Weston-Super-Mare Speed Trials

Weston, 4 Oct 1975

Notes on the cars:

1. Pilbeam-Brabham R15 [BT38/28] (Alister Douglas-Osborn): New to Tate of Leeds (Racing) and driven by Chris Meek in British Formula Atlantic in 1972. To Bobby Howlings and raced briefly in libre in 1973, then on to Richard Shardlow (Baslow, Derbyshire) and raced in British hillclimbs from June onwards, fitted with a Rondel Cosworth BDE. To Alister Douglas-Osborn (West Hagley, Worcestershire) for 1974 and hillclimbed again, now with a 2.0 Hart Cosworth BDG. Retained by "ADO" for 1975 but modified by Pilbeam (as the 'R15') and raced with a 2.2-litre BDG, winning one British championship hillclimb and also two RAC sprint events at the end of the season. Modified further by Pilbeam for 1976 as the R22, and fitted with a F1 Cosworth DFV V8 engine. In this form it won six RAC British championship rounds in 1976, as well as winning the Guyson BARC series. Used again in this form in 1977, winning seven RAC rounds and both the RAC and BARC titles, but the car was written off in a crash at Doune in September. What was salvageable was used in the construction of a new Pilbeam MP22 for Malcolm Dungworth for 1978.
2. McLaren M10B [400-07] (Martyn Griffiths): New to David Good (Maidenhead, Berkshire) for the 1970 British Hill Climb Championship, fitted with a 5.5-litre Alan Smith Chevrolet. To Richard Thwaites (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire) for 1971, now using a 5-litre Chevy, and retained for 1972 when Thwaites was very successful in smaller hillclimbs. Retained again for 1973 when Thwaites used a 5.7-litre or 5.8-litre engine. Sold to Martyn Griffiths (Arley, Worcestershire) July 1974 and used in the British Hill Climb Championship in 1974 and 1975. Griffiths had a second M10B during 1975 having damaged the monocoque of one car at Pontypool at the end of April. Sold to Godfrey Crompton (Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire) 1976 for hillclimbs but crashed at Loton Park August 1976. Sold still in crashed condition to Keith Cox (Halesowen, West Midlands), rebuilt and again hillclimbed. To John Peskett (Leicester) 1977 and remained unused in his collection, with 400-06(A), M10A 300-16 and other F5000s. Later to restorer Rick Hall (Bourne, Lincolnshire), then to Jeffrey Pyett (Oundle, Peterborough) 1989, then Richard Eyre (Rayleigh, Essex) 1991. Sold by Eyre to David Mitchell (NZ) mid-2012 but the car remained with preparer Simon Hadfield (Shepshed, Leicestershire) through 2013. Shipped to New Zealand in May 2014.
3. Brabham BT35 [35] (David Render): New to Mike Hawley (Solihull, Warwickshire) and fitted with a Hart twin cam engine for the RAC British Hill Climb Championship from August 1971 onwards. Hawley fitted a Cosworth FVA Formula 2 engine for 1972, and was a regular 1600cc class winner in the British championship that year. To Tony Harrison and fitted with a Hart BDA engine, again to 1600cc capacity. To David Render (London) for 1974, and fitted with a 1800cc BDA engine for Sprints, while also running his Brabham BT29X in the 1600cc class. Retained with a 2-litre BDA for 1975, when it became his main car, and for the early part of 1976 before Render borrowed a F1 Lotus 76 instead. It was retained to 1978 and then advertised in October 1978 by Bobby Howlings' AMCO dealership. It then went to Bob Sharrott in the West Indies, before returning via Ted Walker and Peter Watts in the late 1980s. It was with John Harper in 1991, who raced it in historic events with a BDA engine, then sold to Georges Legein (Belgium) in 1993, who converted it to F3 specification. To Jean-Luc Burlion (Belgium) in 2005, then to Cédric Cordemans (Belgium) in 2009. It reappeared when sold in 2012 by Kris Perdu (Belgium) to Kurt Vanderspinnen (Belgium), who raced it as a F3 car in Dutch Historic Monoposto Racing events in 2014 and 2016. Sold by Vanderspinnen to Michael Rasper (Cologne, Germany) in October 2021.
4. Brabham BT35 [6] (Rob Turnbull): New to Nick Cook and used in the British Formula Atlantic series in 1971. Retained for early 1972, but Cook does not appear in the UK after the end of April and this is probably the car taken to the USA to use in the SCCA series in 1972. Used by Rob Turnbull in British hillclimbs in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976. Sold to Andrew Fraser (Newton Abbot, Devon), and shared by him and Tim Painter in Sprints in 1977. Retained by Fraser for 1978 and 1979, and appeared at Wiscombe Park events in 1980 and 1982. Then via David McLaughlin to Keith Norman about 1984 and used by him in HSCC events in the 1980s and 1990s. To Rob Haze (Netherlands) between 1992 and 1995, and then back to Norman again. To John Dunham April 2001, then to Ben Tyler 2003, then Peter Shaw 2004, then Dr John Monson 2007.
5. March 733 [26] (David Franklin): New to Dempster International Racing Team for Mike Wilds to drive in F3 from July 1973 onwards, replacing the 1972/73 Ensign with which he had started the season. It was then sold to Graham Watts (Faringham) for hillclimbs, appearing at Prescott in March 1974, when the car had a 1600cc Holbay engine. During 1975, the car was bought by Terry Smith (Felton, Somerset) to replace his highly successful 1-litre Vixen Imp. Smith raced the March in sprints and hillclimbs through the rest of 1975 and through 1976, using a 1600cc Holbay Ford twin cam engine, but in the summer of 1976, bought the ex-F1 McLaren M14D. The March was sold to Geoff Hunt (Andover, Hampshire), again with the Holbay twin cam, and used in sprints for quite a few years. Eventually traded to Richard Speakman for the ex-F3 Pilbeam MP51. Subsequent history unknown.
6. 'Hillman Imp' Chevron B19 [71-9] (Tony Wadsworth): 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'.
7. Chevron B31 [B26 74-02] (Bob Marsland): 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.

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.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 9 Oct 1975 p48.