Race Report: Casale, 31 March 1974

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Race Report: Casale, 31 March 1974

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This was the first round of the Italian F3 Championship and was held over two heats and a final and the field was largely national runners with the exception of Sweden’s Conny Andersson and the Uruguayan Pedro Passadore. It is probable that many of the runners were still using 1600 cc engines.

Pedro Passadore won the first heat ahead of Alessandro Pessenti-Rossi, Passadore’s GRD was using the new Toyota Novamotor twin cam engine. Heat 2 went to Sandro Cinotti’s March, another user of the Toyota Novamotor, Luciano Pavesi took second in his Brabham. It was a Toyota 1-2 in the final with Passadore leading Cinotti home, Giorgio Francia’s March finished third.
Conny Andersson had an unhappy weekend retiring from both his heat and the final with gearbox problems.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Casale, 31 March 1974

Race Heat 1

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 20:09.40

2 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 20:09.50

3 Luigi Fontanesi

Tecno-Ford 20:13.10

4 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 20:23.40

Race Heat 2

1 Giovanni Lo Voi

Brabham-Ford BT28 15:05.00

2 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 15:05.00

3 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 15:21.00

4 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 15:34.10

5 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28

Race Final

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 30:44.30 144.318

2 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28 30:44.34

3 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 30:45.10

4 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 30:55.40

5 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

6 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 31:11.50

7 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 31:59.60

8 Giovanni Lo Voi

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

Race Report: Thruxton, 24 March 1974

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Race Report: Thruxton, 24 March 1974

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On to round three of the Lombard North Central Championship and the number of competitors continued to inch up with 11 cars making it to Thruxton. Once again the F3 cars found themselves running with another class to make up the grid size, this time it was the Monopostos.

Brian Henton had set a pole time an amazing three seconds faster than anyone else but the race would not prove to be so straightforward with a slippery track caused by the cold, damp conditions. Henton took an immediate lead but found the GRD of Tony Rouff sitting on his tail for the opening laps, the works March was adopting some interesting lines as Henton appeared to be suffering from locking brakes. Lap 5 saw Rouff baulked by a slow backmarker which allowed Henton to open out a bit of a gap which was just as well as on lap 6 as Henton entered Club the brakes locked again and Superhen slide straight on behind the chicane. Rouff now found himself with a ten second lead but it only took Henton two laps to catch Rouff and demote him back to second with a passing manoeuvre at Club. Henton held his lead with out further drama to win by 2.2 seconds.

Behind the battling duo at the front Ribeiro had made a great start from row 5 to slot into third ahead of the Ehrlich of Derek Lawrence who was running wet tyres, unfortunately for Ribeiro the judges decided his start was a little too quick and penalised him 10 seconds. Lawrence soon began to fall away as his tyres proved to be the wrong choice for the conditions. José Espirito Santo moved up to fourth, his March sporting a 2-litre engine this week, and on lap 6 he passed Ribeiro at Club. Ribeiro fell back towards the duel for fifth between the works March of Jose Chateaubriand and the works Modus of Bob Arnott. Chateaubriand and Arnott continually swopped places until lap 8 when the March opened up a small gap but Ribeiro was just too far ahead to be caught. Ribeiro finished fourth on the road with Chateaubriand 0.2 seconds behind but the jump start penalty dropped Ribeiro back to sixth. Marco Moraes and Barrie Maskell had been disputing seventh but Moraes spun the works GRD 374 into the banking at Church and for the third successive race Maskell’s engine let him down and he had to retire.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Thruxton, 24 March 1974

Race Heat 1

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 20:09.40

2 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 20:09.50

3 Luigi Fontanesi

Tecno-Ford 20:13.10

4 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 20:23.40

Race Heat 2

1 Giovanni Lo Voi

Brabham-Ford BT28 15:05.00

2 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 15:05.00

3 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 15:21.00

4 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 15:34.10

5 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28

Race Final

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 30:44.30 144.318

2 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28 30:44.34

3 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 30:45.10

4 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 30:55.40

5 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

6 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 31:11.50

7 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 31:59.60

8 Giovanni Lo Voi

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

Race Report: Silverstone, 17 March 1974

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Race Report: Silverstone, 17 March 1974

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Round two of the Lombard North Central Championship and this time 10 cars arrived at Silverstone although only eight were destined to start.
Brian Henton put his works March 743 on pole 0.2 seconds ahead of Tony Rouff who this week had a new 2-litre Vegantune engine in the back of his GRD, Jose Chateaubriand in the second works March completed the front row. The non-starters were Alex Ribeiro who suffered from fuel injection bothers in his GRD-Novamotor before he even practised and Barrie Maskell who once again had piston troubles with his Dastle, this time with the team’s 1790cc twin-cam.

