Swedish Formula 3 1978
After easily winning the 1977 series, Anders Olofsson and his familiar Ralt RT1/77 concentrated on the European series in 1978, losing that championship by the narrowest of margins to Jan Lammers. When Olofsson had time to take in Swedish rounds, he won comfortably, and retained his national championship. Ulf Svensson had a brand new Ralt for what was to be his final season of racing, and came second to Olofsson but in reality was nowhere near as fast. Thorbjörn Carlsson was also a race winner, in his two-year-old Ralt. Slim Borgudd was the fourth of the main runners, also in a two-year-old Ralt.
The races
23 Apr 1978 > Knutstorp
06 May 1978 > Goodrich Trofén at Kinnekullering
14 May 1978 > Comfort Trofén at Anderstorp
16 Jun 1978 > Anderstorp
09 Jul 1978 > Västkustloppet at Falkenburg
06 Aug 1978 > Kvällspostens Newsrace at Knutstorp
13 Aug 1978 > Kanonloppet Karlskoga
09 Sep 1978 > Mantorp Park
Svenska Formel 3 Mästerskapet events shown in bold
1978 Svenska Formel 3 Mästerskapet table
| 1 | Anders Olofsson | Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 36 pts | 3 wins |
| 2 | Ulf Svensson | Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 28 pts | 1 win |
| 3 | Thorbjörn Carlsson | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 26 pts | 1 win |
| 4 | Tommy 'Slim' Borgudd | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 22 pts | |
| 5= | Stefan Johansson | Argo JM1 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 9 pts | 1 win |
| 5= | Bo Martinsson | March 753 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 9 pts | |
| 5= | Pär Olsson | Chevron B38 - Toyota 2T-G Novamotor | 9 pts |
Points table from Autosport 23 Nov 1978 p32.
Although the Ralt RT1 design was entering its fourth season, Ron Tauranac had developed the car considerably, and introduced revised rear suspension geometry, as well as the wider track front end from the Formula Atlantic car. The Ralt won nine out of 16 European Championship rounds, and 24 out of 29 British rounds. The March 783 never achieved its potential because no team using it had the ability to develop it. Chevron focused on the European series with their new Chevron B43, and were unlucky that works driver Patrick Gaillard did not win the Monaco GP. Elio De Angelis won it in his older B38 but managed to annoy almost everyone in the process. Siegried Stohr won the Italian series for Chevron in Pino Trivellato's team. Prost also won one European race in his Martini MK21B, but quite how a midfield runner was able to do that with the only Renault engine in the field was much debated.
See Autosport's full Formula 3 seasonal survey: 23 Nov 1978 pp30-37.