March won his last Grand Prix exactly 40 years ago
09/13/2016
Yesterday was exactly 40 years to the day that Ronnie Peterson won a Grand Prix for March for the last time in the March 761 on September 12, 1976. This was the famous Monza Grand Prix, where Niki Lauda was competing for the first time since his serious accident at the Nürburgring.
March was founded in 1969 by Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd and it was letters from these names that gave the racing cars their names.
The photo above shows Robin Herd, driver Ronnie Peterson and Max Mosley with the March 721 of 1972.
Big things were planned right from the start: the company wanted to enter Formula 1 as early as 1970, and so it did. With the models 701, 711, 721 and so on, March equipped a wide variety of racing drivers with equipment capable of winning, including Chris Amon, Jo Siffert, Ronnie Peterson, Andrea de Adamich, Nanni Galli, Niki Lauda, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Henri Pescarolo, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Vittorio Brambilla.
March not only built Formula 1 cars, however, but also vehicles for Formula 2, Formula 3, the American IndyCar series, CanAm and IMSA GTP.
The great days of the March team were in the seventies and eighties, but a total of two Formula 1 GP victories were actually a small yield for the sometimes quite competitive monoposti from Bicester, Oxfordshire. Today, March cars are frequently seen in historic racing, as some of the pictures show.
To commemorate the March F1 cars of the seventies, we have put together a special picture magic series .
