On this day in Motor Racing's past

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.
Post Reply
User avatar
erwin greven
Staff
Staff
Posts: 20027
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Erwin Greven
Favourite Motorsport: Endurance Racing
Favourite Racing Car: Lancia Delta 038 S4 Group B
Favourite Driver: Ronnie Peterson
Favourite Circuit: Nuerburgring Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Peugeot 206 SW Air-Line 3 2007
Location: Stadskanaal, Groningen
Contact:

#1126

Post by erwin greven »

Bottom post of the previous page:

Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
User avatar
erwin greven
Staff
Staff
Posts: 20027
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Erwin Greven
Favourite Motorsport: Endurance Racing
Favourite Racing Car: Lancia Delta 038 S4 Group B
Favourite Driver: Ronnie Peterson
Favourite Circuit: Nuerburgring Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Peugeot 206 SW Air-Line 3 2007
Location: Stadskanaal, Groningen
Contact:

#1127

Post by erwin greven »

98 years ago: 24h of Le Mans was held for the first time.

Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
User avatar
Andy
Supreme Member
Supreme Member
Posts: 4664
Joined: 16 years ago
Real Name: André
Favourite Motorsport: 2 & 3 Wheeling
Favourite Racing Car: Bike ;) - Yamaha YZR 500
Favourite Driver: Justin 'Weeman' Collins
Favourite Circuit: Isle of Man - Mountain Course
Car(s) Currently Owned: M'cycle ;) - Yamaha FZS 600
Location: Under a rock somewhere in Germany

#1128

Post by Andy »

On this day 42 years ago one of the biggest talents of Northern Irish motorcycle racing got killed during the Northwest 200 road races of 1979. Tom was an excellent GP rider who also went to do the roads in Northern Ireland as well as the Isle of Man.

RIP Tom :rip:
Image
"Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing" - David Jefferies
User avatar
erwin greven
Staff
Staff
Posts: 20027
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Erwin Greven
Favourite Motorsport: Endurance Racing
Favourite Racing Car: Lancia Delta 038 S4 Group B
Favourite Driver: Ronnie Peterson
Favourite Circuit: Nuerburgring Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Peugeot 206 SW Air-Line 3 2007
Location: Stadskanaal, Groningen
Contact:

#1129

Post by erwin greven »

Tom who??? @Andy
Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
User avatar
EB
Advanced Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 1500
Joined: 18 years ago

#1130

Post by EB »

Herron
User avatar
Michael Ferner
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 3526
Joined: 7 years ago
Real Name: Michael Ferner
Favourite Racing Car: Miller '122', McLaren M23
Favourite Driver: Billy Winn, Bruce McLaren
Car(s) Currently Owned: None
Location: Bitburg, Germany

#1131

Post by Michael Ferner »

I remember the big controversy over Herron's crash, as he was an unpaid (Suzuki) works rider, which was the norm those days; the manufacturers believing the riders should count themselves lucky to get the bikes, and take the starting money at the many Internationals to make ends meet. Herron had crashed the preceding week at Jarama (I think), and broken a few bones. Nothing serious, but enough to handicap him, especially on a fast road racing circuit. He couldn't afford to miss the Northwest, and paid with his life. It was one of the key events that led to driver protests and boycotts over the following years, and the unsuccessful attempt to create an alternative championship in 1979.
2023 'Guess The Pole' Points & Accuracy Champion

If you don't vote now against fascism, you may never have that chance again...


Ceterum censeo interruptiones essent delendam.
User avatar
Andy
Supreme Member
Supreme Member
Posts: 4664
Joined: 16 years ago
Real Name: André
Favourite Motorsport: 2 & 3 Wheeling
Favourite Racing Car: Bike ;) - Yamaha YZR 500
Favourite Driver: Justin 'Weeman' Collins
Favourite Circuit: Isle of Man - Mountain Course
Car(s) Currently Owned: M'cycle ;) - Yamaha FZS 600
Location: Under a rock somewhere in Germany

#1132

Post by Andy »

On this day 18 years ago, David Jefferies got killed in a practice accident on the Isle of Man when he crashed on an oil spill.
Jim Moodie injured seriously by crashing on the debris of David's bike in the process while the upcoming John McGuinness only just managed to stop behind Moodie.

