F3 History

over Monaco sensation Giancarlo Naddeo bought his Tecno over to England and was pleased to set the same time as British regular David Purley. Finally came Peter Lamplough’s Palliser, which wasn’t doing its driver justice, Bengt Radmyr in his Lotus and newcomer Geddes Yeates who wasn’t happy with the way his ex-David Cole Lotus 59/69 was going. Slowest of all was another first timer American Terrance Peterson in a converted FB Chevron B17B but with only one (wrong) set of gear ratios he decided not to start. There was another Lotus 69 on pole for heat two, Andy Sutcliffe going the best in his American Express backed car and just heading Roger Williamson. Two more 69s followed with Rikki von Opel running well to beat Freddy Kottulinsky with his BMW engine. Bev Bond’s works Ensign took the next slot but not with Bond at the helm, Mo Nunn wanted the feedback from another driver and with no Shell Super Oil/Motor Sport points at stake the experienced Alan Rollinson was given a run. He confirmed Bond’s opinion that the engine was weak and a new Holbay was installed. Jose Ferreira just led Brendan McInerney in the sister car to James Hunt although the March was hampered by a loss of compression on one cylinder. French visitor Lucien Guitteny set the same time as McInerney in his Martini as did Sweden’s Ingvar Pettersson’s Brabham BT35. Next was Derek Lawrence’s Palliser from another new face, Lothar Schorg in a BMW powered Brabham BT35. Final runners were Chris O’Brien in his familiar BT35 and former FF driver Peter Hull having his first run in the ex-Richard Scott Brabham BT28 that unfortunately was suffering all sorts of problems with its Rowland mill.

Walker completely dominated heat one, leading from start to finish, Svensson and Hunt gave vain chase whilst Maskell muffed his second to third change at the start and dropped back. Hunt moved up to second for a few laps but dropped back again first behind Svensson and then the recovering Maskell. At the race end it was discovered the March had a loose bolt on the bottom rear wishbone which has caused Hunt to have erratic handling. Scheckter was initially fourth but fell back to finish eighth, Naddeo was in similar difficulties starting fifth but finishing ninth. Only retirement was Lamplough who only managed one lap before his fuel pressure vanished.

Sutcliffe took the lead in the second heat but unlike Walker he couldn’t get away and on the third lap Williamson moved into the lead from Sutcliife, von Opel, Ferreira and Rollinson. Williamson and Sutcliffe continued to swop the lead between themselves whilst Rollinson was closing in on Ferreira who had received a one minute penalty for a jumped start, the Ensign driver taking fourth on the last lap. McInerney took sixth which became fifth after Ferreira’s penalty, next came Pettersson, Guitteny, Kottulinsky and O’Brien.

The grid for the final was based on finishing times in the heats so the first four runners came from the faster first heat and so it was that once again Walker took the lead from pole and by driving the Lotus at the very limit pulled out a narrow lead on his pursuers. Hunt was in second place from Svensson, Maskell, Sutcliffe and Williamson with a gap back to Rollinson and von Opel. An early retirement was Brendan McInerney who had to pit his March 713 with its throttle jammed open. By lap 8 Rollinson had broken away from von Opel and was closing in on the group ahead which was now minus Sutcliffe who was in trouble when fourth gear stripped and he spun at Sunny trying to find third Sutcliife managed to get going again but he was now in 16th place, he deserved better after a good drive. Rollinson moved up to fifth after passing Svensson while Maskell and Hunt were having a great battle over second with the position changing on almost every lap. Williamson was starting to have brake problems and he fell back to 14th place when a spin at Tower was caused by his rear brakes locking. Svensson now moved forward and took second from lap 22 to 26 but then Hunt and Maskell reasserted themselves, Hunt firmly shutting the door on Maskell on the last lap to take second behind Walker who coasted home to win by over 14 seconds. Rollinson took fourth ruing the fact that he had been held up twice by the spinning Sutcliffe and Williamson, his fastest lap was 0.6 quicker than Walker which led to thoughts of what might have been. von Opel was unlucky to loose sixth when his fuel pump drive failed on the penultimate lap allowing Shepard through to take the place. Next up were Ferreira, Andersson, Guitteny, Pettersson and the recovering Sutcliffe. Retirements were recorded by Kottulinsky who blew a head gasket, Naddeo with low oil pressure, Yeates with a loose rear wheel and Lawrence who crashed the Palliser on the last lap at Oxo when the throttle stuck open.