We regret having to report the death of Life Member John Lepp last Tuesday 25 November at the age of 87. A Life Member, John first joined the BRDC in 1969, the year in which he won the RAC British Sports Car Championship at the wheel of his Chevron-BMW B8. Two years earlier in 1967, John won the Motoring News Special GT Championship in the first of several Chevrons which he campaigned to considerable effect from 1966 to 1974 both in the United Kingdom and overseas.
John was born in St Austell, Cornwall but the family moved to the North West of England where John’s father established a successful jewellery business in Altrincham. John took over the business when his father retired and Chevrons, with ‘Lepps the Jewellers’ emblazoned on the bodywork, became a regular feature of the British racing scene in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.
John, or ‘Leppie’ as he came to be known, started racing his roadgoing Lotus Elan at Mallory Park in June 1964, finishing second in a GT race to the Elan of Rex Willoughby. The first Elan gave way to one of the ex-Chequered Flag Type 26R Elans with which John became the Elan man to beat at circuits such as Aintree, Mallory Park and Oulton Park so that, by the end of the year he had notched up several victories plus as many second and third places. With the support of Manchester Lotus Dealer Rodney Bloor of Sports Motors (Manchester) in 1965 John spread his wings beyond the North West and Midlands circuits, venturing down to Brands Hatch and Goodwood, taking victory in a Redex Special GT Championship race ahead of Lotus Elan luminary Keith Burnand.
The Elan 26R was retained for the first part of the 1966 season while John awaited delivery of Derek Bennett’s new creation – the GT – of which the prototype was to win first time out at Oulton Park in July in the hands of Digby Martland. For a final fling with the Elan, John ventured north across the border to Ingliston where he finished second to local star Bill Dryden’s Elan. The Chevron, which came to be given the model number B3, was to the same spec as the prototype and powered by a Lotus Ford Twin Cam engine while Derek developed the 2-litre BMW-engined B4. Before the year was out John had gained his first taste of European racing, sharing his car with Peter Gethin to eighth place overall, and second in class, in the Montlhery 1000 Ks.
The B3 was used by John to great effect in 1967 to win the Motoring News Special GT Championship, winning five of the championship rounds – at Oulton Park, Mallory Park, Silverstone (twice) and Snetterton. For 1968 John acquired a new Chevron-BMW B8 with which he contested his most intensive season to date since he also shared the Cosworth FVA-powered Chevron of John Bridges in some Sports Car World Championship races. A particular highlight was finishing sixth in the Nurburgring 500 Ks behind three dominant factory Abarths, an Alpine and Mark Konig’s Nomad in a massive entry. As already mentioned, 1969 was the year in which John won the RAC Sports Car Championship, the equivalent of today’s British GT Championship, taking victories at Thruxton and Mallory Park. In the RAC Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park John was classified fourth overall behind the Lola T70 Mk 3Bs of Trevor Taylor and David Piper and the Lotus-Vauxhall Type 62 of John Miles, the race having to be stopped after two hours following the fiery fatal accident to Paul Hawkins.
When the Chevron B8’s successor, the delectable B16, first appeared in mid-1969 John considered acquiring one to replace his B8 but, despite the new car winning the Nürburgring 500 ks first time out in the hands of Brian Redman, John found the B16’s handling ‘petrifying’ and decided against having one of his own. He did race a B16 occasionally, sharing John Bridges’s Cosworth FVA-powered version in the Nürburgring and Imola 500 K races and the Paris 1000 ks at Montlhery without any strong results. As the testing continued and other drivers had accidents in B16s, John felt reassured that he wasn’t the cause of the problems even if Brian Redman seemed to be able to drive round them. While Derek Bennett turned his attention to the open-bodied B16 Spyder which became the very successful B19, John set about proving his point that sports car drivers were just as good as single-seater drivers in serious single-seater racing. He struck a deal with renowned racing car wheeler-dealer Bob Howlings to run a Chevron B20 in the 1972 Yellow Pages Formula Atlantic Championship which had enjoyed a strong first season in 1971 when Vern Schuppan had won the title. When the new season started, John was straightaway on the pace, breaking the Brands Hatch lap record and finishing second to Vern. A few races later the tables were turned when John won a round of the Championship ahead of future F1 driver Vern. John also drove a B25 as a Formula Atlantic in the early opening round of the European Formula 2 Championship, finishing an excellent fifth overall on the aggregate of the two parts.
