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32-571: The Shadow DN1 was to be the first car for Don Nichols ' Formula One team, newly established to participate in the 1973 Formula One season . The team did have some racing expertise, having participated in the CanAm Sportscar Series and also bringing in experienced British racing personnel including engineer Tony Southgate and manager Alan Rees . Designed by Southgate, the DN1 used an aluminum monocoque and double wishbone suspension, and

64-699: A U.S. Army combat veteran of World War II and Korea who then served in Military Intelligence, later found success as an entrepreneur in Japan before returning to the U.S. and setting up his own company called Advanced Vehicle Systems in 1968. In 1970 he raced his first CanAm car. He decided to call it Shadow, with the team's logo featuring a cloaked spy. Jackie Oliver won the CanAm title for Shadow in 1974. With major sponsorship from Universal Oil Products (UOP), Nichols expanded his operation and entered F1 at

96-422: A breakdown while in a commanding lead. Tom Pryce scored Shadow's first F1 win at the non-championship 1975 Race of Champions where Pryce won pole position, set fastest lap and win by over 30 seconds over second place finisher John Watson . Despite numerous successes during the season, original sponsor UOP, notified Nichols late in 1975 that they would be withdrawing their sponsorship. UOP's level of sponsorship

128-602: A popular historic category in Australia and New Zealand with the Tasman Revival Series running races in both countries. The S5000 Australian Drivers' Championship is marketed as a modern interpretation of Formula 5000, featuring a modern European-built open wheeler chassis fitted with a large-capacity V8 engine. The South African Formula One Championship was opened to Formula 5000 cars in 1968, with these racing against Formula One and Formula Two cars until

160-573: A significant number of continental drivers. The weak pound (a result of the energy crisis) and the increasing cost of importing Chevrolet V8 engines caused some concern and engine regulations for European F5000 were revised to permit engines other than the 5.0 litre pushrod V8s - the DOHC Cosworth GA V6 (based on a unit used in Group 2 Capris was permitted to race at a capacity of 3500cc. March 75A and Chevron B30 cars were successful with

192-613: A tribute to Formula 5000 in 2008. At that time, the Wine Country Classic was a sister event to the popular Monterey Historic Automobile Races held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California . In 2014, the Rolex Monterey Reunion featured Formula 5000 cars as a featured race to conclude the weekend and the 2015 get together included Formula 5000 cars as well. 1971 SCCA Formula A Champion

224-639: The Arrows FA1 cars and associated tooling. Shadow was in further financial decline, and while fielding cars for 1979 and 1980 F1 seasons, the cars were not competitive. In 1981 Nichols sold his assets to the Theodore team of Chinese businessman Teddy Yip . No longer fielding a racing team, Nichols develop plans for various military vehicles under the name of "ShadowBox". These wheeled vehicles were intended to be compact, highly mobile combat vehicles and would be brought to forward areas by helicopter or inside

256-530: The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey . He died at the age of 92 on August 21, 2017. This biographical article related to United States auto racing is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Formula One biographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . F5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000 ) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around

288-652: The IMSA GT Championship in 1981, the old F5000 were now clumsy and slow compared to the new cars . In the UK, the arrival of the Cosworth DFV engine meant that many teams could now afford to build their own chassis around a good engine/transmission package, so Cooper , Lotus and Brabham stopped the production of customer Formula 1 cars. Unfortunately, smaller privateer teams and drivers that entered Britain's non-championship F1 events were left behind, and

320-752: The RAC quickly adopted the American F5000 regulations. A European championship was first run in 1969 as the Guards Formula 5000 Championship. This was renamed to Guards European Formula 5000 Championship in 1970, to Rothmans European Formula 5000 Championship in 1971 and then to ShellSport European Formula 5000 Championship in 1975. Unlike the American series, the European championship didn't attract many star names from Formula 1 and sports cars, and

352-829: The 1970s Formula One had become more commercial and the Grand Prix stars no longer took part. The Tasman Series had become a competitive Australian/New Zealand local championship leaving the field to be dominated by the cream of "Down Under" drivers such as Frank Matich , Frank Gardner , Kevin Bartlett , Vern Schuppan , Graeme McRae , Graeme Lawrence , Warwick Brown , Johnnie Walker , John McCormack , Alan Jones , John Goss , Larry Perkins , John Bowe and Garrie Cooper racing against European and American drivers such as David Hobbs , Teddy Pilette , Mike Hailwood , Sam Posey , Richard Attwood and Peter Gethin . The four Australian Formula 5000 Tasman races continued (separate from

