Unusual disqualifications

Back in 1960, NASCAR driver Herman "Turtle" Beam became the first driver ever to be black flagged at Daytona International Speedway. It occurred during one of the two Daytona 500 40-lap qualifying races when he somehow forgot to put on his helmet before the race.
Beam ran eight laps before officials noticed he didn’t have on a helmet and threw the black flag.

Are there any other examples of other unusual reasons for a driver to have been disqualified from a race?

Back in 1960, NASCAR driver Herman "Turtle" Beam became the first driver ever to be black flagged at Daytona International Speedway. It occurred during one of the two Daytona 500 40-lap qualifying races when he somehow forgot to put on his helmet before the race.
Beam ran eight laps before officials noticed he didn’t have on a helmet and threw the black flag.

Are there any other examples of other unusual reasons for a driver to have been disqualified from a race?

One that immediatley springs to mind is Nigel Mansells DSQ at the 1989 Portugese Gp for reversing in the pitlane - he overshot? Or was he avoiding some other teams mechanics? - then he and Senna collided.....and also at the earlier Canadiian Gp when for whatever reason him and Nannini were released from the pitlane before the race started!

Probably not really that unusual but they where ones i recalled!

Hans Heyer starting the German GP even though he was only a reserve.

Not a DQ, but Antonio Ascari losing the Targa Florio in 1923 because Ramponi was not in the passenger seat but astride the bonnet, he had to go back and re-do the last bit and Sivocci stole the win.

Mini and Ford being disqualified from the Monte Carlo Rally in 1966 for not being French.

Hans Heyer starting the German GP even though he was only a reserve.

Can you disqualify someone who didn't technically qualify in the first place?

Can you disqualify someone who didn't technically qualify in the first place?

Once upon a time, such things were possible in a roundabout way.....

Just as Denny Hulme thinking it was silly that a perfectly good racing was sitting there and he wanted to race some more, so....

Hans Heyer starting the German GP even though he was only a reserve.

Here is what MOTOR reports about Vern Schuppan in Anderstorp 74:

"Vern Schuppan strictly didn't qualify for the race, but completed the warm-up lap as the 26th starter. Nobody thought to stop him from joining the grid, and he brought his Ensign to 12th place in spite of very obvious handling deficiencies."

One that immediatley springs to mind is Nigel Mansells DSQ at the 1989 Portugese GP for reversing in the pitlane - he overshot? Or was he avoiding some other teams mechanics?

IIRC, Mansell had left the pit and a rear wheel fell off, and the mechanics ran out to the car with a jack and a spare wheel, got Mansell running again where he proceeded to set several fastest laps.. Some 15-20 minutes later on he was disqualified for receiving outside assistance.

Have I got that right ?

Mini and Ford being disqualified from the Monte Carlo Rally in 1966 for not being French.

I believe the technical reason for the Mini's disqualification was some sort of issue with the operation of the dimmer switch not being entirely stock or legal for use on public roads, even though it had somehow been previously approved. The French did try very hard to find some more sinister form of blatant "cheating", but failing to find anything after dismantling the Mini (and not finding anything) resorted to the previous issue with the dimmer switch.

Seems I remember someone being DQ'ed for removing their gloves on the cool down lap . F1 race , I think .

IIRC, Mansell had left the pit and a rear wheel fell off, and the mechanics ran out to the car with a jack and a spare wheel, got Mansell running again where he proceeded to set several fastest laps.. Some 15-20 minutes later on he was disqualified for receiving outside assistance.

Have I got that right ?

Mansell was Dqd in 91 for the mechanics working on the car in the pit drive through lane, not in the box. The car had left the pit box minus the RH rear wheel nut. The mechanics then refitted the wheel in the outer lane of the pit road. I can't remember the exact circumstances of his reversing in the pits in 89, but he stayed out long enough to take Senna off.

Montoya was dqd at the Indy F1 GP for changing cars outside the time limit at the start. He jumped out the car on the grid and took the spare in the pits, but there was a time window for doing this and he was about 2 seconds outside.

Andreas Scheld was disqualified from the 2000 Nurburgring F3000 round for "altering the car mechanically in parc ferme". A bit of sticky tape had got stuck to the front wing and he removed it. Cost him second place.

Andreas Scheld was disqualified from the 2000 Nurburgring F3000 round for "altering the car mechanically in parc ferme". A bit of sticky tape had got stuck to the front wing and he removed it. Cost him second place.

What a bloody stupid decision. You'd think that someone would apply some common sense.

