323 replies to this topic

[hansfohr]

Hi there. I cannot help with the 4th car but if I am not mistaken the third car is me in the Gold Leaf Team Lotus and as you say the racing was very close in those days.It looks as though 2010 might be a fantastic year for the return of those fantastic cars as I know of three people near me who are buying cars. Keith Messer and his friends are to be congratulated on there fantastic work over the past few years in regenerating such interest in the Formula.Anybody going to Race Retro on Saturday 13th March I would love to meet up and talk about the Old Days. Bev.Bond

That's definitely you ducked behind Maskell. I am unable to attend the retro, wish you a fantastic day among old pals from the better days of motorracing.

[Bev.Bond]

Aha. A thread that will grab my attention, without a doubt.

My first taste of serious motor racing, as opposed to Rufforth clubbies and Harewood hillclimb, was 1-litre F3 at Oulton Park - the British Empire Trophy in 1970. I knew roughly what to expect, but on nothing like a scale as to what I actually witnessed. For instance - a pack of buzzing F3 cars flat out down the hill towards Knicker Brook, running three abreast until the last minute, no-one prepared to give way, with the inevitable result - Bev Bond cartwheeling into a thankfully empty grandstand, whereupon the car fell to bits around him.

To add a human interest angle to all this, my 5-year old nephew said "will they send round a lorry to pick up all the bits?" - which is what actually happened. I also witnessed the sight of my brother in law, who was attending a motor race for the first time, turning an interesting shade of pale green. He gave up on motor racing after that.

Cadwell Park later in the year was equally spectacular. Cars jumping over the top of the Mountain and landing slightly askew, then taking Hall Bends flat (or at least that's what it looked like).....lovely stuff.

The BBC really grabbed hold of F3 that year, and it seemed to be on the telly every weekend. I managed to see most of it in colour, as I had a mate with a rich Dad who had forked out the price of a Rover 2000 for a colour set. A gang of us used to gather round his house cheering our favourite drivers on. There was an incredible anti-March bias, apart from the one driven by Dave Morgan, which I stoutly defended. If it wasn't a Lotus 69 , no-one was interested, such was our youthful chauvinism. And yes, I saw the Morgan/Hunt incident as it happened, thanks to the Beeb.

Hi Ian senior.
I am afraid you have got your facts wrong concerning the British Empire Trophy race at Oulton Park as the driver who landed in the small stand at Clay hill was in actual fact Dave Walker my team mate at Gold Leaf Team Lotus.In my heat I was leading until my car went onto three cylinders as a plug lead had come off.In the final I was on the back of the grid but came though to win beating James Hunt and Tony Trimmer.
Bev.Bond

[Giraffe]

By giraffe138 at 2009-11-03

I shall be at Race Retro stalking Bev as I have done for 40 years now..............

[Giraffe]

Hi Ian senior.
I am afraid you have got your facts wrong concerning the British Empire Trophy race at Oulton Park as the driver who landed in the small stand at Clay hill was in actual fact Dave Walker my team mate at Gold Leaf Team Lotus.In my heat I was leading until my car went onto three cylinders as a plug lead had come off.In the final I was on the back of the grid but came though to win beating James Hunt and Tony Trimmer.
Bev.Bond

Sorry Bev, but I've got to correct you again! Dave Walker touched Bert Hawthorne on lap 8 of heat 1, and both of them came to rest at Knickerbrook, Bert having leapt 20ft into the air clearing the safety banking and landing in the front row of the stalls. Nobody was hurt, amazingly!
You were running in fifth place in heat 2 before you went down onto 3 cylinders and finished 17th (& last!).

Edited by Twin Window, 02 March 2010 - 11:32.

[Bev.Bond]

The tyres do look fairly massive, don't they? You'd think that such grip allied to relatively low-powered cars wouild make for dull racing, but it gave exactly the opposite effect. We saw some of the closest and most spectacular racing of all time with these lovely cars.

Sometimes I wonder if there would be any possibility of starting the formula again today, to exactly the same rules and making sure that there was sufficent ground clearance on the cars and no aerodynamics of the kind we see these days. Just a dream, I guess, but it's the one thing that would drag me back to a racing circuit .

Hi Ian.
Come and join us as Kieth Messer and others have worked hard and brought these cars back.There are plenty of races and you can get a callender of events on the 1000ccf3 website .
They are even having a race for them at Monoco in the Historique Grand Prix meeting.It would seem that the interest shown in the cars and where to buy them it should be a good season for these glorious cars.Maybe see you at one of these meetings.
Bev.Bond

[SJ Lambert]

The start at Cadwell in 1969. Schenken and Peterson lead away, Ronnie in the new March 693.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Gilberg from the USA who was at the HSCC Snetterton meeting this year with this very car. Robin Herd came to Snett to see it.

They were just fantastic eh?!?

Tim Schenken's BT28 still gets about - here it is in Adelaide last year, still a very pretty car...


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Edited by SJ Lambert, 23 September 2010 - 13:12.