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384-452: The DN1 for his first two races of the year, retiring from both. Graham Hill also purchased a Shadow DN1 during the 1973 season for his newly established team, Embassy Racing . Driving the team's only entry, which ran in a largely white scheme with a red cordon imitating the sponsor's cigarette packets, Hill failed to score any points with the DN1. His best finish was ninth at the 1973 Belgian Grand Prix . Embassy Hill switched to Lolas for

416-767: The New Zealand races) as the Rothmans International Series from 1976 until 1979. Formula 5000 was also the main component of Australian Formula 1 from 1971 to 1981 and this formula was the primary category contesting the Australian Drivers' Championship during those years and the Australian Grand Prix until 1980. Although still called Australian Formula 1 until 1983, F5000 was replaced by Formula Pacific and Formula Mondial after 1981. While European cars such as

448-700: The V6, the March in particular being little more than a 751 Formula One car with minor modifications for the new engine. However, the same problem that befell US F5000 happened in Europe, and in 1976 the European F5000 Championship evolved into the Shellsport Group 8 Championship. This was a British-based series for Formula 1 , Formula 2 , Formula 5000 and Formula Atlantic cars, forming

480-703: The basis of what would become the Aurora F1 Championship in 1978. The F1 Championship was open to Formula 1 and Formula 2 cars only, with Formula 5000 cars no longer eligible. Older F5000 cars continued to be used in the British Sprint Championship and were common in Formula Libre races well into the 1980s. In Australia and New Zealand, the Tasman Formula, defining cars eligible for the annual Tasman Series ,

512-664: The first two races of the 1973 season, but the team arrived in South Africa for the South African Grand Prix with two entries for its drivers. The lead driver for Shadow was the experienced former BRM and Team Lotus driver Jackie Oliver while driving the other car was George Follmer who, although a novice in Formula One, had extensive experience in sportscar racing. Follmer finished sixth in South Africa, and followed this performance up with third in

544-574: The following race. Oliver took another third place for the team in the penultimate race of the year in Canada. Shadow entered a third car for Brian Redman for the final race of the year but he failed to add to the team's points tally for the year. Shadow finished the year with nine points and eighth place in the constructor's championship. In 1974 , the DN1 was superseded by the Shadow DN3 although new Shadow driver Jean-Pierre Jarier had to drive

576-493: The following season. ( key ) (Results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap.) * All points scored in 1974 were with Shadow DN3 cars [REDACTED] Media related to Shadow DN1 at Wikimedia Commons Don Nichols Don Nichols (November 23, 1924 – August 21, 2017) was the founder and former principal of the Shadow CanAm and Formula One racing team. Nichols,

608-599: The formula quickly lost its appeal after 1975. Older cars continued to be used in the SCCA national races, but the most competitive teams reconverted their cars with sports car bodyworks, in the resurrected Can-Am championship, starting in 1977. The formula worked initially, with a number of European drivers crossing the Atlantic to attend the SCCA-run championship, but when IMSA introduced the new GTP prototype regulations for

640-440: The remainder of the season. The 1975 season saw Nichols fielding a two-car Shadow F1 team and with the CanAm series now no longer racing, a single and occasional two car Shadow F5000 team. The season showed tremendous promise with Jarier claiming the team's first pole position at the 1975 Argentine Grand Prix in the all new Shadow DN5 followed by a second pole position and near win by Jarier at 1975 Brazilian Grand Prix before

672-543: The series switched to Formula Atlantic from 1976 onwards. The category was revived in the late 2000s in New Zealand as an amateur historic racing category. In 2009/2010, a five round race series was held, the final round as a support race for the 2010 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia. The annual Wine Country Classic, a historic automobile racing event held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California , had

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704-461: The start of the 1973 season with Oliver and George Follmer driving the new Shadow DN1 . In 1974 Nichols retained Peter Revson and Jean Pierre Jarier to drive the new Shadow DN3 which saw Jarier score a 3rd at Monaco. Tragically, Revson was killed during testing at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa when a suspension part failed. Tom Pryce was brought in later that year to replace Revson for

