Race Report: Paul Ricard, 1 September 1973

Paul-ricard_1_9_73

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 1 September 1973

Paul-ricard_1_9_73

The latest round of the John Player Championship once again visited the Paul Ricard Circuit ensuring that all the top F3 runners from both France and the UK would again do battle over the shorter club track.

The entry was split into two practice sessions with the fastest 30 making the race, the risk of non-qualifying meant some of the lesser lights from the UK stayed at home and the clashing Swedish Championship round at Knutstorp kept the Scandinavian contingent away.
The French teams dominated practice by taking the first nine places on the grid, Christian Ethuin’s Martini taking the pole from the similar cars of Jacques Lafitte and Alain Cudini. Fifth placed Alain Serpaggi had an engine failure in his Alpine during the Saturday morning session and required a new motor for the afternoon’s race. Alan Jones was quickest of the UK runners following a precautionary engine swop and Ian Taylor got up from his sick bed to set the twelfth fastest time. Tony Brise was still suffering from a kinked tub following his Silverstone accident the week before and Mo Harness overheating problems whilst Danny Sullivan had a CV joint break.

Several cars jumped the start although only Mike Wilds and Luciano Pavesi were actually penalised, the officials admitting there were several more guilty parties. It was Lafitte who took an immediate lead followed by Ethuin and Cudini with Jones the best of the English runners down in ninth place. Several midfield cars spun at the right hander on the back straight on lap 2, Passadore and Sullivan were eliminated in trying to avoid the spinners and Taylor had to pit for repairs to a damaged nosecone. Ethuin and Cudini then managed to make contact with each other on lap 3 dropping Ethuin to sixth and Cudini to last.
Mike Wilds gained a place at the expense of Alan Jones on lap 5 and Kuwashima followed suit on lap 7, one lap later everyone behind Ethuin gained a place when the Frenchman was out with a broken throttle pedal. Lafitte still led on lap 10 but his Martini was beginning to suffer from falling fuel pressure and the Martini’s lead was beginning to diminish. Michel Leclere’s Alpine was now in second place ahead of Bernard Beguin’s Martini, Jean Ragnotti’s March, Alain Serpaggi’s Alpine, Mike Wild’s penalised March and Jean Max’s March. Max lost his place to Kuwashima on lap 11 and on lap 15 the Japanese driver took Wilds for sixth.
Lafitte finally lost the lead to Leclere on lap 17 but Jacques was well clear of Beguin and Serpaggi and the leading positions remained unchanged for the rest of the race. Leclere finally took the flag 6.3 seconds ahead of Lafitte who in turn lead Beguin home by some nine seconds. Of the UK runners Kuwashima took sixth whilst Brise had been eighth with one lap to go but misread his pit board and thinking the race was over eased off, he was passed by Wilds, Jones and Max before he realised his mistake. Wilds jump start penalty eventually dropped him well out of the results.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 1 September 1973

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

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 1 July 1973

paul-ricard_1_7_73

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 1 July 1973

paul-ricard_1_7_73

This round of the John Player Championship was one of the support races for the French GP and consisted of two heats on the Saturday with the final on the Sunday. The entry consisted of most of the usual French F3 Championship teams together with most of the front running British drivers, the only notable absentee being Damien Magee whose Brabham BT41 had been sold in Ireland.

The heats and final were held on the short circuit rather than the full GP track and at the end of qualifying it was Jacques Lafitte’s Martini that took the fastest time and the pole for Heat 1. The heats would consist of alternating practice times so pole position in Heat 2 went to the second fastest car, the Alpine-Renault of Alain Serpaggi. The rest of the runners lined up as below, of the other drivers Gerber was happier with his Brabham after a switch to Firestones, Alan Jones had float-level problems with his Vegantune and Russell Wood was suffering from a very poor Novamotor. Tony Brise was unusually far down for no apparent reason and poor Larry Perkins was a very disappointed non-starter when a puncture sent his GRD off the track and into the Armco, Perkins suffered bad bruising and a broken finger.

