On this day in Motor Racing's past

[erwin greven]

Bottom post of the previous page:

[erwin greven]

Still remember this as it was yesterday.

The eerie silence.

Not wanting to add the crash i decided to post this video:
Fastest Ever Recorded Lap at Mount Panorama, Bathurst - In Car with Allan Simonsen

[Everso Biggyballies]

Still remember this as it was yesterday.

The eerie silence.

Not wanting to add the crash i decided to post this video:
Fastest Ever Recorded Lap at Mount Panorama, Bathurst - In Car with Allan Simonsen

There was a story surrounding that 2011 lap time in the video.... Simonsen's time was so quick that the officials initially removed it from the timing screens, for they believed it to be an error. It wasn't until it was confirmed by the manual time keeper and the team's own telemetry data, however, that the time was reinstated. The lap was actually set when Simonsen entered the Australian Bathurst Sprint event, an event which sees a variety of race and performance road cars take to the track. Held in December many local 12 hour teams use it to shakedown and test their cars.

As a mark of respect to Alan and this lap, the annual award for the fastest qualifier at the Bathurst 12 Hour, (which Simonsen won in 2013), is named the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy.

This is the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Bathurst 12 hour Trophy. In front of the Ferrari 458 he drove



Alain had by then become something of an adopted Aussie, having settled here to live in 2003. He drove in many local series and events, winning the Australian GT Championship title in 2007 (2nd in 2008), plus of course ran in V8SC. Oh plus the Australian TT in 2006. That and many appearances in V8 Supercars with various teams.

In fact there is more than one Allan Simonsen Pole Trophy in Australia... The Phillip Island Car Club (PIARC) also introduced one. (Im a member of PIARC) Presented annually at the "Island Magic" weekend, one of the major PI race weekends.

This years Island Magic round of Production Sports Cars will see the introduction of a new award in rememberance of Allan Simonsen, who at only 34, was tragically killed in an accident at Le Mans earlier this year.Allan still holds many lap records and held Pole position in many of the Production Sports Car rounds in which he competed.So, with the help of former Co-driver and friend Ted Huglin, Consolidated Chemicals and the support of the PIARC Board, they have proposed to institute the “Allan Simonsen Pole Position Award” in memory of Allan and his amazing talent.Presented to the Pole Position holder for our Phillip Island Enduro round each year, Ted Huglin will present this perpetual trophy and the winner will receive a miniature of the same. Separately Simon & Ted will be organising collection of donations from the Island Magic Sportscar Competitors to add to donations already received for Allan’s partner and daughter. It is proposed that this collection will be held during one of the Sportscar briefings and that the collection Gearbox be at that briefing in a yet to be nominated location for the duration of the Race Meeting.

https://www.prodsports.com.au/2021/04/2 ... ion-award/

[acerogers58]

On this day in 1993, Davey Allison was tragically killed in a helicopter crash at Talladega. He was the second NASCAR driver that year to die in an aviation accident after Alan Kulwicki.

[erwin greven]

[Added]

[Added]

Earnhardt Burned in Wreck at ALMS Warmup

Sonoma CA July 18, 2004:

Mike Harris writing for the AP reported that a fun weekend of racing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned frightening Sunday when a wreck during a warmup for an American Le Mans Series race turned his car into a fireball, leaving him hospitalized with burns on his face and legs.

Earnhardt's injuries were "moderate-sized burns of moderate intensity," according to medical officials at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. The ALMS said Earnhardt had second-degree burns on the insides of both legs and on his chin.

The NASCAR star, son of the late Dale Earnhardt, was flown to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he was expected to be kept overnight for observation. He will be examined again Monday.

"I'm bummed out and disappointed I couldn't run the race," Earnhardt said through a team spokesman.

Steve Crisp, a spokesman for Dale Earnhardt Inc., said Earnhardt was not badly injured. "They've done the X-rays and there's no bones broken," Crisp said. "He'll be fine."

Still, any crash involving Earnhardt always brings up memories of the last-lap wreck at the 2001 Daytona 500 that killed his father, easily the most popular driver of his era.

Crisp said the younger Earnhardt will compete in next weekend's Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Earnhardt, second in the Cup standings behind Jimmie Johnson, was supposed to be enjoying a weekend off from his regular series for a rare chance to race without pressure.

"These folks are tough," Crisp said. "They bounce back from all kinds of things. He'll be OK. They wanted him to rest comfortably today and they'll send him out tomorrow."

