Chevron B29

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Fearnley (or Fernley or Fernly) was one of Bobby's partners IIRC. Did he run Bobby's Can-Am team in 1983?

Fearnley in the programme.

[allenbrown]

I checked my F1 notes and I have the team manager of Crawford's Can-Am Ensign in the US in 1983 as "Bob Fernly, Howlings ex-partner". Bobby H probably told me this over the phone which could explain a mispelling. On the other hand, this could be two completely different people. Bob Fearnley appears to have been Crawford's manager at some point.

BTW, those notes also say that VJ Mallya, who was also involved in this setup in some way, had a B42 at some point around 1983. Could that be the unidentified ex-Fearnley libre B42 from 1981?

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Steve Wilkinson

Fearnley in the programme.

Oh and it is Robert not Bob!

[Dan Rear]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

I checked my F1 notes and I have the team manager of Crawford's Can-Am Ensign in the US in 1983 as "Bob Fernly, Howlings ex-partner". Bobby H probably told me this over the phone which could explain a mispelling. On the other hand, this could be two completely different people. Bob Fearnley appears to have been Crawford's manager at some point.

BTW, those notes also say that VJ Mallya, who was also involved in this setup in some way, had a B42 at some point around 1983. Could that be the unidentified ex-Fearnley libre B42 from 1981?

I remember the Mallya factor in this too Allen. Didn't he have a go in Jim's B45-04 at one point, also the AMCO Ensign, again after Jim had used it. During this period, a few years after Bennett, the Jim C/Howlings/Vin Malkie/Fearnley group used a good few F2/FAt Chevrons, John Connell is another name I recall being linked with this lot.

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

I checked my F1 notes and I have the team manager of Crawford's Can-Am Ensign in the US in 1983 as "Bob Fernly, Howlings ex-partner". Bobby H probably told me this over the phone which could explain a mispelling. On the other hand, this could be two completely different people. Bob Fearnley appears to have been Crawford's manager at some point.

BTW, those notes also say that VJ Mallya, who was also involved in this setup in some way, had a B42 at some point around 1983. Could that be the unidentified ex-Fearnley libre B42 from 1981?

McPherson's B42 came from Howlings in 1981, do he and Fearnley ever appear together?

Chris

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

McPherson's B42 came from Howlings in 1981, do he and Fearnley ever appear together?

Chris

Aintree, 1 Aug 1981

[Steve Wilkinson]

Aintree 1981 1st August and McPherson & Fearnley are in the F Libre race. I have several photos of the race but the two do not appear together in any one photo! However take a look at the Paddock shot above as I feel certain the transporter in the background is McPherson's.

[Dan Rear]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Aintree, 1 Aug 1981

Fearnley wouldn't be in the ex-Huub B48-03 would he, we think he used this one in 1980 occasionally??

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Dan Rear

Fearnley wouldn't be in the ex-Huub B48-03 would he, we think he used this one in 1980 occasionally??

Danny Boy, calm down! Just look at the paddock photo above in Post #122. It was taken on the 1st August 1981. Does it look like a B48?

[allenbrown]

dooesn't look much like a B42 either but that's what AS called it.

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

dooesn't look much like a B42 either but that's what AS called it.

That was what I had initially added into my programme as it was a late entry. I changed it to B29 when I saw the car!

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

dooesn't look much like a B42 either but that's what AS called it.

Do we have any evidence that Fearnley had a B42 that was more than an aspiration in an entry list. It's very difficult to make a B29 into a B42 - different, wider tub - and that's a very standard B29 in the picture.

Chris

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Do we have any evidence that Fearnley had a B42 that was more than an aspiration in an entry list.

No any more we don't. I only have three libre appearances listed for Fearnley, the first in a B48 on 26 Apr 1980, the second in a "2.0 Chevron" three weeks later and the last one we now know was a B29 not a B42.

[Dan Rear]

Was Bob F borrowing cars from old Bolton mates?

