The Cars

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Part 4

Combe Libre Home

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Roy Drew

Entered by Rod Tolhurst alongside the TS19 of John Narcisi , the ex Brambilla TS20 (chassis 01 I think) from 1978 , also driven by Philip Buillman in Aurora in 1979, took Roy to 2nd on July 7th 1984, behind Lawler's Ralt RT4, hampered by a left front tyre that went off badly as the race progressed.

John Narcisi

Entered by Rod Tolhurst alongside the TS20 of Drew.

The TS19, chassis 4 as far as I can make out, was raced by Alan Jones in Grands Prix towards the end of 1976 and in early 77 by  Vittorio Brambilla . It then appeared in Aurora British F1 driven by Davina Galica and later by Alo Lawler, Bob Evans, Robin Smith and Richard Jones between 1978 and 1980. Smith converted it to run in Can Am in 1981 before it started appearing in historic F1 in 1983.

At Combe in July 84 the engine threw a rod and the car retired..

Narcisi became quite a regular fixture at Combe for the rest of the decade, but not in the Surtees...

John Narcisi

A regular for most of the era, John appeared most often in his elderly, but certainly still effective Trojan T101, chassis 06, the last of the type, built for F5000 in 1974 but only run a few times by original owner Bobby bell in Club events. Raced quite a lot by Narcisi until it was bought by ex F1 World Champion Jody Scheckter, who had used a similar T101 to win the 1972 US F5000 title winner.

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Rob Cox

In the late 70s and early 80s Rob Cox (who seems to have dropped the double barreled moniker Cox-Allison at some point) was enormously successful in his two Lotus 7s, the "Black Brick" and the "Slippery Brick" which for a long time held the Castle Combe Special GT lap record.

In 1987 he appeared in "The Black Ralt" which was an ex Roberto Moreno F2 Ralt-Honda chassis into which a F5000 spec Ford Cosworth GAA V6 twin cam was fitted. In effect this was a 'modern' F5000 with ground effect aerodynamics and made you drool at the prospect of how the formula might have developed if it hadn't been killed off (in Europe and the US) in the late 70s!

By this point, sadly, silencers were becoming a requirement on all cars so the big cans sticking out the back muffled the howling bark of the exotic V6.

Rob Cox

To the surprise of many - no, everyone! -  Rob Cox appeared in 1989 was a Lola LC88 which had been competing in Grands Prix the previous year with the Larrousse team. This was the most up-to-date F1 car that had appeared in a Libra race at Combe since the early 1950s and like the other flat-bottomed big single seaters  which appeared( F3000 March, Lola and Reynard), it's rock-hard suspension was not ideally suited to the Combe bumps and the car was quite a handful!

It first appeared in May 89 (right) and was initially outpaced by Narcisi's aged Trojan F5000 but in the rain drenched September event it was a easy winner of the final Libra race of the era.

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One of the most regular competitors, local man Roger Orgee thrashed his unusual Lyncar F Atlantic around to good effect for between 1984 and the end of 1986, winning the October 1986 event after Trimmer's Lola fell by the wayside.

Thought to be chassis 11, ex Vilotta/Corridan, the Lyncar was, like Lawler's Ralt, an Atlantic car with a 2 litre F2 engine.

It normally battled closely with John Travis' March 792-Hart and was replaced by a March F3000 in 1987

(photo : Peter Howarth)

Roger Orgee & Mike Wilds

To replace his familiar Lyncar, Roger Orgee acquired the March 85B chassis 07, that took Christian Danner to the inaugural European F3000 title in 1985. He used the car to win the 1987 National Open Championship (Libre by another name) hence the number 1 on the car in 1988

Like all the contemporary big single seaters it was a handful over Combe's bumps with it's stiff springs. 

The car ended up in Sprints and Hillclimbs with Jonathon Toulmin who fitted a Cosworth GAA F5000 engine. Check out some  recent photos on race car dealer Peter Morley's site.

More Photos.

Roger Orgee

With a British F3000 series on the calendar in 1989, Orgee had ambitions to progress beyond Formula Libra and acquired a year old Reynard (not sure which chassis) of the type that took Roberto Moreno to the European championship (and in which Johnny Herbert suffered his horrendous accident) In May 1989 he ran the car at Combe although like most of the other hard-sprung modern single seaters, it wasn't suited to the surface and was outpaced by the older F2 March of Eddie McLurg and the event more antiquated F5000 Trojan of John Narcisi. He ran in 3 British F3000 championship rounds with the car (one rival driver being Trimmer in a March) but had no success. He then quit driving and ran the Omegaland F3000 team taking the title in 1992 with driver Yvan Muller.