On this day in Motor Racing's past

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#1081

Post by erwin greven »

Bottom post of the previous page:

Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
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#1082

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Touching, but sad and chilling story. Thanks for sharing though.

RIP Jimmy. :rip: :bow: :flag:

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#1083

Post by erwin greven »

Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
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#1084

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

erwin greven wrote: 3 years ago
Hehehe Murray Walker.... "And Mario Andretti is off for the third time in three races...." (next time he mentioned he got it right (Michael Andretti).

Certainly a great lap, but I believe as much as his skill in those conditions was clearly evident, perhaps some of his progress was due to the rumoured 'secret' development traction control his car supposedly had fitted that day. Also compounded by Williams having gambled on a (retrospectively) not ideal setup. McLaren certainly nailed theirs and Ayrton used it to the best advantage.:wink:

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#1085

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Ayrton had the luck of driving for factory teams almost with the word go. Thinking of similarly fast but even more mad drivers such as Stefan Bellof there
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#1086

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Andy wrote: 3 years ago Ayrton had the luck of driving for factory teams almost with the word go. Thinking of similarly fast but even more mad drivers such as Stefan Bellof there
.... who I think was better in the wet than Senna.

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#1087

Post by erwin greven »

Andy wrote: 3 years ago Ayrton had the luck of driving for factory teams almost with the word go. Thinking of similarly fast but even more mad drivers such as Stefan Bellof there
Yes. Started with Toleman. Went to Lotus in demise, then McLaren and finished with 3 races with Williams.
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#1088

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

April 12th 2020

12 months ago today since we lost Sir Stirling Moss......

Sir Stirling tribute thread here on TFL : http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/forums/vi ... 17&t=16561

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#1089

Post by Andy »

Stefan and Ayrton and a third guy whose name I forgot about were invited to a rookie test at McLaren and Ayrton won that shootout, this is a fact.
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#1090

Post by Andy »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 3 years ago
Andy wrote: 3 years ago Ayrton had the luck of driving for factory teams almost with the word go. Thinking of similarly fast but even more mad drivers such as Stefan Bellof there
.... who I think was better in the wet than Senna.
I tend to think that both on similarly competitive material would have pulled the Senna / Prost affairs a wee bit forward (exchange names here ;) ). Of course, we will never know.
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#1091

Post by erwin greven »

Andy wrote: 3 years ago Stefan and Ayrton and a third guy whose name I forgot about were invited to a rookie test at McLaren and Ayrton won that shootout, this is a fact.
Could have been Brundle.

https://www.ayrtonsenna.com.br/en/pilot ... ia-na-f-1/

Also here a part of Bellof and his test with McLaren.
https://www.stefan-bellof.de/en/blog/20 ... ive/b-499/
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#1092

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On this day, April 14th 1929, we witnessed the first ever Monaco Grand Prix.

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Image
William Grover-Williams in the foreground during the 1929 Monaco GP

Image

Image

Image

Edit: Just noticed the date on this poster is incorrect. Must be a modern recreation poster as it was definately held on the 14th April. Also noticed the reference to prize money is potentilly wrong with the original winner getting 100,000 francs. (unless 200,000 mentionedwas the overall prize pool including starting money.)

Date 14 April 1929
Official name Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco
Location Circuit de Monaco
Monte Carlo
Course Street circuit
Course length 3.180 km (1.976 mi)
Distance 100 laps, 318.0 km (197.6 mi)
Weather Dry


Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom William Grover-Williams Bugatti
Time 2:15.0


Podium

First
William Grover-Williams
Bugatti

Second
Georges Bouriano
Bugatti

Third
Rudolf Caracciola
Mercedes-Benz

On April 14th l1929 the first Grand Prix of Monaco was run through the streets of Monte Carlo. The course was extremely tricky and included innumerable bends and two hairpins. It had to be covered one hundred times. The course was cleared just previous to the race by Prince Pierre of Monaco who drove round at the wheel of a Voisin car.

It was set up by wealthy cigarette manufacturer, Antony Noghès, who had set up the Automobile Club de Monaco with some of his friends. This offer of a Grand Prix was supported by Prince Louis II, and the Monégasque driver of that time, Louis Chiron. On 14 April 1929, their plan became reality, when 16 invited participants turned out to race for a prize of 100,000 French francs.