The accident came at the start of the 30-minute morning practice. Earnhardt lost control of his Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, spun and slid backward into a concrete barrier in turn eight of the road racing track.

Officials said the crash broke the fuel filler neck, where the gas is poured into the car, briefly turning the Corvette into a fireball after it came to a stop in the middle of the track. Earnhardt quickly got out of the car on his own before being assisted by safety crews. The car continued to burn and was a total loss.

Earnhardt was to have driven in Sunday's ALMS race with veteran road racing driver Boris Said. The team withdrew the entry from the race after Earnhardt's crash.

Earnhardt has been hurt before in a race car. He sustained a concussion in a crash at California Speedway early in the 2002 season and hid it from NASCAR for five months, afraid it might keep him from racing.

It led to a poor season for Earnhardt and eventually to a new policy by NASCAR forcing drivers with head injuries to get medical clearance before returning to competition.

The younger Earnhardt was introduced to sports car racing in 2001 when he and Earnhardt Sr. co-drove a Corvette in the 24-hour race at Daytona.

Earlier this year, Earnhardt, fellow Cup star Tony Stewart and Britain's Andy Wallace combined to nearly win the endurance race at Daytona. Stewart was at the wheel of a Chevrolet-powered Crawford when a broken suspension piece nearly put him into the wall and cost the team victory just 20 minutes from the end.

https://www.theautochannel.com/news/200 ... 04576.html

[Everso Biggyballies]

Not heard of that one before.... thanks for sharing.

[erwin greven]

Not heard of that one before.... thanks for sharing.

I could remember the crash, but i never knew it was Dale who was in that car.

[Everso Biggyballies]

On This Day

20th July 1943



The late, great Chris Amon was born 80 years ago today in New Zealand.. The Kiwi didn't win a single world championship F1 race, often robbed by misfortune or by being in the wrong car at the wrong time...... but he took plenty of notable victories elsewhere – particularly in sports cars. He also won non championship races in F1.


Amon finished first in the non-championship Argentine GP in 1971 – a feat he couldn’t equal in the world championship.

Chris Amon grew up on the family farm near the village of Bulls, about 100 miles to the north of New Zealand's capital Wellington. When he was still a teenager he convinced his father to buy him an Austin A40 and was soon racing around the family farm and later at the nearby Levin race track.

He moved on to hillclimbs but the Austin was not fast enough and he moved on to a 1.5-litre Cooper-Climax in 1960. He was soon showing well and at the end of 1961 he acquired an old Maserati 250F. It was not a success but at the end of 1962 he managed to finish second in a race at Renwick.


Chris Amon, Maser 250F just ahead of Bob Eade’s similar car with John Histed’s Lola Mk2 Ford behind. Angus Hyslop Cooper T53 Climax won from Amon and Barry Cottle, Lola Mk1 Climax. This race on 10 November 1962 was Chris’ last race in the Maser

He then acquired the 2.5-litre Cooper-Climax used by fellow Kiwi Bruce McLaren to finish third in the New Zealand GP, and at the 1963 race in Pukekohe he was seventh.


KIWI CRUSADERS: New Zealander Chris Amon (in a Ferrari) ) and Bruce McLaren (in a McLaren-Ford) during the 1969 British Grand Prix at Silverstone


Chris Amon, 19 years of age, awaits the start of the 1963 Australian Grand Prix, Warwick Farm, Sydney. Cooper T53 Climax…

Towards the end of that season Chris went to Australia to race. Among the spectators was Reg Parnell who was impressed and offered Amon the opportunity to go to Britain in 1963. Amon was 19 when he contested his first F1 World Championship GP. Driving a year-old Lola-Climax he began, well, he began with disappointment.

He was all set to race at Monaco, but he didnt get to start the race..... Trintignant took over the Lola for the race and Chris was a spectator. He started the next race at Spa, but dropped out with an oil leak. Further DNF's allowed him to make an impression although his best result of the year was only seventh place in Britain and France. The only two races he finished.


. Amon on the way to 7th in the Lola Mk4A ‘BRGP44’ now re-engined with a Coventry Climax FWMV V8, at Rouen, French GP June 30 1963. Clark won in a Lotus 25 Climax


Reg Parnell died in January 1964 and his son Tim took over, doing a deal to run Lotus-BRMs. That year Amon scored his first points with fifth place at Zandvoort.

