Race Report: Albi, 26 September 1971

albi_26_9_71

Race Report: Albi, 26 September 1971

albi_26_9_71

The Coupe de Vitesse was the penultimate round of the French F3 Championship, the race was dominated by Patrick Depailler who took pole position at 1:17.4 and then won the race and set the fastest lap.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Albi, 26 September 1971

Qualifying

Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 1:17.4

Race

1 Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 39:58.5 30

2 François Rabbione

Martini-Novamotor MW7 40:29.1 30

3 François Migault

Martini-Novamotor MW7 41:05.2 30

4 Joel Auvray

Martini-Ford MW7 41:05.3 30

5 Patrice Compain

Martini-Novamotor MW7 41:15.6 30

6 Lucien Guitteny

Martini-BRM MW7 41:16.1 30

7 Max Bonin

Brabham-Ford BT28 41:19.6 30

8 Jacques Coulon

Martini-Novamotor MW7 42:34.6 30

9 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Novamotor 69 29

10 Philippe Albera

Martini-Novamotor MW7 29

Fastest lap

Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 1:18.1 167.60

Race Report: Mallory Park, 26 September 1971

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Race Report: Mallory Park, 26 September 1971

mallory_26_9_71

Sufficient entries arrived at Mallory Park to justify running two heats and a final for this Shell Super Oil/ Motor Sport Championship event although non-starters meant that qualification for the final would not be a problem.

The track was damp for both practice sessions which meant that times were 2 to 3 seconds away from the lap record but this didn’t stop Dave Walker assuming his accustomed place at the front of the grid for heat one. Second fastest was another Lotus, that of Andy Sutcliffe whilst third was Colin Vandervell’s Brabham. Going well was Swedish visitor Conny Andersson who headed the second row and should have sat next to James Hunt but the March driver managed an off at the hairpin wiping off a couple of

wheels, the car was repaired in time for the second heat but the grid was full so Hunt missed the race. The third row was led by Claude Bourgoignie’s Lotus from Alan McCully who was returning to F3 with the ex-David Purley BT28, completing the row was the amazing front engined U2 of Ray Mallock. Row four was an all Ensign affair with David Purley leading Steve Thompson, while row 5 boasted Jorge Pinhol and Ulf Svensson in their Brabham BT35s and the Chevron B17 of John Finch. Final runners were Richard Longman’s Lotus 69, Ingvar Petersson’s Brabham BT35 and Wolfgang Bülow’s March 713M.Other non-starters from this heat in addition to Hunt were Ronald Rossi who damaged his BT28 at the hairpin, Peter Lamplough with suspension damage from an off at Gerards, Tim Goss who had a metering unit seize and Freddy Kottulinsky who had a huge off at the Esses from which he was lucky to escape with just bruising. Brian McGuire’s BT28 had all sorts of problems and didn’t run and the new Alexis Mk20 of Allan Taylor didn’t get past scrutineering as there were no crutch straps fitted in the cockpit.

The track was a little drier for heat two and it was the March of Roger Williamson that took the fastest time from promising newcomer, German Jochen Mass, in his Brabham BT35, completing the front row was the Palliser of Derek Lawrence. Going very well was Bengt Radmyr’s Lotus 69 which led row two from the similar car of Rikki von Opel. Third row occupants were Barrie Maskell’s Chevron, and the two March 713Ms of Bev Bond and Hannelore Werner. Next up came Peter Hull (Brabham BT28), Chris Skeaping, using a works Rowland mill, (Chevron B17) and Willi Deutsch (March 713M). The fifth row was made up of Chris O’Brien and Jan Persson in their BT35s and Cavan Riley’s March 713M, the sixth row was John Bisignano after an off at the Esses and Terrance Peterson (Chevron B17. Final starters were John MacDonald’s March 713M and Alan Jones who missed most of practice with his BT28, non-starter was Torsten Palm after an off at Gerards

By the time the cars came out for heat one the track was almost dry and everyone could safely run slicks. As the flag fell it was Vandervell and Walker who jumped into an immediate lead, Sutcliffe stayed with them until lap 4 when his engine cut out at the hairpin, by the time it had picked up again he was down in sixth spot. Vandervell led lap 1 but Walker moved to the front on lap 2 and Vandervell seemed content to remain second but on the last lap the Aussie entered Gerards a little too quickly and ran wide on the exit, in a flash Vandervell was alongside Walker and the Brabham outdragged the Lotus to the line. Sutcliffe managed to regain third after his engine problems and finished ahead of Thompson, Purley and and Bourgoignie. McCully, Svensson and Pinhol ran into each other at the hairpin. McCully continued to finish last whilst the other two were out on the spot.

There was a four way battle for the lead at the start of the second heat between Williamson, Maskell (who made a great start), Mass and Lamplough who quickly pulled away from Hull, Radmyr and Bond. Williamson was doing most of the leading although Maskell kept putting the nose of the Chevron ahead out of Gerards, ultimately however Maskell found himself baulked twice by backmarkers so it was the March driver who took the win with the Chevron driver as runner up. Mass and Lamplough took third and fourth whilst Bond had a run in with Werner at the hairpin and fell away to seventh.