There were no qualifying heats, instead grid positions were drawn by a ballot. Philippe Étancelin drew pole position, while main rival Rudolf Caracciola started 15th.

The race was notable for the terrific duel which took place between Williams (2,300 c.c. supercharged Bugatti) the ultimate winner, and Caracciola (7,000 c.c. supercharged Mercedes). Williams took the lead soon after the start hotly pursued by Caracciola. On the thirty sixth lap Caracciola passed Williams who had been in the lead all the time but Williams regained the lead on the forty-second lap. On his fiftieth lap Williams stopped at the pits for replenishments and in spite of being very quick, he naturally lost the lead again to the Mercedes. On the fifty-first lap the Mercedes came into the pits and owing to its heavy petrol consumption was some time filling up. Both rear wheels were changed also, and as a result Williams regained his leading position and increased his lead by over a lap. Both Bouriano and Philippe, on Bugattis also got ahead of the Mercedes but Phillipe held third position for only a few laps when he was passed by the Mercedes.


Finishing order:

1. William Grover-Williams (UK) Bugatti T35B (car 12)
2. Georges Bouriano (RO) Bugatti T35C (car 18)
3. Rudolf Caracciola (DE) Mercedes-Benz SSK (car 34)
4. Georges Philippe Bugatti (FR) T35C (car 14)
5. René Dreyfus (FR) Bugatti T37A (car 28)
6. Philippe Étancelin (FR) Bugatti T35C (car 4)
7. Mario Lepori (IT) Bugatti T35C (car 30)
8. Michel Doré Corre (FR) La Licorne (car 32)
9. France Louis Rigal (FR) Alfa Romeo 6C (car 24)


Image
Start of the 1929 Monaco Grand Prix


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William Grover-Williams en route to victory


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Caracciola (pictured) duelled with Williams for most of the race


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William Grover-Williams in Monte Carlo, 1929


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William Grover-Williams in the foreground during the 1929 Monaco GP


ImageWinner William Grover-Williams crossing the finish line


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1929 monaco gp - diego de sterlich (#26 maserati 26b) dnf 16 laps, mario leopori (bugatti 35c) 7th




Pathe News video of the day.




Some great photos on this link (yes I know it is the Daily Fail but these are ok....)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -Prix.html

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#1093

Post by Michael Ferner »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 2 years ago Edit: Just noticed the date on this poster is incorrect. Must be a modern recreation poster as it was definately held on the 14th April. Also noticed the reference to prize money is potentilly wrong with the original winner getting 100,000 francs. (unless 200,000 mentionedwas the overall prize pool including starting money.)
No, not the date on the poster is wrong, it's the wrong poster! (wrong race) :haha:

Good post! :thumbsup:
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#1094

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Michael Ferner wrote: 2 years ago
Everso Biggyballies wrote: 2 years ago Edit: Just noticed the date on this poster is incorrect. Must be a modern recreation poster as it was definately held on the 14th April. Also noticed the reference to prize money is potentilly wrong with the original winner getting 100,000 francs. (unless 200,000 mentionedwas the overall prize pool including starting money.)
No, not the date on the poster is wrong, it's the wrong poster! (wrong race) :haha:
:haha: Yes a bit more research had me discover not only the wrong race (I had wrongly thought the race title might have been an AKA used at the time), but also the wrong venue. :omg: The race on the poster was AFAIK held at the La Garoupe ("Cap d'Antibes") circuit.

I knew from personally touring the area (albeit many years ago) that Antibes and Juan-les-Pins were both very local to Monaco. Bottom line, my bad and thanks for pointing it out. We live and learn. :wink:

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#1095

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Happy 79th Birthday to Sir Frank Williams. :drunk: :flag:

I believe he is the world's second oldest surviving quadraplegic.
(FYI Walter Lewis in the US is the longest surviving, having been paralyzed from the neck down in a car crash back in 1959 aged 19. SFW is a year younger than Walter Lewis, although Lewis has been a quadraplegic for many years longer than SFW, who suffered his injuries in 1986 . I know Lewis was still alive at Christmas time.)

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#1096

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this weekend in 1971


Tyrrell’s first F1 win: the 1971 Spanish GP


Image
Jackie Stewart took Tyrrell's first victory as both a team and constructor


A thrilling duel through Barcelona’s Montjuïch Park ended with Jackie Stewart claiming the first Formula 1 win for a Tyrrell car 50 years ago this weekend.


