Donington F1 Festival
Williams origins emerge at Donington Park season opener
The UK’S 2021 classic motor sport season began with the Donington F1 Festival in early May. Cosworth Dfv-era F1 made a spectacular bill-topper, whilst the ongoing emergence of historied lower-formula cars confirms growing collector appeal
AC Cobra 289
‘It’s this car’s first race in a long time, and its first track event in the UK,’ said owner Ben Gill of his Cobra, contesting the Gentleman Drivers race.
‘It has quite an unlucky history, although it was born a racer. George Ginger bought it new in 1964 as a track-prepared car, and campaigned it in SCCA races, including outings at Sebring, Daytona and Laguna Seca. He was racing at regional and national level, and crashed it heavily at Mid-ohio Raceway on 29 August 1965. It was rebuilt as a road car and used as such in the US in the Seventies.
‘Eventually, it found its way into the hands of Lorne Leibel, a Canadian former Olympic sailor and US powerboat racing champion, who converted it back into a racer and did a handful of events in the
US before crashing it again – it seems to be a bit of a thing with this car! Another later owner crashed it in France too. It’s now been restored and returned to its original Sixties SCCA look.’
Although Gill was able to keep the Cobra out of trouble, mechanical issues saw it only complete 21 laps of Friday’s into-the-dusk race.
Mclaren M23
‘It’s only this car’s second outing following restoration, and its first proper race in the UK following a test at Brands Hatch last year,’ said Hall & Hall engineer George Mcdonald of the ex-jochen Mass 1977 Mclaren Formula One car.
‘It’s M23 Chassis 12 – one of the last M23s built, and it ended up contesting the 1977 Formula One season unexpectedly. The M23 was originally designed and built in 1973, and famously won the World Championship with James Hunt in 1976. But Mclaren designed the M26 for the following season. Problem was, it wasn’t good enough.’ The M26 had serious cooling issues, requiring a redesign to the nosecone which in turn generated aerodynamic problems. Hunt struggled with the M26 during the first half of the 1977 season, its unreliability arguably costing him the opportunity to defend his Championship.
‘Mid-season, Mclaren reverted back to using the old M23. This particular car contested six GPS with Jochen Mass. Its best finish was second at Anderstorp behind Jaques Laffitte’s Ligier. Mass also managed fourth at Jarama and Monaco and ninth at Dijon-prenois, but retired at Zolder and Watkins Glen.
‘For a long time it was in the US, owned by American collector Steve Earle, then it was brought to Europe by a German collector. We completed its restoration during lockdown last year.’
Williams-march 712
‘It’s the first time this car has seen the light of day since 1972!’ said Jeremy Caine of his latest restoration, a Formula Two March 712 whose history is also crucial to the foundation of the Williams Formula One team.
‘It was Frank Williams’ car originally, driven in the Argentinian Temporada series in 1971 by Arturo Merzario, Carlos Pace, Henri Pescarolo and Derek Bell. It didn’t win anything, but at the time Williams made money by renting cars to drivers. They’d often complain about knackered engines, wornout suspension and poor performance, but at the end of the day they’d collect their start money from the race organisers and Williams got their money to fund his team, so no-one lost out.
‘Williams sold this car at the end of 1971 in order to fund a deal with Iso and Marlboro so he could concentrate on Formula One for 1972.’ A year later, Williams was able to fund the creation of his own John Clarke-designed F1 car.
‘The March was bought by a privateer, who blew its engine in practice at his very first race meeting with it, at Snetterton. He was unable to afford to repair it, so he sold it to future British Saloon Car
Champion Richard Longman, who rebuilt it to Formula Atlantic specification complete with side pods, but never actually raced it, just left it in his workshop. I’m its fourth owner, and I’ve just finished restoring it.
‘You’ll notice some remnants of green paint on the cockpit handles. Although I’ve returned it to its original Williams livery, Longman repainted it in green – his personal livery at the time – and I didn’t want to erase that part of its history.’
Dallara 382
This rare Italian Formula Three machine hadn’t raced in the UK since 1997, and has been recently restored by its owner, Dallara expert Nick Edginton.
‘It’s an extremely unusual car,’ he said. ‘Dallara was well-known in the single-seater world – he’d worked with Frank Williams, designing the 1978 Wolf-dallara – but the breakthrough year came in 1980, when Scuderia Emiliani won the Italian F3 Championship with Guido Pardini in a Dallara F380.
‘In 1981 Dallara built five cars in total, then issued an update kit for them in 1982, before building a further 10 cars in 1983. As a 382, this is one of the updated five.
‘It was run by the Alloni team, and raced by Luigi Giannini in the 1982 Italian Championship. He won the race at Enna, and finished the season fifth. At this time Dallara wasn’t much known in the UK. There were a couple of Dallaras that raced at Donington briefly in the early Eighties, but the marque didn’t race in the UK again after that until 1993.
‘This car has been a long-term project for me. I had a single outing in it in 1997 but haven’t done much with it since. I got it ready again and raced it at Pau in 2019, but cracked its oil tank and needed to do a complete rebuild – then lockdown struck.’
Alfa Giulietta Sprint Veloce
It was the first time this Alfa took to UK racing tarmac. Owner Hans Jörg Haussener explained, ‘I restored this car five years ago with a friend of mine, Rolf Hadoren, who has since died. In the Sixties he campaigned these Alfas in GT races against drivers including Stirling Moss.
‘I am its second Swiss owner – I don’t know much about its racing history, but it was originally bought by a Swiss owner who raced it in Italy. I’m currently trying to find out more about it. What I do know was that it was originally painted white, was bought as a road car and adapted for racing, and competed at club level – not big Fia-type events.
‘I’ve only done five races in total with it, and I don’t know Donington at all – the first time I saw the track was when I did a track walk yesterday!’ Haussener wisely kept the Alfa out of trouble, successfully completing the Gentleman Drivers race.