RIP Davo
Image
"Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing" - David Jefferies
User avatar
Andy
Supreme Member
Supreme Member
Posts: 4664
Joined: 16 years ago
Real Name: André
Favourite Motorsport: 2 & 3 Wheeling
Favourite Racing Car: Bike ;) - Yamaha YZR 500
Favourite Driver: Justin 'Weeman' Collins
Favourite Circuit: Isle of Man - Mountain Course
Car(s) Currently Owned: M'cycle ;) - Yamaha FZS 600
Location: Under a rock somewhere in Germany

#1133

Post by Andy »

On this day 3 years ago Dan Kneen got killed in a practice accident at Churchtown on the Isle of Man's Mountain Course.
I do remember this evening like no other as I had decided to marshal practice week after I had become a fully qualified Mountain Course marshal with the IOMTTMA during the 2017 Manx Grand Prix. I was out at Quarry Bends' Cliff Gobell shelter near the halfway marker and Dan's Tyco BMW was the first bike into view, closely followed by Dean Harrison and someone else I don't really remember. The previous night Dan just had raised is personal lap record to a stunning 132.258 mph (212.849 km/h) but this evening he looked even more mean, pulling a wheelie while setting up for the left hand bend. Roughly 2 minutes later radio shouted "Incident at Churchtown. Red Flag, Red Flag". We would follow suit and opened the gate into Wildlife Park's parking lot at Wildlife Park approach.
Soon it became clear that something terrible had happened.I had done my math and even though I hoped for the best I knew, whatever had happened, it must have been Dan. He looked way too aggressive for his own good sake when he came by at Quarry Bends, almost as fighting the Bimmer. Not as smooth as he looked before anyway.
Later, Dean Harrison would report a speed between 180-190 mph as he was following Dan. In fact, he must have been just close enough to not run into the debris of Dan's bike but seeing the accident as it happened.

On the pipe boy.
RIP, Dan

Image
*Dan on the way to his best TT result with a 3rd in the 2017 Superstock TT race, here at Cronk-ny-Mona.
"Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing" - David Jefferies
User avatar
MonteCristo
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10660
Joined: 8 years ago
Favourite Motorsport: Openwheel
Favourite Racing Car: Tyrrell P34/Protos
Favourite Driver: JV
Favourite Circuit: Road America
Location: Brisbane, Australia

#1134

Post by MonteCristo »

On this day 45 years ago in 1976, former American driver Elmer George, father of FTG, got too drunk.
Elmer George was married to Mari Hulman George, daughter of Tony Hulman, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Elmer and Mari had three daughters and one son, Tony George, founder of the Indy Racing League, and Ex-CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

On May 3, 1976, Mari filed for divorce. On the day of the 1976 Indianapolis 500 (May 30, 1976), Elmer George argued by telephone with Guy Trolinger, a horse trainer at the family farm near Terre Haute, and Mari's alleged boyfriend. After the race, George drove to the farm, broke into the house and confronted Trolinger, then around 1:00 a.m., gunfire broke out, and George was shot and killed as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. A grand jury ruled that Trolinger killed George in self-defense at which charges were dropped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_George

Image
Oscar Piastri in F1! Catch the fever! Vettel Hate Club. Life membership.

2012 GTP Non-Championship Champion | 2012 Guess the Kai-Star Half Marathon Time Champion | 2018 GTP Champion | 2019 GTP Champion
User avatar
Michael Ferner
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 3526
Joined: 7 years ago
Real Name: Michael Ferner
Favourite Racing Car: Miller '122', McLaren M23
Favourite Driver: Billy Winn, Bruce McLaren
Car(s) Currently Owned: None
Location: Bitburg, Germany

#1135

Post by Michael Ferner »

second amendment, yah
2023 'Guess The Pole' Points & Accuracy Champion

If you don't vote now against fascism, you may never have that chance again...


Ceterum censeo interruptiones essent delendam.
User avatar
SBan83
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 3678
Joined: 20 years ago

#1136

Post by SBan83 »

I'd go to a gunfight over those legs too.

Also, clear to see where FTG got his tendency to make rash, illogical decisions from.
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 48988
Joined: 18 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#1137

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this Day, June 2nd 1970....

Bruce McLaren was tragically killed on this day in 1970 whilst testing one of his Can-Am cars at Goodwood.


Those who knew McLaren speak of him only in warm tones –


Image
McLaren was accomplished on the track, even more successful off it – but his personable manner is what's remembered by many
Bruce McLaren: celebrating a true motor sport hero
By Doug Nye


Back in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, Bruce McLaren became renowned as a world-class racing driver – and also for being one of the nicest guys in motor sport.

He was friendly, accessible, brimming with charm, yet ferociously competitive like all top sportsmen. He had a core of tempered steel, which his natural grace generally hid, and was not only a good, formally trained engineer but a young man with a committed work ethic.

