MidWest Division SCCA 1967 « Formula B

MidWest Division SCCA Formula B 1967

By 1 September, with six of the Division's nine Nationals complete, only Roy Grange had scored any points in the FB class but a late flurry of activity ensured that all three invitations to the Runoffs could be issued. Peter Botsford's BRE in Boulder, Colorado had acquired a pair of LeGrands Mk 3Bs and Grange took one of these to a walkover victory at the Ponca National in July. He also won his class in a Regional at Continental Divide in July and competed in the Pro FB races at War Bonnet and Mont-Tremblant. Botsford himself had raced one of the cars at the Bridgehampton Pro race in May, then took one to a class win at the Continental Divide National in early October.

Second place in the division fell to George Graves from the little-known West Rocky Mountain Region in an Elva 300 which had been fitted with a 1500cc Cosworth-Ford engine and was good enough for a second place finish behind David Webster's Brabham BT21A at War Bonnet on the very last weekend of the season. None of the three drivers took up their place at the Runoffs.

Final standings

1.	Roy Grange	LeGrand [Mk 3B]	Colorado	13 pts†
2.	George Graves	Elva [300]	W Rocky Mountain	10 pts
3.	Pete Botsford	LeGrand [Mk 3B]	Colorado	9 pts

† Indicates total includes points earned out of home division.

1967 Schedule

22 Apr 1967	Stuttgart Airport	Arkansas Region
06 May 1967	Bottomless Lakes	Rio Grande Region
28 May 1967	War Bonnet	Wichita Region
01 Jul 1967	Ponca City	Oklahoma Region
22 Jul 1967	Independence	Kansas City Region
19 Aug 1967	Lake Afton	Wichita Region
16 Sep 1967	Mid-America Raceway	St Louis Region
01 Oct 1967	Continental Divide	Colorado Region
07 Oct 1967	War Bonnet	Northeast Oklahoma Region

Stuttgart Municipal Airport hosted a 3-mile race circuit from 1959 onwards. Bottomless Lakes was a very intruiging 7.7-mile course set in the Bottomless Lakes State Park, 15 miles southeast of Roswell, New Mexico. War Bonnet Raceway Park was very active for a few years in the late 1960s. Ponca City was a street circuit through the Oklahoma city's park that had been in use since 1961, usually on 4 July. Independence used a 2.25-mile circuit at Independence Municipal Airport organised by Kansas City Region. Lake Afton typically held its National in mid-August. Mid-America was Mid-America Raceway in Wentzville, MO, and COntinental Divide Raceway were the only purpose-built facilities available.

The main changes from the preceding season were the losses of Garden City and Alliance. Garden City was an event organised by Wichita Region and the Garden City Shrine Club at the long-lost Shrine Raceway Track about ten miles east of Garden City, Kansas, and Alliance was the Cattle Capitol Sprints, an event held at Alliance Airport, Nebraska by Colorado Region. With these two disappearing in 1967, the centre of gravity of the Division moved significantly to the east.

Midwest Division sources

Race results for Midwest Division Nationals from 1970 to 1978 have been kindly provided by veteran MiDiv historian Rocky Entriken. We also have some background information from Competition Press up to about 1973, when its interest in such events waned considerably, but we know little of the goings-on away from these events and are are keen to acquire or borrow 1960s, 1970s and 1980s copies of SCCA regional publications from this Division. The key ones are:

Checkpoint (Kansas City Region)
Course Record (Arkansas Region)
The Echo (Southern Illinois Region)
Exhaust Notes (Nebraska) - full archive available at nrsccahistory.com.
Gasket Gazette (Oklahoma Region)
Neokla Observer (NE Oklahoma Region), renamed Sports Car Observer in 1980
The Offside Undo (Kansas Region)
Redline (Colorado Region)
Steerin’ Column (Mid-South Region)
Wheelspin (St. Louis Region)
Witches Wail (Wichita Region)

We are also keen to get scans of entry lists from SCCA Nationals for this division.

MWDiv Formula B seasons

1965 (no FB runners)
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976

The Cars of 1967

The major new production Formula B cars this season were:

Brabham BT21A
Crosslé 12F
LeGrand Mk 6
Lotus 41C
McLaren 'M4B'

Older cars were still in use, notably the Brabham BT18, LeGrand Mk 3B and Lotus 22.

1967 SCCA Divisional FB

Brief reviews of the seasons in each of the seven Divisions are below:

The research

The tables are taken from the SCCA's Sports Car magazine November 1967 pp42-46 and December 1967 pp30-32.

Any data in brackets, such as model names, has been added based on other research.

Email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) with any further additions, corrections or comments.

MidWest Division circuits

Seven racetracks were used in Midwest Division in 1967, ranging from two new permanent facilities at Mid-America Raceway and War Bonnet through parkland circuits at Lake Afton, Ponca City and Bottomless Lakes to airfields at Independence and Stuttgart.

Bottomless Lakes
(Roswell, NM)
Independence Municipal Airport
(Independence, KS)
Lake Afton
(Wichita, KS)
Mid-America Raceway
(Wentzville, MO)
Lake Ponca Park
(Ponca City, OK)
Stuttgart Municipal Airport
(Stuttgart, AR)
War Bonnet Raceway Park
(New Mannford, OK)

Lake Garnett (Garnett, KS) was used was used most seasons from 1959 to 1972 but not in 1966 or 1967 for some reason. Continental Divide Raceway (Castle Rock, CO) was also used some seasons despite its distance from the centre of the Division. The other track missing from the 1967 schedule is Sunflower Aerodrome (Hutchinson, KS) but this might not have been used until 1971.

None of these tracks are still in use for racing although drag racing continues at Mid-America Raceway. Hallet (Jennings, OK) was not to open until 1976.