SCCA Regional (Mohawk Hudson Region)

Lime Rock, 2 Aug 1975

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT38 (Paul Corazzo): Paul Corazzo (Wethersfield, CT) raced a Brabham BT38 in Formula B in 1975, primarily in SCCA New England Region events. When he entered the car for the Canon Camera Nationals at Lime Rock in September, it was blue/yellow and numbered #22. This is likely to be the car raced by Carmelo Crisafulli (Great Neck, NY) in NEDiv FB in 1976, as RJ Nelkin recalls buying a FB Brabham from Corazzo and selling it straight away to Crisafulli.
2. March 75B (Allen Costa): Allen Costa (North Billerica, MA) raced a Formula B March in a New England Region SCCA Regional at Thompson Raceway in August 1975, and then in the Canon Camera SCCA National at Lime Rock a few weeks later. He advertised the car in March 1976 from Arlington, MA, saying that it had never been "painted or lettered" and had "less than 2 hours running time" on it. He advertised it again in March and April 1977, saying that it had not run in 1976. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Brabham BT38B (Giovanni Distasio): Eric Kerman (Hempstead, NY/Glen Cove, NY), the reigning national SCCA C Sports Racing champion, moved into Formula B in 1974, finishing third in Northeast Division in a Brabham BT38 that he had bought from Fred Opert. He leased a nearly-new March 74B for the Runoffs. Kerman recalls selling the Brabham to Giovanni Distasio (Edgewater, NJ) who raced it in NEDiv FB in 1975. Distasio then bought a March 75B from Doug Shierson, and the Brabham went in trade into Shierson stock. It was bought from Shierson by James Hollowell (Sterling Hts, Mich) and raced by him in SCCA Formula B over the next few seasons. Advertised by Hollowell in September 1978 as a "FB/C rolling chassis", and he recalls selling it to somebody in the Chicago area. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Brabham BT29 (Richard Powell): Richard W. Powell (West Groton, Mass) raced a Brabham BT29 in NEDiv Formula C from 1973 to 1975. At the end of 1975, he advertised it as having a 1100cc Kawasaki engine. Unknown in 1976, but Joe Fitzhugh (Parsippany, PA) raced it in the New England Road Racing Championship event at Lime Rock in April 1977. He advertised it in the Formula C Newsletter in May 1977, complete with 140 bhp Kawasaki engine and that noting that it had won the New England regional FC title, presumably with Powell. Based on the engine and the continuing use of entry number 14, this car then went to Terry McKenna (Manchester, MO) and was raced in Midwest Division FB for the remainder of 1977. Retained by McKenna for 1978, by then using #56. Subsequent history unknown.
5. Brabham BT38 (Walter Binger): For 1974, Donald Wirth (Laurel, NY) bought a Brabham BT38 from Fred Opert Racing in 1974 fitted with a new 1100cc Hart BDA engine for Northeast Division Formula C. The car had previously been used in F3 in Europe, so would have been a BT38C. It was sold to Wally Binger (W. Hempstead, NY) for 1975, and raced again in NEDiv FC but after Binger's first daughter was born in September 1977 he sold the car back to Wirth. Wirth crashed the car at Bridgehampton in 1978 or 1979, and the engine bay was badly damaged. The car was sold to someone in the New England area, but was still unrepaired when last seen.
6. Chevron B17b (Robert J. Nelkin): Fred Opert ran a team five-car team in 1970 which included a Chevron B17b for himself and a sister car for Mike Eyerly. Opert's personal car was sold to Tom Outcault (Cranford, NJ) for 1971 who used it in NEDiv events and also in the Pro race at Road America in Aug 1971. Outcault sold it via Fred Opert to Carmelo Crisafuli (Great Neck, Long Island, NY), and it was registered by the SCCA at Watkins Glen in September 1972. He raced it in SCCA Regionals including two New York Region rounds of the North Atlantic Road Racing Championship in 1974. RJ Nelkin (Roslyn, NY) bought the car for 1975, and raced it in SCCA and EMRA events that season. It was sold in 1976 via Fred Opert to Roy Aber (Penn Hills, PA) who recalls racing the car until 1981. He sold it to JC Gongaware (Youngwood, PA), and did not hear of it again. The car was next seen about 1986 when Lee Chapman (New Milford, CT) of Auto Restorations had the car, having bought it from Jim Wisheart in Pennsylvania. It went from Chapman to Fred Gunther (Trumbull, CT), then to Peter McLaughlin (Hannover, NH), and then to Travis Engen (Weston, CT) in 1994 or 1995.

Sources

The identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' original results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.

Individual sources for this event

SCCA Sanction 75-R-80P. Official results from SCCA records at the IMRRC. John Melican was allowed to start his Formula Ford car after missing his race due to a misunderstanding. He was allowed to start from the back of the grid to get a race in for his log book.