The heavens opened once again before the final and although it had stopped raining by the time the cars formed up on the grid it was still damp enough that everybody ran wets, most using the Dunlop wet although Walker and Sutcliffe used Firestone’s knobbly wet and Lawrence and Mallock opted to us F Ford Firestone Torinos whilst Radmyr had to use slicks as he had no wets.
Williamson got the best start and at the end of the first lap the March driver led from Mass, Maskell who was unhappy with the Chevron in the wet, Vandervell, Lawrence, Walker, Bond, Hull, Thompson, Sutcliffe, Purley, Jones, McInerney, Radmyr, Longman, Mallock, O’Brien, Bisignano, Persson and Bourgoignie. Williamson and Mass soon built up a gap over the rest who were getting bottled up behind Maskell whilst Sutcliffe and McInerney took each other out at Gerards. Lawrence managed to get past Maskell on lap 3 but in vain as his gear lever broke the following lap forcing him into retirement. Walker was next to take third on lap 5 but he was already a huge 16.5 seconds behind Williamson and Mass but not deterred the Lotus driver put his head down and started to claw back the deficit. As he passed the pits on lap 8 Williamson was pointing at his engine and it could be heard misfiring, possibly due to water in the electrical system.
Despite his engine problems Williamson was driving as fast as he could and Mass was only making small inroads into his lead and by lap 14 the German was still 3 seconds behind the leader although the amazing Walker was now right on the tail of the second placed Brabham. However Walker found it very hard to get ahead of Mass as although the racing line was by now quite dry it was still very wet everywhere else making outbraking very tricky. Eventually on lap 20 Walker made it into second place by getting past Mass at Stebbe but it took him 8 more laps to catch Williamson whose engine was now running cleanly again. Lap 29 saw Walker take the lead into the Esses and in the remaining laps he pulled out a 4 second gap over Williamson in what was a very impressive victory.
Maskell had slipped right back as his brakes disappeared and it was Bond who had moved up to fourth, but he had to give way to Vandervell and Purley in the dying laps although he just managed to fight off Thompson who was also suffering from wet electrics. Maskell’s unhappy weekend finished on the last lap when he came round Gerards to find Radmyr and Persson sideways across the track which resulted in all three cars suffering damage. Bisignano also did his March no good at all with his second accident of the meeting at the Esses.

Race Report: Thruxton, 19 September 1971, Iberia Cup

thruxton_19_9_iberia

Race Report: Thruxton, 19 September 1971, Iberia Cup

thruxton_19_9_iberia

The Iberia Trophy was a non-championship race held in conjunction with the European Cup, many drivers took part in both events although a number used qualifying as a way of getting additional track time for the European Cup and subsequently scratched from the race. Due to the number of runners the entry was split into two ten lap heats to qualify for the 10 lap final.

Pole position for heat one went to Jody Scheckter in his newly painted Lucky Strike Merlyn from surprise second fastest John Bisignano (March 713M), completing the front row was Roger Williamson in another 713M. Conny Anderson’s BT35 was ahead of Richard Longman’s Lotus whose Novamotor was running a standard cam after engine problems. Of the other drivers not competing in the European Cup Peter Lamplough was suffering low fuel pressure in his Palliser whilst Mike Walker was

having his first F3 outing for three years in the works Ensign that was now using a Vegantune mill in place of the previous Holbay. Right at the very back John MacDonald was in dire trouble with a very badly misfiring BRM engine in his March 713M.

Qualifying for heat two was largely undramatic, Alan Jones was going very well to get pole position in his Brabham BT28 from the March 713M of James Hunt and the Alpine-Renault of Depailler who withdrew from the race. Best of those not running in the European Cup was Tim Goss who was running a Middleton rebuilt Holbay and was going far better than of late, his times being 2 seconds a lap better than he had done before. Also going well was Ray Mallock in the U2 which was running a Palliser type nosecone although he broke his special 5-speed gearbox.

It was Scheckter who jumped straight into the lead from Williamson, Bisignano, Longman and Purley, as the cars arrived at the complex Andersson punted McGuire off the track and the Aussie resumed almost last. Most of the field made it through the chicane at the end of the lap but Lee Kaye braked impossibly late, tried to take the escape road, missed and hit the straw bales injuring two photographers and a marshal who were, perhaps unwisely, standing behind them. It was almost total chaos then with ambulances and Land Rovers emerging on the track and yellow and white flags being waved everywhere, the leaders came on the scene apparently totally unaware of what was happening. Inevitably some slowed quicker than others and much “overtaking” ensued. When the music stopped it was Scheckter from Bisignano, Longman, Purley, Williamson, Lamplough and Lafosse. Most of the rest of the race was run under the yellow although that didn’t prevent some place changing, during this period Williamson retired with piston failure and Lamplough dropped a lap when he lost a split-pin from his metering unit. The yellow flags were lifted on the penultimate lap and at the finish it was Purley from Scheckter, Longman and Bisignano with a gap to Andersson, Lafosse and Walker. Once the observers had reported Purley, Lafosse, Andersson and McGuire were disqualified for passing under the yellows.

