South African F2?

unofficialf3000 · 28 Jun 2002, 18:50 (Ref:323851)

Does anyone have any info on the South African F2 championship? I only heard of it recently, and it seems to have been for old European F2 machinery. Any info (years run, results, engine/tyre regs, drivers etc) would be most welcomed.

All I have found is two champions:
1985 - Trevor van Rooyen (ZA) (Maurer-Mazda)
1986 - Wayne Taylor (USA)

A recent feature on van Rooyen in Autosport sparked this investigation off...

Thanks!

Rob29 · 30 Jun 2002, 06:37 (Ref:324453)

Never heard of that in 1980s. Only SAF2 I remember was in early 70s when old F1s,F2s and F5000s ran together.about '75 they chamged to F.Atlantic,then F.Mazda/FZA -around 1980 sports type bodies were added to these!
Since then only F.Gti & FF.

Andrew Kitson · 30 Jun 2002, 07:35 (Ref:324464)

There certainly was a South African F2 Championship. Trevor van Rooyen is an old mate as I helped him out with 'gopher' duties when he raced FF1600 and F3 here in the late 70s.
He then returned to ZA (as he could not get sponsorship to continue here) and ran in the ZA Formula Atlantic Championship in a Team Gunston March. Ian Scheckter( Jody's brother) was always the guy to beat and TvR did beat him a few times.
With the demise of Atlantics in Europe, ZA's premier single seater class then took on the name of F2 but with Mazda rotary motors and they were ear piercingly loud! Other drivers into the 80s were Roy Klomfass, Tony Martin, Wayne Taylor. Trevor always said that they were so quick around kyalami ( The old circuit). The F1 lap record at the time was a 1min 10 I think he said, but these Mazda engined cars were doing 1.16s.
I've a photo at home, away at the moment but will get it scanned and posted.

Rob29 · 30 Jun 2002, 12:56 (Ref:324529)

Thanks Andrew,mystery solved. I have them down as Formula Mazda or FZA. So they were not old European F2s,but old F.Atlantics.

Andrew Kitson · 30 Jun 2002, 14:08 (Ref:324545)

At first they were Atlantic cars with mazda motors but then some contemporary F2 machinery appeared over there such as TvRs maurer.

unofficialf3000 · 30 Jun 2002, 17:45 (Ref:324624)

Thanks a lot Andrew, some great info! I tried the excellent Formula 2 Register site, but no luck, and only got a few results from the search engines. If you could scan the pic when you have time that would be great.

**ghinzani** · 30 Jun 2002, 21:17 (Ref:324751)

They always seemed to run Chevrons and then Maurers - was there a link between the bolton factory and SA? Paul Owens perhaps? they also had March 832s and Ralt and their own re-hashed Ralts called Lants. I remember a guy getting killed in a spaceframe F2 car there in the mid 80s, perhaps it was called a Sigma? or was that the championship... the whole issue of the extinct SA F1 CHAMPIONSHIP is 1 id like to know more about - John Love won the Championship 5 times in a row I think - but was there any real opposition apart from Dave Charlton? and how could SA bankroll its own F1 championship ?? (I know they had apartheid but surely thats too simple an answer) - any info anybody?

**Stephen Green** · 1 Jul 2002, 13:08 (Ref:325121)

You could always try the Kyalami Marshals Association's website which I think is www.kma.co.za or e-mail them for further information. If you get stuck PM me as I have the home address of one of the guys there.

David McKinney · 1 Jul 2002, 16:16 (Ref:325272)

Or even http://www.kma.org.za/

Andrew Kitson · 1 Jul 2002, 16:37 (Ref:325281)

A quick look thru' a race programme I have of a South African Drivers Championship race at Killarney in 1979 has the following entries. OK, I know it is ZA Atlantic but many I think stayed on until 'F2' took over:
Ian Scheckter, John Love, Trevor van Rooyen, Bobby Scott, Tony Martin, Bernard Tilanus, Sarel Pienaar, Mike Domingo, Graham Duxbury, Geoff Frizell, Dave Hart and Peter Haller.
Machinery was March 79As/79Bs/77Bs/76B/722, Chevron B34s/45s, Wheatcroft R18. Long before the Maurer's joined in!
As far as the ZA F1 Championship is concerned, my friend Trevor went over there to drive for Team Gunston. His team boss (Eddie Pinto I think his name was) owned a Lotus 72 once raced by Dave Charlton in Lucky Strike livery. It was in Gunston colours and eventually sold and brought back to the UK. I may be wrong but I think it is the McLoughlin 'Force' JPS 72 now.

2 Jul 2002, 04:41 (Ref:325582)

Your right about Eddie Pinto. He owned Team Gunston and the cars Trevor van Rooyan drove. Myself and a partner bought the team Gunston and team Texan March 79b's from Eddie in early 1980. Trevor must have been pretty short, because the pedals were moved very far forward and he had a heavily padded seat. I removed the seat and pushed the pedals back and still had a hard time driving the car. Guess thats why I only drove it once. My partner kept the car for sometime and I lost track of it. The Team Texan March went to a guy in so. Florida. Eddie Pinto came to the states to help us run the Atlantic race at Long Beach in 80. I learned more from that guy in a week than I could in a year from the mechanics here. The F1 cars were still running Long Beach then and I had the pleasure of being introduced to Colin Chapman and Bob Dance at Lotus. Eddie had a great relationship with those guys and had a number of ex team cars over the years. He told me he very much regretted selling the 72. Those names sure bring back memories.

**Stephen Green** · 2 Jul 2002, 06:55 (Ref:325617)

Thanks for the correction Dave! It was close tho huh

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