On this day in Motor Racing's past

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acerogers58
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#1051

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Bottom post of the previous page:

Jeff Gordon earned his 93rd and final win on this day in 2015 at Martinsville, it came in a race with 18 cautions, and an infamous takeout of Joey Logano performed by Matt Kenseth, as payback for an incident that occurred at Kansas two weeks prior. Kenseth was suspended for 2 races and this arguably cost Logano a championship.

Despite the 18 cautions, only 3 cars DNFed due to crashes, although this was before the “Damage clock” was brought in by NASCAR to prevent cars heavily damaged and multiple laps down from rejoining the race.

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#1053

Post by erwin greven »

Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
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#1054

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On This Day.... 2nd December 1997

The Tyrrell team was sold to become British American Racing on this day in 1997.

In 1997 it was announced that the legendary Tyrrell team had been sold to the tobacco-funded British American Racing outfit. BAR wasn’t intending to compete until 1999 but by buying the team a year early and continuing to run it as Tyrrell in 1998, it would still be entitled to the various pots of prize money available for established teams.

Ken Tyrrell moved up to F1 in 1968 and his team provided Jackie Stewart with all three of his championships. However, by the 1990s the team had slipped to the back of the grid, prompting Tyrrell to sell up. He called it “the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to take” but he’d had enough of seeing his team be backmarkers and felt costs in F1 were too high to continue. As things turned out, Tyrrell walked away from his team completely before the start of the next season when Riccardo Rosset’s money was chosen over Jos Verstappen’s talent.

We all know where Tyrrell ended up.........> BAR > Honda > Brawn > Mercedes :wink:
Last edited by Everso Biggyballies 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

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#1055

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

2nd December.

Birthdays

David Piper (born 1930) started two races (both at the British GP) in 1959 and 1960, achieving a best finish of 12th. He later had a long career in sportscars and was a part of Steve McQueen’s Le Mans film – during the filming of which Piper crashed his Porsche 917 and lost part of his leg. He carried on racing, however, in a career spanning half a century.

Christ Bristow
(born 1937) started four F1 races in 1959 and 1960, making him incredibly young by the standards of the era. He was a very fast driver who rivals felt took a lot of unnecessary risks, and at the Belgian GP in 1960 he was killed in a crash.

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#1056

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Everso Biggyballies wrote: 3 years ago
Christ Bristow
(born 1937) started four F1 races in 1959 and 1960, making him incredibly young by the standards of the era. He was a very fast driver who rivals felt took a lot of unnecessary risks, and at the Belgian GP in 1960 he was killed in a crash.
Dear lord.
Developer of the 1967v3 Historic Mod for Grand Prix Legends: viewtopic.php?t=17429

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#1057

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Happy 72nd Birthday to Keke Rosberg today, 6th December.

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Post by erwin greven »

The first Dutch F1 driver. Jan Flinterman.
Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
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#1060

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this day January 4th 1967

Donald Campbell perished whilst attempting to set a new water speed record in his Bluebird K7

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Born in 1921 in Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, Donald Campbell came from a family of speedsters. His father, Malcolm, was among the first such daredevils, having set 13 world speed records in the 1920s and 1930s in both cars and boats.

After finishing school, Campbell was drafted to serve in the Royal Air Force, but because of a medical condition he had as a child, he didn’t serve. Instead, he ended up working as a maintenance engineer for a West Thurrock company called Briggs Motor Bodies.

Soon after the war ended, Campbell started racing for water speed records, following in his father’s footsteps. He first did so in 1949, using one of his father’s – who died in 1948 – boats named Blue Bird K4. He kind of renamed it Bluebird K4 and went after one of his father’s old speed records.

I wont go into his achievements in detail here.....




At 8.46 on the morning of January 4 1967 Donald Campbell took what became the last great gamble of his life on Coniston Water. Only moments after speeding down the black lake at 297mph, he elected not to refuel, nor to let his wake die down, but to return immediately. At a speed estimated to be well beyond the 300mph average that he sought, his Bluebird turbojet hydroplane left the surface and somersaulted spectacularly to destruction. His body was never found.


David Tremayne writes his memories of the day:
Ever since I first saw film of Campbell’s accident, at the age of 14, I developed an obsession with the man and the many myths that surround him, but it still surprises me just how many others have been so similarly affected. Steve Holter, the curator of The Campbell Hall of Speed in Polegate, East Sussex, and of Paul Ffoulkes-Halberd’s adjacent Filching Manor Motor Museum wherein lives a mock-up of K7 and Sir Malcolm Campbell’s original K3, is but one example.

“At the age of seven my father sat me on his knee to watch the television. Not an unusual thing for a father to do, but the date was January 4 1967. I remember it was about 5.45pm and that my Dad had said, ‘It is the end of an era, you’ll never see the like of this again. The end of an era and a very brave man.’ I would have to be honest and say it was not a day that changed my life, nor were the comments of any meaning to me, but the events of January 7 were.

