March 73B - 74B - 75B - 76B - 77B

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Just to correct Drifty's claim...
722-5 was not Ronnie Peterson's car, it was used by Niki Lauda in the 1972 European championship.

Chris

I assume this was the same chassis Nike used in the British F2 Championship also in 1972?

[Chris Townsend]

Yes, then for de Lamare in Brazilian series, Rob Cooper in British Atlantic, then over to Ireland.

Chris

[jgwingnut]

If you look at the F2 photos on my web site you will see Niki and Ronnie at Hockenheim in the works 722's. Ronnie's car is sporting a rather snazzy full width nose. Niki has stuck with a more conventional set up.
There is also a photo of the 722 on its first roll out at the factory in Murdock road.
Jon
www.jonathangreaves.com

[driftwood]

Yes Chris, you are right, Niki Lauda, March 722; I was getting muddled up! Well I can't remember everything! You have databases to work from; I have cells!

[Chris Townsend]

A few updates and changes to March 75Bs, though no new chassis numbers yet...

First of all, Price Cobb's car in 1975 was not a 75B. It began life as a 73B at the first two races at least. After Tom Pumpelly left Cavanaugh Racing [after Westwood, round 2] he went to Shierson with sponsorship from NTW for a yellow 75B. He took with him the car that Cavanaugh had run for him, the ex Bertil Roos 74B [chassis 13 we think] updated to 75B, that had only done four races. Cobb gets this car, possibly at round 5.

Secondly, there is a 75B sold which certainly misses the first few rounds of the season.
Dave Morris of Edmonton offers for sale in Autoweek in June 75 a 75B unraced. [Morris had run a private 74B the previous year, destroying it at Mosport. He didn't race again and ended up running Villeneuve at Ecurie Canada in 1976/77]
I think that this might be the car which Cliff Hansen starts using mid season, described at round 5 as "recently purchased" by CMB.

The 12 regular 75Bs seem to be sold as follows

Two to Ecurie Canada for Roos [chassis 10] and Hill
One to Johnny Crean for Don Briedenbach [chassis 4]
One to Morris, possibly to Cliff Hansen who has a GRD at R1 & 2
One to Cavanaugh Racing for Jon Batchelor, which only appears at the first two rounds. I think this car maybe sold to Eric Kerman in mid/late 75 - Certainly Cavanaugh puts it up for sale after the early season and it disappears from ads by then.
One to Gilles Villeneuve.
Six to Shierson:
1: Black car #0 with Interscope backing for Jon Woodner; rented to Marty Loft, Richard Melville; used by Brambilla at Trois Rivieres, then Rahal at SCCA finals
2: White car #99 for Vince Muzzin
3: Yellow car #8 with Rutledge Oil backing for Tim Cooper
4: Red car #17 for Chip Mead
5: Yellow car #9 as team spare: Syd Demovsky at R1; Ian Grob at R4; Guy Tunmer at R6; Marcel Talbot at Trois Rivieres. The reason we have Mead in a yellow 75B at one race [Mosport?] is because he runs this car as a spare.
6: Yellow car #34 from R3 for Tom Pumpelly

Chris

[murray.smith]

Have now successfully moved and am making serious effort to find Joe Hisch and check out some more details on my 75 b. Whatever number it eventually turns out to be.
When I have the info I will post it.
Murray

[Steve Wilkinson]

According to Motoring News Thursday 10th February 1977 Andy Barton sold his 1.6 litre March 75B to Robert "Bob" Rollo.

[kurtiejjj]

Maybe some interesting photos for this thread of a March 73B racing in trinidad: http://www.ggonsalves.com/racing.html

[Alan Brown]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

I can't be certain where to post this so I suppose this thread is best.

I found this in a newly acquired Motoring News and it might connect up some Marchs.

Motoring News 12 May 1977 p22: Paul Gardner has the ex-Steve Choularton March 73B for Libre racing. It is now to 742 spec but will have 752 bodywork.

His team-mate will be John Walker who has the "ex-David Purley/Graham Perry (Harrison) Atlantic engined March 742".

