Sonny Rajah negotiates the tricky Thomson Road circuit during the 1972 Singapore Grand Prix aboard his March 712M Lotus-Ford twin-cam, chassis #712M-7, the same car in which Ronnie Peterson won the 1971 European F2 Championship.
Max Stewart won that race from Vern Schuppan and Bob Muir – Aussies first to third – with Singaporean local, Sonny fourth. Stewart raced his venerable Mildren, Schuppan his March 722 and Bob Muir his Rennmax BN3, all of the cars were Lotus-Ford 1.6 powered.
Eli Solomon wrote in MotorSport that ‘Sonny Rajah had struck up a partnership with the ex-Ronnie Peterson March 712M. He was the local hero and looked the part with his long hair and Zapata moustache. But to gain admittance into a country (Singapore) where long hair was associated with drugs, he had resorted to wearing a short-hair wig! A fellow competitor once remarked: “He had brilliant car control but someone other than bullshit-artists had to take him in hand! Natural talent and character too boot.”
Ronnie Peterson bagged maximum points in five of the ten F2 championship rounds he contested and won the title from Carlos Reutemann’s Brabham BT30/Brabham BT36 and Dieter Quester’s March 712M BMW.
Ronnie won at Thruxton, Rouen, Mantorp Park, Tulln Langenlebarn and the GP di Roma at Vallelunga. Note that Graham Hill (Brabham BT36) won at Thruxton – a real tear-jerker for race-fans as it was Graham’s first race-win since his huge Lotus 49 Watkins Glen crash at the end of 1969 – but as a graded-driver Hill was ineligible for Euro F2 Championship points.
F2 Wind-Shift from Spaceframes to Monocoques…
This season marked a shift in F2 with Brabham’s dominance – and spaceframes’ dominance – at an end. March Engineering led the charge with their 712M, while Lotus continued with the 69 and Brabham and Tecno stuck to their successful spaceframes.
It wasn’t that cut and dried though: Alan Rollinson won the Bogota GP n/c (non-championship round) in his Brabham BT30, Graham Hill at Thruxton in his BT36 and Carlos Reutemann, BT36 at Hockenheim n/c.
Noteworthy was Carlos Reutemann’s pace in both his Brabham BT30 and BT36 all year, so too Tim Schenken’s BT36 speed throughout without actually winning a round.
It was all over at the end of ’71 in the sense that Ron Tauranac sold Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone late that year with Bernie building monocoque customer F3 and F2 cars in 1972 before pulling out of production racing car manufacture at the end of that year.
Technical interest in the era of Absolute Ford FVA dominance was provided by Tecno in 1971 who fitted in-house-prepped Ford BDA engines which bagged two-championship wins at Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, and a non-championship victory at Vallelunga for Francois Cevert.
Emerson Fittipaldi won at Madrid, Crystal Palace and Albi, and Reine Wisell at the GP de Pau n/c in monocoque Lotus 69 FVAs but Emmo was a graded driver so didn’t bag F2 championship points.
The 712M in the March Pantheon…
That the 712M was a good customer car was proved by the number of drivers who won in them apart from Ronnie: Henri Pescarolo at Mallory Park n/c, Dieter Quester Monza n/c, Carlos Pace Imola n/c and Mike Beuttler the GP Madunina at Vallelunga.
Quester’s 712M was fitted with a works BMW 1.6-litre, four-valve, M12/2 engine providing the category with much-needed and ongoing technical interest, and plenty of pace: third place in the championship with five second places on top of his non-championship Monza win was a great season.
Critically, it was the start of a relationship with BMW Motorsport that was so important commercially and competitively for March from 1973, the second year of the 2-litre F2.
‘What makes March’s 1971 F2 season all the more creditable is that no fewer than 16 drivers went on to works F1 drives, nine would win Grands Prix and two, Lauda and Fittipaldi, would become World Champions.’ March biographer, Mike Lawrence wrote.
Beyond that, the 712M wasn’t a one-hit wonder, it just gave and gave. Its aluminium monocoque provided sterling service from 1971-77 in F3, F2 and F Atlantic form; it was a ‘banker’ at a critical time in March’s history.
Mike Lawrence picks up the thread, ‘Robin was getting on with the job of designing both the new F1 car and, what in the long term was to be more significant, a monocoque for F2 and F3.’
Herd, ‘It took us three or four goes to get it right; I did the detail mechanical design, Roger Silman and Dewar Thomas who made the prototypes put in a lot of their ideas as well, and John Thompson’s operation actually built the production tubs. Apart from the fact that it worked, and was still winning races in 1977, it was very well production engineered and I think we can be pleased with it. When the car was finished, I was away at an F1 race, so Dewar simply took it up to Silverstone and did 60 laps in it, which is something one cannot imagine happening today.’
‘Apart from the sharp new body and the monocoque itself, which had the engine as a semi-stressed member supported by the detachable multi-tubular frames, the broad layout of the design was similar to the 1970 cars, although there were detail changes such as such as narrower wishbones and the use of foam-filled fuel Carl’s which were required by the new regulations.’
Sonny Rajah raced an ex-James Hunt F3 Lotus 59/69 by then fitted with a Lotus-Ford twin-cam in the 1971 South East Asian season for a best of second place in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Batu Tiga on September 5 behind John MacDonald’s ex-Mike Costin Brabham BT10 Lotus-Ford twin-cam.
By the commencement of the 1972 South East Asia season – the April 4 Singapore GP- Sonny was racing his new, ex-March-Peterson 712M. his strong performance in Singapore was succeeded by victory in the April 9 Malaysian GP at Batu Tiga in front of Ken Smith, Lotus 59/69, Vern Schuppan March 722 and Kevin Bartlett, Brabham BT30 – all Lotus-Ford twin-cam powered. He was third in the season-ender at Macau on December 4 behind John MacDonald’s Brabham BT36 Lotus-Ford and Max Stewart’s Elfin 600B Lotus-Ford.