This is how Denis Jenkinson reported it in MotorSport Magazine
The Tyrrell’s first victory

Barcelona, April 18th.


For the second time in the current Formula One, the Spanish Grand Prix was held on the remarkable circuit in the Montjuich Park in the heart of Barcelona, the first time being in 1969, when front and rear aerofoils were at their greatest height and lots of them fell off, some right in front of officialdom, so that an instant rule was passed which banned high aerofoils and movable ones. Consequently the lap record was considered by some to be an ultimate, they feeling that the new aerofoil rules were stunting progress. That was nonsense, of course, and two years of development and progress in engine-power, brakes, road-holding and handling have more than made up for any advantages that the high aerofoils might have given. The 1969 lap record was left at 1 min. 28.3 sec. by Rindt with a Lotus 49, and practice in 1971 was barely half-way through before anyone who was anyone in Grand Prix racing was way below this figure, and everyone was there to have a go, right from the moment that practice began on the Thursday evening before the race.

As the paddock gate was opened the cars and drivers came out one by one and set off for practice, and it was a sight to enthral any regular racing enthusiast, let alone the thousands of locals who probably had not seen or heard a Grand Prix car engine since 1969. Amon (Matra V12), Andretti (Ferrari flat 12), Stewart (Tyrrell V8), Rodriguez (BRM V12), Regazzoni (Ferrari flat 12), the Lotus 72 cars, the March 711 cars, the Surtees cars, they were all there, and were all ready to go, all that is except Gethin whose McLaren M14A was in the paddock with leaking fuel tanks. The way the numerous 12-cylinder cars moved away up the hill from the pits, with the relatively flat-sounding V8s intermingled with them, was stirring stuff and started the whole meeting off on a keen note, like the first bull into the ring being a real brave one. Some were really ready to go, like Amon with the first of the 1971 Matras, and Stewart with last year’s Tyrrell which he was using as a spare car having a brand-new Tyrrell car all ready for him whenever he wanted it, this being the third car from the Tyrrell team.

At the opposing end of the field were numerous newcomers, who were not only feeling their way along in the Grand Prix scene, but were also discovering the twists and turns, up and downs, humps and bumps of the Montjuich circuit for the first time, and others like Stommelen, who was sitting in his brand-new Surtees for the first time and finding that nothing really fitted him, though the car was basically all right as Surtees had bedded it in at the Easter meeting at OuIton Park. The Lotus team had converted both of their 72 models to the new arrangement of oil tank, single-piece aerofoil and twin oil radiators at the rear, and had built aluminium ducts to scoop air into them, as Ferrari did on his 1970 models and BRM on this year’s models. Fittipaldi was in 72C/R5 and had alternative nose cowlings available, last year’s with the NACA ducts taking air to the front brakes, and the 1971 nose with a smooth top and waisted sides taking cooling air into the inboard brakes from the sides. Wisell was in 72C/R3 with the 1971-type nose. The strong Ferrari trio of Ickx, Andretti and Regazzoni were all in 1970 Ferraris, respectively No. 3, No. 2 and No. 4, and were expecting a 1971 car the following day. Hill had the odd-looking Brabham BT34 with the outrigger radiators, and Schenken had the BT33 he had driven for the team at Brands Hatch. Hulme had the 1971 McLaren and Gethin the 1970 model he drove so well at Oulton Park.

Stewart’s official car for the race was a brand-new Tyrrell, making its first appearance, and he had the original car as a training car, while Cevert was in the rebuilt second car. The BRM team had four cars, two 1971 models and two 1970 models, with Rodriguez in P160/01, Siffert in P160/02 and Ganley in P153/03, with P153/07 as a spare in case anyone did any serious damage to his own car. The STP-March team were out in force with three 711 models, all with the front brakes mounted on the hubs instead of inboard, and all lacking the fancy covers over the side radiators and the engine. Andrea de Adamich had the first car, with an Alfa Romeo V8 engine, Peterson had the second car, with a Cosworth V8 engine, and Soler-Roig had the fourth car built, also with a Cosworth V8, all three being painted STP red, (but not Reflectagto red). The third 711 to be built was being driven by Pescarolo for Frank Williams, and it had been severely modified with stronger front wishbones, strengthening gussets here and there, a stronger rear suspension frame under the gearbox, and hub-mounted front brakes, and was painted in its usual dark blue.