What a bloody stupid decision. You'd think that someone would apply some common sense.

I think there was more to it than just sticky tape, but that may be my failing memory.

He removed a Gurney Flap from rear wing, IIRC. Which was pretty stupid thing to do...

Driving my Crossle/Pulsar in a club FF race at Shannonville Motorsport Park in 1983, I was witness to one of the most dastardly acts I've even seen at the races.

Dave Farmer, also a resident of my home town, Bowmanville, Ontario, was in his rookie year driving a Crossle 40F recently purchsed from the John Powell School. He and I hooked up early on in the season and were virtual team mates. I'd a number of years experience under my belt and was happy to provide any assistance to him.

As for the race in question, Dave was leading me when a red flag was thrown for an incident involving other cars...not unusaul in FF. As per the GCR's, all cars stopped on the circuit immediately. After a time when cleanup was well in hand, we were instructed to fire up and proceed slowy around to pitlane. I followed Dave and parked right behind him. Everyone cut their motors but stayed in their cars awaiting instructions. Dave was stopped only a few seconds when an official, normally seen as a scrutineer, stepped up to Dave and within earshot of me, told him that his catch tank was full of oil. Perhaps Dave over-filled it or was experiencing a little blow-by, I don't know. It certainly wasn't spewing oil onto the track...that's for sure. Anyway, Dave jumped out of his Crossle, quickly removed the catch tank and dumped the contents into a barrel pitside. He was in the process of re-fitting the tank when the self-same official who'd advised him of the situation proudly announced, 'You are disqualified for servicing your car under a red flag condition.' Dave was incredulous. I, witnessing all of this, lept out of my car in a fury and stood full in the face of this official and gave him the dressing down of his life. 'How dare you pull such a stunt! You practically urged him to empty his tank. I saw the whole thimng, you SOB. We're amateurs out here...spending our $$$ to have some fun and you pull this! I'll have you up before the CASC for this!"

Dave got back into his car and resumed once we went back under starter's orders.

Never saw that official again at the races.

Good story!

Here is what MOTOR reports about Vern Schuppan in Anderstorp 74:

"Vern Schuppan strictly didn't qualify for the race, but completed the warm-up lap as the 26th starter. Nobody thought to stop him from joining the grid, and he brought his Ensign to 12th place in spite of very obvious handling deficiencies."

I was there, and I can see one special reason for this strange incident. The pit lane was at another part of the track, not where the S/F line was, at the grandstands. So when he went out on track, there was probably little chance to call him back in. He just went out and lined up his car at the back end of the grid. And nobody noticed, because the attention is always at the front end of the grid. I bet it must have been several laps before they discovered that Schuppan was in the race after all, but I don't understand why they didn't black flag him. Maybe they didn't discover his plot until the race was over. I actually didn't notice it at all until I read about it.

He removed a Gurney Flap from rear wing, IIRC. Which was pretty stupid thing to do...

Ah, if it was a Gurney flap then yes, that would be stupid and a disqualifiable offence.

How easy are those things to remove? They showed it on the telly, and he snicked a bit of masking tape off a front wing side endplate, but I don't remember him going to the rear wing at all. Coloni protested, as they needed the points to avoid relegation from F3k.

You almost have to enforce it just to keep the rule up. Otherwise next time someone does remove a Gurney flap. It was a bit silly, but the minute he touched the car you knew there was no way he was going to keep the result.

A few seasons later during the red flag at Daytona as Sterling Marlin started wriggling out of the cockpit, I started laughing before most.

A lot of British drivers were disqualified for using the old track on the outside of Paddock Hill bend at Brands Hatch.

In Le Mans in 1975, a 911 Porsche was black flagged after three laps, just because this car was DNQ.... but it took the start !

The following occurred at the very first professional race I ever went to, the 1972 Can-Am at Riverside. Michael Parks finished a very creditable 10th in a Ferrari 512M. When he returned to the pits at the end of the cool down lap, the fellow who had signed on as a sponsor for the car for that race was so overjoyed at the result, he jumped in the car and proceeded to take it on a victory lap! Result, disqualification.

Cheers,
Kurt O.