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Campbell talks with his veteran mechanic Leo Villa before a water speed attempt at Coniston in 1958

“I remember waking to find my ‘rich’ aunty Joan’s brand new Triumph Herald convertible outside, which was very odd as she always visited us on Fridays after school. That day was a Saturday, but I was soon to find out what was happening.

“Last night your father was taken ill, and died,’ said my mum. After that I cannot remember a thing. One thing that did occur to me was the last thing I had done with my dad, watching the news from Coniston, and I determined to find out what had so impressed him to make me watch.

When time and money allowed I began reading about Donald M. Campbell, to collect the books written by him, about him, by his family, on his family, about the land speed record and about the water speed record. Books, models, postcards — anything that I could find. I quite clearly remember writing to Ken Norris at Norris Brothers for information: that letter was to end up on Tony James’ desk, an event he reminded me about when I eventually met him in the flesh some 17 years later!

“But at the back of all this was the reason I got so hooked on record breaking and especially the Campbells: my father, who introduced me to the subject but was not interested himself. I cannot say I remember my father that well, I cannot claim to have known anything about Donald Campbell when he was alive, but I can say that in the intervening 25 years they have both given me a great deal.

“Maybe my reasons for admiring one man are a bit too personal, but I have been very fortunate to meet and in many cases become friends with the people who were around Donald Campbell when he was alive, and they have told me so much about the man himself, things that have never been published, private things, that I have developed a great admiration for him. And that in many ways has been reflected by the people I have since met who knew my father, and the things they have told me about him.”

“I suppose it is a little like knowing someone secondhand, but if these two men had impressed these other people so much to have had a lasting effect, which has been passed on to me in recollection, then I am proud to have known them both in such a way.”

Some have spoken as movingly, while others have been more pragmatic. The motorboat historian Kevin Desmond finds the name Campbell rarely leaves him alone. “In 21 years of my writing articles and books about land, air and waterborne motorsport, Donald Campbell and Bluebird have played a mysteriously recurring role. Although I never met ‘The Skipper’, just by listening to the anecdotal memories of a dozen who had dealings with him – particularly my dear friends Leo and Joan Villa – certainly gave me an objective knowledge of his character, even if lacking in subjective experience.

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Campbell is towed out in his K7 during testing on Lake Coniston in ’66

“To me, Donald Campbell was a promiscuous, superstitious. courageous and ingenious go-getter. He knew how to fight back when the odds were stacked against him, although at times he suffered such emotional scars as a domineering father.

“As the owner of both a fragment of Bluebird K7’s wreckage and two scale models, and of a sizeable collection of the published works of Maurice Maeterlinck (who wrote the theatre play ‘The Blue Bird’ which so fascinated Sir Malcolm), and having written three books on motorboating history, each of which chronicles Donald’s achievements to a greater or lesser degree, I am what might be called a second-generation aficionado. But then so are Ken Warby, the current water record holder, Steve Holter, yourself, Martin Summers, modeller Fred Harris, artist Arthur Benjamins, Speed Record Club founder Robin Richardson and several others bathed in the magnetic ‘Bluebird blue’ speed haze.

“When, two years ago, Lady Arran and I assembled a team which designed and built a boat which broke the World Electric Water Speed Record, Campbell’s persuasive genius in the building of the Bluebird CN7 car was my strategic inspiration for the 50mph An Stranda. I would like to think that, had he been alive today, aged 70, the man who had been on the point of getting heavily involved with the potential of waterjet propulsion, would still have made a very positive input towards our dream of a 100mph superconducting electric hydroplane British, of course!”

My own obsession began shortly after seeing Campbell’s accident on television, when I happened upon a copy of Richard Hough’s BP Book of the Racing Campbells. I believe it cost me 12/6d, a good week’s pocket money. It was instrumental in nurturing my fascination for the land and water speed records. To me Donald Campbell was an intensely loyal, cunning, flamboyant yet ultimately lonely man, abnormally brave. Driven by an inner desire to prove to himself that he was as good as his father had been, yet trapped in Sir Malcolm’s long shadow to the point where no matter what he achieved, he would never feel it was enough.

What fascinates me most is that he was at times genuinely afraid of what he was doing, and yet he persevered. His successes included not just seven water speed records (more than anyone else), one land record and the unique feat of breaking both in the same year, but a lifetime’s triumph over fear, either of a physical nature after his 360mph accident at Bonneville or, to him worse still, of failure.

Such is that fascination that I am now researching the definitive book on Donald Campbell, and would be delighted to hear from any readers who have personal anecdotes they would like to share. I can be contacted at 85 Kingshill Drive, Harrow HA3 8QQ.

