Bizarre incidents during race meetings

There was the episode at Gimli in Canada when an aircraft crash landed during a race meeting.

Edited by alansart, 15 April 2013 - 16:28.

I can't believe no one mentioned Kimi and his wrong turn in Brazil, I know not nostalgia but rather bizarre.

No, that was a bit earlier.

No doubt more hair then as well

Just prior to the start of the 1977 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, all of the cars on the grid had their front bulkhead and rear rollover bar checked by race officials to ensure that the driver's head did not exceed the height of the rollbar (plus a straight line from the rollbar to the front bulkhead).

I would certainly reckon that to be bizarre if it was in response to Tom Pryce's death...

The purpose of the head not protruding from the line between the rollbar and the bulkhead is clear enough, but it would do nothing to interfere with the progress of an errant fire extinguisher carried by a track-crossing marshal.

True, but people get jumpy when that sort of thing happens and 'have to be seen to be doing something', even if it is not really that appropriate.
It's like the reaction after Roger Williamsons accident - suggestions of fire extingusher backpacks for marshals and aircraft spec full immersion fire suits etc, rather than making sure drivers knew how to use an extingisher properly.

Yes, but ... surely the idea is that fire marshalls - not drivers - should put out the fire.

I agree it would help the marshalls if the drivers did know how to operate the extinguisher. Particularly as, at the time in question, the drivers had fireproof* overalls while this was not necessarily true of the marhalls.

* relatively speaking

Just prior to the start of the 1977 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, all of the cars on the grid had their front bulkhead and rear rollover bar checked by race officials to ensure that the driver's head did not exceed the height of the rollbar (plus a straight line from the rollbar to the front bulkhead).

And still isn't - the best they have are only treated with a 'flame retardent' solution which might help stop them bursting into flames but little else.

The recent Ginetta fire at Oulton does raise an issue regarding fuel pumps. The driver didn't switch off the ignition when he bailed out so the fire was being pumped full of fuel as the Marshals tried to put it out. The cutout switch was in the middle of the fire so they couldn't switch it off.

I was fiddling with my Ginetta a couple of days ago and found that neither the ignition switch nor the master switch would stop it...

Todays Indycar Practice was stopped because of............ducks!!!!

http://www.autosport...t.php/id/107795

I recall a special stage on a rally we did on Thorney Island (Hampshire, UK) where there was a bend after the flying finish. On our second run, my driver had noticed there was smooth grass straight on so took the flying finish flat out and ran off onto the grass. There was some consternation amongst the marshals and officials but it was quite legal, as long as we made it back the stop control.


We had a similar incident at a sprint meeting at (pre-Revival restoration) Goodwood. There was a turbo charged Morgan which shed its flywheel as it passed the pits. The thing bounced off the track, soared over the heads of spectators and lodged above the windscreen of a campervan. Really scary stuff!

This was the same Morgan that had a blind gentleman as mechanic. He was led up to me (I was Clerk of the Course) to complain that another car had hit the chicane and that we had rebuilt it so that it was tighter, disadvantaging his driver. How do you argue that with a blind man???

Pulling a couple of plug leads off did the trick. Normal service has been resumed, although the root cause remains a mystery.

During the CRC-300 endurance race at Amaroo Park in 1982, the Allan Grice/Allan Browne Holden Commodore had the fire extinguisher explode, filling the interior with white foam.

Ok, so a few off track, and no, I can't remember the years....

Hannu Mikkola sending his co driver to sit in the boot of a Quattro to balance the car as a wheel had come off.....and finishing the stage!

Martin Schanche getting the hump when he felt Gollop pushed him off the track in a European Rallycross round......and waiting for the second lap where he proceeded to run out in front of all the cars and stopped the race.

Schanche again, and I was at this one. Standing in the middle of Druids at Brands when he piles into the back of Per Eklunds Subaru which promptly erupts into a fireball. Can remember vividly how hot it felt. Schanche claimed his foot slipped off the brake. Telemetry suggested he was accelerating at something ridiculous like 1.5g (can't remember exactly) in the braking zone to Druids!

Ok, so a few off track, and no, I can't remember the years....
 
