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Tony Martin in his BP 2000 Chevron B45 at Kyalami in 1980. Copyright motoprint.co.za/David Pearson 2012. Used with permission.

Formula South Africa 1980

Following the 1979 season, the major tobacco companies withdrew their sponsorship, habitual champion Ian Scheckter moved to saloon car racing, and Formula South Africa appeared to be collapsing. Two of the newer cars, the March 79Bs of Gunston Racing and Team Texan were exported to the US, and no new cars were ordered. But new shoots appeared. Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team bought the ex-Scheckter March 78B for Bernard Tilanus to drive, Tommy Dunn bought the ex-Scheckter March 79A and Mel Lahner's Rackrite Racing acquired the very effective ex-Bobby Scott March 722/77B. The March 77Bs and Wheatcroft R18s were still in the country, and all found new owners, and Andrew Thompson was soon busy fitting Mazda engines to them all. In an attempt to level the playing field, templates for the inlet and exhaust ports of Scheckter's very special Racing Services Mazda were made available to other competitors. Without Scheckter, the races developed some drama again and fields increased, peaking at 15 on the entry list by the end of the year.

Tony Martin started the season with his 1976 Chevron B34 and when that was damaged in a towing accident found that his unloved Chevron B45 was very effective with a Mazda engine, winning eleven races and the 1980 championship.

The races

26 Jan 1980 > Highveld "100" at Kyalami

09 Feb 1980 > Welkom

22 Mar 1980 > Cape South Easter Trophy at Killarney

05 Apr 1980 > Roy Hesketh

19 Apr 1980 > Aldo Scribante

03 May 1980 > Rand Autumn Trophy at Kyalami

31 May 1980 > Welkom

26 Jul 1980 > Welkom

09 Aug 1980 > Kyalami

30 Aug 1980 > Roy Hesketh

04 Oct 1980 > Rand Spring Trophy at Kyalami

25 Oct 1980 > Killarney

1980 Formula South African series table

1	Tony Martin	Chevron B34 - Mazda 12A Chevron B45 - Mazda 12A	148 pts
2	Tommy Dunn	March 79A - Mazda 12A	101 pts
3	Bernard Tilanus	March 78B/79B - Mazda 12A March 77B - Mazda 12A Wheatcroft R18 - Mazda 12A Chevron B25 - Mazda 12A	88 pts
4	Dave Hart	March 77B - Mazda 12A	73 pts
5	Wayne Taylor	March 77B - Mazda 12A	36 pts
6	Peter Haller	Chevron B34 - Mazda 12A	25 pts
7	Derek Ziman	March 722/77B - Ford Essex V6	24 pts
8	Mike Domingo	March 76B - Mazda 12A	15 pts
9	Trevor van Rooyen	March 76B - Mazda 12A	13 pts
10	John McNicol	March 722 - Mazda 12A	12 pts

Previous: the 1979 season

Next: the 1981 season

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)

Data still needed for 1980

Entry lists from event programmes are needed for Kyalami 26 Jan 1980, Goldfields/Welkom 9 Feb 1980 and Aldo Scribante 19 Apr 1980. Full results sheets are needed for all 12 events. Data is especially limited for Killarney 22 Mar 1980, Roy Hesketh 5 Apr 1980, Aldo Scribante 19 Apr 1980, Roy Hesketh 30 Aug 1980 and Killarney 25 Oct 1980 where even a newspaper report of the first six finishers would be helpful.

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.