I hope that is useful.

Allen

A small follow up reference (MN 7-7-77 Longridge report of Libre race): "Paul Gardner gave his March 75B its first race albeit powered by a cooking engine" [1600 cc].

[Alan Brown]

MN 6-10-77

Walker in "1977 bodied Atlantic March 74B". Listed in results as 74B/772.

[Dan Rear]

On the TNF thread, 'Personal Photos from the track', Rich Harman's Mallory FAt March 79 carries some hairpin pics. At the back, behind the main car subject, can be made out Geoff Byman's March '75B'. Have we history of this car?

[allenbrown]

Chris noted in his 1979 Atlantic results that it was a 742. That's all I have.

[Dan Rear]

I guess a 'bitza' from the late 70s Northern Libre March pool. Byman was Lincs based IIRC, any clues there I wonder. Could even be one of the above Walker/Gardner cars by that date.

[911thillclimber]

Is there a web site (like www.lolaheritage.co.uk) for March cars?

I an trying to find March Atlantic / 75B rear uprights with caliper mounts. Mine are designed for inboard brakes.

These parts are on my Lola T492 'hybrid' chassis:





Thanks, Graham.

[driftwood]

they are your commoner garden march 712 722-782 rear uprights used for many cars F1 Atlantic and F3
there wil be a casting number 712 0r 722-0603 type number on them if its a for a later car maybe say 762= all the same casting until its machined
sell me the parts then you can go buy the correct lola uprights etc

[rak48]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Bryan

A bit more work on the '75 Canadian series yields the following more accurate allocation of March 75Bs

Ecurie Canada: 3 [Villeneuve[Skiroule]/Roos [Schweppes]/Hill [Gabriel]
Shierson: 4 John Woodner/Syd Demovsky/Richard Melville/Jim Batchelor/Cliff Hansen/Marty Loft [uses Woodner's car]/Tom Pumpelly/Vince Muzzin and Brambilla at Trois Rivieres [uses Woodner's car]
1 goes to Tim Cooper
1 goes to Don Briedenbach
1 goes to who ever runs Price Cobb
1 goes to who ever runs Chip Mead
Which is 11 of the 12 built, and the 12th car is new for Ecurie Canada for Depaillier at Trois Rivieres. Though he doesn't use it. The engine goes in the warm up on race morning and they hire Tim Cooper's car which is a DNQ

Chris

I own the 12th March indicated above. Depaillier put the car on the pole for the race and the motor went off-song in the warm-up and thus was not raced. I purchased the car from Chris Harrison at Ecurie Canada that day.

So where did it come from. There is no chassis plate on the tub or dash. The front bulkhead is marked with the 753 prefix. The body work was red due to the Ramada Inns sponsorship but it also came with a yellow (inside) sidepod which was probably from one of the Schweppes cars.

Chris Harrison told me that they had built it up specifically for Patrick for Three Rivers and Gillies had sorted it out. I have the import/export paperwork from England to Canada to the US. Remember that you could ship items into Canada and defer tax if it was destined to be shipped forward. So, many items that went from March to Canada were treated this way because they would eventually sell them to the US or others.

I would have to go back into my records to review the specific documents to see if there was any additional identification that could be used to put this tub into sequence.

I hope this clears up any mystery spots. I am interested in what registry/info you may have that would identify this tub correctly should my documents not provide this info.

[allenbrown]

Is there a tub number under the roll hoop?

[rak48]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Reading the 1977 Road Racing Annual, it's clear that Kris Harrison's Ecurie Canada employed Villeneuve to drive their car for 1974. Villeneuve crashed the car and left the team. In 1975, he got Skiroule backing and did his own thing, with his own car. For 1976, Harrison and Villeneuve patched up their differences and, with Ray Wardell joining as racing manager, Ecurie Canada provided a pair of 76Bs for Villeneuve.

So there should be only one ex-Villeneuve 75B but it wouldn't be ex-Ecurie Canada unless EC decided for some reason to buy GV's 1975 car from him when he joined their team for 1976. As they had two new 76Bs, I don't see why they'd have done that. I don't know who EC's drivers were in 1975.