Consider this from a fellow New Zealander: “He really was a man of exceptional talent. He’d been raised in racing the right way – by some of the very best people, like Jack Brabham – and like Jack he could be amazingly generous in helping people he rated. But you had to prove yourself to him first. He came to England as winner of the first New Zealand Grand Prix Association ‘Driver to Europe’ scholarship back in 1958 – and never forgot the leg-up that gave his career. As the later years rolled by and he was a works driver for Cooper, and then later started his own team – he would always encourage fellow Kiwis whether they were the truck driver, mechanics or drivers. He was a fabulous team leader.

“The top priority was that we would always have a car ready on the grid. It never mattered if we’d had an engine blow in practice or one of the cars had been shunted – we’d know that we were going to put it right overnight and be there somehow – even if it meant a 200-mile round trip in the dark to get some specialist welding done or a part made way out in the back of beyond, McLaren would do it because we were McLaren and this was Bruce’s team. And no matter how tired we might have been we all just knew – taking our example from the top – that we’d get the job done… He radiated that self-confidence – it was infectious”.

Bruce was the middle child in the McLaren family. His grandfather had started a truck and bus business in Remuera, Auckland, and father Les (‘Pop’) built a large and prosperous garage business there.

Bruce McLaren, John Cooper, Cooper-Climax T60, Grand Prix of Monaco, Monaco, 03 June 1962.

Image
After winning a scholarship to come to Europe, McLaren had F1 success – including Monaco in ’62

So what put the steel into young Bruce? As a kid he was already drawing racing cars. He was captain of his school rugby team and, by his own recollection, “The second-best boxer – the other chap was bigger than me.” But then as his friend and biographer Eoin Young once wrote “the pains began in his left hip”. He was diagnosed with Perthe’s Disease – loss of blood circulation to the head of the growing femur. Treatment today is relatively benign, but in the late 1940s Bruce was entrapped in Auckland’s Wilson Home for Crippled Children, strapped to a Bradshaw frame made mobile by bicycle wheels, legs in elastic plasters with weights dangling from the end. His mum Ruth told Eoin “There was no treatment. He just lay on that frame for two years and never came off. He was washed on it, educated on it, the whole lot…”

He emerged with his left leg shorter than the right. He would normally wear a built-up heel on his left shoe, which gave him a normal gait, but in his thin-soled racing boots he would walk with a pronounced limp. Sister Jan recalled: “He changed from being a happy little boy to a very deep, thoughtful person and that remained with him. It made him more aware of other people’s suffering, it brought out a depth of compassion.”

While he was in the home, ‘Pop’ gave Bruce a Jaguar XK120 catalogue featuring a cutaway drawing of the wondrous XK engine. The 11-year-old studied this intently and worked out how it went together, and why and how it all worked. By 1951 he was back on his feet, fit enough to return to school and enrolled in an engineering course. The plan was to qualify as a civil engineer, but he excelled at hands-on workshop practice and automobile engineering beckoned.

‘Pop’ began taking him to local hillclimbs and beach races. A second-hand Austin Seven Ulster was acquired and father and son rebuilt it between them. At college Bruce began to shine at practical engineering mathematics, but the sporting urge plainly gnawed. Having become too slow on his feet for ball games he would eventually take up swimming and rowing, and ‘Pop’ introduced him to driving the Austin. At 15 he got his licence – in a side-valve Morris Minor whose outermost cornering limits he explored. And ‘Pop’ encouraged him to compete in local events, beginning in 1952. He shone. ‘Pop’ supported his career and they ran an Austin-Healey, then a ‘Bobtail’ Cooper that had been brought to New Zealand by visitor Jack Brabham.

Jack and the McLarens became firm friends. All racing drivers are selfish – by definition – but the best among them stand out by helping others towards similarly high ambitions – and Bruce showed real promise.

He had his first single-seat Cooper-Climax drive at Ardmore airfield, Auckland, in December 1957. Bruce: “Jack led me around for a few laps and I had a marvellous time following his lines and hanging the tail out when he did. Then I was waved on and Jack sat on my tail and followed me. When we pulled into the pits, I was told off for hanging the tail out too far – a case, I thought, of the pot calling the kettle black…”

Bruce then won the Driver to Europe scholarship, and upon arrival was collected by Jack and taken the next day to the Cooper factory at Surbiton. The story goes that he asked John Cooper if he could see his car. John took his pipe from between his teeth and pointed at the workshop tube rack – “It’s in there boy,” he beamed. Bruce: “It slowly dawned. I had to build it. I felt very small…”

So he built his F2 Cooper along with mechanic friend Colin Beanland. They lived in the Royal Oak pub next to the factory and began his racing programme (for £75 starting money) at Silverstone in May 1958.

Those were the days when drivers arrived at races like the German Grand Prix in battered Ford Anglias and suchlike. Each car would be thrashed around the Nordschleife to learn the course – then Bruce won the F2 class in the GP.