Chris was then signed up by Bruce McLaren for 1965 although the new team never had an F1 car available for him and so he raced only in CanAm.... apart from a few drives with Parnell when Richard Attwood was out of action. In 1966 he was once again looking for a fulltime drive in F1 with various one-offs. He continued with McLaren in CanAm and in the midseason shared victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Bruce McLaren in a Ford GT40.

This finally put his name into the spotlight and at the end of the year he was called to Maranello and signed to drive in 1967 alongside Lorenzo Bandini, Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti. He started the year winning the Daytona 24 Hours and Monza 1000 with Bandini. In May Bandini was killed at Monaco, then Parkes suffered serious leg injuries and Scarfiotti decided that he had enough. Thus Amon found himself as Ferrari lead driver.


Chris Amon was Ferrari’s main driver for much of 1967 – when this photo was taken

In 1968 he went back to New Zealand and won two races in the Tasman Series but in World Championship events things always seemed to go wrong and by 1969 things were becoming strained with Ferrari. That year he won the Tasman series for the team but the rest of the year was disappointing and he left at the end of the season to join the new March team. He won the International Trophy at Silverstone but once again World Championship success eluded him and he moved on to join Matra in 1971. He won the non-championship Argentine Grand Prix before the season started but he was still unable to win a Grand Prix.


In the points – sixth – at Monza driving for Matra in the ear-shattering MS120B. Amon started from pole

In 1972 he stayed with Matra and was running away with the French GP when he was delayed by a puncture and lost out again. That year he lost money on an engine company which was building F2 engines and in 1973 he found himself with nothing to do apart from drive for the new Tecno team. That was not a success and he left to do a couple of races for Tyrrell.


There would be only a single finish in the Martini Tecno PA123 in 1973 – a sixth place at the Belgian GP


And the Tyrrell...


In 1974 he started up Amon Racing but the car was not a success and at the end of the year the team was disbanded. He did some races with BRM at the end of the year and then dropped off the F1 scene, only doing a couple of races with Ensign in 1975. Staying with Ensign in 1976, he achieved some impressive results, but after witnessing Niki Lauda's fiery accident at the Nurburgring, he decided that he had had enough and left the team. He did a one-off in Canada for Walter Wolf at the end of the year, and after a brief dalliance with CanAm in 1977 he quit the sport.





Here is an article from Motor Sport Magazine about that famous 1967 Daytona 24hr win for Ferrari, a race I made mention of above

Sweet revenge of Ferrari's 1967 Daytona 24 Hours win
At the Daytona 24 Hours in 1967 Ferrari learned that revenge is a dish best served cold, then upended into your rival’s lap...


Ferraris cross the line three abreast at the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours and Enzo's point is made; No23 is a works P3/4, with 24 being a P4. No.26 is a near-identical NART 412P

Why was this race so important that its name was informally given to Ferrari’s next supercar and, 55 years later, now officially bequeathed upon the SP3? Revenge, pure and simple.

For the first half of the decade, Ferrari had regarded prototype sports car racing as its own domain. Then Ford had arrived with the GT40. And while Ferrari ruled supreme through 1964 and remained the dominant force in 1965, by 1966 the 7-litre Ford MkIIs had humbled Ferrari at Le Mans which, being in Europe and having won seven of the previous eight races there, was regarded as essentially a home fixture. The Americans took every place on the podium while not one of the Scuderia’s cars even finished the race.

The very next time the teams would meet would be at the Daytona 24 Hours in February the following year.

“And then the Fords started to fall one after the other”
Ferrari only brought two cars, a brand new P4 for Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti and a P3 from the previous year updated to P4 specification for Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon. They faced no fewer than six factory supported MkIIs, split equally between the Shelby American and Holman Moody squads. It looked the tallest of tall orders.

But Ferrari was determined to make amends for the Le Mans humiliation and do to Ford in America what it had done to Ferrari in Europe. The cars were meticulously prepared, as were their drivers, who did copious testing before the race.

Chris Amon and Lorenzo Bandini celebrate 1967 Daytona 24 Hours win

Winning drivers Chris Amon, centre, and Lorenzo Bandini, left

It has been said that this was a race not so much won by Ferrari as lost by Ford, but that seems to sell the Scuderia somewhat short. The race was led at first by Phil Hill in the new and innovative Chaparral 2F, followed by a gaggle of Fords with the Ferraris a distance behind. But by the time the Chaparral retired with accident damage with more than 20 of the 24 hours to run, it was a Ferrari, not a Ford, that eased into the lead with its sister in third and only AJ Foyt’s Ford between them.