Heat two and it was Jones in the lead from the flag but Hunt was soon past at the chicane whilst behind the two leaders it was Maskell, Rousselot, Coulon and Mallock. By lap 2 Thompson, Bond, Lawrence and Goss had caught up with the leading six. Hunt’s lead was short lived, on lap three yet another piston failed in his Holbay and it was Frenchman Rousselot who took over at the front for the next six laps with Maskell, Jones, Thompson and Coulon looking for a way past. It was Jones who took the lead again at Club on lap 9 and immediately tried to break away from his pursuers, Maskell was having none of this and stayed glued to the Brabham’s gearbox. Into the chicane on the last lap and Maskell forced the Chevron ahead of Jones to take a narrow win with Thompson in third ruing his too-low top gear with Coulon and Rousselot ahead of Lawrence who just beat Mallock as the U2 blew its head gasket.

The final was made up of the top ten from each heat plus the next best ten lap times although a few were unable to take their places due to various problems. The grid lined up as follows:

As the cars left the grid in was Steve Thompson in his Ensign who grabbed the lead but by Church it was Longman from Goss, Scheckter, Thompson, Walker and Purley, Williamson and Lawrence both had to take to the grass loosing several places in the process. As everybody settled down it was a seven car train at the front with Jones, who was doing most of the leading, heading Scheckter, Thompson, Walker, Purley, Williamson and Lamplough this group having pulled away from the rest of the field. Every lap there was furious activity going into the chicane as everyone sought to find an advantage however small on the others. Further down the field both Maskell and Mallock had to retire when their engines cried enough at the furious pace. For the entire race the front runners were changing place all round the track and it all came down to the chicane on the final lap, Jones had eked out a small gap of about 20 yards but all round the back section Scheckter was using the Brabham’s slipstream to pull himself closer and the South African braked very late into the chicane, the Merlyn went sideways forcing Jones wide and onto the concrete. Jones managed to regain the track as Scheckter exited the chicane and they raced side-by-side to the finish line with Scheckter just getting the verdict as the nosecone fell off Jones’ car. Purley took third from Walker, Thompson and Williamson whilst Coulon lost a good finish with a trip into the straw bales at the chicane.

Race Report: Monza, 19 September 1971

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Race Report: Monza, 19 September 1971

monza_19_9_71

Unusually this round of the Italian F3 Championship was scheduled to be run on the same day as the Nations Cup at Thruxton which effectively prevented Italy sending a team to England.

The Coupe Agip was held over two heats and a final and pole position was taken by the Tecno of Luigi Fontanesi from the Martini of François Rabbione and the works Branca of Giovanni Salvati.

The first heat saw a win for the Brabham BT28 of Adelmo Fossati from Jean Blanc who was returning to F3 with his F2 car fitted with a Novamotor, third was the Martini of Phillipe Albera. All three cars were covered by 0.4 seconds at the flag.

 

Heat two was a victory for the Tecno of Giovanni Salvati by 0.1 seconds from the similar car of Carlo Giorgio with another Tecno, that of Sombanef, third a further 0.3 down and 0.4 seconds ahead of Claude Bourgoignie’s Lotus 69. The final saw a win for Salvati’s Tecno by 0.2 seconds from Bourgoignie with Giorgio and Rabbione a similar distance behind and Blanc trailing in 7 seconds behind these four.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Monza, 19 September 1971

Qualifying

1 Luigi Fontanesi

Tecno-Novamotor

2 François Rabbione

Alpine-Renault A360 1:32.7

3 Giovanni Salvati

Branca-Novamotor

4 Phillipe Albera

Martini-Novamotor MW7

5 Claude Bourgoignie

Lotus-Holbay 69

RACE Heat 1

1 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham-Novamotor BT28 19:12.8 20

2 Jean Blanc

Tecno-Novamotor 19:12.8 20

3 Phillipe Albera

Martini-Novamotor MW7 19:12.8 20

4 François Rabbione

Martini-Novamotor MW7 19:12.9 20

5 Joël Auvray

Martini-Novamotor MW7 19:12.9 20

6 Girolamo Bertoni

Brabham-Ford BT28 19:13.9 20

7 Carlo Scarambone

Chevron-Alfa Romeo B17 19:14.4 20

8 Andrea Zucchi

Brabham-Ford BT35 19:15.2 20

9 Max Bonin

Brabham-Novamotor BT28 19:15.6 20

10 Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi

Brabham-Ford BT28 19:17.8 20

11 Dietmar Flöer

March-Ford 713M 19:41.8 20

12 Laurent Rotti

Scorpion-Ford 17

RACE Heat 2

1 Giovanni Salvati

Branca-Novamotor 18:49.2 20

2 Carlo Giorgio

Tecno-Novamotor 18:49.2 20

3 Luigi Fontanesi

Tecno-Novamotor 18:49.2 20

4 Claude Bourgoignie

Lotus-Holbay 69 18:49.3 20

5 Vittorio Venturi

Tecno-Alfa Romeo 19:03.8 20

6 Sandro Cinotti

de Sanctis-Ford 19:08.0 20

7 Ian Ashley

EMC-Ford 606 19:08.2 20

8 "Gero"

