I know this has been discussed before. I've searched back and can not find the thread. I would like to know when the first Formula Atlantic race was run, Where, Who was the driving force behind Formula Atlantic, race results, and any other details that anyone would have.
Thank you,
Mike T

Try this one for example: http://www.atlasf1.com/bb/showthread.php?s...hlight=atlantic

Or this one...

http://www.atlasf1.com/bb/showthread.php?s...light=FAtlantic

In that thread I posted a race report and results from the first Formula Atlantic race, March 7, 1971 at Brands Hatch (won by Vern Schuppan).

I still have the photo showing the grid from that first race leaving the line. Is there someone I could forward it to who could post it to one of the myriad FAtlantic threads?.


Jim Thurman

Jim

I'm happy to post it for you. You know my email address.

Allen

Thanks for the replys. Jim Thurman, did your photo of the first grid get posted anywhere?
Mike T

Mike,

I've been so busy I hadn't had the chance!...but it's just been sent off to Allen Brown to post here.


Jim Thurman

Thanks, Jim.
Would there be any way I could get a copy for my own personal library? If you would prefer to take this offline, contact me at Mike.Truitt@Quantitude.com

Hi Jim

Here it is:



Allen

Prompted by discussion with Mallory Dan at a recent Northern TNF "brains trust"(!), the concensus was that British Formula Atlantic was at its best in 1975, here are some offerings that recall some of those events.

Lyncar ace John Nicholson, on a rare outing in a Modus
A great late-season addition, Gunnar Nilsson in Matt Spitzley's Chevron
Ted Wentz/Lola alongside Mallory's lake
Aussie Bobbie Muir/Birrana
Nick May/ Dave Price Lola
Cyd Williams/ Brabham BT40
Atlantic superstar Tony Brise leads the opening lap at the hairpin
Jim Crawford in Stephen Choularton's Chevron
Wentz leads Brise and Nilsson at the Esses
Wentz Muir
Although not Atlantic, Tony Brise demonstrated his current GP car during the Mallory lunch break

Whilst I disagree with the concensus that British Formula Atlantic was at its best in 1975 , what absolutely wonderful pictures Alan. Fantastic.

I particularly like the images of Nilsson in the Rapid Movements Chevron - his performances in those few end of season races were stunning. His car control was really quite something. What a terrible tragedy that he was never able to fulfill his potential. Oddly enough I thought of him only yesterday on my way home from Belgium when I saw a sign for Zolder on the motorway - the scene of his one and only Grand Prix victory of course.

I'm intrigued by the super shot of Wentz, Brise and Nilsson at Mallory - what a duel that must have been.
Who won though, do you remember? And who is that behind them - is he running fourth?? It looks like a March, initially. But if you enlarge the image it's not clear - well, not to me anyway.

For what it's worth, about the same time the season before, I saw Brise have a thumping great accident at the Esses in the Modus M1. He was okay, but must have been thankful for the strength of his chassis.

Is it Ray Mallock? (and, no, I'm not talking to myself - well, hopefully not anyway).

Jim Crawford won, Nick May second, Brise third and Nilsson fourth.

It does look like a March to me in the background, Ray Mallock in a 75B?

Also what happened to Cyd Williams' sleek red Brabham BT40? Even the radiator has been moved to the nose.

Great!

And no surprise - well, not from me anyway. Crawford was lethal (and I'm sure that's the wrong word, but most will know what I mean, hopefully) at Mallory Park - when it suited him.

When he returned to Atlantic in the B45 (?) / B42 derivative I was at Mallory one afternoon during a general testing session. It was windy and a plastic cone blew into the middle of the track between Devil's Elbow and the start-line. He obviously saw it early, missed it, kept his foot down and blasted down the straight, missing the pit armco by all of an inch (if that).

Being the idiot that I am I was stood next to the barrier at the time and it took me a good ten minutes to realise what he'd done. After the session he asked me to meet up with him in Leeds to write something for his sponsor - Econopallet. Very regrettably I couldn't do it as I was heading elsewhere and it was one of the last times I met him.

A great talent, a great man.

Aussie Bobbie Muir/Birrana

It is of great interest to myself that this thread has been raised as this chassis was built by the late Jon Porter and myself of Birrana Cars in 1973 and i currently own the rolling chassis down under..........chassis # 273- 009......

Peter, were you involved with the Birrana effort in the UK..?

Un fortunately no , Regards PN..............

Just curious - an interruptive package for sure .

Just wondered if you were a) involved or b) knew why they came all this way to (sadly) go back so quickly.

After the loss of Birrana Designer Tony Alcock in the Graham Hill plane crash and lack of funds the effort was scaled back and they concentrated on euro F2 under the leadership of Bob Muir with no results and still with little in the way of a workable budget.....................

Okay - thanks Peter.

'75 seems to have been the best suported season.Just checked my records and have 52 drivers having appeared in at least one round of either the John Player or Southern Organs championship.