Personally over 35+ years of motorsport I have been black flagged on a unofficial practice day for no window net, and they were not actually compulsory yet. Black flagged when in a very good position for only one glove, it came off my hand in a half lose.And like most competitors these days have had stop goes for imagined infringements, one of the reasons i stopped racing.
And in speedway black flagged for not wearing my seat belt, I was ofcourse but it was a black belt against a black suit. The stewards hearing after was eventful!
But have never been DQd after the event.
The most classic instance of a car that should have been and was not was a car with the bootlid held by one pin from 4 flapping about in the wind. I was second and crapping myself that I was going to wear it, waved at the starter and flag points to no avail. I ended up backing off to give some space. I protested but as usual nothing came of it. I should really have been awarded them win.
The most weird black flag was Greg Murphy's toilet stop at Bathurst a few years back He was given a 5 min penalty for an infringement so he went to the dunny to relieve his frustration seen by national TV.

In rallying, I think it was Vic Elford who was disqualified for giving his wife a lift over the finishing line (on the Acropolis Rally?), and on another occasion I seem to remember a car being disqualified for having too small inlet valves (that was a typing error on the homologation forms!)

Lewis Hamilton became the first driver in my memory to be disqualified for lying to the stewards! Has anyone ever heard of anything similar before? Btw, That's what I call an unusual disqualification. As for drivers not eligible to start being disqualified, there was that famous Tim Schenken story from Watkins Glen, where he crept into a third Lotus 72 and started from the back, and lasted quite many laps before being caught, and black-flagged!

I'm sure that someone will clarify this but I believe that in the mid sixties, the Sprites at Le Mans were failed at scrutineering as the ACO said that the paint scheme (green) was too bright and likely to startle other drivers! They were the main compediotors of the Simcas that year.
My understanding is that they had to rush around and buy and apply some different paint.
Can anyone confirm this?

In rallying, I think it was Vic Elford who was disqualified for giving his wife a lift over the finishing line (on the Acropolis Rally?), and on another occasion I seem to remember a car being disqualified for having too small inlet valves (that was a typing error on the homologation forms!)

It was Andrew Cowan who was DQd from the Austrian Alpine rally in a Sunbeam Tiger (64 or 65). Ford had changed the spec on the engine , but not told Rootes. Rootes were or on the point of being owned by Chrysler, so there was a possible ulterior motive. but I doubt it, just a paper work slipup.

Not Cowan, but Peter Harper, on the 1965 Coupe des Alpes.

Not Cowan, but Peter Harper, on the 1965 Coupe des Alpes.

I was working complely from memory, but I am still convinced it was Cowan. I assume you are checking a reference?

I assume you are checking a reference?

From the Motor Sport report on the 1965 Coupe des Alpes, by John Davenport:

For Peter Harper the situation was even worse, for he finished the rally unpenalised on the road - something unique this year in GT - and was thus quite certain of victory until the technical examination, which revealed that his car was fitted with a different cylinder head to that shown on the homologation form as the one on the car had smaller valves. Remonstration from Rootes proved fruitless and thus, through a small point ignored by their competition department, a fine drive had been wasted ...

Cowan drove a Rover 2000 on this event. I remember Harper's disqualification made the BBC News that day, which is one reason it's always stuck in my mind.

Coo-Coo Marlin was comfortably eading the Daytona 500 with a handfull of laps left when he was black-flagged for leaking oil.
Pulled into the pits, they did a brief look found no oil leak, and he was sent back out but by then the top teams had passed him and he could not get back in front.

From the Motor Sport report on the 1965 Coupe des Alpes, by John Davenport:



Cowan drove a Rover 2000 on this event. I remember Harper's disqualification made the BBC News that day, which is one reason it's always stuck in my mind.

I was working from it being a Castrol quiz question, but that was a long time ago.

Hmmm ... having suffered from incorrect quiz questions many times (most recently in the finals of last year's Autoglym quiz) and, to be fair, having set a few clangers myself, I certainly wouldn't rely on any quiz as a historically accurate source. In the days when I regularly took part in pub quizzes in the Bristol area, one question that popped up several times was:

Q: What was the first name of the wife of Carl Benz?

A: Mercedes.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the Lotus 23 at Le Mans...

As I recall, it turned up with six wheelstuds on the rear and four on the front. "No, you must have the same wheel fixing front and rear," said the organisers.

Away went the Lotus and it returned with four wheelstuds at the rear. "No! If the designer said it must have six at the rear before, then six it shall be!" Team Lotus went away forever after having become a constant niggle with the little French entries and their prized 'Index' awards.

^ I refer to the last sentence of post 4.

Yes, that has its parallel...

But it's not about Le Mans and Colin Chapman.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the Lotus 23 at Le Mans...

As I recall, it turned up with six wheelstuds on the rear and four on the front. "No, you must have the same wheel fixing front and rear," said the organisers.

