US again around 2003 and has raced in US vintage racing.
10. Chevron B26 [74-02] (John Lepp): Although described by some sources as the "prototype", the Gunston-liveried car raced by John Watson and Jody Scheckter in the 1973-74 Springbok series in South Africa was the second B26, chassis 74-02. This car was then sold to Derek Buller-Sinfield and prepared by Roger Hire's Forge Mill Racing for John Lepp (Altrincham, Cheshire) to drive in Europe in 1974. Then the "works development car" advertised by Hire and the "ex-works development" "B36" raced by Bob Marsland (Bromsgrove, Worcestershire) from 1976 to 1978. Sold to Richard Simms (Ossett, West Yorkshire) late in the 1978 season and used briefly in libre racing before being converted over the close season into a Skoda "Super Saloon". Raced in this form from 1979 to 1981 and then restored to B36 specification for use in Thundersports in 1983 and 1984, sharing with Warren Booth. After passing through several more hands in England and, it would seem, Sweden, it was sold to Jack Russeli (Ohio) in June 1997. To Murray Smith (Washington, CT) in 2005. To Roger Wills (London) 2011.
11. Lola T294 [HU70?] (Fred Stalder): The entry for this car is blank in Lola records, but it is believed to be one of two cars sold to Fred Stalder's Racing Organisation Course, and fitted with ROC's Chrysler-Simca-based engine for 2-litre sports car racing in 1974. Believed to have been Stalder's own car for 1974. Raced in long-distance events at Dijon and Le Mans in 1975. According to Philippe Rafesthain, this car was sold to Hervé Bayard (Roye, France) and fitted with a Hart 420R engine for French hillclimbs in 1976, winning the Group 6 class at every event. For Pascal Foix and Bayard at the Paul Ricard sports car race in July 1977. Sold to Michel Lateste for 1978, and returned to French hillclimbs. Then to Patrice Lenorman and appeared at three events in July 1979 before Lenorman crashed the car. He advertised it, still unrepaired, in December 1979 and it appears to have gone to Dominique Lacaud when Lenorman bought's Lacaud's T297-BMW. Later repaired by Lacaud but whether this is the car he used in French events and hillclimbs from 1981 to 1986 is not clear. Lacaud restored the T294 for historic events many years later, appearing in it from 2009 onwards. For sale at Artcurial's Retromobile sale in February 2015.
12. Lola T292 [HU55] (Jean-Pierre Jaussaud): Originally sold to Martin Birrane's Crowne Racing for Chris Craft to run in the 1973 European 2-litre Sports Car championship. The car was fitted with the new Cosworth BDG engine and the team was managed by Keith Greene. Craft won at Misano and Imola and took two further second places to win the championship. In 1974, the car was due to be fitted with the new Tecno P82 flat-8 engine but the project ran late and Birrane eventually sold the car in frustration to the Pederzani brothers. When the Lola-Tecno did finally appear, at Misano in July, it was driven by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud but retired with overheating problems. According to later sale descriptions, HU55 was then sold to well-known Sicilian hillclimb specialist Angelo Giliberti, continuing to Giuseppe Tornatore (Sardinia) in 1980, to Gianpaolo Casazza (Florence) in 2000 and then to Pietro Silva (San Marino) soon after. It returned to England in 2009 and was offered for sale by Maxted-Page in 2011.
13. Lola T294 [T292 HU40] (Martin Raymond): Described consistently as the "prototype" T292, HU40 first appeared at Jarama 5 Nov 1972 where it was raced by Richard Scott. It was then Guy Edwards' works car throughout 1973 after which it was updated to T294 specification and sold by Lola to Martin Raymond for 1974. It went to Stewart Chubb for 1975 and continued to race in the European series. In 1976, Chubb sold the car to Steven Payne-Herbert and it was used in Can-Am and SCCA BSR racing until 1980. Payne-Herbert kept the car until 1989 when it was sold for vintage racing and, three owners later, it was being offered for sale by Grand Prix Classics in February 2011.

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 26 Sep 1974 p6.