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Flooding & motorsport


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#51 Alan Cox

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Posted 02 January 2014 - 15:16

I recall a St John Horsfall Trophy meeting at Silverstone being cancelled after practice in the early 1990s(?). Your dad was there, Gregor, with Geoffrey Marsh's Aston V8



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#52 2F-001

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Posted 02 January 2014 - 16:56

The 1965 Sebring 12-hours was mentioned earlier in the thread…
One assumes that nowadays a race would not continue in such diluvian conditions.

Bad weather was forecast, but I don't imagine anyone expected what came; the various accounts I've read suggest anything from 4 to 8 inches of water in many places. Lap times for the previously quicker cars stretched to 10 minutes (fastest lap was under 3).

According to the report in 'Car and Driver', Phil Hill (originally sharing a Ford GT with Ginther, which had already retired) switched to driving a Cobra Daytona and, having already stopped three times on a single lap to open the door and let the water out (goodness knows what it was like in an open car), strayed off-course in the zero visibility and found himself in a car park. The winning Chaparral had its troubles too - Jim Hall said in one account that he'd skated so far off the track at one point that he got lost.

#53 Belmondo

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Posted 02 January 2014 - 17:20

I recall a St John Horsfall Trophy meeting at Silverstone being cancelled after practice in the early 1990s(?). Your dad was there, Gregor, with Geoffrey Marsh's Aston V8

 

Likewise HSCC Silverstone in Sept 1986, abandoned mid-afternoon. There was a river across the track at Maggotts and I remember Colin Parry-Williams clouting the bank there with his T70 Spyder on the warm-up lap.



#54 Jim Thurman

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Posted 03 January 2014 - 16:56

Probably not what some folks are looking for, but per Michael's posts, really there have been a tremendous number of U.S. ovals affected by flooding.  There have been quite a few short ovals built near rivers or creeks.  Add in some in natural bowls, the artificial bowl of banking and the tracks that have crashwalls all the way around and you can see why it's a perfect recipe for flooding, or more accurately, retaining and holding what water there is.  A lot of pumping to remove water from inside ovals.



#55 Gregor Marshall

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Posted 03 January 2014 - 18:59

I recall a St John Horsfall Trophy meeting at Silverstone being cancelled after practice in the early 1990s(?). Your dad was there, Gregor, with Geoffrey Marsh's Aston V8

 

Good memory Alan, I had forgotten that one, 8th August 1999 and it was the 50th running of the Horsfall too.
I suppose when you think of Silverstone it is a very flat area and does always seemed to have struggled with standing water over the years.



#56 ExFlagMan

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Posted 03 January 2014 - 22:09

Good memory Alan, I had forgotten that one, 8th August 1999 and it was the 50th running of the Horsfall too.
I suppose when you think of Silverstone it is a very flat area and does always seemed to have struggled with standing water over the years.

It's probably because in spite of it being on the top of a hill, the water table is only a few feet below the surface, according to what a local once told me.