Away went the Lotus and it returned with four wheelstuds at the rear. "No! If the designer said it must have six at the rear before, then six it shall be!" Team Lotus went away forever after having become a constant niggle with the little French entries and their prized 'Index' awards.

The issue was over the spare wheel - you can't fit a 4 bolt spare front wheel on a 6 bolt rear hub.

They then entered that 23 in the appropriate French sports car series for the rest of that year, complete with 4 stud rear wheels, just to prove that it was indeed safe in that configuration.

In rallying, I think it was Vic Elford who was disqualified for giving his wife a lift over the finishing line (on the Acropolis Rally?)
...

It was definitely Tony Fall in a Lancia Fulvia HF, in the 1968 TAP Rally in Portugal.
Fall dominated the event with Henry Liddon as co-driver, until he arrived at the final control a few minutes early and stopped just short of the control area being immediately mobbed by spectators. Fall's wife was in the crowd, and he allowed her to get in the car. She was still in there when they clocked in, Fall driving with her in his arms the last 50 meters of the stage. But the stewards invoked the "unauthorised passenger rule", Tony Fall-Henry Liddon were disqualified and Francisco Ramaozinho-"Jocames" in a Citroën DS23 Proto were declared the winners.

What about a driver (or, was he a motorcycle rider, don't remember) who was disqualified for having took a national flag by a spectator during the "slow-down" lap?

Scott Goodyear was disqualified from a Indy 500 win because he overtook the slow pace car on a restart.

I'm sure that someone will clarify this but I believe that in the mid sixties, the Sprites at Le Mans were failed at scrutineering as the ACO said that the paint scheme (green) was too bright and likely to startle other drivers! They were the main compediotors of the Simcas that year.
My understanding is that they had to rush around and buy and apply some different paint.
Can anyone confirm this?

According to my copy of The Healey Book, it was the '65 Le Mans entry that had to be repainted because the fluorescent colors were deemed "unsafe". There is a photo of the #48 car from the race, and it's definitely a more muted shade of green, kind of like the BRG Aston Martin used to use. Modern photos show the car has been repainted in the original green. It is indeed a startling shade, but it's hardly "dangerous", methinks.

-William

Scott Goodyear was disqualified from a Indy 500 win because he overtook the slow pace car on a restart.

AFAIK he was penalized, not disqualified.

Scott was penalized in that scorers just stopped logging his laps. Too bad. He had the race in the bag.

Just a little too anxious.

Scott was penalized in that scorers just stopped logging his laps. Too bad. He had the race in the bag.

Just a little too anxious.

The incident took place so late in the race that Scott didn't really stand to lose that much by continuing. IIRC, he was to serve a drive-thru penalty that he didn't stand a chance of making up, and would have lost a lap, at least. So, he kept on going, a decision the commentators on TV and radio all agreed with.


I remember seeing one enthusiast magazine(it may have been CORVETTE FEVER...) with the cover blurb... "CORVETTE BEATS HONDA AT INDY"...



Dan

Ian Burgess was disqualified from the 1961 Aintree 200 for taking on extra oil for his Lotus-Climax.

What rule did he break? It seems perfectly normal to me that he stopped if the oil level was running low.

Hmmm ... having suffered from incorrect quiz questions many times (most recently in the finals of last year's Autoglym quiz) and, to be fair, having set a few clangers myself, I certainly wouldn't rely on any quiz as a historically accurate source. In the days when I regularly took part in pub quizzes in the Bristol area, one question that popped up several times was:

Q: What was the first name of the wife of Carl Benz?

A: Mercedes.

Berta is spinning in her grave!

Frank

Ian Burgess was disqualified from the 1961 Aintree 200 for taking on extra oil for his Lotus-Climax.

What rule did he break? It seems perfectly normal to me that he stopped if the oil level was running low.

It was a specific rule in the 1961-65 Formula 1 regulations that topping up oil (and possibly other fluids) was prohibited.

Presumably this was on safety grounds to discourage cars that leaked oil all over the track

Phillip Jucker was disqualified during the 1935 Nuffield Trophy at Donington for dangerous driving.

I know of one FF1600 driver in the 80's who was disqualified at Zandvoort, officially for 'driving the wrong way round the track'.
Sounds stupid but he had spun coming out of the Hugenhozbocht & stopped across the track. The turning circle on this particular make of car was quite poor so he drove 30-40 metres back to the corner where the track was wider.
His vision back down the track was very good & there was no conflicting traffic whereas doing a 3-point turn would have been difficult & leave him unsighted. Difficult to explain all that to the stewards though.