To Donald Campbell life was a series of mountains that one had to climb. He spent much of his career atop summits, and was within striking distance of his highest and most challenging when Bluebird flipped. Even today, 25 years on, it is possible to stop in the russet red and vivid green beauty that surrounds Coniston, and be touched by an atmosphere still redolent of the ghost of a great Englishman who spared nothing as he reached out for the ultimate. – DJT
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... f-a-legend


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And another article from Motorsport magazine archives by Andrew Frankel.
Now that Bluebird K7 has been raised from the depths of Coniston Water, Andrew Frankel hopes more than ever that people remember the legacy and achievements of Donald Campbell

Everyone who has heard of Donald Campbell knows he died trying to set a new world Water Speed Record, but I wonder how many actually know what a prolific record-breaker he was and that, in his chosen field, there had never been another like him nor, in all likelihood, will there ever be again? I think those who know a little more about him know only that he was also once the fastest man on land and that he lived his life perpetually trying to live up to the memory of his father. In fact, neither is true.

Donald Campbell did indeed break the Land Speed Record at 403mph at Lake Eyre in Australia in 1964, driving the same Bluebird CN7 gas turbine car that had so nearly killed him at Bonneville four years earlier. But he was never the fastest man because Craig Breedlove had already done 407mph in his jet-powered Spirit of America and it was only rules that then required cars to be wheel-driven that denied him the record. Bluebird was in fact designed to do 500mph and would probably have got far nearer that mark had Campbell not been forced to run on a shortened course, the lake having recently flooded for the first time in almost a decade.

As for the brooding presence of his father’s ghost, doubtless he felt in the shadow of such a prolific breaker of records on land and lake but I think the greater drive was expressed by Leo Villa, faithful engineer to both father and son, who told the young Donald when he was first considering breaking records: ‘Once you start this, there’s no end to it. When it’s in your blood, it’ll be there for good.’

And Villa was right. At the time of Campbell’s death, his next Land Speed Record project was already public knowledge and you’ll understand the extent of his ambition when I tell you his plan was for the first ever rocket-powered LSR car and that it would be called Bluebird Mach 1.1. He even had a full-scale model built which has since disappeared.

But whatever Campbell achieved and, indeed, hoped to achieve on land, it was dwarfed by accomplishments on water that were unrivalled then, now and almost certainly for all-time.

Consider this: Malcolm Campbell broke the Water Speed Record four times: first at 126mph, finally at 141mph. When Donald Campbell made his first attempt, the record stood at 179mph; he raised it immediately to 202mph, a far greater increase in one go than his father managed in four. He went on to break the record seven times, leaving it at 276mph, almost 100mph higher than where he found it. At the time of his crash he had already recorded a 297mph run on one direction and was returning at an estimated 320mph when he lost control.

Today, the Water Speed Record stands at just 318mph. No one broke the record more times and no one raised it by more than half as much as Donald Campbell. While others would come to rival his father’s achievements on land, on water Donald stands alone.

Which is why he has always been a hero of mine, not least because breaking records on water was far more dangerous than doing so on land. So while we contemplate K7’s return to Coniston, let’s also think about the man who built it and all the incredible things they achieved together before that fateful day.
Everso Note: The current record is 511 km/h (318 mph), achieved by Australian Ken Warby in the Spirit of Australia in 1978.

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Bluebird K7, in its most successful guise, on display at the Goodwood Motor Racing circuit in July 1960.

Donald Campbell's (water) speed records
Speed Craft Location Date
202.32 mph (325.60 km/h) Bluebird K7 Ullswater 23 July 1955
216.20 mph (347.94 km/h) Bluebird K7 Lake Mead 16 November 1955
225.63 mph (363.12 km/h) Bluebird K7 Coniston Water 19 September 1956
239.07 mph (384.75 km/h) Bluebird K7 Coniston Water 7 November 1957
248.62 mph (400.12 km/h) Bluebird K7 Coniston Water 10 November 1958
260.35 mph (418.99 km/h) Bluebird K7 Coniston Water 14 May 1959
276.33 mph (444.71 km/h) Bluebird K7 Lake Dumbleyung 31 December 1964


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#1061

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

On this day, January 9th 1977

Walter Wolf's team 'did a Brawn' and won on debut as a Constructor at the Argentine GP

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Walter Wolf was a car enthusiast who took advantage of his fortune to run a Formula 1 team.....

Walter Wolf made his fortune in Canadian oil in the early 1970s. In 1975, he began to approach Frank Williams, who had just started his team with his own cars. In 1976, Walter Wolf bought out 60% of Williams Engineering, leaving Frank Williams managing director. The Wolf-Williams team was born. Wolf hired Hesketh 308C designer Harvey Postelwaithe to build the Williams FW05. Wolf's first season in F1 will be one of the most disappointing. Starting off with Jacky Ickx and Michel Leclère, the current goes badly between Ickx and Postelwaithe, the car lacks performance, the drivers leave to be replaced by Merzario, then by other paying drivers. The association between Wolf and Williams ended at the end of the season.

Wolf decided to run his own car in 1977, the Wolf WR1 designed by Harvey Postelwaithe. Walter Wolf also hired South African driver Jody Scheckter to drive the single car entry. The beginnings of the real Wolf team are meteoric, Jody Scheckter wins in his first race in Argentina. He won two more successes in Monaco and Canada and climbed on the podium six more times. The WR1 driver contested for the driver's title until the end of the season against Lauda, ​​finally finishing runner-up in the world title, with the single car team managing 4th in the constructors.