[Leighton Irwin]

Cat among the pigeons time. Hugh Cree is on the race-cars.com forum looking for his original B29 Chevron chassis #8! This is the chassis # Bill Murray has now. Hugh purchased the car in Feb. 75 from Brian Robertson, Fred's Cdn. agent. This info does not coincide with previous info regarding Hugh's car. I e-mailed Hugh referring him to this site. If my feeble memory is correct the car 1st appeared at Grimli (Gimli) in June. Purchase date tends to be inline with #. I don't think Bruce Jensen got his car until March and from the history records it was a later chassis.

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by Leighton Irwin

Cat among the pigeons time. Hugh Cree is on the race-cars.com forum looking for his original B29 Chevron chassis #8! This is the chassis # Bill Murray has now. Hugh purchased the car in Feb. 75 from Brian Robertson, Fred's Cdn. agent. This info does not coincide with previous info regarding Hugh's car. I e-mailed Hugh referring him to this site. If my feeble memory is correct the car 1st appeared at Grimli (Gimli) in June. Purchase date tends to be inline with #. I don't think Bruce Jensen got his car until March and from the history records it was a later chassis.

Very interesting... Bill's car came down to a very Opert blue in the gel coat suggesting it had been an Opert team car. Hugh Cree didn't come out until Gimli 22 June, and it would have been odd if he had the car earlier not to have used it in the first two rounds. However, it was also Opert's habit to sell team cars off in the season, knowing that a new car was on the way - certainly did this with B34s such as R.J. Nelkin's. So maybe chassis 8 got used for two rounds and then sold on. Maybe Hugh placed the order in Feb. 75.

We should ask him to join us here

Chris

[Leighton Irwin]

Chris: Hugh raced on the proverbvial shoestring. The team was Hugh and his dad, Bingley (?). The first 2 races being Westwood, BC and Edmonton they probably couldn't afford either the time or money. Travel time to BC about 3 days min. and then the week interval and then 2 or more days back to Toronto where they lived. Gimli was a couple of weeks later so to do all 3 would take 5 to 6 weeks. Hugh had to work full time. I don't know about his dad. Gimli could be done in a hard days drive, 24 hrs. More likely 2 days each way and a week off work as vacation time.
Bruce owned his own company and had an employee haul the car during his best years. The rest of the crew and Bruce flew. I used up my vacation this way. Actually in FB days Bruce often missed the western swing and the same applied at the end of his driving days.
If I remember correctly Hugh's car was orange gel.
I am not sure when BJ ordered his car but it might have been when he and I visited Chevron during the London racing car show (along with Roger Chalk) or just after. Probably after, in late Jan. as he and I were discussing the various options on the flight back to Canada. Despite his success with March it was eliminated because of quality control and attitude. Lola was considered but they showed little interest in us. Chevron wanted BJ as a customer and it showed. Actually, during the 75 season Bill Brack got updates first, us second and then the Opert cars.
I E-mailed Hugh privately from the race-cars site with the info about his car and suggested he join us but you might also want to contact him.
Leighton

[Chris Townsend]

Leighton

Already dropped Hugh a line. As he had Maurice McCaig's Brabham BT35 as well as the B29 he's probably got a lot to contribute.

Chris

[Chris Townsend]

Based on email exchange with Hugh Cree, and evidence slowly building over last year, I think it's time for a fairly important overhaul of B29 histories.

