Swedish Formula 3 1979

Ground effects had arrived in Formula 1 in 1978, and over the winter of 78/79, all the major F3 constructors were experimenting with the new technology. March fitted their 783 with ground effect sidepods and managed to make it work, but Chevron's efforts to do the same, turning the B43 into the B47, was an abject failure. Ralt decided to build an entirely new car, the RT3, but it did not work either. So this opened the door for Martini (with Renault, ELF and Alain Prost) to dominate in Europe and gave an opportunity in the national championships to succeed with a well-developed one-year-old car.

In Sweden, Slim Borgudd had managed to raise £30,000 from sponsors, enough for a full season but not enough for the latest cars. He took his 1978 Ralt to Chris Schirle who developed and redesigned the RT1's rear end. Sidepods were also "tacked on", and Borgudd emerged as one of the quickest runners in Europe. Although he could not challenge Prost's Martini, he picked up a string of third place finishes in European rounds, and his second place at the final round boosted him to third in the European championship. His budget just stretched to covering his national championship, and despite the efforts of Thorbjörn Carlsson in his three-year-old Ralt, and Jan Ridell in the ex-Stefan Johanssen Argo JM1, Borgudd did enough to win the championship.

The races

29 Apr 1979 > Knutstorp

06 May 1979 > Anderstorp

20 May 1979 > Västkustloppet at Falkenburg

24 Jun 1979 > Kinnekullering

08 Jul 1979 > Falkenburg

05 Aug 1979 > Kvällspostens Newsrace at Knutstorp

12 Aug 1979 > Vredstein Racing Show at Kinnekullering

Svenska Formel 3 Mästerskapet events shown in bold

1979 Svenska Formel 3 Mästerskapet table

Points table from Autosport 22 Nov 1979 p27.