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346The ex-Ronnie Peterson, Vittorio Brambilla, Lella Lombardi1976 March-Cosworth 761 Formula 1 Racing Single SeaterChassis no. 761-3Engine no. 157March Engineering Ltd of Bicester, Oxfordshire, emerged as a powerfulnew Formula 1 force in 1970 – immediately fielding no fewer thanfive of their formative Type 701 Cosworth DFV-engined cars in theirdebut season – two works team cars, one for the associated STP-March programme and two in dark Scots blue for the Tyrrell RacingOrganisation. Drivers that first season included such superstars asJackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Jo Siffert and Chris Amon.By 1976 Ronnie Peterson had rejoined the March programme – havinggiven the new marque its initial debut with the Formula 3 prototype cardesigned by ex-McLaren technical director Robin Herd in 1969. Nowthis March 761 is offered here with Ronnie Peterson history, having beencampaigned by the legendary pace-setting Swedish hero in the 1976South African, Long Beach (USA East), Spanish and Belgian Grand Prixraces, before it was taken over by Italian team-mate Vittorio Brambillafor the subsequent Swedish, French, British, German, Austrian, Dutch,Italian, Canadian, and Japanese GPs that season.Despite spirited driving by Peterson best results were achieved byBrambilla, who finished sixth in the Dutch GP and qualified strongly atthe end of the season, third on the grid in Canada and fourth on the gridat Watkins Glen for the US Grand Prix.As one might imagine with two such committed, fast and furious driversas Peterson and Brambilla – the latter respectfully known throughout themotor racing world as ‘The Monza Gorilla’ – the Formula 1 March entityknown as ‘761-3’ had a hectic career.Peterson’s friend and March mechanic Ake Strandberg, relates an incidentin practice for the 1976 Belgian GP, in ‘Memories of Ronnie Peterson’, byJoakim Thedin and Tomas Haegg, published by Poletext, Copyright 2006.‘Ronnie crashed the car. He came back to the pits carrying his seatcushion and reported that it wasn’t too bad. He said, ‘Bring a jack and afront tyre along and you can drive it back again.’ The mechanics went offto find the car, ‘the first thing we saw was the rear wing. The rest of thecar had a chain-link fence wrapped around it. No wheels were left on,the car was totally trashed.’226 | Goodwood festival of speed