Roberto Moreno enroute to third place during the August 3, 1987 Brands Hatch, International Formula 3000 Championship round. Ralt RT21/87 Honda.
March had a mortgage on the early years of F3000, winning three titles on the trot for Christian Danner, March 85B Ford Cosworth in 1985, Ivan Capelli, 86B Ford Cosworth in ’86 and Stefano Modena – you guessed it – aboard an 87B Ford Cosworth in 1987.
There was some serious talent contesting the ’87 title in addition to the pair of factory Ralt pilots, Moreno and Mauricio Gugelmin: Jacques Villeneuve Snr, Eliseo Salazar, Pierluigi Martini, Paolo Barilla, Olivier Grouillard, Luis Perez-Sala, Yannick Dalmas, Mark Blundell, Michele Ferte, Andy Wallace, Julian Bailey, Lamberto Leoni, Gabriele Tarquini, Beppe Gabbiani, Stefano Modena and many others.
The Honda V8 powered Ralts had plenty of pace that year. Moreno was on pole in four of the ten rounds and Gugelmin in two of them but that qualifying pace yielded only a win apiece, Gugelmin in the opening round at Silverstone and Moreno at Enna-Pergusa. Championship winner, Sefano Modena, March 87B Cosworth won three races and Perez-Sala and Dalmas two.
The plucky Moreno was rewarded with end of season F1 drives of the AGS JH22 Cosworth DFZ in Japan and Australia, five years after a couple of abortive qualifying attempts with Lotus in 1982. His many Australian fans – he won three AGPs at Calder aboard Ralt RT4s in the 1981-84 Formula Pacific era – cheered Roberto on to a wonderful seventh in the AGP in Adelaide, a race of great attrition, which became a point-scoring sixth after Ayrton Senna’s McLaren was disqualified from second place for oversized brake ducts.
The Ralt perennial, in desperate need to break into F1 with a good team full-time, Moreno raced a Bromley Motorsport Reynard 88D Ford Cosworth engineered by Gary Anderson to four wins and the F3000 title in a ‘penniless’ campaign.
This was a pretty big spin of the roulette wheel given the 88D was Reynard’s first F3000 design, Australia’s Malcolm Oastler was responsible for the carbon-fibre machine which also won the ’88 Japanese and ’89 British F3000 championships.
The F3000 win led Moreno to a Ferrari test contract, then a Ferrari influenced Coloni F1 drive, and finally a ride with Benetton in 1990 after poor Sandro Nannini’s helicopter crash almost cost him a hand. Then Michael Schumacher came along…CART success followed for Moreno in the US, particularly in 2000-01.
Interesting article:https://www.evropublishing.com/pages/extract-f3000
In a Ralt RT21 (and RT20) postscript, these aluminium monocoque cars formed a decent chunk of the front of Australian Formula Holden – the Australian Drivers Championship/Gold Star category – for grids from the inception of the Holden V6 3.8-litre powered formula in 1989.
Rohan Onslow won the inaugural ’89 Australian Gold Star (Formula Holden) title in an RT20, and Simon Kane the 1990 championship aboard an RT21.
Credits…
MotorSport Images, LAT Photographic, an1images.com/Graeme Neander
Tailpiece…
Roberto Moreno, Team El Charro AGS JH22 Ford during the 1987 Japanese GP weekend at Suzuka. DNF engine failure from last on the grid, the winner was Gerhard Berger, Ferrari F187.
Finito…
primotipo... 