The Brands Hatch Rothmans 50,000

[Andrew Kitson]

Did anyone go to the Rothmans 50,000 at Brands Hatch? I did not go myself but remember watching on TV but did see some of the testing beforehand.
It was planned as a battle of the world's different formulas as a 312 mile, 118 lap race of the Brands GP circuit on the August bank holiday 1972 and was opened to almost any type of racing car. Many cars were adapted with much larger fuel tanks to last the distance. Others such as David Prophets F5000 McLaren sprouted a huge wide rear wing.
The prospects when it was announced were mouth watering - most F1 teams said they would enter along with Le Mans, F2, F5000, Indy USAC, Can Am and even NASCAR teams.
At the end of the day, political squabbling and date clashes meant that only a few F1 teams attended and few sportscars. Only 2 CanAm cars, both regulars on the UK club racing scene were entered but failed to qualify. However, all of the top F5000 and F2 drivers of the day turned up along with a few F.Atlantics. Disappointingly, no USAC or NASCARs made the trip due to races in the USA.
The prize fund was £50,000. Quite significant when a GP grid cost promotors only 35,000 in 1972.
Emerson Fittipaldi's JPS Lotus 72 won from start to finish, claiming the £10,000 first prize from Brian Redman's works M19C McLaren. Pescarolo was 3rd in the Frank Williams March. The first F2 car home was Gerry Birrell's March in 4th place ahead of James Hunt. Alan Rollinson's Lola T300 was 7th, the first F5000 car home.
Only one sportscar qualified for the 30 car grid - Mario Casoni's 2 litre Lola T280 that finished 12th.
Significant non qualifiers from the 59 car entry included David Piper's Porsche 917, Tony Dean's Porsche 908 and Brian Husband's U2 special.
Imagine today the likes of Schumacher, Montoya etc against F3000, IRL, CART and the Le Mans prototypes?
A bizarre idea but it nearly worked back in 72 but for the politics.
Now where are those photos?