North Atlantic Road Racing Championship (SCCA NNJ Region)

Lime Rock, 13 Sep 1975

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 722 [20] (Gerald Lieberg): Paul Keeler (Greenwich, CT) raced a #38 white-and-green March 722 in NEDiv SCCA Nationals and some Pro FB races in 1972. He was sponsored by Analube, and entered by Gracie Racing Enterprise Ltd of Greenwich, CT. Is is not yet clear what happened to the car in 1973, but in 1974 it was raced by Gerald Lieberg (Milford, CT) at a few SCCA races, and at the Watkins Glen Pro race. He continued to race the car in New England in 1975, 1976 and 1977. For 1978, it was bought from Lieberg by Jimmy Santos (Sunnyvale, CA), and rebuilt by Newman-Dreager to 76B specification. He raced it until 1982, and then sold it in April 1983 to Richard Lempe (aka Rick Sutherland). Lempe sold it in December 1984 to John Hafkenschiel (Palo Alto, CA), who kept it until January 1996 when it was sold to Keith Lively. Sold to a further owner in June 2001.
2. March 74B [9?] (John Mortensen): John Mortensen (New York, NY) and Rick Wellner (New York, NY) shared a blue March 74B in SCCA Nationals and Regionals in 1975. The car was entered by Karaba Racing Enterprises as a March 742B, indicating a 74B that had been updated to 742 specification. This was previously thought to have been the ex-Bobby Brown 74B, but a Fred Opert stock list in November 1975 said that the ex-Brown car had not been raced since June 1974. This car may have been traded to Opert when Mortensen bought a new March 76B for 1976.
3. Chevron B17b (Robert J. Nelkin): Fred Opert ran a team five-car team in 1970 which included a Chevron B17b for himself and a sister car for Mike Eyerly. Opert's personal car was sold to Tom Outcault (Cranford, NJ) for 1971 who used it in NEDiv events and also in the Pro race at Road America in Aug 1971. Last seen when advertised by Outcault in November 1971. According to Chris Townsend's research, Outcault's car went to Frank Sangiorgio in 1972 or 1973, then Carmelo Crisafuli (Great Neck, NY) in 1974. RJ Nelkin (Roslyn, NY) bought the car in 1975, and raced it in SCCA and EMRA events. Nelkin cannot recall where it went next, but this would presumably be the "ex-Opert" car advertised by Roy Aber (Penn Hills, PA) in October 1976. Aber was still racing a Chevron in late 1978, presumably this car. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Brabham BT38 (Paul Corazzo): Paul Corazzo (Wethersfield, CT) raced a Brabham BT38 in Formula B in 1975, primarily in SCCA New England Region events. When he entered the car for the Canon Camera Nationals at Lime Rock in September, it was blue/yellow and numbered #22. This is likely to be the car raced by Carmelo Crisafulli (Great Neck, NY) in NEDiv FB in 1976, as RJ Nelkin recalls buying a FB Brabham from Corazzo and selling it straight away to Crisafulli.
5. Brabham BT38B (Giovanni Distasio): Eric Kerman (Hempstead, NY/Glen Cove, NY), the reigning national SCCA C Sports Racing champion, moved into Formula B in 1974, finishing third in Northeast Division in a Brabham BT38 that he had bought from Fred Opert. He leased a nearly-new March 74B for the Runoffs. Kerman recalls selling the Brabham to Giovanni Distasio (Edgewater, NJ) who raced it in NEDiv FB in 1975. Distasio then bought a March 75B from Doug Shierson, and the Brabham went in trade into Shierson stock. It was bought from Shierson by James Hollowell (Sterling Hts, Mich) and raced by him in SCCA Formula B over the next few seasons. Advertised by Hollowell in September 1978 as a "FB/C rolling chassis", and he recalls selling it to somebody in the Chicago area. Subsequent history unknown.
6. Lotus 69 (Robert Silvestro): An "ex-Jacques Couture" Lotus 69 bought from Joe Grimaldi by Victor Gagliano (Floral Park, NY) and Bob Silvestro (Patterson, NY). They raced the car in SCCA Northeast Division Formula B and then Formula Atlantic from 1974 to 1979, appearing at Bridgehampton, Lime Rock and Watkins Glen. The car was often entered by VAS Enterprises, Gagliano's company, which had previously been the entrant of his Formula C March 703, or by Continental Automotive. Silvestro sold the car to Keith Park (San Diego, CA) in about 1993, and later heard that Park had sold it to Dave Bean (San Andreas, CA). The car was still owned by Bean when he died in 2017.
7. Brabham BT29 (Richard Powell): Richard W. Powell (West Groton, Mass) raced a Brabham BT29 in NEDiv Formula C from 1973 to 1975. At the end of 1975, he advertised it as having a 1100cc Kawasaki engine. Nothing more known.
8. Rondel M1 [201] (Ron Ignatowski): The prototype Rondel was used for testing in late 1972, before the first production cars were built. It was taken to Hockenheim 8 April 1973 as team spare, and to Pau as a spare for Tim Schenken, but not raced. Its history is then unknown until 1974, and it appears it has been acquired by Fred Opert to use as a set of spares. After Mike Rand crashed his car, wrecking the monocoque, 201 was supplied to Ron Ignatowski (Milford, CT), who rebuilt Rand's car on 201's tub with a BRM 1-litre engine and used it in SCCA Formula C. In 1980 it was sold to Randy Zimmer (Buffalo, NY) as the basis for his Can-Am car. He raced it with a Volkswagen engine in 1982 and then with a Mazda rotary engine from 1983 to 1986. Zimmer then entered it for Jim Del Russo in the 1987 CAT championship, and raced it a few more times himself in 1989, 1990 and 1994. Then retained for many years until Zimmer sold it to Seann Burgess (Markdale, Ontario) in 2019.

Sources

The identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' original results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.

Individual sources for this event

SCCA Sanction 75-R-117S. Official results from SCCA records at the IMRRC. The class of Dennis Clifford's Brabham wasn't shown, but as Powell was listed as a FB runner instead of his usual FC, we can deduce that Powell was the only FC runner and had been bumped up to FC< meaning that Clifford's must have been a FB.