He was promoted to the Cooper F1 team for 1959, established himself as a fine deputy to team leader Brabham and became shock winner of the title-deciding United States GP at Sebring, when Jack’s car ran out of fuel on the final lap. At 22 Bruce was the youngest winner of a championship GP – as he remained until 2003 when Fernando Alonso won in Hungary.

Bruce also had a great interest in endurance racing, and he became a fine all-rounder at the top level. Always technically adept and astute, he became a sought-after development driver.

When he and mechanic ‘Big Mike’ Barney took Peter Berry’s Cooper Monaco to the US West Coast Professional Series races through 1961-62, it sowed a seed that developed towards Can-Am as a constructor four years hence. When Jack left Cooper to set up his own racing car construction business and works racing team at the end of 1961, Bruce became Cooper’s number one driver… but the team struggled to maintain its double-world championship grip of 1959-60.

Bruce proved a fine and consistent front-runner, but seldom a winner as the Cooper designs slipped behind the likes of Lotus and Lola. As Coventry Climax’s engine focus drifted to Team Lotus, McLaren’s and Cooper’s options became less effective.

When Charlie Cooper vetoed the expense of building cars to contest the new Tasman Championship races in New Zealand and Australia at the beginning of 1964, Bruce founded his own team with American friend Teddy Mayer and ran modified Coopers. Teddy was the businessman brother of rising Formula Junior star Timmy Mayer, who was poised to become Bruce’s 1964 F1 team-mate only to lose his life at Longford, Tasmania, while running in the Tasman Series.

Bruce McLaren's McLaren-Ford, Spanish Grand Prix, Jarama, Madrid, 1968. McLaren retired with mechanical trouble after 77 laps of the race. New Zealander McLaren won 4 Grands Prix in a 13-season Formula 1 career, finishing second in the World Drivers' Championship in 1960. In 1966 he set up his own team bearing his name which went on to become one of the most successful constructors in the history of the sport. Unfortunately Bruce McLaren did not live to see the success of the organisation, as he was killed at Goodwood in 1970 while testing the McLaren M8D-Chevrolet Can-Am sports car.

Image
Laying it down at Jarama in 1968
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... -true-hero



A separate article on the same page by Eoin Young also appeared in Motorsport Magazine....
AT THE TIME, Eoin Young penned a regular column for Bruce in Autosport magazine. He wrote: “Intelligent and charming, [Timmy] had made dozens of friends. As often occurs, to look at him you wouldn’t take him for a racing driver. You had to know him, to realise his desire to compete, to do things better than the next man, be it swimming, water skiing or racing… The news that he died instantly was a terrible shock to all of us. But who is to say that he had not seen more, done more and learned more in his 26 years than many people do in a lifetime?

“To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability; life is measured in terms of achievement, not in years alone…”

In June 1970 – after Bruce’s own fatal accident while testing the Can-Am McLaren M8D at Goodwood – those words would apply equally well.

Bruce McLaren Motor Racing developed through the 1964 British and European season and, after a first foray into the large-capacity American production V8-powered sports car genre with the ‘Jolly Green Giant’ Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile, completed its first McLaren-Oldsmobile prototype sports car that summer. It was inevitable that Bruce would incline towards going completely independent in Jack Brabham’s wheel-tracks, and so he did at the end of 1965.

Through the following year he would score his first F1 world championship points in a car bearing his own name. McLaren single-seaters had been built since the first prototype spaceframe Firestone tyre test vehicle, which earned most of the team’s income in ’65, and a sports car production deal with Peter Agg’s Trojan group – under the McLaren-Elva name – would prove highly successful.

In the Colnbrook workshop Bruce was the energy driving the technical team forward. Long nights of hard work would be punctuated by practical jokes. McLaren’s blokes had fun – that light relief gave them the endurance and stamina their 24/7 job demanded. About the only guy who could bawl “McLaren – go home and get some sleep!” was long-time chief mechanic Tyler Alexander. And Bruce would meekly obey.

I think a measure of his personal triumph in diplomatic terms was the way in which he remained with the Ford GT programme through 1967, at a time when his own team was adopting Chevrolet GM V8 engines for its new generation of Can-Am cars. The McLaren-Chevrolet M6As of Bruce and Denny Hulme won five of the six 1967 Can-Am Championship rounds, with Denny taking the title.

Bruce McLaren, Los Angeles Times Grand Prix- Can-Am, Riverside, 29 October 1967.