And then the Fords started to fail, one after the other succumbing to gearbox failure, which were replaced until there were no more to go round. Just one of the six made it to the flag.

By contrast, Ferrari showed how much it had learned since the drubbing at Le Mans. As János Wimpffen puts it in his masterly book Time and Two Seats, “The two factory P4s won as endurance races should be won — never was a hood raised on either car.”

Ferrari P4 and P3-4 at Maranello after 1967 Daytona 24 Hours win

The race-worn works Ferraris back at Maranello after their Daytona 24 Hours success

In the famous finishing line photograph there is a third Ferrari, which while appearing almost identical was neither a P3/4 like the winner or the P4 in second place. It was instead a 412P, which was what Ferrari called the P3/4s delivered to its favoured customers, in this case Luigi Chinettiís North American Racing Team. Some idea of just how dominant was this victory for Ferrari is provided by the fact that while the NART 412P finished 29 laps behind the winner, that was still enough to secure the final podium position, 18 laps clear of the works Porsche 910 in fourth. The victory was as total as the revenge was sweet.

At the big races that followed, Ferrari skipped Sebring where Ford’s new MkIV triumphed, while Ford swerved Monza where the P4s swept to an unopposed victory. Indeed they’d meet just once more before rule changes for 1968 rendered both Ford and Ferrari prototypes obsolete. It was at Le Mans where Ferraris took two of the three podium positions; but the one that mattered belonged to Ford.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... hours-win/

[erwin greven]

Not heard of that one before.... thanks for sharing.

Added youtube video "Dale Jr. Download - with Boris Said"

[erwin greven]

Today, 50 years ago.

[erwin greven]

[erwin greven]

[erwin greven]

[EB]

Depailler, Behra, Lauda.

Avoid German tracks on 1st August.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Depailler, Behra, Lauda.

Avoid German tracks on 1st August.

To back that up the 1954 German GP was held 1st August but I believe the day before, or certainly the event was marred by the death of Onofre Marimón, who suffered a crash in practice resulting from a brake failure.


On a brighter note.

Also on August 1st 1965 Jim Clark won his second world title with a dominant display....After taking pole position by almost four seconds, Clark led every lap of the race and set the Fastest Lap on his way to victory.

He was also powered by a Climax engine... this was their 40th win, but was also to be their last ever win in a Championship GP.

Another Scot led the German Grand Prix from start to finish on this day in 1971. Jackie Stewart started from pole position for the tenth time in his career and led every lap on his way to victory. But Stewart was denied a Grand Slam by his Tyrrell team-mate Francois Cevert who recorded the first Fastest Lap of his career.

[erwin greven]

Depailler, Behra, Lauda.

Avoid German tracks on 1st August.

The next day was not an good idea too: On August 2nd 1964 the first Dutch GP driver to score points in a GP, Carel Godin de Beaufort crashed fatally at the Nürburgring.

By 1964 the Porsche 718 was fast becoming obsolete, and Beaufort was cherry-picking his events. He'd already skipped Monaco, Spa, Rouen and Brands, concentrating on lesser events instead. This meant the 'Ring would only be his second World Championship participation of the year. He knew full well the Eifel track he regarded as his own would allow him the only opportunity to shine and keep himself in the picture. After arriving in the paddock on Friday, he set out on Saturday practice, entertaining the paddock crowd by wearing a Beatles wig before starting on a series of slow reconnaissance laps. Then, on his fifth lap, Carel decided it was time to push. But the car would have none of that - or was it the track? Five miles out after the start and finish line, the Porsche suddenly veered off line and into the trees, its driver thrown out. On arrival, the rescue team found Carel suffering from serious injuries. The decision was made to transport Beaufort to a nearby Koblenz hospital where a broken thy, a fractured chest bone and several concussions of the skull were diagnosed. Immediately after the word reached Holland, Carel's mother and the family's personal physician flew out to Germany. On his arrival in Koblenz Prof.Dr. Nuboer advised that Carel was to be transported to a neurological center in Cologne. Up until Sunday evening doctors fought for his life but at half past ten Carel was pronounced dead. His death was not announced until Monday - after which the news filtered through to the Dutch press.