Rothmans F5000 Championship round

Brands Hatch, 20 Oct 1974

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B24/B28 [24-73-07] (Vern Schuppan): New to VDS for Chris Craft in 1973 UK series, then for Peter Gethin in 1974 Tasman series. Loaned to Adlards Crowne Racing for Craft UK 1974; returned to VDS, converted to B24/B28 specification and used by Vern Schuppan to win at Brands Hatch October 1974. Sold to Tony Dean for the UK and US series in 1975, but confiscated by UK Customs & Excise on its return from the US. Bought by Don Gray (Sittingbourne, Kent) at auction, and raced in UK 1977. To Keith Holland for 1978 Australian Internationals 1978, and sold there to Barry Singleton 1978, who raced it in Australia in 1978/79. To Jim Lowe 1980/81, but crashed at Surfers Paradise in early 1981 and heavily damaged. Wreck sold to Russel Gomersall, then to Peter Phillips, then Laurie O'Neill, then Dr Bill Marshall sometime around 1985. Run in Australian historic racing 1986-1988. To George Parlby early 1990s. To Aaron Lewis (Cessnock, NSW) late 2005, and raced in the F5000 Tasman Revival series from 2006 to 2010. Robert Tweedie (Sydney, NSW) 2012, and raced by his son Tom Tweedie, in historic racing from 2013 onwards. More information about Chevron B24 B24-73-07
2. Lola T330 [HU17] (Ian Ashley): See full history: Lola T330 HU17.
3. Chevron B28 [28-74-02] (Peter Gethin): See full history: Chevron B28 74-02.
4. Lola T330 [HU2] (Tom Belsø): See full history: Lola T330 HU2.
5. Lola T330 [HU21] (Clive Santo): See full history: Lola T330 HU21.
6. Chevron B28 [28-74-01] (Teddy Pilette): See full history: Chevron B28 74-01.
7. Brabham BT43 [1] (Chris Craft): Brabham BT43/1 race history.
8. Lola T332 [HU40] (Brian McGuire): See full history: Lola T332 HU40.
9. Lola T330 [HU6] (Trevor Twaites): New to Australian Colin Hyams who raced it in the UK series in early 1973. To Trevor Twaites June 1973, and raced by him in the UK series in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Later to John Jordan (UK), who entered it for Tom Belso in 1977, and raced it himself in libre in 1978. Entered by Jordan for Dave Williams in libre racing 1983, and then for Tony Trimmer in the BRSCC Libre Championship from 1984 to 1989, winning the championship in 1986 and finishing second in 1987 and in 1988. At some point between 1985 and 1988, the T330 was dismantled and parts used by Dave Finnigan (Biggleswade, UK) to construct T332 "HU42" for Jordan's team. The original HU6 chassis remained with Finnigan until early 2000 when sold to Richard Lines (UK), then to Kevan McLurg (UK) 2005 and built into a complete car by McLurg and then by John Crawford's Motorsport Solutions NZ Ltd by July 2009. Owned by this time by Lindsay Willis of Wilco Racing (Rotorua, NZ), and raced by his son Brett Willis (Rotorua, NZ) in the F5000 Tasman Revival series every season from 2010/11 to 2017/18. More information about Lola T330 HU6
10. McRae-Ward KS1 [GM1/015] (Chris Featherstone): Longer wheelbase car built for Graham McRae and raced in the 1973 British season. To Ian Ward Racing early 1974 and modified as "Ward KS1" but not raced in this form. It was then sold to Chris Featherstone and raced by him once at the end of 1974, then through the 1975 and 1976 seasons. After a single race at the start of 1977, the car was raced by Keith Holland in four races later in the year, and then by Featherstone in the Australian Rothmans series in February 1978. To Gary Dumbrell (Australia) 1978, then to Bob Tomlinson 1978, and then to Salt Walther 1979 for the 1979 Rothmans series, but it may be that Lee Seaton of Thomson Motor Auctions owned it though this period. Sold to Ray Gibbs (Australia) September 1979 and kept by him until sold to Stuart Lush (Auckland, New Zealand) 2000, and raced at Historic Sandown that year and in 2001. Lush raced it in the Tasman Cup Revival series from 2003 to 2015, during which time it was also raced by Chris Hyde in the 2009/10 season and by Greg Thornton in the 2012/13 season. Lush also raced the car in England during the Kiwis' visits to the UK in 2005 and 2008, and at Road America in 2014. Lush sold it to its former driver Garry Dumbrell in 2016, and after Dumbrell died in October 2021, it was sold to Peter Brennan (Melbourne, Australia) in December 2021. More information about McRae GM1-015