Quasar-Ford 19:08.4 20

9 Giuseppe 'Pino' Babbini

Tecno-Ford 19:09.2 20

10 Luigi Battistello

Brabham-Alfa Romeo 19:33.7 20

11 Giuseppe Piazzi

Chevron-Alfa Romeo 19

12 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel-Alfa Romeo 18

13 Alberto Corazza

Chevron-Alfa Romeo 17

Race Final

1 Giovanni Salvati

Branca-Novamotor 29:10.2 31

2 Claude Bourgoignie

Lotus-Holbay 69 29:10.4 31

3 Carlo Giorgio

Tecno-Novamotor 29:24.7 31

4 François Rabbione

Martini-Novamotor MW7 29:24.8 31

5 Jean Blanc

Tecno-Novamotor 29:31.9 31

6 Sandro Cinotti

de Sanctis-Ford 29:32.5 31

7 Girolamo Bertoni

Brabham-Ford BT28 29:32.6 31

8 Joël Auvray

Martini-Novamotor MW7 29:32.7 31

9 "Gero"

Quasar-Ford 29:32.8 31

10 Andrea Zucchi

Brabham-Ford BT35 29:33.0 31

11 Ian Ashley

EMC-Ford 606 29:34.0 31

12 Philippe Albera

Martini-Novamotor MW7 29:47.4 31

13 Vittorio Venturi

Tecno-Alfa Romeo 29:47.5 31

14 Carlo Scarambone

Chevron-Alfa Romeo B17 30

Race Report: Thruxton, 19 September 1971, European Cup

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Race Report: Thruxton, 19 September 1971, European Cup

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The purpose of this European Cup race was to bring together the cream of the European F3 drivers together in one race. Each country would have a team of three drivers, the better represented countries could have an “A” team and a “B” team. Twelve teams were entered but the tragic events at the Avus meeting on the weekend before meant the Brazilian team which would have included Ferreira and Rossi had to withdraw.

The two Alpines representing France “A” had arrived at Thruxton during the week and indulged in a lot of testing, in addition both of the drivers had raced previously at Thruxton in F2 so it wasn’t a major surprise when Patrick Depailler set the fastest time from team-mate Jean-Pierre Jabouille. Joining the Frenchmen at the front was England “A” driver Roger Williamson

who was hampered by a blown engine and his Dunlops splitting. The second of the three England “A” representatives was James Hunt, he too had engine problems requiring two engine changes and he also had a split oil tank to worry about, Hunt lead row 2. Next to the Briton was the Brabham BT35 of Pierre-François Rousselot for France “B”. Row three saw Conny Andersson for Sweden “A”, his Brabham BT35 running a “low frontal area” nosecone ahead of Barrie Maskell (Chevron B18) for England “B” and Brian McGuire (Brabham BT28) for Australia. The third France “A” driver headed row 4, François Migault in his Martini MW7 with German “A” driver Manfred Möhr with his Lotus 69. France “B” driver Jacques Coulon lead the fifth row, Coulon’s Martini MW7 was sporting a bluff Tyrrell-like nosecone. The second Australian, Alan Jones (Brabham BT28) was next from the similar car of New Zealand’s Peter Hull. Jochen Mass in only his second F3 race was on row 6 for Germany “A” with David Purley (England “A” reserve) who was running a Vegantune for the first time in his Ensign LN1, David had some tyre problems and a huge spin in the complex during his qualifying efforts.
Row 7 saw Jean-Louis Lafosse (Brabham BT35) for France “B” heading England “B” representative Andy Sutcliffe (Lotus 69) who had a broken clutch, a broken engine and a broken fuel metering unit on his new engine! Also on this row was German “B” driver Willi Somner in his March 713S. American driver John Bisignano (March 713M) and third England “A” driver Steve Thompson were the row 8 occupants. Thompson had a handling imbalance in his Ensign that defied all attempts to correct it as well as a too low top gear. Next were a pair of Swedes, Jorgen Jonsson for the “B” team and Torsten for the “A” team, both were in Brabham BT35s, alongside them was New Zealander Alan McCully in his “new” ex-Purley Brabham BT28. Hannelore Werner (March 713M) for Germany “A” and Ingvar Peterson (Brabham BT35) for Sweden “B” were on row 10. Two very disappointed drivers were to be found on row 11, Ulf Svensson (Brabham BT35) for Sweden “A” and Bev Bond (March 713M) for England “B”. Bond was in dire handling problems until a faulty wishbone and incorrect castor angles were diagnosed. Final occupant was Australian Bob Muir who was getting the Lee Kaye 713S running much faster than it normally went.
The grid was completed by Matt Spitzley (March 713M) completing the USA team, Wolfgang Bülow (March 713S) for Germany “B”, Jan Persson (Brabham BT35) for Sweden “B” and Cavan Riley as the third New Zealander in his March 713M. Chris Skeaping and Randy Lewis also practised but Skeaping as England “B” reserve blew an engine in his Chevron B17 and a 1460cc replacement proved too gutless for the job. Randy Lewis (Brabham BT35) should have been the third USA representative but he was unlucky enough to be the first driver to discover the oil from James Hunt’s broken tank and the Brabham slid off into a marshals’ post. The rear of the BT35 was too badly damaged to be fixed for the race, luckily Lewis was uninjured.