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Jody Scheckter emerged victorious at his team Wolf's debut race


This is how Alan Henry reported that opening race and Wolf debut race in Argentina.

Buenos Aires, January 9th

Although Argentina is mere, thousands of miles away from the recognised European “home” of Formula One Grand Prix circuit racing, it has organised qualifying rounds in the World Championship intermittently ever since 1953, although there was a gap of 12 years between Bruce McLaren’s victory in a Cooper-Climax in 1960 and Jackie Stewart’s win with a Tyrrell-Cosworth five years ago. Similarly it has a reputation for producing noteworthy drivers, particularly five times World Champion Juan-Manuel Fangio, twice British Grand Prix winner Froilan Gonzales and — more recently — current hero Carlos Reutemann who won several Grands Prix for Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team and is now Lauda’s team-mate in the Ferrari Formula One line-up. The Argentine Grand Prix has always taken place in the Autodromo Municipal de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, but this spaciously laid out autodromo (built by President Peron in the late 1940s) has a great number of circuit combinations and it is only since 1974 that the 5.968-kilometre “Circuit number 15” has been used for the race. From 1953 to 1960 the 3.912-kilometre “Circuit number 2” was employed and in 1972 and 73 the 3.345-kilometre “Circuit number 9” was utilised for the Argentine Grand Prix. So you can see that a whole complex of tracks run in all directions round the “infield area”, so much so that one feels a trifle inhibited even strolling across part of the complex that isn’t in use just in case some “rabbit” has got confused and wandered up the wrong turning — and that has happened before now.

Last year’s Argentine Grand Prix never took place owing to a mixture of legal wrangling between the organisers and constructors, galloping inflation of the Argentine peso and the fact that President Isabel Peron’s regime was crumbling precariously with the result that the military authorities did not want the added complication of a major sporting gathering as they were worried that some demented soul would start throwing bombs about the place. This year the last-mentioned aspect of the race hadn’t changed even though the Automovil Club Argentina concluded the agreement with the Formula One Constructors for this year’s race to take place. Throughout the winter there was plenty of protracted squabbling between the Constructors, the CSI and an organisation called “World Championship Racing” which was supposed to be representing the bargaining interests of several organisers including the Argentinians. The details have been “hashed and dished” so frequently in so many places that we do not propose to go into them again except to observe that there was so much confusion that it was difficult to see who was doing what, and with which, and to so to speak. Fortunately somebody fired up some racing engines on the Thursday prior to the Argentine Grand Prix and when you’ve got two Ferrari flat-12s, two Alfa Romeo flat-12s, a Matra V12 and sixteen Cosworth V8s all screaming and burbling away it does tend to drown the bickering!

Qualifying
Official practice for the race took place on the Friday and Saturday following Thursday’s unofficial, untimed “warm-up” session. In terms of local popularity here was no doubt that Reutemann topped the polls but there were those who seemed to think that his installation in a Ferrari 312T2 would result in some magical transformation and he would completely dominate both practice and the race. Unfortunately things started badly for the Argentinian driver for he spun his new Ferrari 312T2/029 through several layers of catch fencing at the fast fourth gear “right/left” esses immediately following the pits during the untimed session on Thursday. The Ferrari only suffered minor bodywork damage and was repaired in time for the serious business on Friday, but it quickly became obvious that either Ferrari had gone backwards or simply become rather complacent over the winter and that their rivals had caught up with them.

Image James Hunt took pole for McLaren.

The very first timed session saw Patrick Depailler comfortably quickest in the aerodynamically revamped Tyrrell P34, the popular little Frenchman recording a best lap of 1 min. 49.63 sec. which was comfortably faster than the official lap record established two years ago: James Hunt (Hesketh 308) in 1 min. 50.91 sec. All the off-season testing seemed to be paying off for the Tyrrell team, but World Champion James Hunt was only 0.4 sec. behind him in his trusty six-speed McLaren M23 and the British driver put in a spurt during the second session to lap in 1 min. 48.68 sec., a time which stood as fastest for the remaining day and a half of practice and assured Hunt of pole position for the race. Both the works McLarens had been totally rebuilt for Hunt and his team-mate Jochen Mass, identical in specification to the last time they were used in October’s Japanese Grand Prix. Spurred on by his team-mate, and maintaining the revitalised form he demonstrated in the last three races of 1976, Mass wasn’t far behind the World Champion and finished Friday fourth fastest on 1 min. 49.731 sec.

Whilst it was no surprise to see Depailler up with the McLarens, there was a surprise in store from Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team who now have John Watson driving for them alongside Carlos Pace. Watson was thrown out of work when Roger Penske had a “tiff” with his banking sponsors and stalked out of Formula One, but Ecclestone quickly snapped him up and he fully justified his new employer’s confidence by lapping in 1 min. 49.22 sec. on the first day. That meant he was third fastest overall and the Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 was running as smoothly and sweetly as could be hoped for all day. Watson was highly impressed with the engine’s wide power band and low speed torque and as it was the first time he’s driven it one must assume that the modifications to this flat-12 engine have made a worthwhile improvement. Even though the cockpit didn’t quite fit him, Watson plugged on gamely throughout Saturday and, in only four laps of the final session, recorded a splendid 1 min. 49.6 sec. best to join Hunt’s McLaren on the front row of the grid.

