The 1979 Hitachi Trophy was a non-championship race open to Formula Two and Formula Atlantic cars. The race was held at Brands Hatch on 15 April 1979 as a support race for the 1979 Race of Champions. It was won by British driver Norman Dickson in the Dickson's of Perth's March-Hart 792. The Formula Atlantic class win went to Ray Mallock, who finished in fourth place in the overall standings.
Report
Entry Only nine F2 cars were entered for the event, however of those, only seven took part in qualifying and race compared with the maximum grid of 26 starters which took part in the European Formula 2 race at Thruxton the next day. An additional 16 Formula Atlantic cars were entered, of which five of these did not arrive.
Qualifying
Norman Dickson took pole position, with a lap time of 1:26.2. This time would have placed Dickson 19th on the grid for the Race of Champions race being run the same day. John Cooper was only one tenth of a second behind in his March-Hart 792, with Divina Galica took an encouraging third place. Next up was Ray Mallock's Ralt-Ford RT1 who was the top Formula Atlantic qualifier in fourth place.
Race
After 25 laps of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, Dickson took the chequered flag after 35:16.1 mins. of racing, averaging a speed of 111.16 mph. Second place went to Galica, who was the only other driver on the lead lap. She was too eager at the start, however and incurred a 60sec penalty for a false start. Brian Robinson rounded out the podium for the F2 brigade.
Classification
Race Pos. Class Pos. Driver Entrant Car - Engine Time, Laps Reason Out 1 F2 - 1 Norman Dickson Dickson's of Perth March-Hart 792 35:16.1 2 F2 - 2 Divina Galica Divina Galica March-Hart 792 37:21.8 incl 60sec pen. for false start 3 F2 - 3 Brian Robinson Grange Performance Cars Chevron-Hart B42 24 4 FA - 1 Ray Mallock Mario Deliotti Racing Ralt-Ford RT1 35:31.6, 24 5 FA - 2 Bernard Hunter Ralt-Ford RT1 24 6 FA - 3 Phil Dowsett Wilding Office Equipment/Glaister Card Shops March-Ford 79B 24 7 F2 - 4 Germain Garon Germain Garon Chevron-Hart B42 23 8 FA - 4 Martin Mansell Lola-Ford T360 23 9 FA - 5 Roger Andreason Druid-Ford 79A 23 10 FA - 6 Geoff Byman March-Ford 75B 23 DNF FA Alo Lawler L&B Excavations Racing Lola-Ford T760 15 Collision with Jeffrey DNF FA Andrew Jeffrey The Hope Scott Garage Chevron-Ford B49 15 Collision with Lawler DNF F2 John Cooper JC Racing March-Hart 792 11 Clutch DNF F2 Lucien Lampach Allomo Racing Lampach 7 Engine DNF F2 Tony Dean AG Dean Racing Chevron-Hart B42 5 Gear selectors DNF FA Jim Crawford SDC Racing Chevron-Ford B45 1 Accident DNF FA Rick Gorne Barratt Developments Racing with Anglia Cars Argo-Ford JM1X 0 Accident DNS FA Dave Allen Savon Team Uniroyal Surtees-Ford TS10 Fastest lap: Norman Dickson, 1:23.3.
References