A number of drivers had also entered the Iberia Trophy race and took part in the qualifying heats and probably wished they hadn’t. Disaster befell James Hunt who blew up his third engine of the meeting and with no more spares he had to withdraw from the race, David Purley took his place. Roger Williamson broke a piston but a frantic engine change saw him ready for the race. Torsten Palm blew his clutch and there was insufficient time to replace it, Alan McCully was in trouble with his engine cutting out, it could only be cured by running his Brabham with full tanks.

The obvious plan for the two Alpines was to try and work together and pull away from the rest unfortunately any such plan went out of the window at the chicane on lap 1 when Jabouille in fourth place tried to outbrake everyone. The Alpine ended up in the escape road and by the time Jabouille had regained the track he was last. This left Depailler, who had outbraked Williamson into the chicane, in first place from the March with Lafosse in third, next came Andersson from Maskell, McGuire, Migault, Coulon, Purley, Rousselot, Jones, Bisignano, Mass, Möhr, Hull, Thompson and Bond. Out almost immediately was German “B” runner Somner who holed the radiator on his March after a spin at Village.
By lap 3 it was Depailler from Williamson, Lafosse and Maskell then a small gap to Andersson, McGuire, Migault, Purley, Coulon, Rousselot, Mass, Jones, Bisignano and Hull. The latter two were out soon after when Bisignano spun at the chicane and Hull couldn’t avoid him, Hull retired with a broken upright and Bisignano a lap later with a holed radiator. Behind the leading runners it was Thompson, Möhr, Jonsson, McCully, Bond and Muir, then there was a big gap to Werner, Deutsch and Sutcliffe followed by a fast recovering Jabouille. The rest were now some distance back.

On lap 4 Williamson and Rousselot got themselves in a bit of a tangle at the chicane which allowed Depailler to get a lead which he gradually increased as the others lost his tow. Next retirement was McCully with several problems and Mass lost a lap after having a flat tyre replaced on lap 6. Depailler continued to increase his lead and by lap 10 it was out to 6 seconds but behind him there was a nine car fight for second between Purley, Lafosse, Rousselot, Andersson, Maskell, Williamson, McGuire, Coulon and Migault. Further back Sutcliffe and Jabouille had got together and were towing each other forward at a great rate, Purley inadvertently joined them when a huge spin at Church dropped him back from the leaders.
Up at the front Depailler’s lead was shrinking, partly due to the Frenchman being delayed by lapping backmarkers but also because the group behind were beginning to concentrate more on catching up than fighting amongst themselves. Lap 20 and Depailler’s lead was down to three seconds and he was being hotly pursued by Rousselot, Coulon, Maskell, Migault and Andersson. Williamson was beginning to fall away with a down on power engine, McGuire was just behind the March, next up were Jabouille, Purley and Lafosse. Möhr was a retirement at this point with a very smoky engine.

Depailler was getting more and more delayed by the backmarkers and on lap 27 Rousselot outbraked Depailler into the chicane whilst Coulon and Maskell tried to get by as well. Behind them Andersson, Williamson, McGuire and Migault were fighting just as hard but then McGuire lost it at Church and was out on lap 30 as was Purley with engine problems. Unfortunately the lapped Mass got involved with the leaders allowing Rousselot and Depailler to get away from Coulon and Maskell. Rousselot seemed to have the edge over Depailler in the braking department and he held on through the chicane on the last lap to beat the Martini by 0.2 seconds, Maskell outbraked Migault into Club and took third place to stop a French clean sweep. Fifth was an almighty battle between four cars, Andersson lead into the chicane but went sideways pushing Williamson out onto the concrete and grass, nothing daunted the Brit kept his foot hard down and came out ahead of Migault, Andersson managed to recover to finish seventh whilst Jabouille trying to get past everyone launched the Alpine over the kerbs and into the air, after touching down again he finished eighth.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Thruxton, 19 September 1971, European Cup

