GOLDEN DAYS

Three images from deep in  the archives . A long forgotten racing team - Unipart Racing  with March 783' s- competing in the British and European Formula 3 Championships in 1976 through to 78 . In the first year Tony Dron was the driver and in the second and third years the team was managed by DPR Racing and the drivers were Tiff Needel and Ian Taylor.The team was always beautifully presented and the chassis was competitive and the driver line up was strong but the achilles heel was the Triumph Dolomite Sprint based engine in a field where the Novamotor prepared Toyota motor was de rigeur.
Unipart was a division of British Leyland (BL) at the time so the choice of the BL manufactured Triumph motor was a given but its lack of power and above all else reliability meant that success eluded the team .These images are from Thruxton , Silverstone and if my memory serves me right, Dijon .

The 60's ,70's and into the 80's was a golden era for single seater formulae in Britain and across Europe with many championships, big fields, lots of talented ,emerging drivers and a variety of power units and chassis and some very spirited and close racing on wonderful circuits , including many street circuits - most of which we have now lost .There were even non world championship formula 1 races at Oulton Park , Silverstone and Brands Hatch . Unthinkable in today's formula one environment.
I love these paddock and grid images --they convey a little  of those golden days .