Race Report: Silverstone, 16 April 1972

A full grid contested this Silverstone round of the Forward Trust F3 Championship.

There was almost chaos just before the start of the race when it started to rain, there was a mad scramble for wets and intermediates but the organisers refused to allow the cars to change tyres on the grid. Fortunately it stopped raining before the start and slicks were the required tyre, had the rain increased though there could have been a nasty accident with the entire grid on the wrong tyres. Front row man von Opel was in trouble when a front slick was found to be punctured just as he was about to leave the paddock, an intermediate was fitted but the delay meant he was forced to start from the back of the field.

As the cars left the grid and headed to the Motor Bridge a potentially serious accident occurred when Bernard Vermilio (Lotus 73), Chris Skeaping (Chevron B20), Damien Magee (Palliser WDF3), Neil Ginn (GRD 372) and Robin Smythe (March 723) all made contact. Luckily the only physical damage was to Vermilio who suffered a badly sprained wrist, the organisers obviously felt Magee was to blame and fined him £20. Tony Brise was an inadvertent victim of the shunt when he had to retire his Brabham BT38 with a puncture caused by accident debris.
At the end of lap 1 with yellow flags waving it was Williamson (March 723) from Evans (March 723), Jones (Brabham BT38), Walker (Ensign F372), Wood (March 723), Trimmer (Lotus 73), Yeates (Lotus 69), Sutcliffe (GRD 372), Stan Matthews (March 723), James Hunt (March 723), Peter Hull (Brabham BT38) and Ray Mallock (U2 Mk 12). Williamson began to increase his lead whilst Walker got ahead of Jones to take third as Sutcliffe passed both Maskell and Trimmer for sixth. Trimmer however was out on the next lap when a failed late braking attempt by Yeates at Woodcote went amiss and both of the Loti were out.
Walker was up to second on lap 3 and he immediately began to close the gap to Williamson, next up were Evans, Jones, Wood and Maskell, then a gap to Sutcliffe in brake trouble and another gap to Hunt and Matthews with Hull falling back with a damaged exhaust. Lap 5 and Wood got ahead of Jones and lap 7 saw Walker right on the tail of Williamson. Walker made his move at Maggotts on the next lap and took the lead from Williamson, the March driver fought back furiously over the remaining two laps and on the last lap along Club Straight the two cars were side-by-side. Into the last corner and Williamson left his braking impossibly late and in an instant the March was spinning leaving Walker to take the win with Williamson recovering to finish in fifth. Jones took second after overtaking Evans on the ninth lap, the March driver tried to regain the place at Woodcote on the last lap but he also spun out and was unable to restart his engine. Maskell took third from Wood who drove well for fourth, notable retirements were Rikki von Opel with another puncture and Ray Mallock’s front engined U2 whose clutch packed up.

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