OldRacingCars.com

British Sprint Championship Round

Yeovilton, 31 Mar 1974

ResultsTime 
1 Dave Harris 5-litre McLaren M10B/M14D [400-06 (A)] - Chevrolet V8
58.34s
2 David Franklin (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre Ensign LNF3/73 [72.8 (B)] - Ford BDA Holbay
59.53s 1st in 1600cc racing car class
3 Dave Hartley 3.5-litre Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] - Buick V8
(see note 1)
61.6s
4 David Render (1600cc racing car) 1.6-litre Brabham BT29X [37] - Ford BDA
(see note 2)
62.8s
5 Terry Smith (1100cc racing car) 1-litre Vixen VB5 - Imp
63.88s
6 Norman Hutchins (sports racing) 1.9-litre Mallock U2 Mk 8B MG
64.63s
7 Hedley Hutchins (sports racing) 1.9-litre Mallock U2 Mk 8B MG
65.58s
8 Tony Bradwell 3.5-litre Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] - Buick V8
(see note 3)
65.93s
9 Clive Bracey 5-litre Vebra Mk1 - Chevrolet V8
67.7s
10 Bill Niblett 1.1-litre Minib - BMC s/c
70.59s
C1 Nigel Pow 3.5-litre Brabham BT21C [17] - Buick V8
(see note 4)
Qualifying
Qualifying information not available

Notes on the cars:

  1. 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.
  2. Brabham BT29X [37] (David Render): New to Tony Griffiths (Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands) and fitted with a 1.8-litre Cosworth FVC as the "BT29X" for hillclimbing. Damaged in a practice accident at Silverstone on its debut and said to have been rebuilt on a BT30 chassis, although this is disputed. Raced by Griffiths in British Hill Climb Championship events in 1970, often entered as the BT30Y. Sold to Spencer Elton (Westbury, Wiltshire) by February 1971 but not used until mid-1972, when it had a 1.6-litre Vegantune engine. To David Render (London) as a 1600cc backup to his 2-litre Brabham BT35 and used from 1973 to 1976. Then unknown until acquired by Peter Robinson (Studley, Warwickshire) to replace BT30-26 in late 1979. Sold to Julian Majzub (Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire) when Robinson retired c1983 so Majzub could retrive some of the parts from BT30-26. Sold to Richard Jones (Pitchcombe, Nr Stroud) winter 2007/2008.
  3. Brabham BT18 [F2-44-66] (Tony Bradwell): 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.
  4. Brabham BT21C [17] (Nigel Pow): New to Malcolm Eaves (Solihull, Warwickshire) and fitted with a 3.5-litre Buick V8 engine for hillclimbing. It made its competition debut at Curborough on 4 October 1970, its only previous outing having been a shakedown at Silverstone. Eaves qualified the car regularly for the Top Ten in British championship hill climbs in 1971. To Peter Boshier-Jones (Cardiff) for 1972 and again often made the Top Ten in 1972 and 1973. To Nigel Pow (Bristol) and kept the Buick engine for 1974, qualifying for the Top Ten on several occasions. Pow reappeared with the car in 1976, when it had been fitted with a 4.2-litre four-cam Indianapolis Repco V8 running on neat methanol. The bodywork had also been updated and it was described as a BT21/23C. The car was not a great success in this configuration. Sold by Pow to John Harper in 1979 and sold by him to Australian Clive Osborne in 1981 and then sold to Les Wright in 1987. Wright located Malcolm Eaves who still had the detailed photographs from when the car was first built, allowing Wright to return it to original specification by 2003. The quad-cam Repco V8 was sold to be fitted to a Matich sports car. Les Wright raced the BT21C-Buick regularly in Australian historic racing from 2003 onwards.

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.