With Watson setting the pace in the Brabham camp, Pace was getting more and more frustrated with a multitude of mechanical problems. Although the Brazilian managed fourth fastest time (1 min. 50.60 sec.) his BT45/5 promptly split a water hose which meant that he had to switch to the team spare (BT45/1) for the second session. Unfortunately Pace slid off the road during that second session, damaging the older car beyond immediate repair which obliged him to stop practising for the day. A fresh engine was installed on Friday night, but still the car had trouble with its cooling system and the final straw came when Pace rolled to a halt in BT45/5 on the first lap of Saturday’s final hour-long session with the car boiling again. He strode angrily back to the pits where Ecclestone called Watson to hand over BT45/3 to his team-mate and in four lap Pace recorded his best time of 1 min 49.97 sec. in sheer bad temper which was good enough for sixth place on the grid!

With all this going on Reutemann must have been wondering what on earth he left the Brabham team for because neither Ferrari was exactly shining brightly. Both drivers were complaining that their 312T2s didn’t have sufficient traction and were consequently using so much rear wing angle that they were not particularly quick in a straight line. Lauda wrestled gamely with his car to such an extent that he half-spun on Friday (unusual for the calculating Austrian) but he could still only manage 1 min. 49.97 sec. on the first day, considerably quicker than Reutemann (1 min. 50.85 sec.). Lauda admitted that he was very confused and implied that there had been very little real development carried out on the cars while he was away during the winter having another corrective skin graft operation carried out on his face.

Elsewhere along the pit front there were several other teams with varying problems. Ronnie Peterson’s efforts with his Tyrrell P34 were hampered by the fact that he was suffering from a bad attack of influenza and his car sheared two front stub axles in quick succession which meant that he didn’t get much opportunity to practice. His best turned out to be 1 min. 52.25sec. by the end of the first day which he subsequently improved to 1 min. 51.34 sec. on the second day although he was never happy with his car’s handling. In the Lotus camp there was a multitude of problems with Nilsson’s car consuming an engine during untimed testing and Andretti’s beset with misfiring throughout Friday’s two sessions. Right at the end of the second session the rugged American driver got everything straight and working, reeling off a confident 1 min. 50.13 sec. lap to take sixth position in the practice lists for that day.

But no sooner had he crossed the timing line than a sudden explosion tore the front of his new Lotus to shreds as the steel fire extinguisher bottle mounted just behind the car’s oil cooler disintegrated like a hand grenade. Hot oil spurted all over Andretti’s helmet (and into his face when he lifted the vizor) as he fumbled down through the gears to stop the car, the clutch and brake pedals falling limply about in the footwell as their fluid cylinders had been ripped out by the blast. The American successfully brought the car to a standstill but the whole front bulkhead had been destroyed and closer examination revealed that the monocoque would have to return to England to be rebuilt. Accordingly Andretti took over Nilsson’s car for Saturday’s two sessions, but failed to equal his Friday best, while the Swede resigned himself to the role of spectator.

Lauda put in a supreme effort in Saturday’s final session to lift himself up onto the second row of the grid with a best of 1 min. 49.73 sec. but Reutemann continued to be inhibited by his Ferrari’s difficult handling and could only record 1 min. 50.02 sec, which meant that he started from seventh place on the grid, proving that Ferraris don’t provide instant miracles. There must have been a touch of irony in this whole situation for Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone because the Argentinian had left his team because he had been disappointed with the Alfa-engined BT45’s performance and now he was behind both of them on the grid. So often in racing it pays to stick with one project because it may eventually pay off whereas changing ships in mid-stream seldom reaps any dividends.

In the Shadow team Tom Pryce worked steadily and unspectacularly with the sole DN5, hanging onto the bunch just behind the leaders with a best of 1 min. 50.65 sec. while the second of Don Nichols’ cars was entrusted to the young Italian Renzo Zorzi as the result of a sponsorship arrangement with wealthy Italian Franco Ambrosio. Zorzi drove Pryce’s old Shadow DN5/5B in the first three timed sessions but everything went wrong with it and he turned to the former Jarier DN5/4B for the final session in which he recorded his best time of 1 min. 54.19 sec., well off the pace. Other new faces in new places included Clay Regazzoni, the moustachioed Swiss seemingly enjoying his first helping of Cosworth DFV power in the apparently incongruous, down-to-earth surroundings of Morris Nunn’s Team Ensign. Nunn is an uncomplicated and straightforward individual who goes racing because he loves it – not for money or any of the attendant “razzmatazz” – and one sensed that Regazzoni’s hard driving style was just what Nunn wanted in his team. Despite changing rear suspensions a couple of times Regazzoni wound up recording a best of 1 min. 50.97sec. which put him fractionally behind Walter Wolf’s new challenger driven by Jody Scheckter.

