Race Report: Thruxton, 29 October 1972

The fifth AGIP F3 Cup was held over two heats and a final and was dominated by the Italian contingent.

It was raining hard as the cars came out to the grid and nearly all the runners were using Firestone wets, the two notable exceptions being Roger Williamson and Chris Skeaping both of whom were using Dunlops which were generally reckoned inferior to the Firestone product.

Once again as in so many recent races it was Tony Brise who made the best start and that was the last time the rest of the field saw him as he proceeded to pull away from second place man von Opel at over a second a lap. von Opel managed to hold onto Brise for three laps but then the GRD man who was flinging his car around with armfuls of opposite lock, especially through the chicane, began his inexorable progress towards victory. After loosing touch with Brise von Opel had a lonely race into second place as Mike Walker in the sister Ensign was some distance behind in third.

Initially Walker was on his own in third but as the race progressed Neil Ginn slowly caught him up and was only just behind at the flag. Ginn had been involved in a battle with Alan Jones and Bob Evans but on lap 5 he passed Jones at Club and soon pulled away to leave Jones and Evans to finish 5th and 6th at the finish. Several drivers managed to have accidents in the wet conditions and Chris Pryer in Lee Kaye’s Royale, Mike Greenwood in Colin Vandervell’s Ensign, Jean-Claude Alzerat and Simon Sherman all left the track without personal injury. Poor Syd Fox who was débuting the Huron had to retire on the warm-up lap when his Renault engine stopped.

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