F3 History

Mo Harness made the best start from the second row hotly pursued by Jones and Robarts and it was three abreast into Cascades, unfortunately for Jones one of the Marches made gentle contact with his GRD removing a front tyre valve. Jones was out on the spot followed almost immediately by Mike Wilds whose throttle cable snapped on his Dempster March, at least these two got further than Ian Taylor who was left on the grid when a low tension lead came off his Holbay.
It was now a battle between the two Marches with Harness leading Robarts although Larry Perkins wasn’t far behind in his works-supported Brabham BT41. Robarts began to suffer from increasing oversteer as part of his rear wing broke away and although he was able to close in on Harness especially on the entry to Knickerbrook he was unable to pass. In the closing laps the battery came adrift on Robarts car and an awful misfire developed on his Novamotor as its pistons were failing so Robarts was relieved to hold on to finish second. Perkins held third until, unhappy with the handling of his car, he had an off at Knickerbrook damaging a wheel and the rear wing. On Perkins departure Brise moved up to third, he was running a new monocoque on his March and he wasn’t fitting properly so had had an uncomfortable time in practice and the race. Realising Robarts was in trouble Brise hurled the March round in the closing stages of the race but had to settle for third. Johnny Gerber took fourth after Leonel Friedrich had to retire when his car blew out all its water, Pedro Passadore was next ahead of Matt Spitzley and Russell Wood. Tony Rouff had been with the last three but his front suspension collapsed at Druids after contact with someone on the opening lap and the GRD slid into the barriers without too much damage.