Qualifying

1 Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 1:19.2

2 Jean-Pierre Jabouille

Alpine-Renault A360 1:19.4

3 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 1:19.8

4 James Hunt

March-Holbay 713 M 1:19.8 DNS

5 Pierre-François Rousselot

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:19.8

6 Conny Anderson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:19.8

7 Barrie Maskell

Chevron-Holbay B18 1:19.8

8 Brian McGuire

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:19.8

9 François Migault

Martini-Novamotor MW7 1:20.0

10 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:20.0

11 Jacques Coulon

Martini-Novamotor MW7 1:20.2

12 Alan Jones

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:20.2

13 Peter Hull

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:20.2

14 Jochen Mass

Brabham-Novamotor BT35 1:20.2

15 David Purley

Ensign-Vegantune LN1 1:20.4

16 Jean-Louis Lafosse

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:20.4

17 Andy Sutcliffe

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:20.4

18 Willi Somner

March-Novamotor 713S 1:20.6

19 John Bisignano

March-Holbay 713M 1:20.6

20 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Vegantune LN1 1:21.2

21 Jorgen Jonsson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:21.4

22 Torsten Palm

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:21.6

23 Alan McCully

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:21.6

24 Hannelore Werner

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:35.2

25 Ingvar Peterson

Brabham-Novamotor BT35 1:22.0

26 Ulf Svensson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:22.0

27 Bev Bond

March-Holbay 713M 1:22.2

28 Bob Muir

March-Rowland/Bloore 713S 1:22.2

29 Matt Spitzley

March-Vegantune 713M 1:22.8

30 Wolfgang Bülow

March-Novamotor 713S 1:23.8

31 Jan Persson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:24.6

32 Cavan Riley

March-Novamotor 713M 1:25.4

Chris Skeaping

Chevron-Skeaping B17 ? DNS

Randy Lewis

Brabham-Holbay BT35 ? DNS

Race

1 Pierre-François Rousselot

Brabham-Holbay BT35 53:47.2 40 105.13

2 Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 53:47.4 40

3 Barrie Maskell

Chevron-Holbay B18 53:58.0 40

4 Jacques Coulon

Martini-Novamotor MW7 53:59.4 40

5 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 54:11.6 40

6 François Migault

Martini-Novamotor MW7 54:11.6 40

7 Conny Andersson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 54:11.8 40

8 Jean-Pierre Jabouille

Alpine-Renault A360 54:12.8 40

9 Jean-Louis Lafosse

Brabham-Holbay BT35 54:31.6 40

10 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Vegantune LN1 54:32.0 40

11 Jorgen Jonsson

Brabham-Novamotor BT35 54:46.2 40

12 Bev Bond

March-Holbay 713M 39

13 Jochen Mass

Brabham-Holbay BT35 39

14 Hannelore Werner

March-Holbay 713M 39

15 Willi Deutsch

March-Novamotor 713S 39

16 Matt Spitzley

March-Vegantune 713M 38

17 Wolfgang Bülow

March-Novamotor 713S 38

18 Jan Persson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 38

19 Cavan Riley

March-Novamotor 713M 38

Fastest Lap

Pierre-François Rousselot

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:19.2 107.09

Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 1:19.2 107.09

Race Report: Avus, 12 September 1971

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Race Report: Avus, 12 September 1971

avus_12_9_71
This was a minor F3 event at the very fast Avus circuit, UK based visitors were the Brazilian pair Ronald Rossi and Jose Ferreira in their Brabham-Holbay BT28s. Rossi didn’t even make the start when he collided with Freddy Kottulinsky’s Lotus 69 writing both cars off. In the race Ferreira was leading the race when it suddenly started raining and the slick shod Brabham slid off into the barriers and was hit by Italian driver Biagio Cammarone, both cars caught fire and were burnt out. Ferreira was unhurt but Cammarone was badly burnt and he was rushed to a Berlin hospital. The wet track caused 12 cars to spin out (from 17 who started), Giancarlo Naddeo (Lotus 69) suffered a broken leg and a fractured skull, even more seriously Hannelore Werner’s March 713 hit a marshall who died instantly. The race was red flagged, It seemed unimportant but the race was run by Wolfgang Bülow.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Avus, 12 September 1971

Race

1 Wolfgang Bülow

March-Ford 713 16

2 Willi Deutsch

March-Ford 713 16

3 Hermann Unold

March-Ford 713 16

4 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 69 16

5 Eddie Jacobsson

March-Ford 703 16

6 Egert Haglund

Brabham-Ford BT28

7 Paul Zitzen

March-Ford 713

8 Jose Ferreira

Brabham-Ford BT28

9 Hannolore Werner

March-Ford 713

10 Biagio Cammarone

Brabham-Ford

11 Heinz-Jürgen Rüller

March-Ford 703

12 Giancarlo Naddeo

Lotus-Ford 69

13 Gerd Koppenhauser

Brabham-Ford BT28

14 Peter Krause

March-Ford 703

Not Classified

Adelmo Fossati

Brabham-Ford BT28

Luigi Battistello

Brabham-Ford BT28

Paul Fischer

Tecno-Ford

Race Report: Falkenberg, 12 September 1971

falkenberg_12_9_71

Race Report: Falkenberg, 12 September 1971

falkenberg_12_9_71

The fourth round of the Swedish Championship entitled the Västkustloppet was held at Falkenberg, the result was decided on the aggregate results over three heats. The field was composed of Swedish drivers with victory going to F3 veteran Conny Andersson who won two heats and finished second in the third. Some of the cars were still using 1-litre engines, notably third placed finisher Kennerth Persson.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Falkenberg, 12 September 1971

Race

1 Conny Andersson

Brabham-Ford BT35 1 1 2 4

2 Jörgen Jonsson

Brabham-Ford BT35 2 2 1 5

3 Kennerth Persson

Brabham-Ford BT28 4 3 3 10

4 Bengt Rådmyr

Lotus-Ford 69 3 4 4 11

5 Ingvar Pettersson

Brabham-Ford BT35 9 5 5 19

6 Ulf Karlsson

Brabham-Ford BT28 6 8 8 22

7 Rolf Gröndahl

Brabham-Ford BT28 14 7 9 30

8 Jonas Qvarnström

Brabham-Ford BT35 12 10 12 34

9 Lars Karlsson

Tecno-Ford 11 9 15 35

Fastest Lap

Ulf Svensson

Brabham-Ford BT35 0:41.4

Race Report: Brands Hatch, 11 September 1971

brands_11_9_71

Race Report: Brands Hatch, 11 September 1971

brands_11_9_71

Only 13 cars made it to Brands Hatch for this Lombank round after the rigours of Crystal Palace the day before.

