Grand Prix Historique Monaco

May 20th/21st

Stretton and Dayton beat harbour dramas
Six-wheel Tyrrell overcomes practice accident to win while Duncan Dayton scores double victories

Two dramatic, accident strewn 3-litre F1 races made the news at Monaco as Martin Stretton and Duncan Dayton took the major prizes at the Grand Prix Historique.

Victory in the race for 1975-78 cars seemed a tall order for Stretton when his Tyrrell P34 whacked the barriers at Ste Devote in first qualifying. However, his crew patched the six-wheeler as best they could and Stretton rewarded their efforts by setting second-fastest time in the later session as US visitor Paul Edwards put his Penske PC3 on pole position.

“The car wasn’t right,” admitted Stretton. “You can’t do much in the paddock at Monaco!” Chassis damage was also diagnosed, but he still managed to beat Edwards to the first corner. The first safety car period followed immediately after Peter Wuensch spun his Wolf WR1 and Peter Williams found he had nowhere to go in his March 761.

“I was trying to keep the tyres hot and the engine cold,” said Stretton after several caution laps while the debris was cleared. Later came another safety car period and so the final six laps were all-important.

With Edwards and Simon Hadfield in a similar Penske PC3 climbing all over the Tyrrell, Stretton hung on doggedly and was rewarded with victory as Edwards’ last lap challenge ended in a brush with the wall at Loews. “The way to win it was not to make a mistake,” said Stretton.

The earlier F1 race featured a mighty battle between Dayton (Brabham BT33) and Joaquin Folch (McLaren M23). After a safety car period when Lorenzo Prandini clattered the barriers in his Tecno, Dayton was glued to the McLaren’s gearbox into the final lap. Folch then overshot the chicane, but stayed ahead only to be relegated to second for taking an advantage with the overshoot.

Dayton also won the front-engined race in his Lotus 16, while Stefan Schollwoeck triumphed in the pre-war race in his Maserati 6CM as the ERAs of Ian Landy and Rainer Ott tussled for second.

Denis Welch was master of the Formula Juniors, while Nick Wigley’s Cooper T51 fended off Barry Cannell (T53) in the pre-65 race. Finally, John Ure showed his Monaco prowess in scoring a memorable pre-53 sportscar race in his Frazer Nash Le Mans as the C-type Jaguars of David Wenman and Alan Minshaw chased.

Results

Pre-47 Voiturettes and GP cars
1 Stefan Schollwoeck (Maserati 6CM); 2 Ian Landy (ERA); 3 Rainer Ott (ERA). Fastest lap: Schollwoeck 2m 05.432s

Front-engined GP cars 1947-60
1 Duncan Dayton (Lotus 16); 2 Barrie Baxter (Tec-Mec Maserati); 3 Jo Koster (Maserati 250F). Fastest lap: Dayton 1m 58.984sec

Pre-1953 Sports Cars
1 John Ure (Frazer Nash Le Mans); 2 David Wenman (Jaguar C-type); 3 Alan Minshaw (Jaguar C-type). Fastest lap Albert Otten (Allard J2) 2m 13.793s

Rear-engined Formula Junior
1 Denis Welch (Merlyn Mk5/7); 2 Edwin Jowsey (Lotus 22); 3 Marcus Mussa (Brabham BT2). Fastest lap Welch 1m 54.730s (Pictured above)

Rear-engined GP Cars 1954-65
1 Nick Wigley (Cooper T51); 2 Barry Cannell (Cooper T53); 3 James King (Brabham BT7). Fastest lap King 1m 54.827s

Formula 1 Cars 1966-74
1 Duncan Dayton (Brabham BT33); 2 Joaquin Folch (McLaren M23); 3 Chris Perkins (Surtees TS16). Fastest lap Dayton 1m 37.128s

Formula 1 Cars 1975-78
1 Martin Stretton (Tyrrell P34); 2 Simon Hadfield (Penske PC3); 3 Mauro Pane (Tyrrell P34). Fastest lap Paul Edwards (Penske PC3) 1m 36.006s