11. Trojan T102 [1] (Steve Thompson): Built in late 1973, but unsold until March 1974. To Ian Ward Racing for Keith Holland to race in UK in 1974. It proved fast in practice, but due to variety of problems failed to start its first five races. It had only started four races when Ian Ward withdrew from F5000 in late June. The team and car reappeared at the last four races of the season for Steve Thompson to drive. After that, the car was acquired by Mick Hill, who used the front suspension and the whole back end for his 1976 "VW Beetle" super saloon project. Everything he didn't use was eventually acquired by Roger Hurst (Folkestone, Kent) and he advertised this in 1984. The whole project was acquired by Tim and Tony Barry (Sittingbourne, Kent) in 1985 and has been owned by them ever since. Tim Barry raced the car in libre in 1987 and 1988, and also in HSCC racing in the 1990s. He returned to the Trojan for HSCC Derek Bell events since wrecking the brothers' March 76A in an accident in 2005, but Tim describes it as "as much of a pain in the butt as it was when new".
12. Chevron B24/B28 [24-73-08] (Alan Jones): See full history: Chevron B24 'B24-73-08'.
13. Lola T332 [HU34] (Guy Edwards): See full history: Lola T332 HU34.
14. Chevron B24 [24-73-04] (Roelof Wunderink): Built for 1973 season. VDS for Teddy Pilette: raced in UK 1973 and Tasman 1974 - Roelof Wunderink: raced in UK 1974. Then via Tony Dean to Richard Simms and used in libre racing in 1975 and 1976. To John Lambert (York) 1977: used in hillclimbs in 1978 and 1979. Then via Ian Webb and Alex Seldon to Chris Townrow (Crantock, Cornwall) for sprints in Cornwall and Devon. To historic racer Richard Piper (Greenwich, London) and partner Patric Capon and raced by Piper in libre and HSCC racing in 1983 and 1984. To Dennis Humphries (Canterbury, Kent) and damaged in testing at West Malling airfield. Repaired and sold to John Harper (late 1980s/early 1990s) then via Tony Ingram (Atlanta, GA) and Lee Chapman (New Milford, CT) to Fred Gunther (Trumbull, CT). Later via Vintage Racing Services (Stratford, CT) to Alex Seiler (NY, NY) c1998. Following a restoration, it was raced in VARA events at Willow Springs and Phoenix and driven on occasion by Casey Annis, publisher of Vintage racecar Magazine. In 2000, it was sold to Stan Beck (Seattle, WA) restored again before it was sold on to Miles Jackson (Seattle, WA) in 2006.
15. Lola T332 [HU36] (Bob Evans): See full history: Lola T332 HU36.
16. Modus M5 [003?] (Tom Walkinshaw): Built for Tom Walkinshaw out of his crashed Formula 3 Modus. Raced in UK F5000 1974 (2 starts plus 1 DNS). Crashed in practice at Mallory Park in October, and reported to have been rebuilt on a new monocoque before its next race. Crashed again at Brands Hatch a week later, and not seen again. Surviving components would presumably have been used in the 1975 car.
17. Trojan T101 [104] (Patrick Sumner): See full history: Trojan T101/104.
18. Trojan T101 [102] (Leen Verhoeven): See full history: Trojan T101/102.
19. Chevron B24 [24-73-01] (Tony Dean): Built for 1973 season. Tony Dean: raced in UK 1973, US 1973, UK 1974 (crashed at R1 - Dean then buys B24-73-08), also used to settle a bet at the BARC Harewood hill climb 4 Aug 1974; UK 1975 (driven by Dean 3 races, Alain Peltier 1 DNS, Roelof Wunderink 1 DNS). Presumably the car raced by Dean at the Easter Rufforth meeting, winning the libre event. Raced by Dean at Aintree 19 Apr 1975, setting a new circuit record as he won the libre race by over a lap. Crashed and written off by Wunderink Zandvoort (practice) 17 May 1975. Wreckage scrapped.
20. Trojan T101 [101] (Keith Holland): See full history: Trojan T101/101.
21. Trojan T101 [101] (Willie Wood): See full history: Trojan T101/101.
22. McLaren M18 [500-04] (John Stevens): See full history: McLaren M18 500-04.
23. Lola T330 [HU18] (Lella Lombardi): See full history: Lola T330 HU18.
24. Lola T330 [HU21] (Clive Santo): See full history: Lola T330 HU21.
25. March 73A [5] (Clive Baker): See full history: March 73A/5.
26. Lola T330 [HU16] (Nick Wattiez): See full history: Lola T330 HU16.

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.

1969-1976 UK results have been researched and collated by Chris Townsend based primarily on material in Autosport and Motoring News. Information has been added from the growing collection of entry lists from programs.

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.

Individual sources for this event

Sources include a lap chart from an annotated programme acquired by Chris Townsend. Leen Verhoeven was not running by the end of the first lap so was either a very early retirement or a non-starter.