Formula South Africa « OldRacingCars.com

Ian Scheckter in the Gunston March 832 at Killarney in 1983. Copyright motoprint.co.za/David Pearson 2024. Used with permission.

Formula South Africa 1979-1986

With the cost of Formula Atlantic rising steeply, the South Africa AA announced new rules to come into force in 1979, banning the Ford BDA (Cosworth BDD) and mandating the use of engines that were classed as manufactured locally. Options included a 3-litre V6 push rod Ford engine, a 2-litre 4-cylinder single-ohc BMW, a 2-litre twin cam Fiat, a 2-litre 4-cylinder single ohc Ford and a rotary Mazda. The Mazda was available via the Sigma Motor Corporation, a motor vehicle assembler and distributor based in Pretoria, who used the 1146cc Mazda 12A engine in the Mazda RX-7. For racing equivalance, its capacity was regarded as double, so it is shown here as 2292cc. This engine quickly came to dominate Formula SA, and became the sole option when Sigma stepped in to sponsor the series from the start of 1981. Minimum weight had been increased from the 450 kg of the Formula Atlantic era to 480 kg for engines up to 2000cc, and 510 kg for bigger engines. This encouraged Ken Howes to buy a heavier Formula 2 March 792 for Ian Scheckter to drive, and ex-F2 chassis became the norm from 1980 onwards.

The new category was officially called the the SA National Championship Formula, but Leicester 'Sy' Symons, the influential Motoring Editor of the Rand Daily Mail, decided this was too confusing and coined the term Formula SA.

Seasons

The 1979 season: Goldfields, Kyalami, Goldfields, Roy Hesketh, Kyalami, Killarney.

The 1980 season: Kyalami, Kyalami, Goldfields, Goldfields, Killarney, Killarney, Roy Hesketh, Roy Hesketh, Aldo Scribante, Aldo Scribante, Kyalami, Kyalami, Goldfields, Goldfields, Goldfields, Kyalami, Roy Hesketh, Roy Hesketh, Kyalami, Kyalami, Killarney, Killarney

The 1981 season: Kyalami, Welkom, Welkom, Kyalami, Kyalami, Roy Hesketh, Killarney, Killarney, Kyalami, Kyalami, Welkom, Kyalami, Aldo Scribante, Aldo Scribante, Kyalami, Killarney, Killarney, Port Elizabeth, Kyalami.

Please email Allen if you can contribute any further material on Formula South Africa.

Formula South Africa seasons

1979 (Ian Scheckter)
1980 (Tony Martin)
1981 (Bernard Tilanus)
1982 (Graham Duxbury)
1983 (Ian Scheckter)
1984 (Ian Scheckter)
1985 (Trevor van Rooyen)
1986 (Wayne Taylor)

The research

The 1979 to 1986 Formula SA results have been compiled with the generous assistance of Ian Hebblethwaite. The main sources used include Autosport and Motoring News until their reports stopped in 1979, and South African newspapers, The Rand Daily Mail, The Citizen and The Star. Ian has provided race results sheets for a number of races, but in most cases we do not have these.

A great deal of information has come from race programmes, and we are most grateful to Ian Hebblethwaite, Stuart Thompson, Bernard Tilanus, Tony Kent, Marius Matthee, Doug Brown, David Pearson and Rennie Mackrory for providing programme entry lists for 63 of the 87 races so far. We still need most of the Goldfields/Welkom programmes, all the Aldo Scribante circuit programmes, six of the Kyalami programmes and both programes for the one-off races at Port Elizabeth and East London. Please get in touch if you can help us with information from the programmes we still need.

My thanks also to Ian Hebblethwaite and Stuart Thompson for generously sponsoring the purchase of many of David Pearson's excellent photographs from motoprint.co.za used on these pages and across the relevant model histories.

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