The South African driver had plenty of problems during practice with the new Wolf which demonstrated a reluctance to pick up its fuel on right-hand corners, resulting in an intermittent misfire at high revs. The engine was changed on Friday night but the Wolf still declined to rev much over 10,000 r.p.m. on Saturday but Scheckter nevertheless recorded a 1 min. 50.76 sec. best which placed him ahead of Regazzoni on the grid. Hoping for an upsurge in his team’s fortunes after recruiting Vittorio Brambilla to drive his number one TS19, John Surtees was very impressed with the Italian’s “press-on” approach to racing but handling problems meant that Brambilla failed to improve on 1 min. 51.03 sec., fractionally quicker than the tardy Peterson. The second Surtees entry was for Austrian Hans Binder who set his best time in the spare TS19/01 during the second session after engine trouble with his allotted TS19/02.

Disappointingly slow, Jacques Laffite missed out virtually all Saturday’s practice when the Ligier-Matra JS7 began to blow out ominous clouds of smoke and the disappointed French mechanics pushed it back to its garage in the paddock for an engine change. Sticking patriotically to the Copersucar-financed family team operated by elder brother Wilson, Emerson FittipaIdi lapped in 1 min. 51.53 sec. with the extensively revised FD4/3 machine despite being troubled with electrical problems, a gearbox oil leak and sticking rear brakes. The former World Champion felt that there was still plenty of work to do on the car yet while his team-mate Ingo Hoffman was simply glad to be there for his second crack at Formula One although he looked a trifle lost in the maelstrom of Grand Prix practice. Finally, there were the works March 761Bs which were driven by “sponsored” drivers Alex Ribeiro and South African Ian Scheckter, elder brother of the Wolf driver. Ribeiro has graduated from the Formula Two world and had a preliminary taste of Cosworth power when he drove the ex-Guy Edwards Hesketh 308 in last year’s United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Ian Scheckter has experience of Formula One in South Africa and drove a couple of races for Frank Williams back in 1975. But neither March newcomer looked at home with his lot at Buenos Aires, inexperience on the circuit and an expensive penchant for bouncing their DFV’s off the rev-limiter contributing to their lowly grid positions. One entry that failed to materialise was the BRM P207 which had been entered for Larry Perkins to drive and indeed Perkins was in Buenos Aires waiting for his car’s arrival. Unfortunately when the BRM arrived at Gatwick to be loaded into its waiting Boeing 707 it was found that the crate into which it was packed wouldn’t fit into the aircraft’s cargo hold; despite the fact that British Caledonian had supplied the dimensions to Bourne beforehand!

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Hunt prepares for the start.


On Sunday the scorching Argentine heat seemed even greater with temperatures soaring to well over the 110 degrees, so it was easy to understand why the race was scheduled to start at four o’clock in the afternoon (before the Constructors intervened to change things, the ACA had planned the start for half-past five!). Led by Watson and Hunt the 20-car grid cruised steadily round their parade lap, returned to halt briefly on the grid before being signalled off by the legendary Fangio, 20 years after the old master had triumphed in front of his home crowd at the wheel of a Maserati 250F. The whole grid moved forward together but it was Watson who made the best getaway once they began to string out along the straight and the Ulsterman slipped his Brabham BT45 into the lead as they streamed through the first fourth-gear kink. Further back Depailler’s Tyrrell had made a very slow getaway and Laffite found himself taking to the grass in order to avoid a couple of cars in front of him, the French car picking up generous amounts of debris in its radiator ducting. At the end of the first lap the order was Watson comfortably from Hunt, Lauda, Andretti, Mass, Reutemann, Pryce, J. Scheckter, Pace, Depailler, Peterson (who inadvertently flicked off his ignition and went down the pit lane before he realised his error!), Brambilla, Regazzoni, Fittipaldi, I. Scheckter, Binder, Zorzi, Hoffman and the Ligier-Matra which was already misfiring badly.

For the first few laps Watson maintained his lead at about 2.5 sec. with Hunt playing a waiting game and sitting comfortably a couple of lengths in front of Lauda. Andretti was keeping up constant pressure on the Ferrari while Pace was driving with great spirit and determination in the second Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Almost unnoticed Zorzi’s Shadow retired with a mixture of gearbox and engine trouble while Laffite finally called into the pits for the first time on lap eight to sort out an annoying bout of sparking plug trouble. He briefly returned to the race before stopping again two laps later and by the time Laffite resumed racing for the second time the French car was a solid last.

