HELP!! Missing Gaydon Sprint July-ish 1971

[allenbrown]

I'm still working through the British Sprint Championship results and am stuck on the seventh round of the 1971 championship, held at Gaydon some time in between the Blackpool event on 13 June and the Thruxton round on 9 August.

Autosport only records one Gaydon sprint during this period, won by Lane in the wet at 60.4s on 8 August. It's not this one as the results I have show far faster times, presumably in the dry.

The results for the missing round are:

1. Bob Rose (McLaren-Chevrolet M10B) 50.82s
2. Jonty Williamson (Cooper-Chrysler T81B) 51.66s
3. Dave Hartley (Brabham-Buick BT18) 54.82s
4. John Saunders (Alexis-Ford Mk14/15) 56.7s

Can anyone locate this round? It wasn't on the original schedule for the series as far as I can see.

Thanks

Allen

PS I'm also missing the results from Wroughton on 7 Sep 1975 if anyone can help. Seems to have been 1st Harris and 2nd Jonty but any detail would be appreciated.

PPS If anyone want to look at a draft of the 1970-1990 results on OldRacingCars.com, drop me a line.

[Milan Fistonic]

Not much help but this is all MN had about the event.

Dave Harris collected FTD in his F5000 McLaren at the Invaders' MC's Wroughton Sprint on September 7. He beat Jonty Williamson's Surtees by eight seconds and lapped the 2.16-mile circuit at 102.3 mph.

FTD; Harris, 1m 16.0s.
Class winners: K. Banks; D. Harvey; P. Gilbert; T. Harwood; D. Beams; B. Curd; M. Wray; A. Kennedy; D. Basson; J. Williamson; C.Thomas; A. Shirley; J. Jordan; A. Pearce; S. Wood; S. Brookman; R. Powell; M. Gates; A. Moores.

Motoring News September 18, 1975

[Milan Fistonic]

Are your dates correct?

You've got Thruxton on August 9 and Gaydon on August 8. According to MN Thruxton was on August 8.

[allenbrown]

Originally posted by Milan Fistonic
Are your dates correct?

You've got Thruxton on August 9 and Gaydon on August 8. According to MN Thruxton was on August 8.

Possibly not. My basic results data has come from the British Motor Sprint Association so comes from their records rather than from the magazines. They have Thruxton on 9 August which matches the original schedule published near the start of the year. However, I do agree that Monday 9 August is very unlikely given that it wasn't a bank holiday.

Thanks Milan

I take it you couldn't find a 1971 Gaydon event in MN?

Allen

[Milan Fistonic]

The RAC Sprint Championship

This championship was first run in 1970 and was for cars of any type and the length of the course was at the discretion of the organising club.

In 1971 competitors were restricted to racing and sports/racing machinery and course length was limited to one mile.

The scheduled events were:

March 28	Yeovilton		Yeovil CC
April 18	Curborough		Midland AC
April 25	Little Rissington	Cheltenham MC
June 6		Curborough		Shenstone & DCC
June 13	Blackpool		Longton & DCC
June 20	Gaydon		Austin Healey CC
July 3		North Weald		Orchard MC
July 11		Santa Pod		SODC
July 18		Kemble		Cirencester MC
August 8	Thruxton		BARC Surrey
August 22	Tern Hill		North Staffs MC
Sept 11	Brighton		Brighton & Hove MC
Sept 12	Duxford		Herts Co AAC
Oct 2		Weston-super-Mare	Burnham on Sea MC
Oct 10		Moreton-in-Marsh	North Cotswold MC

The Sprint Championship is on the same lines as the hill climb championship, and only those competitors who have registered their entry with the RAC are eligible for points. At the end of all the class runs the 10 fastest registered entrants (this high ideal was never achieved in 1970) then make two further runs to claim points on the basis of 10 for the winner down to 1 for tenth place, with a bonus point for each driver bettering the course record standing at the commencement of the meeting. If all the scheduled events take place then the best 8 results per competitor will count in the final analysis.

Source: Motoring News, March 25, 1971

[Milan Fistonic]

The above schedule appears to have been changed in a major way.

Looking through MN I can find only three reports that actually mention the championship. The first at Yeovilton on March 28 had just 4 registered competitors. Santa Pod on May 19 had 5 registered competitors while 8 contested the Weston-super-Mare round on October 2.

Gaydon on August 7 which was won by Roy Lane in 60.4s has no mention of the championship.

A meeting at Curborough on October 3 had a top ten run-off but again there is no mention of the championship.

[allenbrown]

Hi Milan

Thanks for the date of the Gaydon round.

I have quite a few reports or mentions from Autosport for the 1971 rounds but not many mention a championship:

28 Mar, Yeovil MC, Yeovilton, R1, AS 8 Apr p44
18 Apr, Midland AC, Curborough, R2, AS 22 Apr p46
9 May, Sporting ODC, Santa Pod, R3, AS 13 May pp52,54
6 Jun, Shenstone & DCC, Curborough, R4, AS 10 Jun pp42-43
13 Jun, Longton and DMC, Blackpool, R5, AS 17 Jun p70
20 Jun, Austin Healey CC, Gaydon, R6, Can't find a report
9 Aug, BARC Surrey Centre, Thruxton, R7, AS 19 Aug p53
15 Aug, South Herts MC, Lydden Hill, R8, AS 26 Aug p42
12 Sep, Herts County A&AC, Duxford, R9, AS 23 Sep p48
2 Oct, Burnham-on-Sea MC, Weston, R10 AS 7 Oct p41

Allen

[Steve Wilkinson]

The BMSA data-base on www.britishsprint.org has been compiled by trawling through Motoring News, Autosport and Speedscene magazines. We have then had the good fortune to be given Ken Ayers personal collection of results and programmes. Jonty Williamson has also filled in a lot of blanks but we are really struggling with 1970. The problem appears to be an over zealous championship co-ordinator who set up the season only for many events to fold! Motoring News probably got annoyed with the continuous changes and stopped carrying reports. However the standard of reporting they did carry left a lot to be desired.

If anyone can help in either providing results and/or contacts with competitors or organisers it would be greatly appreciated.

We are also trying to do a 'fill in the blanks' exercise with chassis numbers - ambitious or what? So any help on this front would also be appreciated.