Swedish Formula 3 1977
With a new Ralt RT1/77 and support from Stockholm's Puss & Kram jeans, Anders Olofsson swept to victory in the 1977 Swedish F3 series. As well as winning all four of the national races in which he competed, he also had a very impressive win in the Kv?llspostens Newsrace European Championship round at Knutstorp in August, beating two highly regarded newcomers, Nelson Piquet and Beppe Gabbiani. He was also competing in the European championship, winning at Zandvoort in April and at the ?sterreichring in May, as well as at Knutstorp, and finishing second in the series behind Piercarlo Ghinzani. He even won the British GP support race, but only after Stephen South and Derek Daly had taken each other off. Unfortunately for Olofsson, all this success was not enough to propel him into F2, and he would remain in F3 for 1978.
Second place in the Swedish series was a battle between 20-year-old Stefan Johansson and Mats Nygren, eight years his senior. Johansson impressed at Monaco in his rare Argo JM1, finishing third, and won at Anderstorp in August, the one national race that Olofsson skipped, but Nygren's three second places narrowly outpointed him.
The races
24 Apr 1977 > Knutstorp
05 Jun 1977 > Karlskoga
18 Jun 1977 > Anderstorp
10 Jul 1977 > Falkenburg
07 Aug 1977 > Kvällspostens Newsrace at Knutstorp
14 Aug 1977 > Anderstorp
11 Sep 1977 > Karlskoga
Svenska Formel 3 Mästerskapet events shown in bold
1977 Svenska Formel 3 Mästerskapet table
| 1 | Anders Olofsson | Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 45 pts | 5 wins |
| 2 | Matts Nygren | March 763 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 24 pts | |
| 3 | Stefan Johansson | Argo JM1 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 22 pts | 1 win |
| 4 | Tommy 'Slim' Borgudd | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 14 pts | |
| 5 | Håkan Alriksson | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 12 pts | |
| 6 | Claes Sigurdsson | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 10 pts | |
| 7= | Thorbjörn Carlsson | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 8 pts | |
| 7= | Ulf Svensson | Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 8 pts | |
| 9 | Kaal Wirgin | Brabham BT38C - Ford twin cam Vegantune | 3 pts | |
| 10 | Dragutin Ovcar | March 743 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 2 pts |
Points table provided by Joran Hedberg.
Across Europe, F3 was a three-way battle between the English constructors Ralt, March and Chevron. According to Autosport's Jeremy Shaw, the Chevron B38 seemed to have the edge on shorter, twistier circuits, with the Ralt RT1/77 better through fast sweeping bends, and the March 773 proving a compromise. None of these cars had changed significantly from the 1976 models. Among the many other constructors, Jo Marquart's Argo was starting to impress, and the Toj also showed some promise. The Lola T570 only worked when Nigel Mansell drove it.