Watson was already feeling hot and flustered because no cockpit ventilation had been provided in either Brabham BT45 and the Ulsterman wasn’t very comfortable in his make-shift seat which hadn’t been specially tailored for him. He began to slow a fraction and Hunt sliced past into the lead on lap 11, moving away from his pursuers with disarming confidence and never looking as though he was having to try very hard. He later admitted that he was amazed at the speed with which he pulled away from the rest of the field, frankly feeling that he had plenty in hand. Andretti moved in to challenge Watson while Lauda dropped away first behind Mass and then behind Pace, his Ferrari’s engine spluttering and coughing, obviously very sick indeed. On lap 20 Lauda decided that things had got bad enough for the whole car was vibrating badly so the Austrian pulled into the pits to see if there was anything that could be done. A quick examination revealed the fuel metering unit to be at fault and, as no repair could be effected quickly, Lauda climbed out of the car and retired. Further back down the field both the Tyrrell six-wheelers were having an absolutely diabolical time, Peterson calling it a day with his erratic-handling machine after a wild spin on one of the circuit’s fastest corners after 28 laps while Depailler didn’t last much longer, finally stopping after spinning off and finding that his P34’s engine would not fire up again.

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Watson led for most of the race in his Brabham-Alfa

As Hunt continued to pull away from the rest of the field Andretti slowly closed in on Watson until the Lotus was sitting right on the tail of the Brabham and at the end of lap 18 as they braked for the hairpin before the pits, Watson just slipped past Alex Ribeiro’s March which was being lapped, but the Brazilian immediately cut back into line as the Brabham went past, running his car’s right rear wheel over the left front spoiler on the Lotus nose section. Andretti was absolutely furious about this, but there was nothing he could do because the bent spoiler affected the car’s stability on fast corners and he was forced to slacken his pace slightly. As a result Andretti soon began to fall back and was quickly passed by Mass and then Pace although he quickly made up one of these places on lap 29 when Mass spun his overheating M23 at the hairpin. With the temperature gauge virtually off the dial Mass abandoned his car on the infield and walked sadly back to the pits.

On lap 24 Pryce’s Shadow came slowly into the pits its gearbox stuck in neutral, so his mechanics began dismantling the unit in an effort to find the trouble, while Reutemann spun his Ferrari on the infield loop section and immediately swung into the pit lane where his mechanics changed a badly blistered front tyre and despatched him back into the fray in eleventh place. Pryce lost 17 laps having a fresh selector fitted, but the Welshman re-entered the race nevertheless and was still circulating when the winner eventually received the chequered flag.

Mass’ retirement meant that the two Brabham BT45s were now running in second and third places because Andretti had dropped to fourth ahead of Jody Scheckter in the steadily driven Wolf. But there didn’t seem any chance of anybody doing much about Hunt, the McLaren driver heading into his 32nd lap looking as confident as ever. At the end of the long start/finish straight the World Champion swung through the fourth gear Esses but while his McLaren successfully negotiated the right-hand part of the corner it unexpectedly slid straight on rather than negotiating the left-hand exit onto the straight. Hunt’s M23 mowed down several layers of catch fencing before coming to rest and its driver leapt hurriedly out, unable to explain the cause of the incident. Subsequent examination of the rear suspension revealed that a bolt had broken and permitted the right rear suspension to collapse, throwing the McLaren out of control and sending it off the circuit.

This unexpected drama left the two Brabham-Alfa Romeos leading the race in 1-2 formation, a satisfying sight for any racing team but particularly gratifying for Ecclestone’s lads who have worked so hard in the face of so much adverse criticism to make these flat-12-cylinder cars competitive. But it was at this point that the realisation dawned that Scheckter and the new Wolf were in with a very strong chance. Up to now their progress had been steady and consistent but as the pit boards revealed Scheckter to be closing on the cars in front of him, so Scheckter drove harder. Although Pace grabbed the lead on lap 35 it was because Watson was slowing, his car handling strangely and the gears becoming difficult to select. Three laps later Scheckter moved past Andretti and soon afterwards inherited second place when Watson pulled to a halt on lap 42 with the gearbox literally failing off the back of the Alfa Romeo engine after the securing bolts had broken.

At the rate Scheckter was closing on the obviously ailing Pace it was clearly just a mathematical equation as to when the new Wolf would take the lead. Utterly exhausted in the searing heat and feeling sick in the stomach, Pace was no match for the now hard-driving Scheckter and Walter Wolf’s blue and gold machine rushed past the Brazilian with only six laps of the race left. At that point Pace slowed alarmingly and dropped over 40 secs. on the winning Wolf between laps 48 and 53, just hanging on long enough to scrape home ahead of Reutemann’s Ferrari which was being cheered to the echo of thousands of delighted Argentinians. Reutemann really drove well after his pit stop even though it must be admitted that his climb back from 13th place was aided by a number of retirements and that, on past form at least, a healthy Ferrari should be more than a match for the Fittipaldi car even if E. F. is driving it. But that was all lost on the crowd as Reutemann sped past the yellow Brazilian car with two laps to go and almost added another Brazilian to his bag by closing dramatically on Pace during that frantic final lap.

