F5000 in UK/Europe

[Chris Townsend]

I'm about halfway through a mammoth project of collating all the British and European F5000 races for Allen Brown's oldracingcars site. Results up to 1971 are now posted and 1972 is in the pipeline.

However, I've recently had some wonderful assistance from Andrew Kitson, whose copies of original programmes have contained practice times and grids that were missing from contemporary race reports, and even complete lap charts!
Obviously Andrew didn't go to every race, but I'm guessing that between us we probably did.

Going back to these original documents is a fantastic bonus, and if anyone else has programmes that they can copy [only need specific pages, not whole thing] or race organisers information sheets [results, practice times etc] I'd really appreciate it if you could get in touch.

[Andrew Kitson]

Chris, glad to be of help. Look forward to seeing the proposed archive of F.Atlantic events too.

[Jeremy Jackson]

Hi Chris!

I was at Mallory Park for 3 races 1971 - 73, and also the 1972 International Trophy meeting at Silverstone. Do you need those, or have you got them already?

[Andrew Kitson]

Jeremy, welcome to the forum!
I've given Chris details of the '72 International Trophy, which Mallory meetings were you at as he has some of those too. F5000's at Mallory - one of the best sights / sounds I can remember!

[TimD]

Probably would be best if you could post the dates you're still looking for, Chris. I've got about 2000 programmes from Brooklands 1921 to last week at Mallory ( ! ), so I might be able to help. I've also just encountered a collection of programmes that I can access from the right period which were carefully annotated with grids, complete finishing order to the last man, even a note for laps down into the bargain.

Let me know, and I'll do some scanning.

[Jeremy Jackson]

Andrew,

Thanks. I'm something of a lapsed member, having registered about 15 months ago!

Anyway, I was at the Mallory events in May 30th 71, June 18th 72 & April 1st 73.

If you've got those covered, that's great.

I have fantastic memories of F5000 at Mallory, as I'm sure a lot of folks have.

[Chris Townsend]

Brilliant!

Thanks guys. These are the races where we currently HAVE entry lists from programmes. Jeremy, can certainly use Mallory from '71 and '72 [and if those meetings included Atlantics also that information.]
Tim that source sounds absolutely fantastic and quite possibly the answer to our prayers!

Allen Brown is going to post an extra page on Oldracingcars so that folks can keep track of races where we are still looking for programmes and back up information. These sources are a fantastic way of filling gaps where race coverage in Autosport and Motoring News is incomplete - which is often the case for qualifying times and laps completed for the tailenders.

1970
Thruxton, 9 august.
Snetterton 31 august

1971
Snetterton 9 April
Silverstone 14 August
Brands 26 September

1972
Brands 18 march
Snetterton 31 march
Silverstone 22 April

1973
Mallory 1 April
Silverstone 7 April with lap chart
Snetterton 20 april with lap chart
Mallory 28 may

1974
Mallory 24 march
Silverstone 6 april with lap chart
Mallory 14 july
Oulton 8 september

1975
Brands 31 march
Silverstone 12 april with lap chart

1976 Shellsport G8 series
Mallory 21 march
Snetterton 1 august

[TimD]

Just about to go to work, but at a quick glance, I find I've an annotated programme for Brands Hatch September 27 1970. Not quite as detailed as I'd hoped, but it's got a semi-completed lap chart and the grids are filled in.

I'll see what else I can come up with later.

[flatlander_48]

Just out of curiosity, were there any noticable differences in the rules between the US F-5000 and the series as it ran in the UK and Europe?

[Andrew Kitson]

In 1968 the SCCA came up with the rules for Formula A which were for 'Grand prix style single seaters using 5 litre V8 American pushrod engines'.
The Formula was an instant success and the same rules / regs were adopted by the BRSCC & MCD in the UK for 1969.
Later series to the same rules followed in Canada, South Africa, Australia and NZ.

[David McKinney]

Only slightly simplistic, Andrew
There were differences between the various formulae concerning the acceptance or otherwise of fuel-injection, IIRC
Also, all (?) series admitted cars with smaller-capacity racing engines - 2 litres in the UK, 2.5 in Australia and NZ (later reduced to 2.0) and 3 litres, initially at least, in North America

[Chris Townsend]

There were problems with the acceptance of F2 cars running in the category in Britain - mainly because a quick F2 could easily embarrass an F5000 round most circuits - as Peter Westbury duly did. Apart from Mondello, where they let the Irish F2 runners in up to 1972, I don't think an F2 raced in British series after '69.

In America they not only let in people running DFVs - both Skip Barber and Gus Hutchison had a go, with March and Brabham respectively - they also seemed to let in a few FBs when the mood took them. [And when John Cannon and Bill Gubelmann appeared at the last race of '71 this was, I guess, with the cars that they had raced in Europe that season, which suggests that Cannon's might have been in F2 form rather than FB/Atlantic.]

[flatlander_48]

I appreciate the replies! I knew that there was a mixing of the classes, much like Trans-Am, the USRRC and the Can-Am was structured, but I didn't know about carbs vs. injection. I do remember that the early Eagles with the Westlake heads often used 4 Webers in sports cars and open wheel. It seems that the intake ports were worked out in such a way as to have the same spacing as the dual throat Webers.

As an aside, do you guys know about Formula Holden from Down Under? There was a March chassis with a V-6 4-cam Holden at the last year's Fall Vintage event at Watkins Glen. It was perhaps from the late '70's to early '80's as it had a tall, rectangular air box like they used to have for the Cosworths.