19 replies to this topic

[TomPrankerd]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with something... Going through some old issues of Motorsport, there's a Grand Prix report in the March 1984 issue for a mysterious non-championship race, apparently taking place behind the Iron curtain at the hazily-defined "East Circuit". Now, according to the article there was meant to be a media blackout, though two Italian journalists sneaked in disguised as Alfa Romeo mechanics, and the Swiss Radio Ticino managed to sneak someone there and broadcast a commentary.

The race purportedly had 16 entrants, and it was basically the cream of the 1984 series - the Renaults, Ferraris, Williamses, the Alfas, de Cesaris, Winkelhock, Senna and of course Lauda, but with John Watson deputising for Prost after the latter injured his wrist in practice. Hesnault was present, but hadn't secured a superlicence at the time and couldn't drive. Alboreto won from Tambay, Watson, Roserg, Lauda, Mansell and Senna, with the rest retiring.

I can't find any other reference to this race anywhere (at least, not on the internet, which seems adamant that the 1983 Race of Champions was the last non-championship event)... It crosses my mind that it could be a joke, with the May issue maybe being out in April, but if it is it's very full-blooded - aside from the lack of photographs and the precise timing, it's written with the same eye for detail as any other Motorsport Grand Prix report (in fact, better than some of the ones where Jenkinson really couldn't be bothered with it all), but there's nothing beyond the mysterious location that really seems unbelievable in itself.

Have I just fallen for a 25-year old joke hook, line and sinker? Or have I just got to research better next time?

Many thanks for any thoughts and help =)

[Gabrci]

This would be a little bit surprising wouldn't it?

[RA Historian]

Is it April 1 already?

[TomPrankerd]

Aye, it did cross my mind... But it'd be off-sale by April, wouldn't it? It's just so unflinching, and Motorsport was/is a fairly humourless magazine for the most part. Unless it was someone playing a joke on Motorsport with a false broadcast? I'm struggling for an idea which makes sense here. If anyone's interested I can scan the article, assuming that isn't against the board rules.

I am slightly reassured that at least this doesn't seem to be a race everyone's heard of and I'm just behind the curve, anyway!

[GrzegorzChyla]

Absolutely unbeliveable.
I was behind the iron courtain untill it's end, and I would have heard about it.
I was in Poland, and I have had access to Czech, Soviet and Hungarian motoring magazines.
There would be something, even thou I don't understand Hungarian there would be at last some pictures.

More: I knew at this time Polish racing drivers participating in the Cup of Peace and Friendship. And they in turn knew drivers from all other countries.
No matter in which country the race would take place, I think the drivers from that country would know, either directly or from people working on the track.
And if just one driver would know then it is just a mater of time. Sooner or later the news would reach me.

I say with no hesitation: myth busted

Edited by GrzegorzChyla, 22 March 2011 - 17:33.

[TomPrankerd]

I just can't figure out that, if the race didn't happen - as it surely didn't - the Motorsport article's about. If there is any sort of punchline in there I can't fathom it... Here are scans of the article: -



If anyone can spot something I'm missing I'd love to hear it... After the first half page it reads like any other Grand Prix report, complete with Motorsport's usual focus on modifications to cars. It doesn't seem to be especially satirical, and little details like Hesnault having superlicence problems are a bit... strange (as I well believe he could have done with his modest record... didn't the FIA refuse Fulvio Ballabio around this time?). But then if the FIA were going to organise, for whatever reason, some sort of secret try-out Grand Prix, wouldn't it be easier to have simply locked down Estoril or Kyalami for a few days?

Confusion

Edited by TomPrankerd, 22 March 2011 - 17:42.

[Alexey Rogachev]

I subscribe to Grzegorz's opinion, since no trace of such an event in the Soviet press has been found, too.

Edited by Alexey Rogachev, 22 March 2011 - 19:09.

[Vitesse2]

Obviously one of Jenks' little jokes, the big clue probably being the bit about the race being held on Saturday for religious reasons ...

[TomPrankerd]

Obviously one of Jenks' little jokes, the big clue probably being the bit about the race being held on Saturday for religious reasons ...

D'oh! Missed that one! Cheers I feel much better now, even if it means my first post here is me making a complete idiot of myself.

In my defence, it's a pretty tragic joke...

Edited by TomPrankerd, 22 March 2011 - 19:29.

[wenoopy]

D'oh! Missed that one! Cheers I feel much better now, even if it means my first post here is me making a complete idiot of myself.

In my defence, it's a pretty tragic joke...

The obvious clue is in the heading on page 246 :

The Grand Prix

A non-(championship) event

There was one letter printed in the April issue adding further spurious information on the "Russian Grand Prix".

