British Sprint Championship Round

Curborough, 3 Jun 1979

Notes on the cars:

1. March 772/782 [6] (Ted Williams): New to AFMP-Euroracing, fitted with a Hart 420R and raced by Ricardo Zunino in F2 in early 1977. When AFMP collapsed, the car was taken over by mechanic Tony Harvey for Zunino to drive at Vallelunga, Pau and Mugello. Then run by "March Racing" for Zunino for the last half of the season. Sold to Ted Williams (Bristol) for sprints and hillclimbs in 1978, still using a 2-litre Hart engine. Retained for 1979, when it was partly updated to 782 specification. Sold to Martin Bolsover (Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire) for 1980, and fitted with a 1600cc BDA engine and again entered as a 772/782. Bolsover fitted his BDA to a new Pilbeam for 1981, and the March was not seen in 1981, 1982 and 1983. It reappeared in 1984 when raced by Roy Woodhouse, and fitted with a turbocharged 3.5-litre Rover engine. Alan Payne (Birmingham, West Midlands) won a sprint at Curborough in June 1984, when sharing this car with Woodhouse. Raced by Woodhouse in sprints in 1985 and 1986, after which he transferred the engine into a newer March 822. When that car was wrecked at the end of 1988, he returned to the 772 for 1989, 1990 and 1991, only for the car to be comprehensively demolished at the Weston sprint at the end of 1991.
2. March 782 [9] (David Franklin): Manfred Winkelhock's works car at Thruxton 27 Mar 1978 and presumably all season. He had an all-new chassis at Donington 25 Jun after his Rouen write-off but it presumably retained the same number. To David Franklin for hillclimbs in 1979, 1980 and 1981. Then with Fred Davies in 1982. Later with Bill Morris 1987-1990.
3. McRae GM1 [012] (Dave Harris): See full history: McRae GM1/012.
4. March 782/79B [5] (Godfrey Crompton): Patrick Neve's car at Thruxton 27 Mar 1978. Run by Bob Salisbury Racing during 1978 for Neve, James King, Gianfranco Brancatelli and, probably, Divina Galica at Hockenheim in September. Sold to Godfrey Crompton (Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire) of Douglas & Gavin Racing, and rebuilt to 79B specification with a 2.2-litre Hart 420R engine for hillclimbs in 1979. Retained for 1980, but replaced with a new March 802 in August. Subsequent history unknown, but this is said to have been the 782/79B used by Keith Cox in Sprints in 1983 and 1984.
5. March 772/782 [10] (Alan Richards): Built by March using "several second-hand components", fitted with a front radiator and March 771B nose, and sold to David Franklin in January 1978. Franklin used the car in the British Hillclimb Championship, winning the 1978 title, and in sprints. Sold to Alan Richards for 1979, and used in sprints and hillclimbs. Converted to Hart power for 1980, when it was entered by Richards as a 772P. Returned to BMW power for 1981, but Richards rarely qualified for Top 10 run-offs during that season. Sold to John Meredith for 1982, who used a 2.1-litre BMW engine. Sold to Rodney Eyles for 1983, now fitted a BDA engine for the 1600cc class. Not seen in 1984, but Eyles returned to the "772/782" for 1985, now using a 2.5-litre Hart engine. Wrecked in Eyles accident at Blackpool in 1985.
6. Lola T560 [HU2] (David Render): First seen as a Lola T550 with Holbay Abarth engine for Roberto Marazzi at the Silverstone F2 race in March 1977, but did not start. Not raced in 1977, but tested by Bruce Allison and Bob Evans in December. Alo Lawler was due to run the car in 1978, but abandoned the project after persistent engine problems. Sold to David Render for sprints in 1979, still with the Abarth engine borrowed from Holbay, and used until 1982 when the Abarth was returned, the Lola fitted with a 2.8-litre Hart engine, and used in this form until 1985. Sold to Jonathan Toulmin for 1988, who continued to run it with the Hart engine, then to Alan Newton, who bought the Abarth motor from Holbay and refitted it. Sold to Colin Pool in 1996, who sold it on to Francesco Molino. Sold by Molino to Thomas Steinke (Hamburg, Germany) in 2012, but later sold back to Molino.
7. Brabham BT35X [2] (Terry Smith): New to Tony Griffiths (Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands) for 1971, and fitted with a 5-litre Repco 740 V8 engine for the British Hill Climb Championship and occasional rounds of the British Sprint Championship. Won one round of each series. Retained for 1972 when Griffiths again one one round in each series. To Malcolm Dungworth (Sheffield, South Yorkshire) for 1973 when he shared it with John Cussins (Leeds, West Yorkshire). They shared the car again in 1974 and in 1975, when Cussins won a championship round at Barbon Manor, then Dungworth ran it alone in 1976 and 1977. Sold to Terry Smith in October 1977, and he raced it in the Sprint series in 1978. He raced it again in 1979, but in June he transferred the Repco engine into a March 75A/761 and the BT35X was sold to Mike Remnant in south-west England. Remnant did not race it, sticking to his BT30, and sold it to Roger Jordan who fitted a Ford twin cam and ran it in SW events from about 1981, later replacing the engine with a Rover V8. It was raced by Mark Haynes, still with the Rover V8, at Werrington Park in 1985. In 1986, Jordan sold it to Ted Walker (Dursley, Gloucestershire) who sold it to Shaun Mooney. Mooney had it restored by Simon Hadfield, fitted a Cosworth BDA, and raced it in historic racing from 1991 to 1996. In 2002, the car was sold to Japan and ran in Japanese historic events where it was noted having the name "E. Sekiya" on the side. It changed hands in 2004 and rebuilt by the Mecca racing garage at Tsukuba circuit in 2008. It was offered for sale by its Japanese owner in August 2015, and acquired by Ross Drybrough (Worthing, West Sussex). At this point it was in "F2" specification with a BDA engine. Restored and raced by Drybrough in HSCC F2 in 2022.

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.