Great to read all of your memories of that season. Especially good to hear from Peter about the Birrana effort.

Yes, the March was Ray Mallock

Alan,

The John Nicholson appearance in the Modus wasn't as rare as you may believe , the car is M1-022-FA75 and was retained by John N. and at the end of 1976 sent down to New Zealand for him to contest the Atlantic series in very early 1977 against Keke Rosberg etc. , Nicholson ended up 4th at the end of the series and the car was then sold to Robbie Frankevic and is now owned by my brother.

Bryan.

Francevic rebodied it and called it a Typhoon in honour of the sponsor.

So what body does it now have Bryan BT35-8?

Yes a very well supported season and very competitive one as well.......................

What fine records you have Rob. OldRacingcars.com just has the John Player series results so far for 1975 (big nod to Atlantics expert Chris Townsend) in the UK Atlantics section and there were 45 drivers there alone:

Roberto Alvarez, Roy Baker, Len Booysen, Bill Brack, Steve Bradley, Tony Brise, Bill Burley, Paul Butler, Stephen Choularton, Derek Cook, Jim Crawford, James Crawley, Alan Crocker, Norman Dickson, Des Donnelly, Mike Franey, Rüdi Gygax (DNS), Brian Henton, Dean Hosking, Alo Lawler, Ray Mallock, Nick May, Patsy McGarrity, David Morgan, Richard Morgan, Bob Muir, Peter Munro, Val Musetti, John Nicholson, Gunnar Nilsson, Graham Perry, Freddy Phillips, Jay Pollock, John Pollock, Steve Prior, Brett Riley, Bertil Roos, Howard Rose (DNS), Phil Sharp, Matt Spitzley, Tony Trimmer, Peter Wardle, Ted Wentz, Cyd Williams and Peter Williams.

There's a lot of quality in that list. On a quick scan, I think I see eight there who raced in a GP.

May not have been the best supported season though. Chris shows 64 drivers in the 24 1971 races including stand-outs Tom Belsø, Brise, Bob Evans, Morgan D, Nicholson, David Purley, Vern Schuppan, Trimmer and Roger Williamson. And 53 drivers in the 26 1973 races including Crawford, Nicholson, David Oxton, Tom Pryce and Purley. I believe the decline in numbers came from 1976 onwards.

(BTW, hint hint, nudge nudge)

Allen

If it's a JP round then it could be the 24 August race and we may be looking at the battle for eventual third place. Wentz dropped out and yes, the car behind could be Mallock's March 75B.

Allen

Wow, great thread and as ever super pics Alan, thanks. Atlantics were just great and what an era it was with F5000 on the national race calendar at the same time. Could never happen today, especially at Mallory - the noise police would lock us all up!

Seeing his name there, I had a conversation with Peter Wardle at the Snetterton F3 meeting recently. He still has plans for his own 'challenge' single seater series after many false starts and works for Jonathan Palmer behind the scenes on Formula Palmer Audi race organisation.

Cyd's BT40 was seen in both red and blue bodywork during 1973. Had completely forgotten about it in the '75 guise as in Alan's picture.

Yellow #6 is clearly a March 73B as per my records.
Now have 74 Atlantic drivers for 1974,but I think that includes the Irish series.
48 for '73
31 for Indylantic 76
57 in 1971

Interesting point, Bryan, I had forgotten - or was never aware - that Nicholson had taken the Modus 'down under'. Perhaps I should qualify it as being "..... a rare UK outing...."!

I agree with you, Mark, about Gunnar Nilsson. He was pure class the moment he appeared in the yellow Chevron and was clearly pretty earnest about taking the end-of-season races seriously.

It was the Mallory John Player round, Allen, on the 24th August, but the first couple of shots are from Oulton. I confess that I had forgotten Crawford was the victor.

Nick May put in some pretty impressive drives on occasion. IIRC he shared the outright lap record on the new Oulton Fosters circuit for a while, with Tony Brise.

Yellow no 6 is definitely Cyd's Brabham BT40, Rob.

Some great stories, and statistics, emerging here. Pleased that it has struck a chord with you.

A total of 74 drivers looks right for 1974 if you include all starters in the British series plus the two late-season non-championship races at Brands and Thruxton. Don't know why I didn't look at 1974: Brise, Crawford, Jones, Morgan, Nicholson, Roos, Schuppan and Trimmer again plus Hector Rebaque, Gordon Smiley and Dave Walker.

I think the series ended Crawford - Nicholson - Jones - Brise - Morgan.

Allen

I I now wish i was over there for that season............

we need to compare notes!

Thanks for those links.For some reason I don't think I have come across your excellent site before. Don't think I have anything to add,but did notice a small disrepancy;All the 1972 dates and 75 Southern Organs are missing from the calendar per 2nd link but included in the list of programmes you are/were looking for? Sorry but all my old progs are long since lost.

Thanks to all the contributors to this post it has provided interesting info and reading. Atlantics provided interesting races and a very good Formula for competitors....................