1: Destroyed in pre-season testing by Alo Lawler. Not rebuilt
2: Works development car, tested in Florida, then returned for UK series, driven by Crawford before being sold to James Crawley. Returned to USA and sold to R.J. Nelkin for 1976. Sold to Rick Wellner, then?
3: F2 car for Fred Opert, used early season by Hector Rebaque. Kept in Europe and used last three races of the season by Rebaque and Bagley.
Not used in US Atlantic before 1976. Sold to Carl Leibich for 1976, then gap until 1983 with David Klutsenbaker. Now in Australia
4: Ready late Feb for Wheatcroft for Richard Morgan, then to Brett Riley. To Ken Bailey 1976, Eddie Jordan 1978, Viv Candy 1979; David Ward 1980; Terry Cole 1983; now with Chris Sharples
5: Ordered Jan 1975, by Albert Poon. To Chong Boo Seng 1977, Leif Norberg 1986, Tony Armstrong 1989, Geoff Weiland 1998, Peter Addison 2003, now with John Gale
6: Delivered March for Alo Lawler, retained 1976, then John Eastwood 1977, Ken Fildes 1979, Bob Howlings 1981, Stuart Harte 1985
7: Delivered March for Patsy McGarrity, 1977 to Derek Shortall, 1978 Joey Greenan to John Smith; 1979 to Dave Rackham, perhaps broken for spares early 1981
8: Delivered March to Hugh Cree, retained to autumn 1977; then perhaps to Pierre Gadoury 1978, then ? till Andy Falbo [Detroit] early 1980s. Now with Bill Murray
9: Opert possibly car of Peter Ferguson or an Opert team car
10: ROC: Xavier Lapeyre, retained 1976 then unknown
11: Not built according to Chevron but as tradition is broken on B29s with a 22 and quite likely a 33, why not? See below for the problems this would solve
12: ROC F2 car, used by Fred Stalder on hills in 1976, loaned to Rivoire and called 29/35
13: Not built
14: Bruce Jensen to 1977 unknown after; perhaps built into Can Am car
15: SDC for Stephen Choularton and Jim Crawford; 1976 Len Booysen, 1977 Dorino Trocani 1979 Sarel Pienaar; now owned Doug Brown [ZA]
16: Bill Brack; 1976: Brad Abbott; 1977 John Galson
17: Peter Williams; 1976 Williams for Jim Crawford then to Martin Birrane; 1978 Laurence Jacobsen for Bryce Wilson; 1980 built into super saloon by Jcobsen, then to Eric Munnoch in that form
18: Delivered April for Rapid Movements, for Matt Spitzley, written off in testing in May and replaced by 25
19: Second SDC car became Choularton's regular car. 1976 Phil Dowsett; 1977 John Ledlie; 1979 Nelson Todd
20: Joe Sposato; 'the first B29 delivered at Opert' Formula June 75, p. 5. This suggests that 9 was Peter Ferguson's Canadian car, sold via Robertson. Retained 1977 then to John Higgins, Mike Cronin and Mark Malley
21: Bobby Brown, collected by him from works in April. 1976 to Lyle Heck; 1979 briefly with Mike Rand; 1980 Lanny Drevitch; 1981 Nick Leonard; 1984 Chris Perotti; 1986 Tony Carpanzano;
22: Opert in sales record
23: Bobby Brown for Syd Demovsky; used by Demovsky 1976, f/s Brown, Formula Aug 77 p. 61; Peter Gates late 1980s; now owned by Robert Clarke
24: Opert in sales record
25: Blank in sales record, chassis number observed on Spitzley's car late May
26: Blank in sales record
27: Gustav Hoeker for Harald Ertl; 1976 Hohmann Racing: Helmut Bross/Manfred Schurti; 1978 Heluz Wengert; 1979 Georg Lorenz; 1982 Reinhold Gruber; 1992 Freddy Kumschick; 2005 Simon Hadfield
28: Opert for California SCCA...with Peter Gates late 80s now owned by Robert Clarke
29: Derek Cook 1976: Jeremy Rossiter 1977 to John Pollock; 1978 Tom O'leary;
30: Perhaps F2 car for Binder late season, then to Tasman 1976 for Brian Redman to David Oxton as Atlantic, to Eric Morgan late 1977; 1982 Chris Read now with Peter Whelan
31: not in build record
32: works for Hans Binder late season
33: not known in period but plate on an ex ROC B29 suggesting a late season rebuild.