Henton timed his start perfectly and into Copse he was ahead of Rouff and Chateaubriand, the latter under pressure from Moraes and Arnott. On lap 2 Chateaubriand ran wide at Woodcote causing Moraes to brake and allowing Arnott to pass both Brazilians in one go as they entered Copse. Moraes spent the rest of the lap hounding Arnott but entering Woodcote he spun wildly letting Chateaubriand up to fourth.
Back at the front Henton was under heavy pressure from Rouff but the March held on to win by 0.6 seconds with both men sharing a new lap record. Arnott was on his own in third with Chateaubriand fourth whilst Moraes outbraked Santo for fifth at Woodcote on the last lap. The only retirement was Derek Lawrence who only managed a few laps before retiring with his engine only firing on three cylinders.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Silverstone, 17 March 1974

Race Heat 1

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 20:09.40

2 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 20:09.50

3 Luigi Fontanesi

Tecno-Ford 20:13.10

4 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 20:23.40

Race Heat 2

1 Giovanni Lo Voi

Brabham-Ford BT28 15:05.00

2 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 15:05.00

3 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 15:21.00

4 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 15:34.10

5 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28

Race Final

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 30:44.30 144.318

2 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28 30:44.34

3 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 30:45.10

4 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 30:55.40

5 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

6 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 31:11.50

7 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 31:59.60

8 Giovanni Lo Voi

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

Race Report: Oulton Park, 9 March 1974

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Race Report: Oulton Park, 9 March 1974

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Only seven cars made it to Oulton Park for the first round of the Lombard North Central Championship, it was of course the first race to the new 2-litre regulations so it was to be expected that it would take time to get the sort of numbers seen at the 1600 cc races. It should be remembered that only three cars started the first 1600 cc race at Mallory Park in 1971. To make up the grid numbers a number of F Ford cars also took part in their own race.

Pole position went to Bob Arnott in the new Modus M1 chassis powered by a Lotus twin-cam engine, next came the familiar 1600 cc 1973 cars of Tony Rouff (GRD) and José Espirito Santo (March). Brian Henton sat on row two in his new March 743 the only other full 2-litre car, a sticking throttle restricting him to only two practice laps. Completing the grid was the ex-Richard Robarts 733 of Peter Dugdale, another to still be running a 1600 cc mill.
There were two non-starters, Henton’s team mate Brazilian José Chateaubriand who had a head gasket fail in his 2-litre Holbay, his 743 was only completed the day before and so had no chance to be tested. The ever unlucky Barrie Maskell had two pistons blow in his 1600 cc Holbay, Maskell was running the same Dastle Mk10B he had been seen in during 1973.

Conditions before the start of the race were very tricky, it was bitterly cold, several cars had dropped oil in the earlier races and it had been sleeting to add to the general misery. Brian Henton made the best start from the second row and leapt into an immediate lead that he held all the way to the Deer Leap were the surface was very slippery, in a second the March was spinning and by the time Henton had gathered it all together again he was last trailing even the F Fords. This left Arnott in the lead with the new Modus with a gap back to Santo and Rouff who were circulating together but by lap 9 they had another car with them, the March 743 of Henton! After his opening lap spin Henton had really put the hammer down carving through the F Fords as if they weren’t there, just as Henton caught the second and third men it began to drizzle again making a treacherous track surface even worse. First in trouble was leader Arnott who spun at Cascades, he was able to keep his engine running and resumed with his lead down to five seconds. One lap later he repeated the trick but this time he stalled his engine and, being unable to restart it, he was out.
Amazingly it was now Henton in the lead again, his cause was helped by Santo who joined in with the Cascade spinners hitting the Armco and crawling round to the pits to retire. Next to gyrate was Rouff who spun on Top Straight also hitting the barrier and removing part of his wing although he was able to continue in second. All the action now over Henton crossed the line first to take the inaugural 2-litre win from Rouff in second and, completing the finishers despite a spin at Old Hall, Peter Dugdale.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Oulton Park, 9 March 1974

Race Heat 1

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 20:09.40

2 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 20:09.50

3 Luigi Fontanesi

Tecno-Ford 20:13.10

4 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 20:23.40

Race Heat 2

1 Giovanni Lo Voi

Brabham-Ford BT28 15:05.00

2 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 15:05.00

3 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 15:21.00

4 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 15:34.10

5 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28

Race Final

1 Vittorio Brambilla

Birel Alfa Romeo 30:44.30 144.318

2 Marcello Gallo

Brabham BT28 30:44.34

3 Fabrizio Noe

Lotus-Ford 69 30:45.10

4 Adelmo Fossati

Brabham BT28 30:55.40

5 Patrice Compain

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00

6 Carlo Franchi (Gimax)

De Sanctis-Alfa Romeo 31:11.50

7 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Ford 31:59.60

8 Giovanni Lo Voi

Martini-Ford MW7 31:08.00