Pole man Jacques Lafitte led from the start of Heat 1 hotly pursued by Ian Taylor and the rest of the field. Lafitte immediately began to pull away from Taylor to the tune of a couple of seconds as Taylor in turn eased away from Rousselot, Paoli, Kuwashima, Gerber, Ethuin, Brise, Wilds, Henton, Andersson, Lewis, Tyrrell, Wood, Svensson, Dötsch and Zetterström. Lafitte continued to extend his for the remainder of the race, eventually crossing the line some 16 seconds ahead of second man Rousselot. Taylor had held second for the first half of the race but his engine began to loose power and he was gradually dropped back into the clutches of Rousselot, Paoli, Ethuin and Kuwashima. Taylor refused to give way and it was only on the penultimate lap that Rousselot and Ethuin managed to get ahead of the Baty March. Kuwashima and Paoli took fifth and sixth ahead of Johnny Gerber who complained of gearbox difficulties. Tony Brise and Mike Wilds finished a disappointing eighth and ninth with no concrete reason for their lack of form, Russell Wood took twelfth still in engine problems. Brian Henton finished second to last following no less than three spins after running as high as tenth, he would qualify for the final as a result of setting a fast lap.

Heat 2 was as uninteresting as Heat 1, Alain Serpaggi lead away at the start followed by his Alpine team-mate Michel Leclere and for the rest of the race the two cars, never more than a couple of seconds apart, pulled away from the rest of the field. Bernard Beguin, despite hitting Alan Jones at the start, moved up to third by demoting the ragged Ragnotti and stayed there to the finish. There was a five car battle for fourth between Ragnotti, Max, Dahlqvist, a slightly battered Jones and Albera, Jones gradually moved up through the group to take fourth three laps from the end which he held to the flag. Ragnotti and Max were next up ahead of Albera and Cudini who had passed Dahlqvist two laps from the end.

The 30 runners for the 30 lap final lined up as follows:

Lafitte
Serpaggi
Rousselot
 
Leclere
Beguin
 
Ethuin
Taylor
 
Jones
Kuwashima
 
Ragnotti
Paoli
 
Max
Gerber
 
Albera
Brise
 
Cudini
Wilds
 
Dahlqvist
Lewis
 
Guitteny
Wood
 
Chevannes
Andersson
 
Ljungfeldt
Henton
 
Nordström
Tyrrell
 
Bülow
Svensson
 
Sedgley

Alan Jones was in trouble before the race started when his engine refused to start on the dummy grid, he was push started but was late away. Serpaggi made the best start from his pole position and for the first two laps the Alpine led the rest headed by Lafitte, Rousselot, Beguin, Ragnotti, Kuwashima, Taylor, Ethuin, Paoli, Brise, Gerber, Albera, Max, Guitteny, Wilds, Cudini, Andersson, Lewis, Jones and the rest.
Lafitte took over the lead on lap 3, the Martini moving easily past the Alpine, Lafitte then, as in Heat 1, pulled away from the rest to win by a dominant 9.2 seconds. Rousselot was next to get ahead of Serpaggi moving up to second on lap 4 with Leclere and Beguin next up, these four ran nose to tail for most of the race but there was almost no positional changes. Leclere did get ahead of Serpaggi on lap 13 but a spin five laps later dropped him to fifth and another gyration finally saw the Alpine come home eleventh. Rousselot stayed in second for the rest of the race as Beguin began to fall away and Kuwashima and Paoli moved up
Kuwashima was going very well, he took fourth when Leclere had his first spin and three laps from the finish he passed Serpaggi and moved up to within less than a second of Rousselot at the chequered flag. Serpaggi held onto fourth with Beguin and Paoli in fifth and sixth ahead of Ragnotti and Albera. Johnny Gerber recovered well after spinning on some dropped oil when tenth at half distance, some quick driving saw him move up ahead of Ethuin and Leclere. Tony Brise had been ahead of Gerber but before the race the rear rollbar had been disconnected to increase understeer. This proved to be a disaster and Brise slipped down the field until he was hit by Jean Max which resulted in a split oil cooler and retirement, he was joined by his assailant. Mike Wilds had just passed Brise before his accident and on the next lap he found Brise’s spilt oil, Wilds spun dropping to sixteenth, some spirited driving saw him recovered to thirteenth at the flag.
Both Jones and Wood were in desperate engine woes, Jones spun out of fourteenth and then had to slow dramatically over the closing laps when his engine began to make odd noises, whilst Wood found that his engine was still just as powerless as it had been for the whole weekend. Ian Taylor had an awful race, a first lap incident saw the nosecone of the March badly damaged, bits of broken fibreglass wedged themselves in Taylor’s rear suspension causing all sorts of handling problems, he slipped down the field to finish nineteenth.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 1 July 1973