Cars currently without firm owners/drivers
9 [probably Ferguson]
11 [if built]
22
24
26
28
31
These have to account for the three car Opert team [Rebaque/Dennett/Cochesa] from the start of the Canadian season [so numbers 28 and 31 are decidedly suspect here since they come after May, and 26 is a bit marginal]; Seb Barone's Isola Racing car, which appears a bit later; and a new car for Opert at Trois Rivieres where the team has four cars, one said to be new and all the other B29s are spoken for, everywhere in the world, on that particular day...
One way or another the Chevron record isn't correct. Either 11 is built or there is a chassis 31 [probably the late season Trois Rivieres car] between the two versions of Binder's F2 car.

Chris

[Steve Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

6: Delivered March for Alo Lawler, retained 1976, then John Eastwood 1977, Ken Fildes 1979, Bob Howlings 1981, Stuart Harte 1985

Chris

Stuart Harte was still running the car in 1987.

[Leighton Irwin]

Small point. Bruce Jensen had his B29 until Jan./Feb. 78, when he got his Ralt. it is possible the sale of the B29 was through Brian Robertson or was actually traded to Brian. I seem to recall BJ saying the car was sold into Mich. but that is from memory.

[antc]

I would like to add some info to the chassis history posted above. Some time ago,almost 4 years in fact, I posted info regarding Chevron B-29-75-25 on this thread. See below

antc
Rookie
Join Date: Aug 2004


Posts: 2
Dear Chris/Allen

I have followed with interest the references to the chevron b29's which were sent to South Africa in 1976 through the thread.
In particular the Gunnar Nilsson car which was sold by Rapid Movements to John Gibb.
As far as I know there were only ever two b29's in S.A. b29-75-15 which was acquired by Len Booysen and b29-75-18/25 (the Gibb car). I have recently purchased the latter and can confirm that it carries the chassis plate b29-75-25 as reflected in the info posted by Allen.
Is there some way of confirming the likely scenario that b29-75-18 was fitted with a replacement tub b29-75-25 during the 75 season, as the info seems to support this?

Anthony Corin
[/I][/I]

Subsequent to that posting and various others it seemed clear that this is in fact what had happened. I dont remember exactly when, but someone posted a confirmation that the later chassis plate number was noted on the Spitzley car during one of the post May races, but prior to Gunnar Nilsson taking over driver duties.
This fact has correctly been included in this latest summary.
What has been omitted though is the current location of the car.
I can confirm that the car is still in my ownership (Malmesbury, South Africa)and was restored some years ago in its original Rapid Movements Yellow colour scheme . The car clearly and definitely carries the chassis plate B29-75-25.

Regards
Anthony Corin

[John Turner]

Copied over from the B17 thread.

Originally Posted by RJ Nelkin

The Crawley b-29 is a great story: I sold it to a guy named Rick Wellner... he had never been in a racecar before. We were at Summit Point testing the first day Wellner got in the car. We told him to take it easy. He left the pits and went tearing down the front straight and went right off the track... never made the first turn. His guys got the car back to the pits and straightened it out. He left the pits again... flying down the track... never made the first turn again and totaled the car... never made a turn much less a lap. My other Chevron was from Opert "the Tom Bagley car" it was a good car... originally Bagley oil yellow but we had Opert get us new bodywork in our Nelkin Racing Green and we raced it the first time at St. Jovite. All our Marches were new from Doug Shierson. Another B-29: Bill Bracks car was sold to my friend Brad Abbott... Fred delivered it to him at the track "race ready" Ha! Fred had it out behind his truck trailer covered with a tarp... when we helped Brad get it, we took the tarp off and it looked like a racehorse that had been run HARD and put up WET...very WET...it looked almost like a heap of parts....raceready fred. RJ Nelkin

[EJH]

Dear all,

I am the late Stuart Hartes niece, so fire away if there are any questions I can help answer.
Just to fill in some gaps - the Chevron is still sitting in a garage in the North of England. Stuart bequethed it to Wendys (his sisters) husband David, who unfortunately never had the opportunity to continue racing.

Best regards,
Emma

[Dan Rear]

I have it on good authority that -17, the ex-Williams/Crawford/Bryce Wilson car is in good hands, and likely to be out next year. Its now back as a B29, not a Stilleto Supersaloon car.