F3 History

It was still damp for the race but most of the front runners opted for slicks the only important exceptions being Patrick Neve who put wets on the Safir and Tony Rouff who tried wets on the front of the Ehrlich.
The start was a little ragged but Larry Perkins made a great start and had a big lead going into Copse with Danny Sullivan and Ian Taylor giving chase. Entering Becketts Alex Ribeiro decided to pass everybody in one go, he cannoned into Taylor which saw both cars out whilst Richard Hawkins found himself launched over the rear wheel of Stephen South’s Ray which damaged the tub on the March. Also out on the first lap was Neve, the engine on his Safir stopping for no apparent reason although it is unlikely he would have made any progress on his wet tyres. Out in front it was still Perkins from Sullivan, Rouff, Dick Parsons, Hervé Regout, Rupert Keegan, South, Pierre Dieudonné, Graham Hamilton and Mike Tyrrell.
Perkins was further extending his lead as Sullivan edged further away from Rouff in second as the tyres on the Ehrlich began to go off and Rouff slipped down the field. Parsons pitted on lap three to end his promising run and South now found himself in third spot ahead of the March 753s of Dieudonné and Chris Barnett, the latter two having made good progress up the field. Regout had a big spin at Woodcote on lap 9 and in his hurry to rejoin the track he nearly removed Pete Clarke’s Modus and Dyffed Roberts’ March 743, Mike Tyrrell took advantage of the confusion to move up to sixth.
Lap 14 saw the demise of the unfortunate Perkins as a front nearside tyre deflated handing the lead to Sullivan’s Modus. Perkins wasn’t the only one in difficulties as South saw his good run ended with an identical tyre failure one lap later. Dieudonné who had just passed South was now second and he was fighting off Barnett and with four laps to go local man Barnett passed the Belgian. Sullivan completed his 20 laps and took a comfortable win from Barnett and Dieudonné but the last two were both excluded in post race scrutineering, the wings on their March 753s were found to be too high. All of this moved Tyrrell up to second with Regout in third whose rear wing was surprisingly unchecked. Dyffed Roberts tried to oust Pete Clarke from what would turn out to be fourth at Woodcote on the last lap but he spun and stalled his engine when he tried to get going again.
Rupert Keegan failed to finish due to a flat tyre and Tony Rouff was similarly afflicted near the end of the race.