The Formula Atlantic experience was not John’s only competitive outing in a single seater. In 1976 he borrowed an EnsignN174 for a BRSCC club meeting on the Silverstone Club Circuit and set a new lap record at 51.6 seconds (112.19 mph) which stood for the best part of 10 years until broken by John Brindley’s March 821 at 49.4 seconds (117.18 mph) in 1985.
Having been put off acquiring a Chevron B16 by its dubious handling, John commissioned Les Redmond to design and build a 2-litre sports-prototype of his own – the Spectre. Disappointingly, what could have been a seriously competitive car was beset with various teething woes, only rarely finishing a race. However, it did give John one strong result with third overall in an Interserie race at Croft behind the March 707 of Helmut Kelleners and a Porsche 917 in the hands of Jurgen Neuhaus but ahead of David Prophet’s McLaren M12 and of course all the other 2-litre cars.
After the disappointing Spectre experience, John reverted to Chevron for 1971 with a B19 run by Derek Buller-Sinfield of Central Garage (Mirfield). John won at Thruxton after an intense battle with former Gold Leaf Team Lotus F1 driver John Miles, took seconds at Croft and Ingliston and thirds at Thruxton, Silverstone and Montlhery. Continuing with the B19 in 1972 John won at Estoril ahead of one of his fastest rivals, Martin Raymond and, and finished second at Thruxton before agreeing an arrangement for 1973 with John Bridges who had invested in the Chevron company. A great start to the season saw John win the opening round of the European 2-litre sports car championship with a new B23 which was followed by second place at Misano to the Lola T292 of Chris Craft. At Estoril in July John achieved his only other win of the year in a campaign which became riddled with retirements.
John’s final season with Chevron was 1974 with a B26 with which John took victories at Croft twice and Thruxton whilst in the European 2-litre series he was second at Hockenheim and third at Clermont-Ferrand and Paul Ricard. Rounding off a mixed season, John teamed up with South African driver Guy Tunmer to take an excellent fourth place in the Kyalami 9 Hours ahead of a host of professionals and behind only the two works Matra MS670Cs and the Gulf Mirage GR7. They also secured the 2-litre class. It was a good note for John on which to end his time racing Chevrons. F or the next two years John switched allegiance to March to drive in the colours of Ultramar in association with Guy Edwards. In 1975 there were victories in the British Sports Car Championship at Silverstone, Thruxton and Ingliston while in the following year, still with March, John won rounds of the Championship at Silverstone, Snetterton and Brands Hatch By now support for what had been a superb class of racing a few years earlier had dwindled to the point where both the European and British series were abandoned. John did not exactly hang up his helmet and kept his hand in with occasional appearances in touring cars in the RAC Tourist Trophy round of the European Touring Car Championship with an Alfa Romeo Alfetta 2000 GTV shared with Formula Ford star of the time Derek Lawrence. With Roger Eccles and John Cooper John drove a Mercedes-Benz 190E to 10th place overall in the 1986 Nurburgring 24 Hours. He also accepted an invitation from friend and long-time rival John Burton to drive the latter’s Chevron B26 in a Historic Sports Car race many years after he had stopped racing regularly; in winning this ‘one off’ race John showed that the old magic was still there.
A jeweller by profession John was a self-effacing individual but very competitive behind the wheel of a racing car. He will no doubt be best remembered for his exploits in sports cars but his forays into single-seaters, and particularly that long-standing outright lap record for the Silverstone National Circuit, should not be forgotten. And Lepps the Jewellers still has its shop in Altrincham – long may it be so. He took a keen interest in the BRDC of which he was proud to be a Life Member. The BRDC extends its most sincere condolences to John’s wife Antonia and extended family for their loss. A private funeral has been arranged for Wednesday 17th December.