736-712: The team management including designer Tony Southgate to walk out of Shadow to form the Arrows team. Arrows fielded their first F1 car, the FA1 in January, 1978 at the Brazilian Grand Prix that was remarkably similar in design to Shadow's yet to be fielded Shadow DN9 . Don Nichols took the case to the British courts, claiming copyright infringement. The Court concurred with Nichols and required that Arrows turnover all

768-453: The track to aid Renzo Zori's Shadow that had broken down. Pryce was struck in the helmet by the extinguisher killing him and the marshal instantly. Nichols contracted Alan Jones to replace Pryce. Despite Shadow's difficulties in 1977, the season saw one bright spot when Alan Jones scored Shadow's only grand Prix points victory at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix . During the 1977 season, the team's decline and frustration with Nichols led most of

800-594: The various Lolas , McLarens and Chevrons were popular, locally made cars from Matich (Matich A50, A51, A52 and A53), Elfin ( Elfin MR5 , MR6, MR8 and the MR9, the only ground effects F5000 ever built) and McRae were also successful. The most popular engine used was the 5.0 L Chevrolet V8 , with the Australian made Repco Holden , based on the 5.0 L Holden V8 engine , also popular and successful. Formula 5000 remains

832-525: The world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars that no longer fit into any particular formula. The '5000' denomination comes from the maximum 5.0 litre engine capacity allowed in the cars, although many cars ran with smaller engines. Manufacturers included McLaren , Eagle , March , Lola , Lotus , Elfin , Matich and Chevron . In its declining years in North America Formula 5000

864-399: Was a never adequately replaced. Nichols and Oliver secured a Swiss tobacco company, Tabatip Cigarillos, to sponsor the team on a limited basis for the 1976-77 season with additional sponsorship coming from Franco Ambrosio for the 1977 season. Shadow faced a tragedy similar to the loss of Revson when Tom Pryce was killed during the 1977 South African Grand Prix when a track marshal ran across

896-546: Was dominated by drivers that were usually seen in Formula 2 or at the back of F1's World Championship grids. Peter Gethin managed to launch his F1 career thanks to his F5000 championship titles. While it was based in the United Kingdom, the series managed to spread across Europe, with races held at many international circuits, including Monza (Italy), Hockenheim (Germany) and Zandvoort (Netherlands), and attracted

928-467: Was extended in 1970 to include Formula 5000 cars as well as the existing 2.5 litre cars. The Tasman Series ran during the Formula One off season in the European winter, and in the 1960s it had attracted the attention of the greatest names in Grand Prix racing, from locals Jack Brabham , Denny Hulme , Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon , to foreigners like Graham Hill , Jim Clark , Jackie Stewart , Phil Hill , Piers Courage and Jochen Rindt . However, by

960-611: Was inspired by the success of the Can-Am Series, which featured unlimited formula sports cars fitted with very powerful engines derived from American V8s ; the idea was to replicate the concept using open wheel racing cars. F5000 enjoyed popularity in the early 1970s in the U.S. and featured drivers such as Mario Andretti , Al Unser , Bobby Unser , James Hunt , Jody Scheckter , Brian Redman , David Hobbs , Tony Adamowicz , Sam Posey , Ian Ashley , John Cannon and Eppie Wietzes . Increasing costs and Lola domination meant

992-580: Was modified into a closed wheel, but still single-seat sports car racing category. Formula 5000 was introduced in 1968 as a class within SCCA Formula A races, a series where single seaters from different origins were allowed to compete, but which rapidly came to be dominated by the cars equipped with production-based American V8s. The engines used were generally 5 litre, fuel injected Chevrolet engines with about 500 horsepower (370 kW) at 8000 rpm, although other makes were also used. The concept

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1024-491: Was powered by a 2993 cubic centimeters (182.6 cu in) Ford Cosworth DFV engine. Having recently only worked with the smooth-revving BRM V12 engines, Southgate did not allow sufficient damping and reinforcement to compensate for the vibration of the flat-plane V8 DFV. This caused some severe reliability issues for the cars, particularly at the start of the season. The Shadow works team cars were finished in an all black scheme, with sponsorship from UOP . Shadow missed

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