The Matra team had their two 1971 cars, designated MS120B, with Amon in the first one, which has a very similar monocoque to the 1970 model, and Beltoise, back in the fold after having his licence returned, following the unfortunate Buenos Aires crash incident, in the second one. Their numbering follows on from 1970, being 04 and 05, respectively, the second car having smooth, sloping sides to the monocoque instead of the angular, shelf-like layout of the earlier cars. Amon had one of the 1970 cars as a spare, and both the new cars were using the high intake duct that looms over the driver’s head like a bird’s beak. The final team was the Surtees duo, with the owner in TS9/001 and Stommelen in TS9/002. This race should have seen the whole entry carrying their obligatory red rear lights, but for some obscure reason the idea has been postponed until July.

Image
Ickx took pole for Ferrari

Image
The race gets underway

The race was due to start at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, by which time the skies were very clear and the sun was blazing down on the enormous crowd that lined the circuit. After some confusion and chaos in the marshalling area the cars were wheeled out, and along with the drivers were presented to the grandstands of honour, before being sent away one at a time on a warm-up lap. Ickx used the opportunity to try his Ferrari as if in the race, and he could not have breasted the hill after the start any quicker had he been racing. The twenty-two starters lined up on the grid, there only being two Cosworth V8-powered cars in the first three rows, Stewart’s Tyrrell in the second row and Gethin’s McLaren in the third row, ready for the start of the 75-lap race, a long and gruelling 284 kilometres round the difficult and exacting 3.79 kilometre circuit, with little or no room for error, under a blazing sun.

Up and over the hill the whole pack roared, with Stewart hard on the heels of the Ferraris of Ickx and Regazzoni, the young Belgian boy obviously being out to win. As they all crowded up at the first hairpin the leaders swept round, but in the mid-field someone chopped across the front of Hill’s Brabham and clouted a front wheel so hard it took the steering wheel out of his hands and he found himself almost stationary on the apex of the hairpin. This caused a chain-reaction among the tail-enders, and Surtees, Stommelen, Soler-Roig and one or two others were forced to stop completely, while Schenken and Wisell went round the outside. This little fracas deranged the steering on Hill’s Brabham, and Surtees crumpled a nose tin. Hill was forced to give up, Surtees later stopped and changed his crumpled cowling for the one off Stommelen’s car, as the second Surtees would not run properly due to bits of metal finding their way through all the filters and jamming the fuel pressure relief valve open, so the German driver had retired.

Siffert came in to retire with damaged gear-change linkage on the gearbox, thought to be due to being involved with someone on the first hairpin nonsense. Meanwhile, Ickx and Stewart were soon out on their own and there began one of the better Grand Prix races. The old lap-record went almost instantly, and Stewart was hounding Ickx mercilessly and got by on lap six, but his lead was neglible. For the whole race these two battled it out, lapping faster and faster, and Stewart was on the limit all the time, with Ickx driving equally as hard and keeping Stewart right on his toes. Diving, twisting and turning round the park these two kept at it in a masterly display of driving, leaving all the opposition behind, and lapping all the slower cars, some of them twice. In and out of the traffic Stewart tried all he knew to get rid of the Ferrari, but there was no hope, Ickx kept pressing all the time, but towards half-distance Stewart’s stamina began to tell, and little by little he opened up a gap and it got to as much as nine seconds, but then Ickx seemed to get a second wind, and as the fuel load was going down the Ferrari was handling better and better.

Image
Ickx leads Stewart

The gap now began to close and bit by bit Ickx was closing it, all the while the lap-record being broken time and time again by both drivers. There was no relaxation for Stewart, he was driving at his absolute best, on the limit of everything all the time, and the brand-new Tyrrell was holding together. Closer and closer the red Ferrari got, until Ickx had the dark blue Tyrrell in sight down the twisty hill. As the Ferrari landed after the jump at the top of the hill past the pits, Ickx got a broadside view of the Tyrrell driving into the left-hand hairpin. They were both lapping faster than ever they had gone in practice, running consistently around 1 min. 25.5 sec., and on lap 69 Ickx recorded 1 min. 25.1 sec., an all-time record lap. In the closing laps they blasted past some back markers, but Stewart made no mistakes, and he finished the 75th lap going as hard as he has ever had to drive, with the red Ferrari in hot pursuit. Both cars had been driven to their absolute limit and both had responded perfectly, neither one missing a beat or failing in any way.

