1976 British Formula Three season

1976 British Formula Three season
Previous:	1975	Next:	1977

The 1976 British Formula Three season was the 26th season of the British Formula Three season. Rupert Keegan took the B.A.R.C. BP Super Visco British Formula 3 Championship, while Bruno Giacomelli took the B.R.D.C. Shellsport British Formula Three Championship.

Despite competition from a heavily financed Formule Renault Europe series in 1975 and 1976, Formula Three continued to grow in 1976, notably in Italy and Sweden and with the FIA's European Formula Three series which was done properly in 1976 instead of being an afterthought as in 1975.

John Webb's MCD series had been dropped after 1974, leaving only the BARC series, sponsored by BP, in 1975. For 1976, BP's rivals Shell backed a five-race BRDC series at Silverstone and MCD also returned to organise a number of non-championship races with good prize money. Rupert Keegan won the more prestigious BP series having made a flying start in his ex-Brian Henton March 743-Toyota but then struggled mid-season when trying to replace the old March with a Hawke commissioned by his father and was caught by March works driver Bruno Giacomelli before snatching the title at the last race. The Italian however won the short ShellSport series comfortably. Geoff Lees and Stephen South emerged from the chasing pack as likely future stars.

Thanks to Giacomelli's March 763-Toyota and to Keegan's old 743, March dominated the two championships with 12 race wins, the other five falling to the Chevron B34s of Geoff Lees and mid-season convert Keegan.

B.A.R.C. BP Super Visco British F3 Championship

Champion: Rupert Keegan

Joint Runner Up: Bruno Giacomelli

^[1]

Results

Date	Round	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car
07/03/76	Rd.1	Thruxton	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota
19/04/76	Rd.2	Thruxton	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota
25/04/76	Rd.3	Zolder	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota
09/05/76	Rd.4	Thruxton	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota
23/05/76	Rd.5	Brands Hatch (Club)	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
06/06/76	Rd.6	Silverstone (Club)	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
10/07/76	Rd.7	Oulton Park	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
17/07/76	Rd.8	Brands Hatch	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
15/08/76	Rd.9	Mallory Park	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	Chevron B43-Toyota
12/09/76	Rd.10	Thruxton	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
19/09/76	Rd.11	Snetterton	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	Chevron B43-Toyota
31/10/76	Rd.12	Thruxton	Geoff Lees	Rob Roy Racing with D.J. Bond	Chevron B43-Toyota
Source:[2][3]

Drivers' Championship

Pos	Driver	Entrant	THR	THR	ZOL	THR	BRH	SIL	OUL	BRH	MAL	THR	SNE	THR	Pts
1	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	1	1	1	1	2	6	2	Ret	1	2	1	Ret	74
2	Bruno Giacomelli	March Engineering	3	3	9	Ret	1	1	1	1	2	1	3	Ret	71
3	Geoff Lees	Rob Roy Racing with D.J. Bond						12	5	3	3	3	2	1	31
4	Stephen South	Dortmunder Union Bier/Bogarts of Birmingham	2	2	7	DNA	Ret	2	Ret	Ret	Ret	4	4	Ret	27
5	Mike Young	Anglian Gilt Producers	Ret	4	3	2	Ret	3	6	7	6	8	5		21
6	Brett Riley	David Price Racing		Ret		3	DSQ	Ret	3	5		12	13	4	13
7	Tiff Needell	Safir Engineering		DNS					4	6		6	Ret	2	13

Table

Place	Driver	Entrant	Car	Total
1	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota Chevron B43-Toyota	74
2	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing	March 763-Toyota	71
3	Geoff Lees	Rob Roy Racing with D.J. Bond	Chevron B43-Toyota	31
4	Stephen South	Dortmunder Union Bier/Bogarts of Birmingham	March 763-Toyota	27
5	Mike Young	Anglian Gilt Producers	Modus M1-Toyota	21
6	Brett Riley	Brett Riley/David Price Racing	Modus M1-Ford	13
7	Tiff Needell	Safir Engineering Ltd	Safir RJ03-Toyota	27
8	Tony Dron	Unipart Racing Team	March 763-Triumph	9
	Boy Hayje	F & S Properties	Ralt RT1-Toyota	9
10	Conny Andersson	March Engineering	March 763-Toyota	7
11	Geoff Brabham	Brabham Racing Organisation	Ralt RT1-Toyota	6
	Aryon Cornelsen-Filho	March Racing	March 763-Toyota	6
	Ian Flux	Ockley Racing Team	Ralt RT1-Toyota	6
14	Dick Parsons	Dick Parsons	Anson SA1-Triumph	5
15	Richard Hawkins	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich	Ehrlich ES5/6-Toyota March 743-Toyota	4
16	Chris Barnett	Chris Barnett	March 753-Toyota	3
	Jac Nellemann	Texaco Racing	Van Diemen VG376-Toyota	3
18	Bob Arnott	Bob Arnott	March 743-Toyota	2
	Pierre Dieudonné	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich	March 743-Toyota	2
	Barrie Maskell	Jeff Sharpe	Dastle Mk 10C-Ford	2
21	Gianfranco Brancatelli	Scuderia Everest	March 763-Toyota	1
	Ken Silverstone	Ken Silverstone	March 753-Toyota	1
	Mike Tyrrell	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich	Ehrlich ES5/6-Toyota	1
	Pascal Witmeur		March 753-Toyota	1
Source:[4]

