1975 March Formula 5000 Race Car

March Engineering burst onto the racing scene in 1969, the team founded by Max Mosley, Robin Herd, Alan Rees and Graham Coaker. After starting with an F3 design, the team quickly moved into the bright lights of Formula One with a customer car supplied to Ken Tyrrell for star driver Jackie Stewart, along with works entries for Jo Siffert and Chris Amon. The following year saw a radical new design with aerodynamics by Frank Costin, driven by Ronnie Peterson without much success, while March continued to expand their operations to include customer racing cars in Formula 2, 3 and sports cars. It was a privateer - British-born Canadian John Cannon - who helped March move into Formula 5000, combining a March F2 chassis with Oldsmobile V8 power in 1972. Cannon first made an impact driving in the Formula 5000 series for the team owned by TV actor Dan Blocker, winning the 1970 US series title in a McLaren M10B. He also drove in the 1971 European Formula 2 Championship with some impressive results and even started in the US Formula One Grand Prix that year at the wheel of a BRM P153. Cannon had some good results in his hybrid during 1972 and went on to become one of the stalwarts of March's attempts to win in America. In 1973, the first official March F5000 customer car - the 73A - left the factory and six were ultimately made but the company never really got started in the category and their last F5000 car, the 76A, was made just three seasons later.