My Favourite Race - Greater London Trophy 1969

The Greater London Trophy Race 1969 for Formula 3 cars.  Clockwise from top left - Barrie Smith in a Chevron B15, Roy Pike in a GLTL Lotus 59, Ulf Svensson in a Brabham BT28 and Alan Rollinson in a Brabham BT21B

In these difficult times where understandably most motor racing around the world is being cancelled, it is good to be reminded of better times, which I hope for most of us will be back soon.  Whenever, I am asked what was the best motor race I ever saw - the answer tends to be the May Bank Holiday Formula 3 race at Crystal Palace in 1969 - The Greater London Trophy.

In actual fact I was at first very disappointed that the annual Formula 2 race at Crystal Palace was cancelled because of money issues and replaced with Formula Three.  Perhaps, in the end it was a blessing is disguise.  The next year F2 was back at the Palace so I did get to see F2 racing at the Palace in the end.  Formula Three at the time used 4 cylinder 1 litre production derived engines - often modified Ford Anglia 105E motors with a 4 speed gearbox derived from a Volkswagen Beetle.  F3 was at the time a major stepping stone to Grand Prix racing.  Thus the F3 drivers at this meeting were hoping to emulate Jackie Stewart, Piers Courage, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Jacky Ickx.

Thanks to Gerald Swan for these excellent photos from the meeting.  See more of Geralds photos on his excellent website click here for the link.   At this time I rarely took photos at race meetings.

Top - The start of Heat 2 with Mike Beckwith, Wayne Mitchell and Peter Hanson.
Bottom - The start of Heat 3 with Alan Rollinson, Ronnie Peterson, and Reine Wisell.

The format of the meeting was three 10 lap heats and a 25 lap final so we got to see four F3 races for our money.  Unlike today's single marque racing, at the Palace we saw ten different marques battle it out - Brabham, Techno, Chevron, Lotus, EMC, Titan, Merlyn, Matra, Alexis, Mclaren.  all of them the 1 litre screamers that F3 fans of the era remember so well.

Heat one saw the Australian Tim Schenken make his intentions clear in his Brabham BT28 as he beat off American Roy Pike's beautiful works Gold Leaf Team Lotus 59.

Heat two saw British F3 regulars Peter Gaydon and Peter Hanson battle it out.   Hanson won in his Chevron B15 from Gaydon in a Techno 69.

Heat three saw the Brit, Alan Rollinson in an older Brabham BT21B beat off the two Swedes, Ronnie Peterson in a Techno 69 and Reine Wisell in a works Chevron B15.

Top - The start of Heat 1 with Roy Pike, Tim Schenken and Tetsu Ikusawa.
Bottom - Reine Wisell in the works Chevron B15.

So the final was set for a battle royal between a number of drivers who would go on to have F1 careers and a number who were not so lucky.  The list of qualifiers for the final included Ronnie Peterson, Tim Schenken, Reine Wisell, Howden Ganley, Roy Pike, Alan Rollinson, Barrie Maskell, Bev Bond and Mo Nunn. Japanese driver Tetsu Ikusuwa and Canadian Wayne Mitchell were also amongst them.

The circuit map of the Crystal Palace circuit.   i used to stand on the exit of South Tower Corner.

At the end of the 25 lap race of this 1.39 mile circuit the top six runners were covered by just 2.4 seconds.  Schenken took victory from Peterson and Rollinson with Wisell, Bond and Pike also in the top six.   Tim Schenken took £550 prize money for his two wins and added his name to a famous list of winners of this race (Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Jack Brabham, Roy Salvadori, Jim Clark, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Rindt amongst them) .   It had been a superb battle with a number of changes in position through out the race.  I left the race a fan of Ronnie Peterson and also the strange nostril nosed Lotus 59 F3 racing car.

For the full list of results visit this excellent site.

There were supporting races for the British Saloon Car Championship and Historic Sports Cars.  Frank Gardner and Gordon Spice won the tin top battles in their Alan Mann Ford Escort and Britax-Cooper-Downton Morris Mini Cooper respectively.   A Lister Jaguar won the historic race. 

For a full list of results of the saloon car races visit this excellent site.

Thanks to Gareth Rees for the programme.