Allen

I was with Harrison, Wardell, Depaillier and Gilles at the Three Rivers race in 1975. I purchased the EC Depaillier car directly and still own it. From my perspective GV was being supported and driving for EC at this time. As a matter of fact GV seemed really relived by the situation. We made good friends due to being young and having young kids about the same age. Kris was very pleased that GV was with him. I don't know what the real contract was but they all seemed rather pleased with each other.

[rak48]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Is there a tub number under the roll hoop?

Do you mean stamped into the steel bracket that supports the actual roll bar hoop?

[allenbrown]

Yes, that's right.

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by rak48

I own the 12th March indicated above. Depaillier put the car on the pole for the race and the motor went off-song in the warm-up and thus was not raced. I purchased the car from Chris Harrison at Ecurie Canada that day.

So where did it come from. There is no chassis plate on the tub or dash. The front bulkhead is marked with the 753 prefix. The body work was red due to the Ramada Inns sponsorship but it also came with a yellow (inside) sidepod which was probably from one of the Schweppes cars.

Chris Harrison told me that they had built it up specifically for Patrick for Three Rivers and Gillies had sorted it out. I have the import/export paperwork from England to Canada to the US. Remember that you could ship items into Canada and defer tax if it was destined to be shipped forward. So, many items that went from March to Canada were treated this way because they would eventually sell them to the US or others.

I would have to go back into my records to review the specific documents to see if there was any additional identification that could be used to put this tub into sequence.

I hope this clears up any mystery spots. I am interested in what registry/info you may have that would identify this tub correctly should my documents not provide this info.

Bob, welcome to the forum [I'm guessing that you are Bob Kolowich who I have as owning that Depailler Trois Rivieres car from 1976]

You are right in saying that the car was built up specially for Depailler for Trois Rivieres, and as such it wasn't in fact part of the regular build run of 75Bs. There were 12 cars plated as regular production and 3 hors series, U1 and U2 the development cars, sold in UK to Ray Mallock and Derek Cook, and Depailler's late season car. The Canadian Motorsport Bulletin report of the race says its chassis plate was 75B-R1
The 753 tub would make perfect sense as March used 753 tubs for both the F3 and F.Atlantics in the mid 70s. From looking at March records for the 753s I can't see that they rebuilt anything into an Atlantic from an existing car, so I suspect that they used a new, unused tub as the basis of your car

It would be good to hear more about your racing with the car. I know you used in SCCA nationals in 1975, but don't have very good records for SCCA after that.

Chris

[rak48]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Yes, that's right.

Allen

I will pull the bodywork and roll bar and see what's there. I do not remember anything but I hope something is. I have always wondered why there wasn't any chassis plate but now through reading the forums it doesn't seem that unusual.

[rak48]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Bob, welcome to the forum [I'm guessing that you are Bob Kolowich who I have as owning that Depailler Trois Rivieres car from 1976]

You are right in saying that the car was built up specially for Depailler for Trois Rivieres, and as such it wasn't in fact part of the regular build run of 75Bs. There were 12 cars plated as regular production and 3 hors series, U1 and U2 the development cars, sold in UK to Ray Mallock and Derek Cook, and Depailler's late season car. The Canadian Motorsport Bulletin report of the race says its chassis plate was 75B-R1
The 753 tub would make perfect sense as March used 753 tubs for both the F3 and F.Atlantics in the mid 70s. From looking at March records for the 753s I can't see that they rebuilt anything into an Atlantic from an existing car, so I suspect that they used a new, unused tub as the basis of your car

It would be good to hear more about your racing with the car. I know you used in SCCA nationals in 1975, but don't have very good records for SCCA after that.

Chris

Chris,

I enjoyed a very good time with this car and still have it to this day. Most of the appendages were plated and most of the parts were brand new. All the little mods were put on the car by EC and Patrick drove the wheels off it. GV told him to drive it on 3 wheels (early apex/early power). He put it on the pole. Ray Wardell remained a close friend for many years after these time. He was a really good guy. I still have many of his notes and drawings from our relationship.

