When ChampCars came to Silverstone.

This week's speculation that CART could come to Brands Hatch in 2003 would mean the return of ChampCars to the Kent circuit. In 1978 ChampCars under the USAC banner contested races at both Brands Hatch and Silverstone. Today Crash.net has a look back at the Silverstone race.

Back in 1978 CART the United State Auto Club ran their Championship division, the Championship Cars, or ChampCars. USAC could trace its roots back to 1902 and the American National Auto Racing Championship. From 1902 -1955 the American Automobile Association sanctioned the championship, though it did not run during America's involvement in WWII from 1942-1945, but from 1955 it was run by USAC, which was established as the racing arm of the AAA. This meant that in 1978 the series was arguably the oldest racing series in the world.

Despite its longevity there were problems afoot. Early in the year there was an air crash that claimed some seven leading members of the organisation, and this severely undermined its position. There had long been rumblings of discontent from the teams and they, under the umbrella of CART - Championship Auto Racing Teams - put their position in front of USAC.

USAC had been proposing changes to the regulations for the following year relating to boost pressures and wing size, and these regulations were not met favourably by the teams. There was deadlock between CART and USAC and eventually, at the end of the year, CART announced it would go its own way.

It was in these circumstances that the ChampCars came to Britain. The USAC championship had always been run on oval tracks with very occasional forays onto road circuits. In 1977 when the championship took in Canada's Mosport venue, sometime scene of the Canadian Grand Prix. For 1978 the ChampCars visited Mosport again and came across the Atlantic to race at both Silverstone and Brands Hatch on consecutive weekends.

This meant that, save for the Canadian races, coming to England to race on road circuits was largely a step into the unknown. Current F1 teams still have difficulties when they race on a new circuit for the first time, indeed most spend a fortune on computer simulations to try to understand what will happen at the track, but back in 1978 things were rather different. Much of the approach seems to be in remarkable contrast to what we know today, it was a 'let's see what happens' attitude as teams and drivers crossed the Atlantic. What other approach could you have when running cars and drivers that had were designed for, and experienced in, running on ovals on tracks like Silverstone and Brands?

Then, as now, ChampCars didn't run in the rain, and Britain has never been famous for its sunshine. For the first race in England, at Silverstone, with Brands Hatch the following weekend, the skies looked bleak. The race was run on Sunday 1st October after being delayed from its intended Saturday 30th of September running due to the wet skies.

The irony was that in that particular year, Britain had been enjoying something of an Indian summer when the rain on began on Thursday the 28th, the very day that the Silverstone practice was to begin.

Despite this the drives knuckled down and showed that, though their standard fare wasn't running on tracks with corners that went both ways, both cars and drivers could adapt rather quickly. So quickly in fact that Hawaiian driver Danny Ongais set a practice time two and a half seconds quicker than James Hunt's then lap record in a Formula One car!

With practice and qualifying severely curtailed such that Thursday only saw a couple of cars go out and Friday didn't see any action until the afternoon when it was decided that they would just have to ignore the damp track and get some laps in. Once on circuit they were flying. Man of the moment, Danny Ongais, lapped his Parnelli VPJ6B just shy of the fastest time that had ever been attained at the track.

Saturday was supposed to be race day, but just like the first CART Rockingham race in 2001, the circuit was too wet and the race postponed to the following day. In the pits AJ Foyt was suggesting the idea of hand-cutting some slicks to get the ChampCars out for their first wet race, but this idea was not taken up!

The race was finally run on the Sunday and what a spectacle it provided. Ongais, who had qualified two seconds faster than anyone else, unsurprisingly shot off into the distance. The Hawaiian with the exuberant driving style but shy manner out of the car, soon however found himself staring at the rear light cluster of a MkIII Ford Capri as the pace car came out as early as lap two.

Once Ford's finest had peeled off and the race was back underway, Ongais disappeared into the distance again; by lap four he'd bagged a new lap record. Record taken, a half-shaft on the car decided to end the Hawaiian's race. It then became Al Unser's turn to have a go for glory. After another period behind the Capri with the big lights on its roof, Unser quickly left the following Penske's of Rick Mears and Tom Sneva behind him. Challenging the Poole, Dorset built cars was Foyt in his wily old Coyote.

Foyt was past Sneva by lap 15. Two laps later the veteran pitted for fuel. Initially it was announced that the Coyote's tyre had run over a fuel line in the pits, an offence punishable with a lap deduction. However the officials soon reconsidered their position and deemed that Foyt's Goodyears had in fact, merely nudged the fuel line.

Fuel, or lack of it, was to prove decisive for Al Unser out in the lead as on lap 22 he ran out of the jungle juice and cruised around, very slowly, to just make it into the pits on vapours. Ironically the man who then inherited the lead, Gordon Johncock, befell exactly the same scenario a mere two laps later.

After the fuel stops were over it was Rick Mears turn at the head of the field. Foyt had retained his place between the Penske's and was closing him down. Then the rain intervened. The Capri was back out and this time it led the cars into the pits where the drivers jumped out. Eyes were now on the sky; if the rain stopped they could go back out. Stop it did, some thirty or so minutes later.

Racing again and Foyt was hounding the back of Mear's Penske, manhandling his way past some two laps into the restart, and heading off into the distance. The restart was short-lived however. Salt Walther crashed at Copse and the rain started again. The cars returned to the pits, the rain continued and AJ Foyt was declared the winner of the Daily Express Indy Silverstone meeting.

Foyt's victory was all the more remarkable when you consider that the car he was using was in its last throes. In those days cars were used for many years and adapted along the way, and Foyt's was one of the older in the field. As well as being old it was far from suited for a racetrack as opposed to an oval. All the fuel was situated on the left hand side of the car - fine for an oval racer, but very far from ideal when racing on a circuit where the corners went both ways. The engine of the Coyote, a Foyt-Ford, was more than 100 kg heavier than the rival Cosworth DFX unit. To understand the extent of this detriment, a contemporary F1 engine can weigh less than those 100 kg. Added to that was the fact he's only managed eleven laps on the Friday due to a conrod breaking. It truly was a remarkable performance from a remarkable man.

Top ten race results:
1 AJ Foyt
2 Rick Mears
3. Tom Sneva
4. Gordon Johncock
5. Johnny Rutherford
6. Steve Krisiloff
7. Salt Walther
8. Bobby Unser
9. Spike Gehlhausen
10. Al Unser

Tomorrow Crash.net will be having a look back at the last time the ChampCars came to Brands Hatch.