Image1977 Argentine GP podium
Scheckter takes the podium plaudits

Behind Fittipaidi in fifth place came Mario Andretti although his Lotus chewed up a rear wheel bearing and he was stationary at the hairpin before the pits with only 51 laps completed when Scheckter took the chequered flag. Regazzoni finished sixth, taking it easy over the last few laps after a pit stop to examine a badly worn rear wheel bearing which was allowing one of the rear wheels to flap about rather alarmingly while Brambilla’s Surtees TS19, which had been stuttering round with fuel-feed trouble, moved slowly across the line to complete 48 laps after waiting just before the flag for the winner to arrive. Neither of the unimpressive Marches finished. Ribeiro stopping with a broken gear lever and Ian Scheckter retiring when a battery lead broke off.

For Jody Scheckter and Walter Wolf it was a joyous, albeit rather lucky, first-time victory. Their main asset had proved to be consistency and stamina in the stifling hot conditions under which the Argentine Grand Prix was run, but they are very conscious that “one swallow doesn’t make a summer” and they have plenty of development work still to do. Nevertheless, it was an encouraging start to the year; many teams currently in Formula One have been racing for several years and still haven’t even scored a “lucky” Grand Prix victory!—A.H.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... and-prix-5

Some other pictures of the event, starting with Hans Binders Durex backed Surtees

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Tom Pryce in the Shadow DN8
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Alex Ribeiro in the Hollywood March
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Ian (older brother of Jody) Scheckter in the Rothmans backed March
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Ingo Hoffman in the Copersucar
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Laffite in the Ligier
Image

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#1062

Post by Michael Ferner »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 3 years ago On this day, January 9th 1977

Walter Wolf's team 'did a Brawn' and won on debut as a Constructor at the Argentine GP
Walter Wolf was a car enthusiast who took advantage of his fortune to run a Formula 1 team.....

Walter Wolf made his fortune in Canadian oil in the early 1970s. In 1975, he began to approach Frank Williams, who had just started his team with his own cars. In 1976, Walter Wolf bought out 60% of Williams Engineering, leaving Frank Williams managing director. The Wolf-Williams team was born. Wolf hired Hesketh 308C designer Harvey Postelwaithe to build the Williams FW05. Wolf's first season in F1 will be one of the most disappointing. Starting off with Jacky Ickx and Michel Leclère, the current goes badly between Ickx and Postelwaithe, the car lacks performance, the drivers leave to be replaced by Merzario, then by other paying drivers. The association between Wolf and Williams ended at the end of the season.

Wolf decided to run his own car in 1977, the Wolf WR1 designed by Harvey Postelwaithe. Walter Wolf also hired South African driver Jody Scheckter to drive the single car entry. The beginnings of the real Wolf team are meteoric, Jody Scheckter wins in his first race in Argentina. He won two more successes in Monaco and Canada and climbed on the podium six more times. The WR1 driver contested for the driver's title until the end of the season against Lauda, ​​finally finishing runner-up in the world title, with the single car team managing 4th in the constructors.
Many thanks for posting the excellent AH article, but the introductory words (not yours, I suspect) contain a few of the "usual" errors. Wolf didn't buy Williams Engineering (that company didn't even exist in 1976), but Frank Williams Racing Cars, which Frank had been running since the mid sixties (not "just started"). Initially, Wolf sponsored the team, but quickly took control and renamed it as soon as FW left. Wolf also bought most of the stock of the Hesketh team, including the services of designer Harvey Postlethwaite and the rights to his ongoing design work, as well as the two latest Hesketh cars (of the 308C model) which were then renamed the Williams FW05 (along with a third car built from Hesketh plans), while the as of yet unnamed Hesketh project became the Wolf Mk 1. Meanwhile, the old Hesketh team continued to service the older cars that had been sold to Harald Ertl and Guy Edwards, and eventually also built a new car designed by (I think) Frank Dernie, which looked very similar to the Wolf - a war over intellectual property was voided by the fact that the Hesketh 308E was not nearly as fast as the Wolf Mk 1! WR1, by the way, was the chassis number of the prototype, not a model or type designation (similar to the Tyrrell 001 etc.) - the correct way to describe the models is Wolf Mk 1 (chassis WR1, WR2, WR3 and WR4), Mk 2 (WR5 and WR6) and Mk 3 (WR7, WR8 and WR9, later renamed the Fittipaldi F7); also Tyrrell Mk 1 (chassis 001, 002, 003 and 004) and Mk 2 (005, 006, 006/2 and 006/3). Not that people will stop refering to the "type 003" Tyrrell, or "WR1 type" Wolf, but just so you know... :sarcasm:
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#1063

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#1064

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Along with Petty, Earnhardt is probably the only other NASCAR driver name I knew before the internet came along. A sad loss to motorsport.

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#1065

Post by Antonov »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 3 years ago Along with Petty, Earnhardt is probably the only other NASCAR driver name I knew before the internet came along. A sad loss to motorsport.
for me Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.
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#1066

Post by erwin greven »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 3 years ago Along with Petty, Earnhardt is probably the only other NASCAR driver name I knew before the internet came along. A sad loss to motorsport.
I picked up a bunch of names by then, because of Eurosport showing several NASCAR races in the 90's.
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