Photos: F3 in the1960s/70s

[Andrew Kitson]

Remember the slipstreaming battles of the 1-litre screamers?

[Andrew Kitson]

Steve Thompson's Ensign leads the pack including James Hunt in the white March. Silv 1971.

[Andrew Kitson]

Same meeting - Brabham BT28s everywhere!

[Andrew Kitson]

Anyone got any pics of Roger Williamson by any chance?

[paulzinho]

Oooh with all these pictures around I'm tempted to do my usual request again, slightly later than these ones though!

[Andrew Kitson]

Roy Pike. GLTL Lotus 59B 1969.

[JGM]

I think that's Roger Williamson in the Steve Thompson photo - Number 48 I think it is - at the rear left.

[Guisbro Rod H]

Roy Pike, thats a driver I used to admire. Can't remember which other racing cars he drove, but I remember being excited by his racing at Brands.

[Barry Boor]

Not racing images, but F3 nevertheless, will be found on this page of my racing images website:

http://members.atlasf1.com/barry_boor/three.htm

[racing fxgt]

Here's Tony Trimmer Brabham leading Dave Walker Lotus

[davemorganfan]

Re. the last post - the leading car looks more like a Chevron B15 or B17. Could it be Barrie Maskell at the wheel - I remember he drove a white one in 1970.

[Andrew Kitson]

davemorganfan- yes you are right! It is Barrie at the wheel of a B15, I'm sure. He had a dark blue helmet with stars on it.
I spoke to Barrie at Snetterton in the summer. He still races in the Porsche Classic series.

[davemorganfan]

Ah, a good lad, Mr Maskell. I think he was the only one who dared to appear in one of those seriously ugly Chevron B18s in 1971. Good to hear he is still at it. One of the cars in the picture of the gaggle of BT28s also rung a bell. The one with the star on the nose was driven by Texan Sandy Shepherd, who followed the cowpoke image to its obvious conclusion by wearing a Stetson in the paddock. The fact that he was about 5ft 4inches and had the physique of a stick insect meant that the image didn't quite come off as intended.....

[Andrew Kitson]

I remember Sandy Shepherd driving but not seeing him in the paddock. davemorganfan - do you remember a guy called Stan Matthews? He raced for ProMoto racing in F3 in 1971/1972/73 and also in Atlantic. In F3, he started with a BT28 in late '71 then a March 732 and changed to an LNF3 Ensign. In Atlantic he also raced an Ensign. His cars were always Lotus colours i.e green with yellow stripe down the centre. He had a red crash helmet. I mention him as my father was his mechanic.

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by davemorganfan
Ah, a good lad, Mr Maskell. I think he was the only one who dared to appear in one of those seriously ugly Chevron B18s in 1971.

Derek Bennett of Chevron produced some really drop dead gorgeous race cars in his time such as the B16 and lovely little B8 BMW's. And then he comes up with the B18! Very ugly with that massive square radiator opening at the front.
I painted one on the montage (below) I did for Cyd Williams. It is the black no.5 ( side view) on the left, although this is Cyd's F.Atlantic B18.
The F3 cars shown are a BT21, B15, BT28 along with Supervee Royale RP9, F2 BT30, Atlantic BT40, March 722 and Sana.

[davemorganfan]

Oh blimey, we're getting into serious nostalgia here. I do recall Stan Matthews, he was a decent driver and I think he was pretty nifty in FF too. What's he up to these days? Another BT28 pedaller of around the same era was Mo Harness, who ran a car on a budget of about nil with a home brewed engine and who sometimes frightned some of the big names. Cyd Williams is another name I recall well. I think he was something of an Oulton PArk specialist, or at least that's where I always saw him! That's a lovely montage, by the way. And the Sana - came from nowhere, won lots of races in one season, then was never heard of again. I think. Or can someone correct me?

[Andrew Kitson]

I last bumped into Stan at the 1978 International Trophy at Silverstone. Heard a rumour he is now running his own bar in Spain. Mo Harness was very quick too - as were Tony Brise, Roger Keele, Andy Sutcliffe, Roger Hull, Mike Walker, Rikki von Opel, Russell Wood, Mike Wilds, Conny Andersson ,Colin Vandervell etc etc from this era. The Sana dissapeared after a couple of seasons.

[davemorganfan]

This is really setting the bells ringing. How about Freddy Kottulinsky, known as "arms and elbows" because of his lurid driving style? And Bev Bond, who was described by a fellow competitor in a magazine article as being "prone to brain fade", which upset Mr Bond and the magazine had to print an apology? Happy days. Now that's what I call racing.

[Andrew Kitson]

I have here to hand, a race programme from a meeting I attended, the 1972 International Trophy at Silverstone. Apart from the mixed F1 / F5000 race (which had 12 F1 cars including Stewart, Hill, Surtees, Fittipaldi & Hulme and 23 F5000's entered) there were also races for F3, Formula Ford ( 2 heats and a final), Group 2 Saloons ( Gardner's Camaro, Yogi Muir's Capri etc) and a stand alone F5000 race on the Saturday afternoon. What is remarkable is that the F3 race also had to be decided by 2 heats and a final as there were 75 entries! To top it off there was a JCB Historic Car race - what an amazing race card! The F3 final was won by Roger Williamson in the GRD from Jochen Mass' March.

[Andrew Kitson]

Also...another point. Looking at those first two pics I posted at the start of this thread, remember how we used to bring our own scaffolding 'viewing platforms' in ?
You can see a couple up on the bank. Modern health and safety standards soon put paid to that but I notice it does still occur at the Santa Pod drag strip!

[DaveM]

Gimmee more track! The start (don't think it was it the finish...) of the F3 race at Cadwell on 28th September '69. Tim Schenken to the fore. Will scan some more from this meeting, but I didn't caption them at the time, so there will be some guesswork on my part, which no doubt Andrew will correct!

[DaveM]

Here are some I can recognise starting with two who went onto much bigger things but who are sadly no longer with us, Ronnie Peterson and James Hunt at the bottom of the Mountain.

[DaveM]

Peterson was driving what I think was the first March (693?)

[DaveM]

Hunt had lost his rear bodywork

[DaveM]

Roy Pike in the GLTL Lotus 59