Race Report: Oulton Park, 26 July 1975

oulton-park_26_7_75

Only 15 cars arrived at Oulton Park for this BP Championship round, many of the smaller teams finding that tyres at £240 a set that only lasted one race and a first prize of £100 and no start money was causing some financial headaches.

Pole position went to Kiwi driver Richard Hawkins in his March 743, Danny Sullivan was second quickest in the works Modus with the works March of Gunnar Nilsson third. Making his F3 debut in a new Modus M1 was teenager Eddie Cheever, he set the equal fifth fastest time.

Gunnar Nilsson was out before the race began when his fire extinguisher went off on the warm up lap, the Swede was baffled as he hadn’t done anything to activate it. Ribeiro needed a plug change on the grid and then found his clutch slipping badly, he sat there furiously waving his arms and hoping everyone would avoid him as the flag fell. Fortunately for the Brazilian they did and he was able to start the race albeit half a lap down on the others. Back at the front Sullivan had taken the lead and he was pulling away from the others and setting fastest lap on his way to a relatively comfortable victory. Hawkins was similarly secure in second, his team had changed the car after practice in an effort to reduce understeer and they had gone too far so he was unable to put up more of a fight against Sullivan.
There was a big battle in progress for third between Pierre Dieudonné and Ingo Hoffman with Dieudonné driving very hard to keep the Brazilian at bay but on lap 17 Hoffman made a big effort at Old Hall and dived up the inside to take the place. So after 20 laps Sullivan came home the victor from Hawkins with Hoffman keeping his third place ahead of Dieudonné, Arnott and Keegan. Ribeiro found his clutch gradually coming back but he was unable to make any progress and he was only able to finish eighth. Eddie Cheever was fifth on lap 1 and had moved up to fourth on lap 2 but almost immediately his oil pressure disappeared and he had to retire.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Oulton Park, 26 July 1975

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