International field of Formula 5000 monsters confirmed for #76MM

To help celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the birth of the Formula 5000 category, created as a class within the Sports Car Club of America’s Formula A movement in 1968, chassis from all the leading players of the period – in the USA, Europe and the Antipodes – will run around the fast sweeps of the Motor Circuit. 

And the international flavour of F5000 will be recreated when British brawn from Lola, McLaren and Surtees is joined by a pair of Begg racers from Christchurch, New Zealand – a country in which the passion for these ground-shaking beasts runs deep.

Scott and Lindsay O’Donnell will make the 12,000-mile trip to Goodwood with FM5 and 018 chassis. 

“For me, it completes a mission of restoring and racing this car over the last 15 years to celebrate the ‘Kiwi ingenuity’ of characters like George Begg,” Lindsay O’Donnell said. “Apart from celebrating the tiny Begg marque of race cars in the 50-year demonstration of F5000, it’s a great privilege to be invited to take part in a Goodwood event.”

Cars built closer to home will bring back special memories for enthusiasts who remember the period drama of the first half of the 1970s, when Lola’s T330 and T332, McLaren’s M10B and Surtees’ TS11 ruled the roost. Among the stand-out cars in the line-up will be the M10B which, under the watchful eye of Sid Taylor Racing, gave the late Peter Gethin his second straight European drivers’ title in 1970, his first coming with local squad Church Farm Racing and the earlier M10A in 1969. In fact, it was Gethin’s impressive performances in F5000 that helped re-energise his Formula 1 career with BRM for 1971.

One of the stars of mid-1970s F5000, Briton Brian Redman, will be reacquainted with Chevrolet V8 muscle at Goodwood. The Lancastrian won a record 16 US-series races and secured three straight titles in a Lola T332 between 1974 and ’76, beating superstars Mario Andretti, Al Unser and Alan Jones in the process, as well as landing eight European Championship victories in McLaren, Chevron and Lola machinery.

“I loved racing in F5000 – at home and abroad,” Redman said. “They were enormous fun on the limit – it’s such a treat to be invited by the Duke of Richmond to sample these great cars again at the Members’ Meeting. I can’t wait!”   

Don’t miss this special celebration of a dramatic evocation of single-seater racing when the emphasis was on big, bold, brash and a little bit bonkers. 

Photography courtesy of LAT Images