[SRB]

At the NZ Festival of Motor Racing at Hampden Downs in January this year. A beautiful little car.



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[Isetta]

At the NZ Festival of Motor Racing at Hampden Downs in January this year. A beautiful little car.



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That was quick I thought it was currently being restored.

[SRB]

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It looked pretty well finnished when I saw it. This was Pukekohe a week later. It wasn't being driven particularly quickly but it was great to see it out running again since the last time I saw it back in the UK some 40 years ago.

[willga]

An early 60's Ron Harris run works Lotus 41(?) F3 car.

Sorry - those are F2 cars. Lotus 35's with a Cosworth SCA in the back.
Charles Lucas ran the quasi-works F3 41's in 1966

[Ralf Pickel]

In the obituary for Tom Walkinshaw it was mentioned that the March 703 was "hopeless" - what was so wrong with that type ?

Ralf

Edited by Ralf Pickel, 11 January 2011 - 12:19.

[sterling49]

Ronnie made them move, as did James and Dave Morgan............................where did the obituary appear??

Edited by sterling49, 11 January 2011 - 12:28.

[Ralf Pickel]

Saw it here.
Found that piece while googling for March 703 infos.
I was also wondering a bit - did not hear about "hopeless" before.

Edited by Ralf Pickel, 11 January 2011 - 12:35.

[Tim Murray]

Here's how Justin Haler summed up the 703 in his review of the 1970 F3 season in Autosport:

A newcomer to the scene was the March concern, which produced the 703 from its multi-purpose spaceframe design. A rather crude affair by comparative standards, the March was bulky and underdeveloped for most of the year. It didn’t put its power to the road very well until a lot of experimentation had been carried out, and with the body requiring bib spoilers to keep its nose pinned to the ground, the main advantage of a 703 was in its superb brakes, an asset of which much use was made by its keenest campaigner.

Perhaps not quite on a par with the likes of Brabham and Lotus, but IMHO by no means 'hopeless'.

[Ralf Pickel]

Thank you for that quote, Tim.
That does sound a bit more realistic.

[Giraffe]

Ronnie made them move, as did James and Dave Morgan

Dave Morgan on the grid for the 1970 British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park in his Adelphi Staff Bureau March 703 Felday.



By giraffe138 at 2011-01-11

[Alan Cox]

At the NZ Festival of Motor Racing at Hampden Downs in January this year. A beautiful little car.

When did it acquire those sidepods?

[Charles E Taylor]

1 Litre F3

The BBC really grabbed hold of F3 that year, and it seemed to be on the telly every weekend. I managed to see most of it in colour, as I had a mate with a rich Dad who had forked out the price of a Rover 2000 for a colour set. A gang of us used to gather round his house cheering our favourite drivers on. There was an incredible anti-March bias, apart from the one driven by Dave Morgan, which I stoutly defended. If it wasn't a Lotus 69 , no-one was interested, such was our youthful chauvinism. And yes, I saw the Morgan/Hunt incident as it happened, thanks to the Beeb.

Apologies if this has been posted before but It must have looked like this!!


What good times!



Charlie

[A D River]

An early 60's Ron Harris run works Lotus 41(?) F3 car.

Hansfor, have you any more photos taken at the same time of the Ron Harris team. Very evocative for me, this was around the time I joined them, mechanic at the back leaning over is Malcolm Angood, guy on rear wheel is Tony Rolley and fellow Kiwi at front name escapes me. Are these guys still around? Thanks.

[Andrew Fellowes]

That was quick I thought it was currently being restored.

Schenken drove two BT28s that year, as he won so many races rumors spread as they tend to, so to disprove them he had a second car later in the year and that's the one in Melbourne. This car went out to the West Indies and driven by Bizzy Williams and Mike Atwell before returning to the UK and then to Australia.
The first car went to Morocco where it has been 'till last year sitting unused for over 30 years with a BT21 in the same shed and is now being restored which might explain the confusion. Totally unmolested it's a wonderful piece of history and it came to light by a posting on Ten Tenths that I followed up on.

Edited by Andrew Fellowes, 12 February 2011 - 05:36.

[eurocardoc]

Again some good stories from that era, http://www.barriemaskell.com/index.htm

[charles r]

 

The March 693 was quite a pretty car, I always thought the 703 was ugly in comparison.This is Alan Rees testing it.

What happened to it?

 

 

 

Photo Courtesy of F3 History

[Mallory Dan]

Interesting Ian S' comments above. Is Ian still around he never posts anymore? He had some great memories of 70s English racing.

 

Anyway, I echo his thoughts re March in 1970, For no good reason I took against them, and I was only 8 then... Maybe the publicity/PR they got that year, turned me off them. But when I saw 1-litre F3 late that year at MP, I wanted anyone to win but Morgan. Can't recall now, but I suspect he did!

[Stephen W]

 

The March 693 was quite a pretty car, I always thought the 703 was ugly in comparison.This is Alan Rees testing it.

What happened to it?

 

 

 

Photo Courtesy of F3 History

 

If memory is right it was shunted rather heavily by Ronnie P I think.