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

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 6 August 1972

paul_ricard_6_8_72

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 6 August 1972

paul_ricard_6_8_72

Despite being held in France this was a round of the UK Shell Formula 3 Championship and a good number of British based runners travelled across the Channel to join the top French F3 drivers. There were two hour-long practice sessions for the two heats and a final format, since the circuit could start 30 runners per race everyone qualified for the 10 lap preliminary races. The grids for the heats were decided on alternate times from qualifying.

Practice was dominated by the Alpine Renaults with Michel Leclere taking pole in the works car and the Shell sponsored car of privateer Lucien Guitteny second fastest, the second works car of Alain Serpaggi took sixth place. Of the other cars, the works Loti of Trimmer and Vermilio were only ninth and fifteenth with neither driver happy about how their 73s were going, the two Ensign-Vegantunes of Mike Walker and Colin Vandervell were in engine problems both requiring engine changes due to blow-ups after the first session. Jean-Pierre Jarier used a Vegantune to set his grid time with his March 713M but swopped

over to a Novamotor for the race. Newcomers were François Guerre-Berthelot in the new monocoque AGS and F. Renault racer Patrick Duchamp who had hired the spare GRD 372 of Andy Sutcliffe.

Williamson made the best start to lead heat one from Leclere and Andersson while Colin Vandervell made a complete hash of things when he selected third gear instead of first and stalled and his Ensign got away well behind the others. At the end of the first lap Leclere put his Alpine into the lead followed by a gaggle of cars consisting of Williamson, Lacarrau, Trimmer, Walker, Rousselot, and Vermilio. It was clear that Williamson was holding up the other cars and there was obviously something amiss with his GRD, his front right-hand tyre was loosing air and gradually the other drivers got past the ailing car. Lacarrau was first past and he set off after Leclere but the Alpine was well clear and Leclere took an easy 20 second victory. Walker passed Williamson with three laps to go and chased after Lacarrau, despite having no clutch since lap 1 the Ensign almost caught the second-placed Martini on the line. As Williamson fell further back Rousselot took an easy fourth after Andersson and Hull spun out and Trimmer moved up to fifth just ahead of Bob Evans. Barrie Maskell was fortunate to escape without injury when his Lotus 69 ended up badly damaged in the catchfencing after a mistake by Richard Knight in his Martini.

Heat two was fairly straightforward, Coulon led away from the start but his metering unit failed after one lap and Serpaggi took off to secure another easy Alpine win. Ethuin and Guitteny had a good battle for second with Guitteny getting the runner-up spot, Beguin held fourth for a time but was passed by the battling trio of Jarier, Kuwashima and von Opel. Jarier took fourth after the spectacular Kuwashima spun out with two laps to go and von Opel slowed a lap early thinking the race was over and was overhauled by Beguin and Nordström.
The first ten finishers from each heat plus the next five quickest on lap times from each heat made the final which allowed Williamson in at the back of the grid, Walker was also worried as to whether he could get his Ensign away as his clutch problems were too serious to be fixed between races. As the lights changed Leclere got away first with Jarier right on his tail, Walker was right to be worried, his Ensign stalled on the line and was collected by the Brabham of Peter Hull, both cars were out with suspension damage. At the end of the first lap it was still Leclere with Jarier locking brakes in second, next up were Serpaggi, Guitteny, Lacarrau, Beguin and Williamson. The GRD man had had a phenomenal first lap passing no less than 16 cars, he wasn’t finished yet and by lap 5 he was up to second and closing on Leclere. Three laps later and Williamson was in the lead and pulling away easily from the Alpine-Renault on his way to an apparently easy victory, Serpaggi had moved up to third with Jarier now down to fourth. With two laps to go Guitteny and Lacarrau got ahead of Jarier and then a fast closing Andersson managed to spin on the final lap taking Jarier with him, this left Beguin in sixth ahead of Vermilio who had gone well in a difficult car.
After the race the first four cars plus Trimmer’s Lotus had their airboxes checked and unfortunately Williamson’s narrowly failed to hold a sufficient vacuum and although it was arguable that he gained any performance advantage he was correctly excluded from the results.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 6 August 1972