Pole position was the property James Hunt hoping that the starting problems that had ruined his Crystal Palace race were now cured, another March came next, the L&M car of John Bisignano although some doubted his time. Brian McGuire was continuing his recent good form to line up third in his Brabham BT28, the second row consisted of the Lotus of Andy Sutcliffe and the Ensign of David Purley. Leading the third row was a surprise, the Brabham BT35 of Colin Vandervell whose poor mechanic had a

sleepless night trying to screw the damaged machine back together again, not surprisingly it wasn’t handling to Vandervell’s satisfaction. Next up were Peter Lamplough (Palliser) and Steve Thompson (Ensign) who was suffering from a down on power engine, Roger Williamson only managed three laps of practice before injector trouble stopped his March and Brendan McInerney’s similar car was hampered by running a standard cam in his engine. Bringing up the rear were the Brabhams of Chris O’Brien and Jorge Pinhol in BT35s and Sonny Eade in a BT28.

McGuire slotted into an early lead from Hunt, Sutcliffe, Purley and Bisignano with the whole field covered by about a second at the end of lap 1, by the end of the next lap Sutcliffe had got ahead of Hunt and the final runners O’Brien, Pinhol and Eade were dropping back. Lap 3 saw McGuire still leading from Sutcliffe, Purley, Hunt, Bisignano, Williamson, Lamplough, Thompson, McInerney and Vandervell who was recovering from a grassy moment at South bank. Lap 6 and it was Sutcliffe in front with the positions behind chopping and changing from corner to corner, it all went wrong at Clearways on lap 9, Sutcliffe spun collecting McGuire and Hunt, the first two were out instantly, Hunt recovered but was too far back to be a threat anymore.
Williamson was now first with a 4 seconds lead due to the Clearways kerfuffle but Vandervell was in determined mood and began to haul the March in, his cause being helped by Williamson’s Holbay loosing power due to suspected ring failure. For the last three laps Williamson weaved furiously as Vandervell sat on the March’s tail, coming through Clearways Vandervell dived up the inside his wheels nearly touching the pit wall but it was Williamson’s race by a couple of inches. Bisignano took third by fractions from Lamplough and Purley with Thompson less than half a second behind them

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Brands Hatch, 11 September 1971

Qualifying

1 James Hunt

March-Holbay 713M 48.6

2 John Bisignano

March-Holbay 713M 49.0

3 Brian McGuire

Brabham-Vegantune BT35 49.2

4 Andy Sutcliffe

Lotus-Holbay 69 49.2

5 David Purley

Ensign-Holbay LN1 49.4

6 Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Vegantune BT35 49.4

7 Peter Lamplough

Palliser-Holbay WDF3 49.6

8 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Holbay LN1 49.6

9 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 50.0

10 Brendan McInerney

March-Vegantune 713M 50.0

11 Chris O'Brien

Brabham-Holbay BT35 ?

12 Jorge Pinhol

Brabham-Holbay BT35 ?

13 Sonny Eade

Brabham BT28 ?

Race

1 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 16:46.2 20 88.73

2 Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Vegantune BT35 16:46.2 20

3 John Bisignano

March-Holbay 713M 16:49.0 20

4 Peter Lamplough

Palliser-Holbay WDF3 16:49.4 20

5 David Purley

Ensign-Holbay LN1 16:50.0 20

6 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Holbay LN1 16:50.4 20

7 Brendan McInerney

March-Vegantune 713M 20

Fastest lap

Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 48.4 92.23

Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Vegantune BT35 48.4 92.23

Race Report: Crystal Palace, 10 September 1971

crystal_10_9_71

Race Report: Crystal Palace, 10 September 1971

crystal_10_9_71

A top class entry arrived at Crystal Palace to contest the two heats and a final of this Forward Trust Championship round.

Colin Vandervell led away from the grid in heat one and was ahead of the pack into North Tower but by the end of the lap it was Roger Williamson’s March 713M heading the field from Vandervell with Dave Walker’s GLTL 69 in third.Vandervell moved back to the front on the second lap but by lap five it was the familiar sight of Walker’s Lotus out front. However Vandervell wasn’t giving up and on lap 12, despite a misfiring engine, it was the Brabham in first place.

Walker was back in front on lap 14 when Vandervell was delayed when trying to lap Cavan Riley’s March at Ramp and it was Walker who took the chequered flag from Vandervell with Williamson, who also had problems with Riley, a fairly distant third. David Purley’s Ensign was fourth from Alan Jone’s in his BT28, Peter Lamplough’s Palliser should have been sixth but a one minute penalty for a jumped start dropped him to ninth.