Image
Pensive in the Can-Am pits at Riverside ’67

From 1967 Bruce was “doing a Brabham” by fostering fellow Kiwi Hulme’s career – as he did those of Chris Amon and Howden Ganley – taking him onto the Can-Am team and then F1. Into 1970 Bruce’s business diversified into F5000 and Indy. Apart from F1 – where fortunes faltered slightly – everything chez McLaren seemed to be on an upward curve…

I vividly recall how, in the winter of 1969-70, I did a long interview with Bruce in his pokey corner office at Colnbrook. The sun was pitching through the window behind him full into my eyes and he realised I was being dazzled. While I was too diffident to say as much, he recognised my problem, jumped up and fixed the blinds. An F1 star and double Can-Am champion showing care for a scribbler? He really was an exception to the norm, as was his depth of experience and maturity when he died aged just 32.

I asked him about his team’s total Can-Am domination that year. Which race had most stuck in his mind? “Road America,” he said. “For some reason that weekend it just seemed so easy. I was out in the lead with Denny covering my back in second place, and the car was superbly balanced. It was like going out for a sunny evening’s cruise around the countryside in the Healey back home in New Zealand. That was very satisfying… I loved it.”

Talk to any of “his guys” today and you will get a true picture. With good reason, Bruce was admired, respected, liked – and loved. When we lost him – it left a gaping void.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... -true-hero


Image
Bruce McLaren on his way to winning the 1967 Los Angeles Grand Prix in his McLaren M6A.

* 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
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 48988
Joined: 18 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#1138

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this day, June 3rd 1956

Peter Collins took his first grand prix win at Spa-Francorchamps on this day in 1956.

Belgian GP, 1956

Three weeks after the Monaco GP the Grand Prix teams gathered in Spa. There was no sign of BRM (so no Hawthorn, although a private deal for Mike to drive a Maserati failed to eventuate) and so it was a straight battle between the Lancia-Ferraris of Juan-Manuel Fangio, Eugenio Castellotti, Peter Collins and, for the occasion, local drivers Paul Frere and Andre Pilette and the Maseratis of Stirling Moss, Jean Behra and Cesare Perdisa. Maurice Trintignant and Harry Schell battled on with the Vanwalls but there were no Gordinis.

After the first day of practice on Thursday, Fangio was on pole with a time almost 5 sec faster than second place Moss. These times would not be touched with wet conditions on Friday and windy conditions on Saturday. Behind them were Behra and Castellotti while Schell, Trintignant and Frere completed row three.

It was raining when the race began . With such a big advantage Fangio was expected to dominate but he made a poor start in rainy conditions, leaving Moss to lead Castellotti, Collins and Behra. Fangio worked his way to second place by lap three and was ahead of Moss two laps later. The track began to dry and Fangio began to extend the lead. Soon afterwards Moss lost a wheel on the run up the hill after Eau Rouge corner. Fortunately the car did not hit anything and Moss was able to hurry back to the pits and take over Perdisa's car. Castellotti disappeared not long afterwards with a mechanical problem and so Moss found himself in sixth place. Fangio and Collins remained untroubled at the front with the gap between them being around half a minute. At two-thirds distance, however, Fangio's transmission broke. At the same time Behra's engine lost its edge and he dropped back quickly leaving Frere in second place, while Moss (in Perdisa's car) was now third, having passed Schell's Vanwall.

The gap was too great to be closed and so Collins won his first Grand Prix with Frere a creditable second and Moss third.


POS # DRIVER ENTRANT LAPS TIME/RETIREMENT QUAL POS
1 8 Peter Collins Lancia Ferrari D50 36 2h40m00.300s 3
2 6 Paul Frere Lancia Ferrari D50 36 2h41m51.600s 8
3= 34 Cesare Perdisa Maserati 250F 9
3= 34 Stirling Moss Maserati 250F 36 2h43m16.900s 2
4 10 Harry Schell Vanwall VW (55) 35 6
5 22 Luigi Villoresi Maserati 250F 34 11
6 20 Andre Pilette Lancia Ferrari D50 33 15
7 32 Jean Behra Maserati 250F 33 4
8 24 Louis Rosier Maserati 250F 33 10
r 2 Juan-Manuel Fangio Lancia Ferrari D50 23 Transmission 1
r 12 Maurice Trintignant Vanwall VW (55) 11 Engine 7
r 28 Piero Scotti Connaught-Alta B 10 Engine 12
r 30 Stirling Moss Maserati 250F 10 Wheel Lost 2
r 4 Eugenio Castellotti Lancia Ferrari D50 10 Transmission 5
r 26 Horace Gould Maserati 250F 2 Gearbox 14
r 36 Francisco Godia-Sales Maserati 250F 0 Accident 13
ns 38 Mike Hawthorn Maserati 250F Withdrew 16

* 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
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 48988
Joined: 18 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#1139

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this day 8th June 1975

Tony Brise scored his only Formula 1 championship point at the Swedish Grand Prix on this day in 1975.


