Bridgehampton Continental Race

Bridgehampton, 20 May 1967

All cars are 3-litre FA unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT10? (Mike Hiss): Mike Hiss (Laurel, MD) moved into a Formula B at the start of 1967 with an unidentified Brabham. Photographs show that it was a BT9 or BT10 and as most BT9s moved into FC, not FB, this is more likely to have been a BT10. He first appeared at the SCCA National at VIR in April and then took impressive third-place finishes at the first two rounds of the new Continental Championship in May and June. He then "demolished" the car in a spectacular series of flips during practice for the National at Bridgehampton in July. When he returned, he drove a BT21A and it is assumed that the crashed car was too heavily damaged to be repairable.
2. Brabham BT18 (Bill Gubelmann): Bill Gubelmann (Oyster Bay, NY) ran a red Brabham BT18 with 1.1-litre Cosworth SCC engine in Formula C in 1967, winning seven Nationals and setting lap records right down the east coast. He advertised the car in Autoweek on 18 November 1967 as a late 1966 BT18 chassis with 140bhp Cosworth SCC engine, and it then went to Fred Opert, presumably traded on Gubelmann's new BT23F. From Opert it was sold to Mike Eyerly (Salem, OR) and raced in the Pacific northwest, winning several Regional SCCA events. He kept the orange BT18 when he moved into the SCCA national Formula B series in 1969 and completely dominated the series, winning six of the first nine races and finishing second in another two. Advertised in October 1969. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Brabham BT15 (Tom deLoughry): Tom deLoughry (Cold Spring Harbor, NY) raced at the Bridgehampton Pro SCCA race in May 1967 in what was described as a 1-litre Formula 2 Brabham. In his later SCCA Competition Licence applications, he described it as a BT18, which would suggest it was using a SCA engine. However, a photograph of the car shows it had short rear uprights, identifying it as either a 1966 BT15 or an older car. He was entered as #22, the same number used by Rob Fuller on his BT16, but Fuller's car was a FB and raced immediately before and after Bridgehampton, so can be ruled out. There is no further sign of deLoughry in a Brabham in Formula C, and his licence only makes reference to one other FC race, at Palm Beach in March 1967 where he used a Lotus 20B. It is therefore likely that this was a one-off hire deal, most likely through Fred Opert.
4. Brabham BT21 (Fred Opert): Fred Opert was the main dealer for Brabham on the east coast of the US and imported around seven Formula B BT21As for 1967. Opert himself raced a 'BT21' at War Bonnet in June 1967 but it is not clear whether that was a FB car or a FC. For now, it is assumed to be the first appearance of the Opert team's in-house Formula B BT21A. Joe Grimaldi (Midland Park, NJ) worked for Opert at this time and raced a Brabham BT21A in Formula B events in 1967, scoring 18 pts in NEDiv. In January 1968, Fred Opert advertised the blue-and-yellow "ex-Joe Grimaldi" Brabham BT21A noting that it had only raced eight times and was the car that Peter Gethin drove at the St Jovite Pro FB race where he took pole position. Grimaldi also appeared in Pro Formula events in 1967 but in a Formula C Brabham BT21. It is assumed that Grimaldi was driving Opert's in-house car. Subsequent history unknown.
5. Cooper T76 (Peter Rehl): Peter S Rehl (Easton, CT) raced a Cooper T76 in Formula C in 1967, fitted with a dry dump BMC engine. He advertised the car in November 1967, noting that it had been invited to the Run-Offs in 1965 and 1966.
6. Cooper FJ Mk 3A 'T67' (Ronald Stanwicks): Ronald Stanwicks of Newington, CT, appeared in SCCA events in the late 1960s in a Cooper. The Danvile Bee, Monday of 2 May 1966, quoted on the excellent virhistory.com website, identified this as a "Cooper 67" and it is assumed that Stanwicks used this same ex-Formula Junior car in both FC and FB over the next three seasons. Ronald's son Peter recalls that it was white with a single blue stripe, and "I believe it had a Cosworth Mk XI and a Jack Knight 6 speed gearbox".
7. Brabham BT18 (Alan Gottlieb): Stew McMillen moved from a Lotus 27/32 to a Brabham in 1966. He recalls picking up the car in New York and his first outing was at Bridgehampton where he finished second. McMillen easily retained his CenDiv FB title but did not appear in any Pro races. After the 1966 Run-Offs, McMillen moved into FA and the Brabham was sold to Alan Gottlieb (McKeesport, PA) who used it in North East Div FB in 1967 and at the May 1967 Bridgehampton Pro race where it was described as a "1966" car. From this it can be deduced that it was a BT18. Gottlieb ended the NEDiv season with just nine points, presumably those picked up for his FB class win at VIR in April which means nothing is known of this car after May 1967.
8. Brabham BT18 [F2-16-66?] (Don Morin): Donald J. Morin (Attleboro, MA) raced a Brabham BT18 in Formula B in 1966, one of the first Brabhams to be sold new to the US since the Formula Junior cars of 1962 and 1963. According to Denis Lupton's notes, this may have been chassis F2-16-66. Morin dominated NEDiv Formula B in this car, scoring a maximum 54 points, and also won the SCCA Run-Offs in November. He retained the car for early 1967, racing it in the pro race at Bridgehampton 20 May 1967 but then Morin moved up to a Can-Am McLaren M1C and the car disappeared from the scene. Mr Morin died in May 2012. Two years later, in 1969, Fred Opert advertised a Brabham BT18 described as "ex Don Morin national champion" but no clues were given to what it had been doing since. The subsequent history of the Brabham is unknown.
9. Cooper Mk IV 'T51' (Guy Wooley): Guy G. Wooley (Lake Zurich, IL) raced a 1.5-litre Cooper-Climax in Formula A events in 1967. At the end of the season he advertised the car, noting that it was a 1960 model. Although T53s were produced in 1960, it seems much more likely to have been a T51 customer model. Nothing more known.
10. Brabham BT18 (John Hood): Dr John Hood Jr (Orlando, FL) raced a blue Brabham BT18 in Southeast Division SCCA Nationals in 1967, winning at Fernandina Beach, Savannah International Raceway, Courtland, Montgomery, Osceola Field and Palm Beach, as well as the Paul Whiteman Trophy Races at Daytona, an SCCA Regional. He qualified for the Runoffs but retired. Hood's results in 1968 are largely unknown, but he was mentioned in press previews of the races at Fernandina Beach in April and Daytona in August, when he was said to be driving a Brabham in 'Class B'. It is therefore reasonable to assume he kept the BT18 for the whole of that season. Hood acquired a Formula A Lola T140 for 1969, probably the ex-John Gunn car. The subsequent history of the Brabham is unknown.
11. Lotus 35 [35-F-18?] (Ed Marshall): Very probably the Lotus 35 sold new via Lotus Southwest to Wayne Jones (Burbank,CA) and fitted with a 2.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF engine for the SCCA's new Formula A in 1965. First raced in an SCCA Regional at Santa Barbara in October 1965 and raced again by Jones in 1966. Sold to Ed Marshall (Kentfield, CA) and raced again in FA. For 1968, this car moved to Vernon Shields (Los Angeles, CA) and was fitted with a 4.7-litre Ford V8 engine to fit the increased capacity limit of Formula A. Also driven for Shields by Bob West (Hollywood, CA). Subsequent history unknown but owned by John Dimmer in 2009.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

US information has been taken from SCCA results sheets with additional information from Autoweek race reports and from some entry lists. Thanks to David McKinney and Wolfgang Klopfer for providing these. Identifying the classes and model of some entries has proved very difficult so all new information would be welcomed.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.