In 1973 Sonny bought a March 732B in the UK and took in a number of British Formula Atlantic Championship rounds from late May to late July. With best results in the highly competitive championship of ninth at Silverstone in May and fourth at Mallory in July he was sharpish by the time he returned home and promptly won the September 9 Selangor Grand Prix at Batu Tiga aboard the 712M-7! Graeme Lawrence was second in his Surtees TS15 and Percy Chan was third in the March 732B raced by Rajah in the UK. He capped off a busy season with second place to John MacDonald’s Brabham BT40 at Macau in the now 732 bodied 712M (probably says Allen Brown).
Into 1974 he had time to run the March 732 bodied 712M-7 in the Malaysian GP on April 7 DNF, before shipping the car to Australia before the first Australian F2 Championship round – also a twin-cam, two-valve formula – at Hume Weir on June 16.
The popular Singaporean born racer, Rajah contested the full eight race 1974 championship with the March, updated, as already noted, with 732 bodywork in a low-budget campaign run largely out of Paul England’s workshop in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne
It was the most competitive second-level motor racing championship ever run in Australia thanks to the support of Van Heusen Shirts, the story of how that came about is one for another time
Up front the contest was between the Birranas of Leo Geoghegan and Bob Muir, and when he got it sorted, John Leffler’s Bowin P8; all of these cars were powered by Brian Hart built ‘416-B’ Lotus-Ford 1.6-litre, DOHC, two-valve (mainly) fuel injected engines giving about 205bhp.
Rajah’s contested all eight rounds with his best third place at Symmons Plains and sixth at Hume Weir. He’s not listed in the point score because – I guess – he wasn’t a CAMS licence holder.
Leo Geoghegan won the title in his works-Birrana 274, Bob Muir’s Bob and Marj Brown owned Birrana 273 and Leffo’s ‘works’-Bowin P8.
Etcetera…
March 712M Brothers in Arms Niki Lauda and Dieter Quester swap notes during the Rouen-Les-Essarts June 27 weekend in 1971. Peterson won from Quester and Graham Hill’s Brabham BT36 with Niki fourth.
Niki at Mallory Park (below) at for the F2 season-opener – non-championship – Speed Championship Trophy over the March 14, 1971 weekend.
His works-March-Bosch Racing 712M-9 didn’t finish either heat. The renta-driver had plenty of top-six finishes that season and memorably duelled with Graham Hill and Peter Westbury at the Nurburgring for fourth place. In the first heat at Rouen, he almost sling-shotted past Peterson to win, dipping out on the line and finishing second by 0.1 secs…
Still at Mallory Park, Derek Bell 712M-2 and Henri Pescarolo 712M-4, below, in the Frank Williams March 712M Ford FVAs. Henri won from Gerry Birrell’s Lotus 69 and Brian Hart’s Brabham BT30.
Tino Brambilla tests his March 712M Ferrari Dino 206 V6 at Monza in 1972. This chassis is the ex-Pescarolo 712M-4.
Its amazing that a family of engines born in 1957 were still being used in 2-litre form at the dawn of the 1980s, not very successfully mind you! See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/06/17/ralt-chevron-and-minardi-ferrari-dino-206-v6s/
Tino retired his ‘Ferrari’ retired from the Monza Lottery non-championship F2 race – Gran Premio della Lotteria – won by Graham Hill from Silvio Moser and Jean Pierre-Jarier: Brabham BT38 Ford BDA, Brabham BT38 Ford BDE and March 722 Ford BDE.
James Hunt in the Hesketh Racing March 712M-5 Ford BDA during the September 16, 1972 British F2 Championship race at Oulton Park. The soon-to-be F1 Star was third behind the works-March 722 Fords of Ronnie Peterson and Niki Lauda.
In several late season Euro F2 rounds in September-October he was Q3 and DNF at the Salzburgring, Q 11 and fifth at the Albi GP, Q12 and eighth at Hockenheim.
Rajah at Amaroo Park, Sydney on July 21, 1974. DNF engine in the race won by Bob Muir’s Birrana 273.
I’m intrigued by what Allen Brown (oldracingcars.com) makes of the photos in this article which show the obvious difference in ‘our car’s’ bodywork – 732 rather than 712M – but in addition the roll-bar mounts are different between the two cars. I do wonder whether the car that came to Australia by then had a 732 tub. we know Sonny raced a ‘mystery’ ‘732B’ in British Atlantic then took it back to Asia. I wonder whether the car in Oz was the 732 chassis rather than the 712M?
Credits…
National Archives of Singapore via Rewind Media via Ed Brunette, Clarke Walker, Rolle Nygren, ‘The Story of March : Four Guys and a Telephone’ Mike Lawrence, Stephen Gall, Jutta Fausel, Ed Brunette Collection, Bryan Henderson, Auto Action, Ian Hubbard Collection, Singapore Fling : Singapore GP piece in MotorSport by Eli Solomon
Tailpiece…
Ronnie during the Grand Prix de Rouen on June 27, 1971.
The Swedish Star won from Dieter Quester’s 712M BMW and Graham Hill’s Rondel Racing Brabham BT36 and Lauda’s works-712M. Graham was still a plenty-quick F2 driver in that lovely Ron Dennis prepped BT36 that year. Always loved those March wheels…
Quite a few of the photos in this article are by now US domiciled German photographer Jutta Fausel who I collaborated with in an article published in MotorSport a couple of years ago on the 1970 Israel Grand Prix, an obscure F2 race.
I really must buy her book, F2 Devotee as I am, which comes highly recommended!
Finito…
primotipo... 