Vandervell British Formula 3 Championship Race

Silverstone, 1 May 1978

All cars are 2-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 783 [14] (Chico Serra): Shown in March records for 1978 as delivered to Rushen Green Racing 14 April 1978, colour red, with tub 78M71. This is presumably the car used by Serra at Donington 30 April 1978, where Motoring News describes it as a new and unsorted chassis being readied for Monaco, and at Silverstone the following day where the Autosport report also describes it as new and used the day before at Donington. Sold to Fermin Velez for 1979, run by Brian Lewis Racing, with the chassis number observed by F1R at Snetterton in August 1979.
2. March 773 [U2] (Ian Flux): March works records show this as James King's works car for 1977 built on a lightweight tub AM773-41 with parts from 763-U2. This would be the "ex-King" car sold to Ian Flux early in 1978, and raced by him in the 1978 British F3 series.
3. Chevron B38 [38.77.25] (John Stokes): New to John Stokes (Birmingham) and raced in British F3 in 1977, sponsored by Bogarts of Birmingham. Retained for 1978 and rented by Philippe Colonna for the Zolder F3 in Zolder after Colonna had wrecked his ex-Stephen South March at Zeltweg. Then raced again by Stokes until the end of August.
4. Chevron B43 [43.78.19] (Jim Crawford): One of four Chevron B43s order by Emil Frey AG and invoiced by Chevron to Freddy Kessler of Toyota Switzerland (Sasenwil, Switzerland). It is thought to be the car raced by Jim Crawford in the British championship in 1978, replacing the B38 he wrecked at Thruxton at the end of March. Crawford had been hired by the Frey/Toyota team as a driving coach. At Knutsdorp in August, Crawford made his European series debut in a Toyota Switzerland car, and this may have been a different car.
5. March 773 [10] (TBA): According to March records delivered in March 1977 to AFMP Euroracing, and subsequently given to Brett Riley in lieu of his contractual payments when the Euroracing set-up was dissolved. (This does not mean the car was Riley’s early season car in 1977; he used at least two before the team collapsed, neither of which were necessarily this car.) Run by David Price for Riley in the second half of 1977 and used to win the European round at Donington. Chassis number given in Autosport advert late in 1977 by Price. Sold to Roy Kennedy [Motoring News 2 Mar 1978 p15] although Autosport 9 Mar 1978 p41 says the car is ‘ex James King’. (King used a works car - 773-U2 - for most of 1977 but it is possible he had a race in this car early in the season, however his principal car went in 1978 to Ian Flux.) Run by Kennedy for Saed Ali Hodzic until Hodzic was injured in practice at the International Trophy support race; then became a rental car but did very few races. For sale by Kennedy in early 1979, Autosport 22 Feb 1979 p57, but retained and rented to Serge Saulnier for the 1979 race at Monaco.
6. March 753 [14] (Wyatt Stanley): Originally a car belonging to the B&O team in 1975, when used by Pierre Dieudonné. Chassis number for this car and its sister, driven by Hervé Regout, observed by AF at Oulton Park 4 October 1975. Sold to Ken Silverstone for the 1976 season [Autosport 2 Sep 1976 p33 says his car is ‘ex Dieudonné.) To Wyatt Stanley in mid 1977 and retained by him for the 1978 season.

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.

These British Formula 3 results have been compiled by Chris Townsend using the main British magazines Autosport and Motoring News but also the US magazine On Track which carried surprisingly good coverage of the British series.

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.