Andy Sutcliife (Lotus 69) led away from the start of heat two hotly pursued by pole sitter James Hunt (March 713), Jody Scheckter (Merlyn Mk21) and Barrie Maskell (Chevron B18). Hunt moved into first on lap 4 whilst soon after Scheckter also passed the Lotus and started to challenge Hunt for the lead. Sutcliffe and Maskell fought over third until Sutcliffe’s clutch started to fail, finally packing up completely on lap 12. Scheckter was taking turns at leading but at the end of the fifteen laps it was Hunt first by two tenths from Scheckter, Maskell was a lonely third from the BT 28 of Brian McGuire. The Ensign of Steve Thompson came home fifth despite starting from the back of the grid with a ten second penalty. Hunt was in immediate problems when his engine refused to fire on the grid and he was left furiously waving his arms as the rest of the field started without him, a push start eventually getting him going. Vandervell took the lead from the start with Walker, Williamson, Purley and Scheckter queuing up behind and on lap 2 Walker took first with Scheckter moving ahead of Purley. Walker and Vandervell began to pull away from Williamson who was troubled by a down on power engine and on lap 5 Scheckter also passed the March and set off after the two leaders. Vandervell took the lead on lap 5 but it was Walker in front again almost immediately, the Brabham hit the lead again on lap 9 and stayed there for a couple of tours. Lap 12 saw Walker back in first with Vandervell and Scheckter, who had now caught them up, right behind, the three drivers keeping these positions until lap 19. Coming through the kink before North Tower Scheckter moved inside Walker who was second to Vandervell, as they entered the corner Walker moved out of Vandervell’s slipstream forcing Scheckter’s wheels onto the grass. The three cars were almost side-by-side with the Lotus and Merlyn interlocking wheels, all three cars made contact. Walker and Scheckter ended up firmly planted in the sleepers while Scheckter tried to continue but with his left rear wheel trailing at an odd angle he was forced to retire at New Link.

Behind these three Williamson had been battling it out with Purley’s Ensign and Jones in his BT28 but the Aussie was out after giving the sleepers at South Tower a hefty blow. Purley led going into the last lap but Williamson got ahead and took the chequered flag for a narrow and somewhat fortuitous victory, Purley was second from McGuire and Lamplough who had been squabbling over what became third for most of the race, Hunt finished fifth but his 10 second penalty dropped him to sixth. Retirements included Maskell who had to start on wets after puncturing a slick in his heat, he ended up in the sleepers after an incident with the Lotus of Richard Longman.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Crystal Palace, 10 September 1971

RACE Heat 1

1 Dave Walker

Lotus-Novamotor 69 13:38.8 15 91.67

2 Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Rowland BT35 13:39.0 15

3 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 13:40.6 15

4 David Purley

Ensign-Holbay LN1 13:50.0 15

5 Alan Jones

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 13:50.0 15

6 Richard Longman

Lotus-Ford 69 14:40.2 15

7 Peter Lamplough

Palliser-Holby WDF3

8 Brendan McInerney

March-Holbay 713M

9 Chris O'Brien

Brabham-Ford BT35

10 Ray Mallock

U2-Holbay Mk11B

Fastest Lap

Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Rowland BT35 53.4 93.71

Race Heat 2

1 James Hunt

March-Holbay 713M 13:42.0 15

2 Jody Scheckter

Merlyn-Holbay Mk21 13:42.2 15

3 Barrie Maskell

Chevron-Holbay B18 13:42.2 15

4 Brian McGuire

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 13:54.2 15

5 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Holbay LN1 14:04.8 15

6 John Bisignano

March-Ford 713M 14:12.2 15

Fastest Lap

Barrie Maskell

Chevron-Holbay B18 53.4 93.71

Jody Scheckter

Merlyn-Holbay Mk21 53.4 93.71

RACE Final

1 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 18:14.4 20 91.45

2 David Purley

Ensign-Holbay LN1 20

3 Brian McGuire

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 20

4 Peter Lamplough

Palliser-Holby WDF3 20

5 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Holbay LN1 20

6 James Hunt

March-Holbay 713M 20

Fastest Lap

Jody Scheckter

Merlyn-Holbay Mk21 53.0 94.42

Race Report: Dresden, 5 September 1971

dresden_5_9_71

Race Report: Dresden, 5 September 1971

dresden_5_9_71
This was another German F3 meeting where the East German F3 cars were racing as well as the usual European F3 models. It looks as if there was a separate race for the East German cars and then another were they raced with the four European cars. The race was held over 15 laps of the 5.3 km track.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Dresden, 5 September 1971

Race

1 Freddy Kottulinsky

Lotus-BMW 69 34:46.8 15 137.148

2 Georges Crenier

Tecno-Ford 15

3 Wolfgang Küther

Melkus Wartburg 14

4 Rene Scalais

Tecno-Ford 14

5 Heinz Melkus

Markus Wartburg 14

6 Manfred Berger

SEG-Wartburg 14

Fastest Lap

Freddy Kottulinsky

Lotus-BMW 69 2:14.2 142.176