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

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 3 July 1971

ricard_3_7_71

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 3 July 1971

ricard_3_7_71

Although taking place in France this was a round of the Shell Super Oil Championship and was part of the support programme for the French GP although it was held on the shorter 3.3kms circuit rather than the full length Grand Prix track. An astounding 69 cars turned up for qualifying although with only 30 starters allowed there were going to be some disappointed drivers.

Considering how many other F3 races were held this year on a two heats and a final basis when numbers didn’t warrant it, it is amazing the organisers didn’t adopt that approach for this race. All the fastest times were set in the afternoon session as many of the drivers became more familiar with the rather flat and featureless track. Pole position went to the Alpine-Renault of Jean-Pierre Jabouille, both Alpines were using new aerodynamic rear bodies on the A360s and they were very quick in a straight line and looked very stable through the corners on their new Firestone slicks. Second fastest was Dave Walker who was feeling much happier after a new engine was installed and his rear camber angles were changed, joining the works Lotus at the front was the private entry of Claude Bourgoignie. The second row was headed by the second Alpine of Patrick Depailler ahead of James Hunt also using Firestone slicks. On the third row was another Lotus 69, this one belonging to Rikki von Opel with Bev Bond’s Ensign on Dunlop slicks, completing the row was the Lotus 69 of Manfred Möhr. An interesting returnee from F2 further down the field was Gerry Birrel in a Lotus-owned 69.
The 30 qualifiers were separated by 2.1 seconds and amongst the unlucky drivers not to make it were Barrie Maskell (Chevron B18), Chris Skeaping (Chevron B17), Brendan McInerney in his new March 713M and David Purley’s Brabham BT28.

There was chaos at the start when the signalling arch over the grid that gave the countdown went wrong. The timer was meant to show 30secs, 15secs and finally at 0.00secs white lights would flash indicating the start, unfortunately there was a couple of seconds gap between the zero and the lights. Some drivers went on 0.00, others waited for the lights, most impressive starter was Ferreira who went on 0.00 whilst the front row waited for the lights, he passed the front row just as they were moving! Walker found himself in 12th place and was expecting the black flag to be shown whilst Jabouille immediately pulled into the pits and retired as a formal protest.
Ferreira didn’t lead for long as Depailler, another 0.00 starter, was quickly past into the lead. Hunt took second from Ferreira with Andersson fourth from Guitteny, a recovering Walker and Sutcliffe. On lap 2 Walker moved up to fourth and on the next lap he was right behind Depailler and Hunt with the three cars rapidly leaving the others behind. Hunt and Depailler exchanged the lead several times over the next few laps until lap 8 when Walker took a turn at the front. Behind the leaders Williamson and Guitteny were fighting over fourth whilst Ferreira was falling back after missing a gear as was Andersson. Now making a move forward was Bev Bond who had been embroiled in a massive 20 car battle behind the leaders, he managed to break free and was now moving rapidly up to sixth and closing in on the fourth place battle.
By half distance Walker was just leading from Depailler with Hunt a few car lengths behind, next came Williamson with Bond climbing all over him and Guitteny in sixth. Behind these the big group was still falling all over each other with the cars running as much as five abreast across the straight. In trouble was von Opel who retired with a flat engine, McGuire who had a brief fire from a shorting battery, Gerry Birrell who had lost the balance weights from his wheels and Vandervell who had a sick engine.
Depailler took the lead again on lap 16 with Walker and Hunt still hard on his tail, behind them Bond had now got ahead of Williamson with Guitteny loosing a few seconds in sixth. With five laps to go Hunt sped up and caught the two in front, however he got too close to Walker and tapped the Lotus gearbox, in a second the March spun. Such was his lead over the rest of the pack that Hunt was able to hold onto his third place but he had lost any chance of a win. The Alpine held the lead from lap 19 to 23 but Walker had it all sorted and he passed Depailler with two laps to go and immediately pulled out a few car lengths which he held to the flag. Depailler came in second with Hunt a chastened third ahead of Williamson who squeezed past Bond on the last lap.

