Race Report: Brands Hatch, 18 May 1975

25 entries were accepted for the 20 available grid positions and all but 2 arrived. The missing runners were Danny Sullivan whose Modus hadn’t been repaired from its Monaco outing and Robert Joubert who has apparently given up on F3 with his Lola.

Practice was held on an all but dry track and quickest of all was the works March of Alex Ribeiro whose fastest lap equalled Brian Henton’s lap record. Patrick Neve was second fastest complaining of understeer and worn tyres, Richard Hawkins completed the front row also beset by understeer. Ian Taylor was happy with his GRD in fourth now that it had been fitted with a new 2.0 Holbay twin-cam, whilst fifth man Gunnar Nilsson was feeling out of sorts with a temperature of 102 degrees. Nilsson was lucky to escape with no damage to his car when he had an off at Bottom Bend, ending up in the bank by the pit access road. Of the rest Mike Tyrrell was having an outing in the ex-Ribeiro GRD 374 he had hired from Brian Henton, it was fitted with a set of works body panels whilst Rupert Keegan was very disappointed to non-qualify, his March 743 suffering terminal clutch slip.

Patrick Neve made the best start from the middle of the front row with Nilsson slotting into second but as the cars entered Kidney Nilsson slipped through into the lead immediately followed by Taylor and after some hairy wheel banging Ribeiro as well. As the cars crossed the line at the end of the first lap it was Nilsson, Taylor, Ribeiro, Neve, South, Hawkins, Hoffman, Dieudonné, Rouff, Tyrrell, Bassett and Regout. In the next few laps Nilsson and Taylor began to open out a gap with Taylor making strenuous efforts especially at Clearways to find a way into the lead. Ribeiro was trying really hard and by lap 4 the Brazilian had caught the two leaders and on lap 7 he moved into second as Taylor began to fall away with engine bothers.

The two Marches began to fight for the lead but just as it was getting interesting Nilsson was forced to let Ribeiro through on lap 10 as his engine began to suffer from fluctuating oil pressure. Over the remaining 10 laps Nilsson did his best to hang on but Ribeiro pulled gradually away to win by nearly five seconds, Nilsson pulled over as he crossed the finishing line his engine covered in oil. Patrick Neve moved up to finish third as Taylor’s engine expired on the last lap although the GRD coasted across the line to finish fourth. Behind Stephen South in fifth Richard Hawkins crossed the line dragging his nose cone behind him, he had been dicing with Neve but on the penultimate lap he understeered off at Clearways. Tony Rouff had been seventh until a tap from Dieudonné at Druids on the final lap spun him down to tenth at the finish.

f3 HISTORY

RACES