Hannu Mikkola sending his co driver to sit in the boot of a Quattro to balance the car as a wheel had come off.....and finishing the stage!
 
Martin Schanche getting the hump when he felt Gollop pushed him off the track in a European Rallycross round......and waiting for the second lap where he proceeded to run out in front of all the cars and stopped the race.
 
Schanche again, and I was at this one. Standing in the middle of Druids at Brands when he piles into the back of Per Eklunds Subaru which promptly erupts into a fireball. Can remember vividly how hot it felt. Schanche claimed his foot slipped off the brake. Telemetry suggested he was accelerating at something ridiculous like 1.5g (can't remember exactly) in the braking zone to Druids!

There was a Grand Prix that Maldonado won.  Bizarre.

There was a Grand Prix that Maldonado won.  Bizarre.

Not really, he looked like a podium getter in Valencia and Singapore that year.

When Bobby Grimm retired from the 1959 Indianapolis 500 on lap 85 due to magneto problems, he dislocated his shoulder when raising his arm to let other drivers know that he was slowing down.

Cale Yarborough wanted to drive in the 1957 Southern at Darlington, but NASCAR rules stated that a driver had to be 21 years old (Yarborough was only 17).

Yarborough had a friend make a fake birth certificate, (stating his age as 21), sent it to NASCAR in order to obtain a license. NASCAR sent Yarborough his license, and Cale competed in qualifying for the race. However, following qualifying, NASCAR became suspicious and eventually Cale was found out. Car owner Bob Weatherly took his place behind the wheel of the #30 Pontiac.

When race day came, Cale snuck in early though a hole in the fence which he used to sneak into the speedway grounds to watch races during his childhood, then apparently hid under the floorboards of the car  until just before the command to start engines. Cale then shooed Bob out of the car, and started the race when the green flag dropped.
When NASCAR officials found Weatherly, who was supposed to be in the car, standing in the garage, they immediately became suspicious (yet again) and demanded to know who was piloting the car. Yarborough would have been disqualifed, but the car retired on lap 31 with wheel problems.

Edited by Graham Clayton, 26 October 2013 - 02:04.

During the running of the 2007 Rally of Yorkshire, David Higgins came across a JCB digger/tractor coming towards him on the seven mile Gale Rigg stage. Luckily, Higgins was able to swerve and avoid the JCB, whose driver had managed to avoid rally officials and get onto the stage, driving in the reverse direction to the competing cars.

Maybe nearly 5 years later, but here at last in reply to the very first post!

a certain Mr Dennis, Hannelore Werner, Graham Hill and extreme right Peter Westbury.

Copyright Steve Jupp.

Spring Bank Holiday F2 Crystal Palace May 1971

I was reminded of this by Colin Bennett’s mention at a recent Northern TNF gathering in Cheshire of what he regarded as one of Emerson Fittipaldi best races with Emerson winning this race on a (mostly) three-cylinder Lotus 69. I can still remember the sound now. For practice (on the Saturday) and race day, I was marshalling at South Tower which is before the main start/finish straight. This incident relates to the Saturday. Practice had gone well but I think that it was the second session (again!) that was interrupted by water suddenly appearing on the track (on a sunny and warm London day) and trickling at an increasing rate back down the hill (Maxim’s Rise – named after the site where Sir Hiram had experimented with his steam-powered aeroplane). This meant that as the cars approached us at speed they could be in a bit of bother. I noticed the bubbling water next the track – it was a broken water main believed to be from the original Crystal Palace building (moved to Sydenham Hill from Hyde Park following the Great Exhibition of 1851) that burst just at the wrong moment - and alerted the Observer who then ‘phoned Race Control. Again, flags were hung out hurriedly including the yellow/red slippery surface one of course. First car through was Graham Hill in the Rondel Brabham BT36 and he promptly spun and continued. To our amazement, and before Race Control could stop the session, Graham continued around for a second lap and spun again! Very unfortunately, he got collected by Hannelore Werner in the Eifelland March 712M and received a very nasty bang on the head. I was also marshalling at Brands on the Sunday and Graham was driving a Ford Capri in the “celebrity race”, still suffering I think from the Saturday incident. I always meant to ask him why he had done another lap after having spun the first time but I thought better of it as he was clearly in some discomfort. The incident was reported in the following edition of Autosport and there’s even a picture of me looking at London’s newest river!

