'70s Formula Atlantic vid

[a. pettipas]

75 or 76 season, I forget, haven't watched it in awhile.

Featuring the incomparable Villeneuve + Brack, EFR, Gloy, Klausler, Rahal, Roos et al

Might have been posted here before, but for those that haven't seen it...

http://vimeo.com/13903876

Aaron

[Mike Holland]

Thanks for posting. This is great to see.
This is the 1975 season. I use to own the #40 car of Bertil Roos. I talked to him once and he said that he went to Chevron and Fred Opert Racing in 1976.

[JByers]

Aaron,
Thanks for sharing that with us, I enjoyed all 30 minutes of the video.

Jason

[marc sproule]

Mike H.:

Here are some snaps of what I take it to be your car...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4668198...7623186773769/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4668198...7623186773769/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4668198...7623186773769/

I know I have at least a few more from '75 buried somewhere in my archive. When I come across them I'll add them to my Atlantic set.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4668198...7623186773769/

All of my sets....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46681980@N03/sets/

I should be adding more images to my sets in the next week or so.

[provamo]

thanks for posting these treasure troves!

[a. pettipas]

Impressive fields for some of these Canadian races. The Mont-Tremblant (St. Jovite) round had a spec miata-like car count!

I still can't believe pro FA is no more, unthinkable in the halcyon days of the mid-70s.

Aaron

[marc sproule]

The first Atlantic race I went to was at Westwood in '75. There were 32 cars entered and they had a qualifying race. Ex F1 shoe Dave Walker was one of the ones who had to run the qualifier.

I will always be very grateful that I got to witness the series in its heyday.

[a. pettipas]

I was born in '75 so I'm too young to have many in-period memories of this stuff, which probably start early '80s onward, but I do have some personal footnotes to add.

The last round, where Canadian Bill Brack was crowned series champ, took place at Atlantic Motorsport Park (AMP), near my hometown + where I currently reside, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The track is still a going concern, club-owned, hosting 4-5 regional events per season, though is now primarily a bike racing + track day facility. I raced my FC there 3x last year and one time in our GT1 Corvette at the season-ending 3hr. enduro.

The track exists in a very serene, heavily wooded area, more like a wildlife park than a racing facility, and is largely unchanged from the '70s, a real throwback for sure. Non-existent run-off, lots of hedge to park in if you get it all wrong, and it is quite bumpy. I found it kind of amusing that the FA guys were complaining about the bumps back then when the track was only in its infancy (constructed in '73 or '74). It was glass compared to present day.

The name 'Villeneuve' is painted on the racing surface, in white block letters, on the outside middle of corner one. In, I believe, '74 Gilles flipped his March end for end there; the name remains there to this day as a tribute to the spectacular and widely-adored French Canadian.

Link to the track:
http://www.atlanticmotorsportpark.com/index.php

Some GT1 in car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgLgY...eature=related

In regards to the '75 FA vid, I was actually at that race, but any memories would have to be pre-natal as I was born in December of that year. My parents were in attendance, my Mom with Jr. racer fully on board. I can literally claim to have been around racing my entire life!

Aaron