I recall a 1960's report, probably in "Autosport", in a similar vein, about an "Inuaga GP" for sports cars, in the Bahamas, with real racing photos (from other events). Somebody made a pit-stop from 3rd place, and his pit crew were so quick that he rejoined the race in 2nd spot.

[Tim Murray]

There was another Autosport spoof, a Formule Libre race in Bermuda in 1971, which apparently fooled no less an authority than Anthony Pritchard:

Ferrari 712 race / Ferrari 312PB tests

[David McKinney]

The description of the cars in one of those Autosport Caribbean races - or were they one and the same? - had me terribly excited until I realised it was a spoof

Not so an earlier one in, I think, The Motor, about which the only thing I can remember is that one of the drivers was Boris Notgudonov (spelling a guess)

[Alexey Rogachev]

An allusion to Boris Godunov?

[Arjan de Roos]

"Friday was reserved for sight-seeing and spending of the start money"

[Chezrome]

"Friday was reserved for sight-seeing and spending of the start money"

And then, Ferrari is quoted: 'We have a 1900 cc turbo. What's the problem, it's only a little bit over the limit.'

A joke and nothing more.

[Julian Roberts]

This is entirely from memory, so please be kind !

I recall the July (or perhaps August) 1977 edition of Motor Sport. DSJ, who was disappointed that the German Grand Prix had been run at Hockenheim, wrote a completely fictitious account of the Grosser Prix von Deutschland from the Nurburgring, it was a proper 2 or 3 page report. What sticks in my mind is his explanation of Vittorio Brambilla’s race. Surtees had noticed they hadn’t seen him for a while and sent out a search party. They eventually found the car off the track deep in the forest. There was a note from ‘Brambles’ along the lines of, he’d gone off and couldn’t see any way of recovering the car and so had gone home !

I think the actual GP report was reduced to a few paragraphs ?

Slightly off topic, it seems odd now that DSJ was in high dudgeon because the race wasn’t being run at the Nurburgring but at Hockenheim. I now look back at Hockenheim misty eyed !

[TomPrankerd]

Cringing more by the minute here - I promise I'm not normally this gullible =) Though I did believe Tom Walkinshaw would take Arrows forward, so maybe I am...

Cheers to everyone for their help

[Arjan de Roos]

The article, I believe, should be seen as a way of DSJ to ridicule also (for whatever reason) the development of creative future Grand Prix venues in that period. In those days BE had already a strong grip on F1 and started to re-organize the calendar. Those who paid stayed on, who did not were scratched. In those days we saw the Australian, Portugal and Hunagarian GP come allive and the Japan GP return. But there were plan for others like a Moscow GP, a Spanish one at Fuengirola and other exotic places.
This story certainly tells a bit of what Jenks thought of F1 being regulated as such at the time and also the freedom of press and other issues that obstructed gnuine racing.

[TomPrankerd]

Yeh, I did pick up a bit of that, but nothing more than was at other races which did happen - Caesar's Palace, Zolder, the 'new' Nurburgring and Paul Ricard were all openly mocked during their reports (often, I should add, with good cause) - as is, strangely, Dijon for hosting the Swiss Grand Prix (complete with a "Reflections" piece penned 'from' an empty Bremgarten...!), but not Imola for hosting the San Marino edition. I love reading Jenks' reports, though, because he's not just whining for the sake of it, and he's all too happy to herald a new circuit as a success, or praise a driver he's previously lambasted when they get their head together.

The odd thing is that Jenks seems happier throughout the 1983/84 race reports than he does in, say, the 1982 ones (where, IMO, he spends a little bit too much time sneering at popular praise of Watson), so it's a bit of an odd place for him to have a go... Not sure why he fantasised an injury for poor Alain Prost, though!

Edited by TomPrankerd, 23 March 2011 - 16:19.

[Graham Clayton]

This is entirely from memory, so please be kind !

I recall the July (or perhaps August) 1977 edition of Motor Sport. DSJ, who was disappointed that the German Grand Prix had been run at Hockenheim, wrote a completely fictitious account of the Grosser Prix von Deutschland from the Nurburgring, it was a proper 2 or 3 page report. What sticks in my mind is his explanation of Vittorio Brambilla’s race. Surtees had noticed they hadn’t seen him for a while and sent out a search party. They eventually found the car off the track deep in the forest. There was a note from ‘Brambles’ along the lines of, he’d gone off and couldn’t see any way of recovering the car and so had gone home !

I think the actual GP report was reduced to a few paragraphs ?

Slightly off topic, it seems odd now that DSJ was in high dudgeon because the race wasn’t being run at the Nurburgring but at Hockenheim. I now look back at Hockenheim misty eyed !

Here is an excellent description of the article about the bogus 1977 "Grosser Prix von Deutschland":

http://brazilexporte...t-exist?blog=13