The reason for that is that the list of programs is the list of every race we believe took place whereas the list of results is the list of every race where Chris has researched and published the results. One day, the two lists will be the same but researching the lower categories, even one as popular as Atlantic, takes a lot of time.

Allen

My contribution to this thread comprises some of my typically creaky photographs from the 1974 Atlantics.

The Atlantic field at the British GP support round.



A few from the Race of Champions support round











And a couple from the Daily Express Trophy support round.





David

Nice shots David. The black & white shots from Becketts - car 46, is that Tony Trimmer in the one-off F2 Royale RP20? If so did not realise it ran in Atlantic spec. Car is now owned by Andy Gilberg in the US.

Not quite finished with 1975 yet.......All taken at the last Oulton Park round of the Southern Organs Championship (except for the one of Tony Brise)

Nilsson Brise

John Nicholson

Needs no introduction....

Neither does this...

Wentz in unfamiliar black livery

Val Musetti (apologies for light flare)

I think Richard Morgan's car shown above is an ex- SDC Racing/Crawford car.

Vicuna,

The Modus was rebuilt back to the same form as originally left the U.K. Robbie Frankevic told me that they believed they knew more about bodywork/aero than the designer [ Jo Marquart ] then they found out they didn't.

The new set of photo's , Alan Jones March 74B , leading and winning the Atlantic support race for the British G.P. just behind him is teamate David Morgan Chevron B25 [ his old F2 car redone to Atlantic] .

The Photo below will probably not be the same meeting , as this is Bev Bond in '' probably '' the car driven by Alan Jones before it was kitted up as per the Works 742s , but it may also be a late 1973 race meeting , and this is a different car altogether.

Bryan Miller.

Sorry didn't read the captions correctly , when was the Race of Champions held , before or after the British G.P.

If before then the 2nd shot will be the same March 74B driven by Bev Bond , he then hung up his helmet and the drive went to Alan Jones , and by May 1974 the car had been rebuilt/reworked at the March factory to the 742 side radiator / long nose version.

Bryan Miller.

The Race of Champions was before the British Grand Prix, I think it was during March.

David

Robbie is renowned for his modesty

Fantastic pictures - thanks to everyone.

It always struck me as unfathomable why Atlantic, which was so strong in 1974 and '75 in the UK, died a death in 1976. OK, F3 showed something of a resurgence in '75 and clearly built on that the following year, but was the "Indylantic" format such a no-hoper that it effectively killed the formula? At the very least, it could have perhaps taken over as the premier national formula, given that F5000 was in its death throes at the time.

Small mention for Steve Choularton, who is sometimes overlooked in the (entirely justified) fuss made over Jim Crawford. Steve was a pretty good driver in his own right, and one for whom my father and I had a particularly soft spot, for reasons unrelated to motor racing.

That was the view at the time I recall. F5000 morphed via ShellsportGp8 into Aurora F1 as Britains top formula. Atlantic was revived after a couple of years,and WAS declared britains top formula in 1981 after AF1 was dropped. I remember being one of half a dozen spectators sheltering at the back of the main stand,from the driving wind & rain mayday 81!

G8 was one of the things that screwed up Atlantic. As well as the marketing issues that blighted the Indylantic series, you also had Atlantics appearing in G8 and, in some cases, deciding to put F2 engines in their cars and stay in G8 instead.

There were then a couple of revival races at Donington in 1978 before, as Rob says, the series started again in 1979. There were 50 drivers in 1979 but only Crawford, Divina Galica and Emilio de Villota got near a GP and they can only muster four starts between them. Very different to the pre-76 grids.

I have 1979 results from Chris and we will publish shortly but we're still missing a handful of programs from that period:

Croft (31 May 1976)
Silverstone (05 Sep 1976)
Brands Hatch (03 Oct 1976)
Ingliston (22 Jul 1979)
Oulton Park (BRSCC - 08 Sep 1979)

Can anyone help?

Allen

Sent you that one by post some time ago, Allen - didn't you get it?

Sorry Ian. It's in the pile by the scanner - I have no idea how long it's been there ( ) but it's a big pile!

Thanks

Superb stuff Alan and others, well worth waiting for ! Allen, when did Divi do Atlantic in 79, thats a new one on me?

While I think/thought Atlantic was superb in 75, its clear that by the end of that year it was starting to decline a little. Brise dominated the year until about mid-season, when he was distracted by F1. When Nilsson came in late on, the races seemed to be revitalised, and the late year with Brise, Wentz, May, Crawford, Gunnar was excellent.

What went wrong in 76 was another matter, but I agree with Allen re the effect G8 had. F3 too was picking up, and I suppose the quicker men like Jim C, John Nick, and Mallock felt it was time to move on after 3-4 years in Atlantic.

Blimey Dan, your memory is good. You're right, she didn't. The results Chris has sent me include the six F2 cars that the Atlantics ran alongside in one race and Divi was in her 792. I should have looked more closely.

So probably just the 44 drivers in Atlantics in 1979.

Allen