Funny Racing Stories

[hollie3sa]

Bottom post of the previous page:

No idea who /what Tiger King is/was or what he did......

This

[Everso Biggyballies]

An amusing story regarding Innes Ireland when discussing the fragility of Lotus cars.

Extract from an article by Nigel Roebuck (Journalist of note but also a good friend of Innes)

......... Innes was under no illusions about Lotuses of the time, reluctantly accepting that if Colin Chapman's radical cars were mighty quick, they were also mighty fragile: "Setting off on a lap of Spa, lad, it was best to put your imagination on a very low light. Something would break, and you'd come in, and they'd Sellotape it together, or whatever, and send you out again..."

In the mid-nineties one of my occasional auction visits involved items from Ireland's career, and one lot - a pair of overalls - was a stark reminder of those perilous days. In the catalogue, they were described thus: 'The blue cotton two-piece racing suit worn by Innes Ireland during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix of 1961, both trousers and top with accident damage and cuts made by first-aiders'.

Innes told it this way: "We had this new wrong-way-round gearbox on the Lotus, and in the heat of the moment I got second instead of fourth, locked the back wheels solid, and that was that. Came out of the tunnel without the car..."

Among those who stopped at the scene was Moss, a close friend. "Innes had been thrown down the road, and was pretty knocked about," Stirling remembered, "but although he was in a lot of pain, his priorities were clear. 'Wedding tackle OK?' he asked, and I reassured him that all seemed well. 'Goodo,' he said. 'Now, give me a cigarette...'"

His identity bracelet, another item in the auction, bore the legend, 'Innes Ireland - A Rh Pos - Allergic to morphine'. To whisky, though, Innes had no such aversion, and he always maintained that 'Scottish wine' was a painkiller beyond compare......

https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature/10 ... -for-clark