BS Fabrications

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BS Fabrications was a British supplier to the racing car industry. The company was founded by Bob Sparshott , a former Lotus engineer who worked with Jim Clark and Graham Hill . BS Fabrications had its own racing team in the 1970s and 1980s, which competed in Formula 1 world championship races and - now under the name BS Automotive - in Formula 2 and Formula 3000 . In Formula 1, BS Fabrications operated as a so-called customer team, so it used chassis from other manufacturers under its own name. An attempt to construct a racing car for the Formula 1 World Championship in 1981 failed for financial reasons.

BS Fabrications in Formula 1

1976

In the 1976 season the team went Norev Racing with BS Fabrications to nine races from the Monaco Grand Prix to the US Grand Prix East at. The team reported a Surtees TS19 ; The driver was Henri Pescarolo . Pescarolo was able to qualify for seven races; his best starting position was position 21 at the Grand Prix of Canada . Pescarolo crossed the finish line five times; his best result was ninth place at the Austrian Grand Prix . Here he was lapped twice.

1977

1977 came BS Fabrications with Brett Lunger in the Formula 1 world championship. The team was sometimes referred to as Chesterfield Racing with reference to a sponsor ; however, the organization was always carried out independently of this in the BS Fabrications workshop. The team skipped the South American races at the start of the season. The first report was made for the Grand Prix of South Africa . Here and in the two following races, BS Fabrications used a March 761 with a Cosworth DFV engine. Lunger finished 14th in South Africa and 10th in Spain . In Long Beach he collided with Carlos Reutemann and then dropped out. From the Belgian Grand Prix , the team replaced the old March with a (equally old) used McLaren M23 . With him, Lunger was able to regularly qualify for the last third of the starting field with one exception. His best race result was ninth place at the Dutch Grand Prix .

Used by BS Fabrications in 1978 for Brett Lunger: A McLaren M26 (here in the livery of the factory team ).

1978

In the 1978 Formula 1 season , BS Fabrications continued its commitment as a customer team. The team provided a car for Brett Lunger throughout the season (with the exception of the North American races in the fall); a second car was also used for Nelson Piquet in late summer .

In the first four races of the year Lunger drove the McLaren M23, which had already been used in the previous year; from the Monaco Grand Prix he switched to a younger McLaren M26 . The new car didn't increase the team's competitiveness. In ten attempts, Lunger failed to qualify four times with the M26. In the six races for which he qualified, however, he was able to achieve some very promising results: he finished seventh at the Belgian Grand Prix and finished eighth at Brands Hatch and Zeltweg .

For the last three European races, Bob Sparshott's team registered a second car for the Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who drove his first Formula 1 race for Ensign at the 1978 German Grand Prix . Piquet drove the outdated McLaren M23 for BS Fabrications at the Austrian , Dutch and Italian Grand Prix . He was able to qualify for every race, but only crossed the finish line in Italy. Here he was ninth, 40 seconds behind the winner.

1981

After BS Fabrications had not participated in the Formula 1 World Championship in 1979 and 1980 , Bob Sparshott planned a renewed commitment in the 1981 Formula 1 season . Unlike in previous years, the company should now use its own, self-constructed vehicle. The motivation for this is given in the literature as the intention to better utilize the capacities of one's company. The Argentine racing driver Ricardo Zunino , who had lost his cockpit at the Brabham factory to Héctor Rebaque during the 1980 season, helped finance the project . Sparshott and Zunino commissioned engineer Nigel Stout to design the racing car. The project initially prospered. At the end of 1980 the monocoque was built; the body and chassis parts were also completed. At the beginning of 1981, however, Zunino donors withdrew, so that the financing of the Grand Prix engagement was no longer secured. BS and Zunino then gave up on the project. Zunino drove in 1981 on the occasion of the two South American races at the beginning of 1981 for Tyrrell ; then he ended his Formula 1 career.

Formula 2 and Formula 3000

In the 1980s, BS Fabrications took part in Formula 2 and Formula 3000 . The company mostly used the name BS Automotive . 1985 won Christian Danner the Formula 3000 European Championship with the team.

literature

  • David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2000 , 1st edition London 2001, ISBN 1861263392 (English)
  • David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1993 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BS Fabrications took part in some races of the Aurora Series during this time, a series of youngsters mainly limited to Great Britain with regulations similar to Formula 1.
  2. ↑ Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001, p. 51.
  3. ↑ Ricardo Zunino's biography on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed December 28, 2010).
  4. ^ Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001, p. 51.
  5. ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 50.