B.R.D.C. Shellsport British F3 Championship

Champion: Bruno Giacomelli

Joint Runner Up: Rupert Keegan

^[5]

Results

Date	Round	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car
14/03/76	Rd.1	Silverstone (Club)	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota
11/04/76	Rd.2	Silverstone	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
20/06/76	Rd.3	Silverstone (Club)	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
30/08/76	Rd.4	Silverstone (Club)	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	Chevron B43-Toyota
18/09/76	Rd.5	Silverstone	Geoff Lees	Rob Roy Racing with D.J. Bond	Chevron B43-Toyota
Source:[6][7]

Table

Place	Driver	Entrant	Car	Total
1	Bruno Giacomelli	March Racing	March 763-Toyota	79
2	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota Chevron B43-Toyota	62
3	Geoff Lees	Rob Roy Racing with D.J. Bond	Chevron B43-Toyota	42
4	Mike Young	Anglian Gilt Producers	Modus M1-Toyota	36
5	Ian Flux	Ockley Racing Team	Ralt RT1-Toyota	29
6	Stephen South	Dortmunder Union Bier/Bogarts of Birmingham	March 763-Toyota	21
7	Willi Siller	Team Modus	Modus M1-Toyota	18
8	Geoff Brabham	Brabham Racing Organisation	Ralt RT1-Toyota	16
9	Paulo Gomes	Team Modus	Modus M1-Toyota	15
10	Jan Seymour	City Speed Racing	March 743-Ford March 743-Toyota	11
11	Ulf Svensson	Ulf Svensson	Ralt RT1-Toyota	10
	Paul Bernasconi	Paul Bernasconi	Ralt RT1-Toyota	10
13	Richard Hawkins	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich	Ehrlich ES5/6-Toyota March 743-Toyota	8
14	John Lain	Imado Watch Co Ltd	Modus M1-Toyota	7
15	Bob Arnott	Bob Arnott	March 743-Ford March 743-Toyota	6
	Aryon Cornelsen-Filho	March Racing	March 743-Toyota	6
	Claude Cuicci	Ian Williams	Supernova SF376-Ford Supernova SF376-Toyota	6
18	Barrie Maskell	Jeff Sharpe	Dastle Mk 10C-Ford	4
	Dick Parsons	Dick Parsons	Anson SA1-Triumph	4
	John Stokes	Dortmunder Union Bier/Bogarts of Birmingham	March 753-Toyota	4
21	Doug Bassett		GRD 373/376-Ford	2
	Pierre Dieudonné	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich	March 743-Toyota	2
	Brett Riley	David Price Racing	Modus M1-Ford	2
	Phil Silverstone	Phil Silverstone	March 763-Toyota	2
25	Tony Dron	Unipart Racing Team	March 763-Triumph	1
	Ken Silverstone	Ken Silverstone	March 753-Toyota	1
Source:[8]

Non-Championship Races

Results

Date	Race	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car
27/03/76	Race of the North	Oulton Park	Rupert Keegan	British Air Ferries Racing Team	March 743-Toyota
02/05/76	Hollies Trophy	Mallory Park	Richard Hawkins	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich	Ehrlich ES5/6-Toyota
31/05/76	Volkswagen Silver Cup	Silverstone	Brett Riley	Brett Riley/David Price Racing	Modus M1-Ford
26/09/76	Griffin Golden Helmet Trophy	Mallory Park	Stephen South	Dortmunder Union Bier/Bogarts of Birmingham	March 763-Toyota
24/10/76	Paul Nicholas Trophy	Brands Hatch	Conny Andersson	March Racing Ltd	March 763-Toyota
Source:[9][10]

References

1. http://www.formula2.net/F376_Tables.htm
2. http://www.oldracingcars.com/f3/
3. http://formula-net/F376_Index.htm
4. http://www.formula2.net/F376_Tables.htm
5. http://www.formula2.net/F376_Tables.htm
6. http://www.oldracingcars.com/f3/
7. http://formula-net/F376_Index.hrm
8. http://www.formula2.net/F376_Tables.htm
9. http://www.oldracingcars.com/f3/
10. http://formula-net/F376_Index.hrm