Image
Brise starred during the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp, finishing sixth



When the Embassy Hill team plane went down a year later, the newspapers understandably concentrated on Graham Hill in the aftermath, but the tragedy also claimed the life of a man who might have proved even greater than his boss.

From a personal note I remember watching him wipe the floor in Formula 3 and then Formula Atlantic back in the day. He was good. Great. No doubt about that. One thing about him I recall well.... his style. He seemed to sit high in the car, his head tilted forward and he always leant his head into the corners. Much more so than others. This pic of him in F Atlantic shows what I mean.

Image


Image
Tony Brise sits in the car with team manager Ray Brimble, team principal Graham Hill and designer Andy Smallman

From the MotorSport Magaine archives, David Tremayne remembers the brief but brilliant career of Tony Brise.
Tony Brise: the F1 driver with so little time

Five men stand proudly behind a white and red racing car. One of them is the legendary champion Graham Hill, wearing the smile of the new father, paternally proud of his new creation, the Hill GH2.

From the cockpit a young man smiles confidently at the camera. Good-looking, his hair is tousled and his eyes are full of the hope that will propel the little team into a brave new year in which they expect to build on the foundation of a remarkable 1975. He is self-assured in the way that only a handful of upcoming race drivers really are. He knows he is fast, and that much of the burgeoning hope within the team has been generated by his scintillating talent.

This is Tony Brise, the Michael Schumacher of his day.

In the photograph Brise’s expression is not hard to read, but there were those, earlier in his career, who disliked what they saw. “When he was young and was still at Eltham College, and had his sights on being a racing driver, some local people used to call him arrogant,” his mother Pam concedes. “But college can knock that out of you.”

But here’s one of the many unusual things about Brise: the longer he was in F1, the more relaxed and less arrogant he appeared. Here was a man who knew he had at last entered his element, who knew that a world championship beckoned, and that he had the ability to fulfil such destiny.

Just over a month after the photograph was taken the glorious dream was over, as ethereal as the fog of a cold November night which cloaked Elstree and its aerodrome. The destination that Graham Hill and members of his team, Tony Brise among them, would never reach. Hill’s Piper Aztec made it as far home as nearby Arldey Golf Course, where the former champion crashed into trees. There were no survivors.

So 1975 was the one year of true fulfilment fate granted Brise. According to Autosport reporter Pete Lyons, he crossed the F1 horizon “like a comet in pagan skies”. But those who knew the tall 23-year-old remain eager to talk about him. Former mechanic Jerry Bond, in particular, is anxious to lay the ghost of arrogance.

“Tony? No way, not at all.”

“He was a good person,” his mother says, careful her wish to be accurate is not overridden by maternal pride. “A lovely guy, very thoughtful, a deep thinker like his father. And he had that deep knowledge of cars that came from growing up with his father. He was a clever chap, actually. He liked flying, and even in his early days in racing, he said he thought he might take it up. He told us: ‘It’s much nicer. Motor racing is so cut-throat.’ And that was back then!”

Brise’s precocious talent would lift the Embassy Hill Racing team, but when he first visited their Hanworth premises he was late for a seat fitting. The mechanics paid him back.

“Everything was all foamed up and the fitting was done,” recalls Ian Flux, the team’s gopher. “But you stuck to the foam in those days, and chief mechanic Steve Roby and the lads just left him in the car while we all went off to lunch.”

Bond remembers: “Everyone got on really well with Tony, though. I knew him before that, because I’d been working for Frank Williams when Tony made his grand prix debut over in Spain. He was a very nice, likeable guy, and he was good to us.”

“Tony had been pretty devastating in Formula Atlantic,” Williams recalls of his decision to invite him to substitute when regular driver Jacques Laffite had a clashing F2 commitment. “It was obvious to me that the guy was a little bit special.”

Brise qualified his unfancied mount 18th at the challenging Montiuich Park, ignoring all the unsavoury politicking over safety that would make this such a controversial event In the dramatic race he put in a performance Bond describes as “mega”, moving up to sixth place after 19 laps. Then he and former F3 sparring partner Tom Pryce tangled at the hairpin, necessitating a pitstop. Brise finished seventh, just missing a point on his debut. “He had good communication and understood the car,” Williams continues. “He was ahead of the game, he wasn’t flustered. The guy was very talented; he would have been an English great.”

