British Sprint Championship Round

Yeovilton, 25 Mar 1973

Notes on the cars:

1. McLaren M10A/B [300-08] (Johnty Williamson): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-08.
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 702 [1] (Dave Harris): 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.
4. Brabham BT21/30 [BT21B-28] (Spencer Elton): 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 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.

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.