Race Report: Croft, 8 August 1971

crft_8_8_71

After the carnage at Crystal Palace only seven cars made it north to this Forward Trust round at Croft. Fastest in practice was Roger Williamson who was using a new head on his Holbay engine, second was Dave Walker his Lotus 69 still looking a little secondhand after its Crystal Palace accident. Final occupant of the front row was Jody Scheckter having his first outing in the Merlyn-Holbay Mk21 formerly driven by Jean-Pierre Cassegrain. Next up should have been Brendan McInerney in his March-Vegantune 713M but his engine hadn’t been 

fully converted to the 21.5mm air restrictor and bad internal vibrations made McInerney decide to scratch from the race. Final runners were Sandy Shepard and David Purley in their Brabham-Holbay BT28s and John Finch in his Chevron-Holbay B17.

The conditions at the start of the race were damp and Williamson led away from the grid but was almost immediately overhauled by Walker, behind them Scheckter spun and Purley spun in sympathy whilst taking avoiding action, both were able to continue. For the first seven laps or so Walker seemed to have the edge over his March mounted rival but suddenly on lap 8 Williamson homed in onto Walker’s tail and then proceeded to harry him unmercifully for the rest of the race. Coming into the chicane on the last lap Williamson took the tighter line and he pulled up on Walker gradually overtaking him but the finish line came to soon and it was Walker’s race by about 18 inches with both cars being given the same time. Scheckter finished third ahead of Shepard and Purley who had been battling for most of the race, Finch finished last a lap down.

 

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Croft, 8 August 1971

Race

1 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 1:10.0

2 Dave Walker

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:10.2

3 Jody Scheckter

Merlyn-Holbay Mk21 1:10.8

4 Brendan McInerney

March-Vegantune 713M 1:12.4 (DNS)

5 Sandy Shepard

Brabham-Holbay BT28 1:12.4

6 David Purley

Brabham-Holbay BT28 ?

7 John Finch

Chevron-Holbay B17 ?

Race

1 Dave Walker

Lotus-Novamotor 69 19:44.8 15 79.76

2 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 19:44.8 15

3 Jody Scheckter

Merlyn-Holbay Mk21 20:49.8 15

4 Sandy Shepard

Brabham-Holbay BT28 20:50.6 15

5 David Purley

Brabham-Holbay BT28 20:55.8 15

6 John Finch

Chevron-Holbay B17 14

Fastest Lap

Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 49.6 90.00