After 12 races at six high quality events across four countries, Swiss racer Luciano Arnold has been confirmed as top overall scorer in the Historic Sports Car Club’s Historic Formula 2 Trophy for 2023.
Arnold raced his Brabham BT36 with speed and style across the season and emerged as champion in the Jochen Rindt class for 1600cc Formula 2 cars from the early 1970s. At the very head of the field, the fastest cars from the later two-litre Formula 2 era set the overall pace, and it was a late charge by Matthew Watts in his March 772 that took the Bruno Giacomelli class spoils over Wolfgang Kaufmann’s March 782. Engine dramas during the final race weekend at Dijon in October really cost Kaufmann the chance of securing the class title.
There was a close battle in the Vern Schuppan Class B for the earlier Formula Atlantic cars where Mark Goodyear in his March 75B just out-pointed Australian racer Martin Bullock in his March 722. Meanwhile, in the Gilles Villeneuve category for later Formula Atlantic cars, series newcomer Keith White was class champion in his March 76B. Steve Weller won the Jim Clark class for the early non-winged cars in his Australian-built Elfin 600B.
With a total of 46 competitors from across the UK and Europe racing cars from eight different manufacturers, it was another bumper year for Historic Formula 2 with fine quality grids of superbly presented cars. Next season, the HSCC and HVM Racing will work together to continue the development of Formula 2 as one of the headline categories in European historic single-seater racing.