Rain spoils Formula 5000 retro

The sound and fury of ten Formula 5000 single-seaters returned to Mallory Park last month, but heavy rain on the grid did its best to wipe out any attempt at a proper race by F5000 Association members, battling to keep memories alive.

German visitor, ‘Fearless Frank’ Nowak won the event in his Crossle ISF the car campaigned in the early 1970s with Rover V8 power by driver Fred Saunders after electrical problems hobbled the Chevrolet engine in the pole winning Surtees TS8 of Mike Whatley.

Malcolm Carter’s enormous and wingless Harris just kept second place from Keith Norris’s ex-Team VDS Chevron B28. Nick Shrigley-Feigl’s B28 (which was previously hillclimbed in Jersey with a Jaguar V12 engine), Nick Lini’s Lola T300 and Roger Stones’s T142 completed the field.

The McLaren M18 of Coplowe slid off on the warm-up lap, Geoff Thomas buckled a corner of his T300, while a broken crank rendered the only 3.4-litre Ford GA V6 engined car Tim Barry’s March 76A another morning casualty.