Formula Atlantic, Mallory Park, July 12 1981

In contemporary single-seater racing, you can drive almost any chassis you like… so long as it’s a Dallara, or perhaps a Tatuus. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. It’s a world apart from the motor racing landscape of 30 or 40 years ago, when typical grids featured a dozen or more manufacturers. Formula Atlantic was a case in point. The cars looked good, sounded right and it attracted packed, high-quality fields during its competitive zenith, in 1974-75. Its star then faded, but it was reintroduced in 1979 – after a two-year absence – before petering out again at the end of 1983. This Mallory Park race was ninth of the season’s 15 championship races and the 17-car field featured cars from nine different constructors. The entry included obvious stuff from Ralt, March and Lola, plus a Tiga for Ian Taylor, an Argo for Desiré Wilson, a couple of older Chevrons, the Ehrlichs of Ian Flux and Mark Thatcher (who didn’t turn up, although history doesn’t record whether he was busy or else got lost en route) and David Muter’s Barton JTB3 (which was, of course, a reworked version of the Sana RD11). Last but not least was the car in the illustration above, heading the Ralt RT4 of David Duffield towards Shaws Hairpin.

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