F3 History

Only 11 cars arrived for this Forward Trust round and this was soon reduced to 10 when Brian Henton had his throttle jam open at the Hall Esses on his second practice lap removing a wheel from his March 743. His team-mate made up some way for Henton’s misfortune by putting the second works car on pole. For once the F3 cars were racing on their own without having to keep an eye out for slower runners from other classes.

When the flag fell however it was Portugal’s José Espirito Santo that took the lead and then proceeded to lead the rest of the race from start to finish. Similarly Tony Rouff held second for all the race although a slow puncture hampered him in the closing laps and Jose Chateaubriand closed right up and the two cars almost dead heated across the finishing line. Barrie Maskell had been challenging Rouff after having some difficulty getting ahead of Alex Ribeiro until the Brazilian went of at Gooseneck damaging his steering. Maskell was finding his new 1800 cc Holt engine very effective and he was harassing Rouff until he spun at the hairpin and dropped back behind Danny Sullivan. Derek Lawrence had been going very quickly setting fastest lap with his Ehrlich and challenging Sullivan hard until the last lap when an ignition lead fell off.