Coming from driving Titan FFs, I never had enough power to develop driving like this so it took some balls to do so. After a few races I found that the braking and cornering points were pretty much the same as FF but everything moved much faster and you had to plan your moves 2-3 corners before where in FF you it happened right then.

I ran a number of nationals here in northern California and southern California. Riverside and even Ontario. Top speed going into the sweeper at Riverside was about 178MPH. I had a great race there with Ernie Hayes and drafted by him into Turn 2. Could not believe the aerodynamics would keep me glued down.

I also had a great race with JD Briggs in his FA/5000 Lola at Sears Point too. He needed to run the car so he could get into the F5000 race at Long Beach (the first ever there - I was Bob Earles crew chief there for that race). JD would get me on the 2 straights between 11 and 1 and down into 7. I hounded him up the hill and through the esses. I finally got far enough ahead going into 7 where he could not repass me and drove away. Felt great beating a new F5000 Lola.

I ran in the IMSA/Atlantic event at Laguna where we had so many entrants that we had to run 2 practice and qualifying sessions. The electricity in the air was thick. The entry list was pretty impressive by today's standards. Rahal, Holmes, Gloy and many more that I have forgotten. I think I finished 13th out of that great field. I was still pretty young in the FB/Atlantic cars but I think I did well.

At the end of the season I was beginning to update my car to the new specs when a personal incident stopped my racing career. My car went into storage and has survived earthquakes and fires and I am now just starting to restore it. I saw that Dan Marvin put the EC 76B back together and I have started to confer with Dan and Jon Norman about this project. It is probably proper to replicate the livery that was on the car when Patrick drove it at Three Rivers (Ramada Inns). Great lineage. Gillies and Patrick driven. That's why I kept it.

Great memories while I still have them.

[John Turner]

Part of a post by Damon Meek on the Tiga thread. Thanks to Alan Brown for drawing attention to it:-

Originally Posted by Damon Meek

In regard to my March 76B, it was 76B-02 and was originally a Douglas Sheirson Racing car campaigned by Cliff Hanson. Bobby Rahal was his teamate that year, so I suppose it's possible that he drove it at one time as well.

I purchased it in November 1981 from Tom Contino in Ontario California. He had previously campaigned it succesfully in SCCA Club Racing. I merely rented a little shop space from John Della Penna. John never owned
this or any other March. He had a Ralt RT1 at the time.

I know everyone will groan when I say that I purchased the entire set up from Tom Contino for $18,500. The car was very nice and had a fresh Willis engine. It came with a wide selection of FT200 gears, 2 noses, a spare rear wing, a new set of Jongbloed wheels, 2 sets of March wheels, spare side pods, various other spares and special tools, a 24 volt starter cart, an 18 foot on the floor enclosed trailor and a 1978 Dodge Maxi Van that ran on gas or propane. All for $18,500. Yes, I know. I'm thinking about slitting my wrists as I write this.

I raced the car in 1982 and won the SCCA Regional Championship. Then, like most everybody else of the day, felt that I had to have a ground effects car. ( See Tiga FA81 story above.) I sold the March as a roller and all the parts to build another BDA to Lee Follansbee. I kept my engine for the Tiga. I have absolutely no knowledge of where it is now. If anybody else does, please let me know.

[sircosworth]

Originally Posted by David McKinney

•76B/20. Raced by the Doug Shierson team in USA 1976. Ken Smith NZ 1977-79. Sold 1981 to Warren Binning who never raced it, back to Smith 1983 and on to a new owner 1984. Smith was advertising for sale again 1999

This is not quite correct, chassis 20 was bought by Smith new from Shierson as the US March agent, but collected the car from the March factory himself and shipped the car to NZ in time for the 1977 NZ season. Car was then sold to Binning in 1980 who never raced it and sold it back to Smith several months later, who has owned it ever since. Car was wrapped in oil blankets in storage until 2004 when it was dismantled, cleaned and reassembled with all original components. Car now looks just as it came out of the factory in 76 and is completely original and unrestored.