Here’s another odd thing: even after that performance, Brise remained underrated. Looking back it seems incredible that such clear ability could still be overlooked. He had been a prodigy in karting, entering the sport with the encouragement of his father Johnny, a former world stockcar champion. In Formula Ford, Brise breezed to countless victories, even though his Elden had a reputation as an edgy chassis, difficult to get the best out of. In Formula Three in 1972, he emerged as one of the few drivers capable of challenging the equally outstanding Roger Williamson. A year later he won the John Player and Lombard F3 championships, but still nobody took any notice. He seemed a forgotten man.

In 1974 he dominated the Formula Atlantic scene, and then won six consecutive races at the start of 75. Despite that mature and confident performance in Spain, Brise, like Pryce before him, found himself back in the F3 support race at Monaco. This time there was no fairy tale victory, but his fabulous charge through the field after problems in his heat brought him a new lap record. He was ultimately thwarted by leader Alex Ribeiro, who slammed the door in his face at Mirabeau, forcing both to retire, but the point had been made: Fl could ignore Tony Brise no longer.

By the Belgian GP in May, Graham Hill had beaten Williams to his services, as the replacement for Rolf Stommelen, who had been injured in the tragic Spanish race. At Zolder Brise qualified a sensational seventh, and in the race fought his way by luminaries such as Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson before spinning. In Sweden he was heading for fifth until the loss of fifth gear dropped him back a place. Photographer Jeff Hutchinson has never forgotten the drive he witnessed that day.

“He’d bent a front wing on the first lap and it dangled all the way through, but nevertheless he drove fantastically well. He looked so at home in the car, even though it was oversteering badly. He looked to me a lot like Jenson Button does today — so composed and completely confident How Ronnie used to look.”

The Hill GH1 had metamorphosed from the previous season’s Lola T370. It was a good car, but on many occasions Brise would make it look great That day, too, he passed Fittipaldi and Peterson, as well as Mark Donohue, only to be frustrated by a gearbox problem and a misfire that had relegated him to 17th in practice.

In Holland he annihilated team-mate Alan Jones during the race’s wet period, but a slow stop for dry tyres killed his chances of more points and left him seventh. He finished seventh again in France but crashed at Silverstone. That was the event in which Hill bade his fans an emotional farewell and finally confirmed his decision to retire. In Brise he knew he had a future champion.

At the Nurburgring Tony endorsed Hill’s view, moving from 14th to seventh before his suspension failed. “This place is God’s gift to racing drivers,” he enthused. Brise had soul as well as talent. In the Austrian rain he soared from 17th on the opening lap to ninth on the 13th but dropped back when he pitted to replace an outof-balance front wheel. He qualified sixth at Monza but only made it to the first chicane before colliding with Mario Andretti’s Parnell.

Image
Graham Hill chats to Brise at the 1975 USGP

By now, Brise was in demand and dovetailed Fl with appearances in Teddy Yip’s F5000 Lola T332. He thrashed Jones’s far more nimble MarchCosworth until robbed by a slow puncture at Brands Hatch, but it was California’s Long Beach race that allowed him to showcase his talent in even more dazzling fashion. Brian Redman and Mario Andretti were F5000 that year, but Brise matched them in qualifying until halted by a broken driveshaft In their heat, he beat Mario down to the first right-hander at the end of Shoreline Drive and went on to win. He started die final from pole alongside Al LInser Snr, with Andretti and Redman behind, yet once again won the drag race down Shoreline Drive. Eventually arise lost the lead to Andretti, but just as he regained it when the American’s engine broke, another driveshaft let go within sight of the flag.

Brise was now — at last— racing at his correct level. Fourth place at Laguna Seca and sixth at Riverside rounded out his F5000 season, together with the Formula Atlantic championship title. B.4

As he flew home from a troubled US GP, he was looking forward to the first test of the Hill GH2.

The lowline car came from the pen of Andy Smallman, a selfeffacing fellow, the youngest designer in F1. A shakedown at Silverstone late in October was followed by a test at Paul Ricard. Results were disappointing: the new car was two seconds slower than the old. So they came back, made changes and a month later returned to Ricard. And this test filled them with optimism. Tony had a contract for 76, and Graham Hill had negotiated 1365,000 of sponsorship from Embassy. The future seemed limitless as Hill, Brise, Smallman, team-manager Ray Brimble, mechanic Terry Richards and workshop manager Tony Allcock boarded Hill’s Piper Aztec. It should have been a routine flight home from Marseilles to Elstree, to the north of London. It was 29 November 1975.

A thick fog was slowly smothering the south of England and visibility in the Elstree area was down to 800 metres and getting worse, but Hill attempted a visual approach rather than divert to Luton. Around 21.29, having passed over Bamet, he apparently mistook the lights of Arkley Golf Course for those of Elstree Aerodrome six kilometres further west, and tried to land too soon. The Aztec clipped two oak trees and tumbled fatally into others.