f3 HISTORY

RACES

Race Report: Paul Ricard, 3 July 1971

Qualifying

1 Jean-Pierre

Jabouille Alpine-Renault A360 1:24.4

2 Dave Walker

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:24.6

3 Claude Bourgoignie

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:24.7

4 Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 1:24.7

5 James Hunt

March-Holbay 713M 1:25.1

6 Rikki von Opel

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:25.2

7 Bev Bond

Ensign-Holbay LN1 1:25.2

8 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:25.5

9 Conny Andersson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:25.5

10 José Ferreira

Brabham-Holbay BT28 1:25.6

11 Sandy Shepard

Brabham-Holbay BT28 1:25.6

12 Alan Jones

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:25.7

13 Alan McCully

Lotus-Vegantune 69 1:25.7

14 Lucien Guitteny

Martini-BRM MW7 1:25.7

15 Gerry Birrell

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:25.9

16 Pierre-François Rousselot

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:25.9

17 Andy Sutcliffe

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:25.9

18 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 1:25.9

19 Christian Ethuin

Tecno-Novamotor TF71/3 1:26.0

20 Wolfgang Bülow

March-Novamotor 713S 1:26.0

21 François Migault

Lotus-Vegantune 69 17:15.0 20

22 Randy Lewis

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:26.0

23 Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Rowland BT35 1:26.1

24 Bernard Lagier

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:26.2

25 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Holbay LN1 1:26.3

26 Brian McGuire

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:26.4

27 Torsten Palm

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:26.4

28 Hermann BrabhamUnold

March-Novamotor 713S 1:26.4

29 Freddy Kottulinsky

Lotus-BMW 69 1:26.5

30 Ulf Svensson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:26.5-Vegantune BT28 17:21.4 20

Race

1 Dave Walker

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:24.6

2 Patrick Depailler

Alpine-Renault A360 1:24.7

3 James Hunt

March-Holbay 713M 1:25.1

4 Roger Williamson

March-Holbay 713M 1:25.9

5 Bev Bond

Ensign-Holbay LN1 1:25.2

6 Rikki von Opel

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:25.2

7 Andy Sutcliffe

Lotus-Holbay 69 36:08.9 25

8 Manfred Möhr

Lotus-Novamotor 69 1:25.5

9 Conny Andersson

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:25.5

10 José Ferreira

Brabham-Holbay BT28 1:25.6

11 Sandy Shepard

Brabham-Holbay BT28 1:25.6

12 Alan Jones

Brabham-Vegantune BT28 1:25.7

13 Alan McCully

Lotus-Vegantune 69 1:25.7

14 Lucien Guitteny

Martini-BRM MW7 1:25.7

15 Gerry Birrell

Lotus-Holbay 69 1:25.9

16 Pierre-François Rousselot

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:25.9

19 Christian Ethuin

Tecno-Novamotor TF71/3 1:26.0

20 Wolfgang Bülow

March-Novamotor 713S 1:26.0

21 François Migault

Lotus-Vegantune 69 17:15.0 20

22 Randy Lewis

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:26.0

23 Colin Vandervell

Brabham-Rowland BT35 1:26.1

24 Bernard Lagier

Brabham-Holbay BT35 1:26.2

25 Steve Thompson

Ensign-Holbay LN1 1:26.3