It had been a memorable battle which kept everyone on their toes the whole time, and had completely overshadowed the rest of the runners, some of whom were doing good things, while some were best overlooked. Regazzoni’s initial spurt fizzled out when the low-pressure fuel pump down by the gearbox cracked and let the fuel pressure fluctuate, with a result that the engine ran on a weak mixture and began to seize up, so it was pulled out of the race before it wrecked itself completely. Andretti got into a good three-cornered battle with Rodriguez and Hulme, battling it out for fourth place behind Amon’s Matra. This went on until lap 43, when Andretti had to stop with a small fire going on at the back of the car. His fuel pump had also cracked, and sparks from the pump had set fire to the leaking fuel, but luckily with the power on the petrol was sucked away from the leak and the fire went out, but on the over-run into corners it would leak out and ignite again.

Hulme could see this happening and finally managed to alert Andretti’s attention to the hazard, and he stopped at the pits. Another pump was fitted and he went off again, but as with Regazzoni’s car, the weak mixture had been playing havoc with the inside of the engine, and as it was about to break Andretti stopped, with yet another fire started from the replacement pump. A well-meaning fireman covered everything with foam, including the driver, and that was the end of the American’s race.


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BRM's Pedro Rodriguez leads the Ferrari of Mario Andretti

Rodriguez ran right through in a steady fourth place, with Hulme fifth after a very satisfactory afternoon’s drive, except that he didn’t win. Amon had taken third place from Regazzoni on the third lap, and he held that position throughout the race, never looking like losing it, nor improving on it, the Matra running strongly apart from a hesitant pick-up from the slow corners. Gethin profited from his good starting position but gradually dropped back, and was relegated to a steady eighth place behind Beltoise and Cevert. The Matra driver went well, but Stewart’s young team-mate drove even better, and gradually closed on Beltoise until he got to the point of making a bid to snatch sixth place. Just at that moment, on lap 64, Stewart appeared behind him, at the height of his battle with lckx, so dutifully Cevert got out of the way to let Stewart by and lost all hope of taking sixth place from Beltoise.

As at the Race of Champions, Schenken in a Brabham, and Ganley in a BRM were remarkably evenly matched and ran in close company throughout the race, even recording identical fastest laps at 1 min. 28.9 sec. This time Schenken led all the way, and made no mistake at the end, so that they finished ninth and tenth. The Lotus pair were never in the picture, Fittipaldi having no faith in his brakes, especially after the warning light had come on, indicating low fluid level, but a stop at the pits made no improvement after bleeding them and adding more fluid. The car continued to swoop about under heavy braking, and after the race a break was found in part of the rear suspension cross-member assembly.

Wisell was equally unimpressive, suffering most of the time with a recalcitrant gear-change, due possibly to it being out of correct adjustment after repositioning the gear lever, when he decided in practice to adopt a different driving position. Pescarolo’s apparent burst of speed in the first practice did not develop into anything better, and in the race his engine was never on full song. In the opening stages he was in twelfth place and just about hanging on to the mid-field bunch, but could not have been too pleased when he was lapped first by Beltoise on lap 47, and then by Cevert, on lap 49. Shortly after that the front mounting of the rear aerofoil broke, and that was sufficient to call it a day with the dark blue March. The three red March 711 cars ended the day spread round the circuit, Peterson’s engine dying from electrical trouble quite early in the race, when he was just ahead of Pescarolo, while the Alfa Romeo-powered March wrecked its final drive unit and Soler-Roig was in twelfth place when a fuel pipe broke and brought him to rest.



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Jackie Stewart stands on the podium with his wife Helen after winning the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix


For the first two cars it had been a brilliant race, hard-fought and won by sheer driving ability on Stewart’s part, for the other twenty cars it had either been steady and dull with unsatisfactory results, for everyone would like to win or be an honourable second, or it had been disastrous and a miserable failure. For the huge and excitable crowd it had been a day to remember, with sights and sound they may not see again until 1973.—D. S. J.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... and-prix-4

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
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