Andy Sutcliffe

Andy Sutcliffe (* 9. May 1947 in Mildenhall , Suffolk ; † 13. July 2015 in Pluckley , Ashford , Kent ) was a British racing driver, who in the 1970s in various motorsport classes some monoposto denied -race. He registered for a Formula 1 world championship run, but failed there due to the pre-qualification.

Career

Sutcliffe is considered an occasional racer. He did not have a classic motorsport career, but only took part in automobile races sporadically. A source reports that Sutcliffe primarily worked as a model in the 1970s .

Formula 2

In 1973 Sutcliffe competed in a Formula 2 European Championship race for the March Engineering works team . At the 1973 Kanonloppet in Karlskoga in August 1973, he completed twelve laps in March 732, before failing prematurely due to an engine failure.

In 1974 Sutcliffe drove a March 732 for the British team Brian Lewis Racing . Sutcliffe contested the first six races of the championship. At the opening races in Montjuïc and at the Gran Premio del Mugello , he finished sixth. He achieved his best result at the Grand Prix de Pau in 1974 , which he finished third. In six races, Sutcliffe scored nine championship points. This put him in 10th place in the championship at the end of the year.

Sutcliffe has not entered racing for 1975.

formula 1

In the 1974 Formula 1 season , the Italian private team Scuderia Finotto reported a Brabham BT42 for Sutcliffe at the British Grand Prix . The team that failed to qualify in the previous race in France did not appear at Brands Hatch .

The March 761 used by Sutcliffe in the livery of RAM Racing 1977

Three years later, Sutcliffe was entered for the 1977 British Grand Prix by the private British team RAM Racing . The team, founded in 1976, competed with a March 761 (chassis 761/3), which had been used by Ronnie Peterson and the March factory team the previous year . RAM competed in 1977 primarily with the Dutch driver Boy Hayje , who missed qualification four times in six races. In Great Britain, RAM replaced him with Sutcliffe and also brought the Finn Mikko Kozarowitzky to the start. 36 drivers were registered for the race at Silverstone. This made it necessary to carry out a pre-qualification. All private teams that were not members of the FOCA as well as guest starters had to take part on the Wednesday before the Grand Prix. Only those pilots who achieved a sufficient lap time during this extra training were allowed to take part in the regular training sessions on Friday and Saturday in which the qualification for the race was held. Sutcliffe was subject to the pre-qualification requirement. His training time was not enough to move up into the field of main qualifiers. It was 3.5 seconds higher than that of the later pole sitter James Hunt .

There was no further participation in a Formula 1 race by Sutcliffe.

See also

• List of Formula 1 racing drivers

Web links

• Andy Sutcliffes race statistics on www.driverdb.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography of Sutcliffe (with illustration) on the website www.statsf1.com (accessed on October 13, 2013).
2. ↑ Overview of the 1974 Formula 2 championship on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on October 13, 2013).
3. ↑ Sutcliffe's racing statistics on the website www.racingsportscars.com (accessed on October 13, 2013).
4. ↑ Model history of March 761 on the website www.oldracingcars.com ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 13, 2013).