Jochen Ridt at the wheel of the Brabham BT23C that was to be bought by Ecurie Ecosse
The Ecurie Ecosse Brabhams
The year 1968 was a sad one for Ecurie Ecosse as midway through the season the team founder, David Murray, left Edinburgh to the Canary Islands following various tax and financial demands. By this time the Friends of Scotland, a group of Scottish businessmen, were supporting the team and the main racing centred around the two Ecosse-Imp Formula 3 cars racing at Ingliston and a few small events in England.
On Murray’s departure Lord Bruce and the Ecurie Ecosse Association were left holding the baby with businessman and former racing driver Harry Ballantyne at the helm. In December 1968 an announcement was made that for 1969 Ecurie Ecosse would enter into the hotly competitive International Formula 2 Championship. Thanks for financial help from the Association and the Friends of Scotland a two year old Brabham BT23C, chassis 05, was bought.
The car had originally been bought by American Roy Winkelmann’s Formula 2 team in 1967 for Jochen Rindt to drive. It ran for the first time at Snetterton in the Guards 100 and despite being a private entry Jochen Rindt won the race against people like Brabham, Hulme[, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Graham Hill. Throughout 1967 and 1968 the car proved to be a regular winner and was probably the most successful single Formula 2 car of those two seasons.
When the announcement was made there was no car to show as Rindt was driving it for the last time in the Argentinean Temporada. On its return Stan Sproat the Ecosse chief mechanic collected the car from Winkelmann and early in 1969 it was taken to Silverstone with Graham Birrell as the driver. Graham had performed well with the under-performing Ecosse-Imps and was the natural choice. During the test Australian driver Tim Schenken was on hand and he too drove it to see that everything was in order and it is interesting that Birrell’s time was actually quicker than Schenken
The Brabham was still running with the high rear wing that had been the fashion in 1968 but Graham Birrell found that the car was understeering badly so between practice sessions Stan took off the wing and now Graham found himself oversteering. Stan then adjusted the wing angle and refitted it
At the end of this story is a list of results by Graham Birrell during the 1969 Formula 2 season but bare results do not tell the full story. For example amongst the drivers in the opening round at Thruxton you had Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Jackie Stewart who were to become world champions and amongst the other grand prix drivers to be in the race were John Watson, Johnny Servoz-Gavin, Jean Pierre Beltoise,Henry Pescarolo, Derek Bell, Francois Cevert and Clay Regazzoni . In his first race at Thruxton Birrell was sevent in his heat and eleventh in the final just behind Clay Regazzoni : and in a two year old car! Overall it proved to be a good season for a fledgling team in Formula 2 but it ended with two accidents. Part way through the season the controvertial wings were banned in Formula 2 and it was on the high speed Enna circuit in Sicily that Graham Birrell had a huge accident which almost saw him end up in the notorious lake. The other accident took place on the home circuit, Ingliston, when Graham was caught out by a slower competitor blocking him into the Esses. The damaged Brabham was then sold to Stan Robinson and John Blankley who restored the chassis and the car was later sold to Joe Applegarth who brought the car back to Scotland and on one occasion raced it at Ingliston.
The season had been so promising Harry Ballantyne was able to announce that the team would continue in Formula 2, perhaps with a less ambitious programme, and would again be running a Brabham. This time a BT30, Chassis 04 that had been run in 1969 by Frank Williams for another Scot, Malcolm Guthrie, was obtained as a stop-gap prior to taking delivery of a brand new car, chassis BT30/14 later in the season. Again Graham Birrell had some promising places until Monza where he was to finish second overall against good opposition. During the season the team were truly running on a shoe string and most of their problems were engine failures in one way or another. Early in the season Peter Gethin drove the car at Zolder as Graham Birrell was racing elsewhere and then at the end of the season Harry Ballantyne decided to bring Richard Attwood aboard to see if this would help and certainly his 4th place at Anderstorp in Sweden was a happy placing for the team but in the last race of the team’s season the ignition failed at Phoenix Park when Attwood was in a strong position.
At the end of the season there was a chance to make a little money when the Brabham was rented to Peter Westbury to race in Bogota. It proved to be a disasterous move for not only was the rental fee, £100, ridiculously low but there were problems about the Ecosse engine and who was to pay for what, something that took nearly nine months to resolve. When it was all settled the car was sold to Italy.
One can imagine the despair within the team and yet, optimistic as ever, Harry Ballantine laid down plans to buy a March 712M for Formula 2 in 1971 but this story must wait for another time.