OldRacingCars.com

British Sprint Championship Round

Bassingbourne, 28 May 1973

ResultsTime 
1 John Ravenscroft (F5000) 5-litre Lola T142 [SL142/22] - Chevrolet V8
(see note 1)
31.36s
2 Johnty Williamson 5.7-litre McLaren M10A/B [300-08] - Chevrolet V8
(see note 2)
31.58s
3 Tony Bradwell 4.1-litre Brabham BT21 Quattro - Oldsmobile V8
(see note 3)
33.32s
4 Henry Lewis 1.6-litre Lotus 41C - Ford
33.99s
5 Dave Hartley 3.5-litre Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] - Buick V8
(see note 4)
34.17s
6 Martin Steele (libre) 1.6-litre March 702 [6] - Cosworth FVA
(see note 5)
34.52s
7 Mike Richardson (GT) 2-litre Chevron B8 - BMW M10
35.13s
8 John Bailey 1.6-litre Rent-A-Hill Special - Ford
35.69s
9 Iris Richardson (GT) 2-litre Chevron B8 - BMW M10
37.37s
10 Rob Turnbull (libre) 1.6-litre Alexis - Ford twin cam
(see note 6)
41.02s
Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. Lola T142 [SL142/22] (John Ravenscroft): See full history: Lola T142 SL142/22.
  2. McLaren M10A/B [300-08] (Johnty Williamson): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-08.
  3. Brabham BT21 Quattro (Tony Bradwell): Originally intended for the 1968 hillclimb season for Bryan Brown, this car was built by Chas Beattie on a Brabham BT21 chassis using Tony Marsh's four-wheel drive system and powered by a 4.5-litre Oldsmobile V8 engine. The BT21 chassis could have been a very late production chassis, or a second-hand F3 car. The car was often called a BT21X, in the same way that Brabham used BT30X, BT35X and BT36X to denote hillclimb special orders, but it was definitely not the BT21X F3 car that Tim Schenken drove at the Brands Hatch Boxing Day meeting at the end of 1968. Unused by Bryan Brown and sold to Peter Blankstone (Wolverhampton) for 1969. Raced by Blankstone in hillclimbs in 1969 and 1970, finishing second in two RAC rounds in 1970. Sold to Tony Bradwell for 1971 and used in sprints and hillclimbs for another four seasons. Subsequent history unknown but unverified web sources indicate that it went from Bradwell to M. R. Chadney in 1980, to R. G. Romeril in 1983, to Graham Galliers (Shrewsbury, Shropshire) 1985, then Graham Henson (Poulton Le Fylde, Lancashire) from 1994 to 1997. Both Chadney and Romeril are Channel Island hillclimbers; Galliers and Henson also hillclimbed it. It was offered for auction by H&H in 2006 when it was claimed to be "BT21X-1" with a history starting in 1966 with Tim Schenken. This is presumably the BT21X run by Donald Duncan in Richard and Trisha Pilkington's TOPS Club events between 2003 and 2007. Subsequent history unknown.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Alexis (Rob Turnbull): Rob Turnbull (Walmley, Warwickshire) ran an "F2" Alexis with Ford twin cam engine in sprints and hillclimbs in 1971, 1972 and 1973. Its previous history remains uncertain but Neil McCrudden has established that the car he currently owns, plated TR2, was Turnbull's car. He understands that it started life as a development F3 Mk9 in 1967, and was converted to F2 Mk10 specification probably in 1967. It is unknown from then until 1971. It went from Turnbull to Andy Turnock for 1974 before disappearing for another 20 years.

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.