Irregularities were subsequently discovered in the documentation on Hill’s plane, and eventually his widow Bette lost most of her husband’s estate in legal recriminations. Later it was alleged that one of Hill’s advisors had failed to renew some of the plane’s paperwork. But nothing changed the cruel facts.

The accident was no fault of Brise’s, the way an accident on the race track might have been. Fate took his destiny from his own hands, and put it in those of the man who had so appreciated his prodigious talent. The fog, poor navigation and a basic mistake extinguished a brilliant light prematurely. Motorsport lost not one but two champions that night.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... ittle-time


Some other pics of Tony in various categories.

Image

Image

Image

* 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
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 48988
Joined: 18 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#1140

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

ON THIS DAY JUNE 9th 1963

Jim Clark obliterated the opposition in torrential rain at the 1963 Belgian GP at Spa, a circuit he hated.


Image


Arguably Jim Clarks best race win (Along with Monza 1967 and Nurburgring 1962, the latter I know Clark himself thought his best.... he recovered from 26th to fourth place after accidentally forgetting to switch his fuel pumps back on at the start, and had been catching the ultimate top three – Graham Hill, John Surtees and Dan Gurney – until two huge moments persuaded him to ease back slightly.)

One for @jim clark

Image

Image
David Tremayne, who has been on the ground at more than half of all of the F1 races run to date evokes Jim Clark’s stunning victory in the wet at Spa, which saw the great Scot finish nearly five minutes up the road from his nearest rival in appalling conditions.

Looking back, it’s one of those curious anomalies that the great Jim Clark should eschew either the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps or the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza as his greatest races. Instead, he nominated the 1962 German GP at Nurburgring as his best, where he recovered from 26th to fourth place after accidentally forgetting to switch his fuel pumps back on at the start, and had been catching the ultimate top three – Graham Hill, John Surtees and Dan Gurney – until two huge moments persuaded him to ease back slightly.

But that Belgian race, held in appallingly wet conditions, was the epitome of what made Clark, in my eyes, the best of the best.

Graham Hill took pole position for BRM from Dan Gurney’s Brabham, Willy Mairesse’s Ferrari, and Bruce McLaren and Tony Maggs in the works Coopers. Clark found his Lotus 25 initially oversteering badly in the really quick corners as it was still set up for Monaco, and gearbox problems thereafter prevented him from bettering sixth place on the grid.

But he guessed that Mairesse – ‘Wild Willy’ – would be nervous on home ground and planned to dive to the right of the Ferrari the moment the flag dropped. Mairesse duly fumbled his start, and Clark made the perfect getaway to catapult into the lead by Eau Rouge.

Hill pushed hard, however, and before long Clark found the Lotus still jumping out of fifth gear at 9,500 rpm and was obliged to drive left-handed as he held the lever in engagement with his right. With Hill so close behind the opening laps were far from easy in the tricky conditions, especially in the Masta kink where the cars would slide from one side of the road to the other and require delicate correction.

Clark resorted to using fourth gear rather than fifth. It was costly in terms of speed – but being able to use both hands on the wheel was a worthwhile trade-off

Then Clark had the sort of scary moment drivers had to expect at Spa – a track he hated after seeing the deaths there of Archie Scott-Brown and Chris Bristow in 1958 and 1960. At one stage he had to dodge around Lucien Bianchi, who was standing in the middle of the main straight after crashing his Lola into a hedge. He was further worried when he saw Jim Hall’s Lotus atop a bank at Burnenville, but fortunately the Texan was unharmed.

As his gearbox problems worsened, he resorted to using fourth gear rather than fifth. It was costly in terms of speed, fuel and engine life, but being able to use both hands on the wheel was a worthwhile trade-off.

Respite came when Hill retired with gearbox problems of his own after 17 laps, and Clark was able to ease right off as the rain worsened. Yet he still lapped the field up to even the great Gurney in third place, as he scored the first of the seven victories of his first championship season. Only McLaren finished on the same lap, but he was very nearly five minutes behind the Flying Scot. By any standard, it had been a stunning performance.

Typically, to avoid embarrassing team boss Colin Chapman, Clark kept the gearbox problems to himself afterwards…
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... NuP2P.html



Image
The drivers climb through Eau Rouge in tricky wet conditions at the start; a keen photographer on the right getting very close to the action.

Pathe News report of the race



Image


If you want a much more detailed account of the weekend I can recommend you read the Motorsport Magazine archive aarticle on this link
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... ll-the-way

* 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
User avatar
SBan83
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 3678
Joined: 20 years ago

#1141

Post by SBan83 »

Good thing the video footage exists or I would never have believed Clark nearly drove into the people lining the pits at the start!
Post Reply