Hopefully, someone else may recall these incidents. I am sure there are many more such stories out there.

this took place between events at nassau speed weeks 1964, original report with photos of the wounded corvette grand sport, appeared in the march 1965 issue of sports car graphic magazine. cannot seem to attach photos or scans with my old mac !

         "the crews for dan gerber's cobra and saunder's freshly repaired GS sting ray arrived at the hanger to find carnage. the engine in dan's car was making very sick noises and the tell-tale on the tach showed that it had been twisted to 8,000 rpm sometime during the night. what had happened to the GS was more obvious, much more obvious. bits and pieces of the aluminium block, the crank and rods were scattered all over the floor in a manner more familiar to habitues of bonneville than of a road course. so strong was the force of the blow-up that chips had been gouged in the hanger floor. the culprit was found, after fingerprint checks, to have been a native type hired by gerber to watch the equipment. wanting to hear what kind of noise the machinery made, he had fired them up and buried his foot in the throttle with the engines dead cold. he became most indignant when his request for payment for his guarding services was was refused as he was led off to sample the hospitality of her majesty's prison"

group7

SAN J O S E , Calif., Aug. 1 (A. P.).

Robert Jensen, 22, wins the hard

way. In a ten-lap race Jensen's

automobile skiddel and tossed him

out and over the finish line and

then bounced over the recumbent

driver. Neither car nor driver suffered

serious damage.

(1938)

1970 United States GP - Graham Hill's Lotus 72 had a leaky fuel pipe that resulted in him being soaked with fuel. After pitting to have it fixed he resumed racing, only to come back in to change his overalls as the fuel was burning his skin. No overalls being forthcoming, he spied John Surtees sitting nearby and relieved him of his!

Apocryphal?

Motor Sport tells us Rob Walker arranged the swap and, as NGH insisted on underware as well, they had two World Champions stripping stark naked.

Motor Sport tells us Rob Walker arranged the swap and, as NGH insisted on underware as well, they had two World Champions stripping stark naked.

I wonder what sort of deal was negotiated?!

At Monaco in 1967, Bruce McLaren brought his McLaren-BRM into the pits with a badly misfiring engine. The crew diagnosed fuel flow and were checking this when a voice form the pits shouted "Its your battery". The pit visitor was Jack Brabham and as Bruce said. "Good old Jack. It was the battery and we whipped another one in" (this from Eoin Young's McLaren Memories).

Bruce rejoined to finish 4th, just missing an all Kiwi podium.

My first thought was what was the current WC doing in a competitor's pit and why was he not on track. Jack had suffered engine failure on lap1, and since Hulme had the race in hand, just wandered into the McLaren pit. An indication of how a sporting attitude prevailed in F1 in general, and Jack Brabham in particular in those times. Things were somewhat different then.

Edited by D28, 27 May 2014 - 15:12.

<< ... Bruce rejoined to finish 4th, just missing an all Kiwi podium ... >>

 

I don't think that quite adds up, does it? If McLaren had continued, uninterrupted, to second place, I think Hill would have been third since Amon was also delayed by a pit-stop - (unless better luck for one Kiwi could somehow create the same for another!).

 

 

<< ... Bruce rejoined to finish 4th, just missing an all Kiwi podium ... >>

 

I don't think that quite adds up, does it? If McLaren had continued, uninterrupted, to second place, I think Hill would have been third since Amon was also delayed by a pit-stop - (unless better luck for one Kiwi could somehow create the same for another!).

 

 

No it doesn't, though I had Young's book in front of me, and the results at hand, but still thought Hill was 3rd not 2nd. Bruce did say it was almost a  Kiwi show, but that doesn't count in motor racing. I think I looked once to see if that ever happened, but didn't find such a result.

Ah - I was just about to ask if it had ever happened (a Kiwi 1-2-3, that is); I couldn't think of such an occasion and was getting too sleepy to research it further!