23 replies to this topic

[Hamish Robson]

Considering the problems Bahrain is facing at the moment and how it may affect the running of a Grand Prix, has there ever been another occasion of local issues compromising the running of a motor race?

This question is not meant to start a political debate incidentally, I'm more interested in historical information!

[Radoye]

1958 Cuban GP during the height of the Cuban Revolution, Fangio was abducted by Castro's people and missed the race which still went on.

[David McKinney]

1936 Le Mans - cancelled because of industrial unrest in France

[Vitesse2]

1936 Spanish GP - scheduled for September 27th, by which time the civil war had been raging for just over two months.

1970 Israeli GP - abandoned due to lack of crowd control.

1940 Brasov GP - abandoned after practice due to civil unrest caused by the so-called "Vienna Award" of Romanian territory to Hungary. Bucharest GP cancelled due to same reason.

[David Lawson]

The 1968 Le Mans 24 Hours was postponed to later in the year due to strikes.

David

[Maldwyn]

1985 South African Grand Prix - Ligier and Renault did not take part and a number of sponsors removed their logos from the cars.

[Arjan de Roos]

1985 South African Grand Prix - Ligier and Renault did not take part and a number of sponsors removed their logos from the cars.

McLaren had modified their ciggie sponsor livery from famous fluo angle to a parabolic one.

[Arjan de Roos]

... local issues compromising the running of a motor race?

The Gibraltar GP should be mentioned here.

[king_crud]

McLaren had modified their ciggie sponsor livery from famous fluo angle to a parabolic one.

even the cigarette companies were outraged!

[Glengavel]

Douglas Rutherford's novel "The Gunshot Grand Prix" features a scenario where a GP driver is kidnapped by revolutionaries in a fictional country (San Remo?). It also features a scene where a driver rescues another driver from a blazing car, just to add to its topical theme.

[brucemoxon]

There were quite a few cancellations in the 1940 - 45 period, were there not? Never mind; I'll show myself to the naughty step.

And last year's Bahrain race of course.




Bruce Moxon

[Jimisgod]

Well, I guess this is a very timely post considering the massive indignation at the 2012 Bahrain GP taking place and many people fretting over the possibility of track disruptions by agrieved locals. The causes of the protest and grievances of the protesters are widely documented and in no need of further discussion here.

I was wondering if there had actually been any races or sessions within events that have been disrupted by protests at or on the track or broader social upheaval, not including regional or global wars, of course. This is not a place to discuss the legitimacy of any of the protests or tut tut at and of the people who took part in the protests for going against the 'God given' authority of whoever, merely a place to describe the protests and how they played out.

The most famous recent ones are the solo unemployed Mercedes employee at Hockenheim in 2000 and the deluded preacher who played chicken at Silverstone in 2003 (before ruining an Olympian's marathon in 2004) but neither of those were truly organised protests, just silly individuals.

Edited by Jimisgod, 20 April 2012 - 19:12.

[Vitesse2]

http://forums.autosp...howtopic=166359

[chunder27]

The ones I remember where within the sport, what was the one where the guys all played football on the pitlane? Wasnt it Spa or Brazil in 82 or something?

[Tim Murray]

There was the drivers' strike at Kyalami in 1982, and the attempted pit blockade by journalists at the 1973 Austrian GP.

[Doug Nye]

Lest we forget - 2003 British GP at Silverstone was interrupted by the hair-raising pedestrian protest staged by subsequently defrocked Irish priest Neil Horan - the same berk who the following year ruined the once in a lifetime chance of a Brazilian runner to win the marathon at the Athens Olympics.

DCN

[D-Type]

There were occasions when the locals disrupted the Safari by throwing rocks at the cars. Basically they were expressing their dissatisfaction at the number of drivers doing route recces driving flat out through their villages scattering chickens, goats, and children indiscriminately and giving those who did stand aside a dust bath.

The story that they built a wall of rocks proved to be unfounded. It was an importer putting a spin on the retirement of his team of cars when they found that hitting a pothole, washaway or rock at speed could push the steering rack back and bend the steering column. Rallying improves the breed and they strengthened the front subframes. (No names no pack drill but, surprisingly, it wasn't a British car)

[CSquared]

There was the drivers' strike at Kyalami in 1982, and the attempted pit blockade by journalists at the 1973 Austrian GP.

Where can I find more details about the latter? The usual sources of Google and Wikipedia have nothing.

[Jesper O. Hansen]

Janos Wimpffen has described one ot the late 1970s IMSA finale, held in Latin America, as a land on the border of civil war.

Doing at bit research, it was the final round of the 1979 World Challenge for Endurance Drivers, a series included many IMSA races and El Salvadoran IMSA-drivers. The race was held in El Salvador a week after the electec government was ejected, with a bloody aftermath, apparently going on during race week.

Just learned that Force India has not been out for Friday practice for the 2012 Bahrain GP. The Arabian peninsula has few original inhabitants and a lot of the manuel labour force has been imported from Pakistan and India, as I understand it. Have this been a contributing point for Force India to make a (so far) partial withdrawl?

Jesper

[Tim Murray]

Where can I find more details about the latter? The usual sources of Google and Wikipedia have nothing.

Here's how Pete Lyons described the event in his 1973 Austrian GP report in Autosport:

The drivers and constructors, through their separate organisations, made in Austria their anticipated move to ban non-team personnel from the working area in front of the pits. This meant a blanket ban on everybody not actually signalling, mechanicking or managing. It came partly as a result of the new pace-car procedure, with which one could anticipate sudden multiple pit stops during a race. People who were apparently nearly killed in the Silverstone pits as Stewart made his stop in the GP cannot deny the truth that there are virtually in all cases simply too many human bodies clogging up the pit lanes of the world. In the wake of the Zandvoort tragedy the mood of everyone is to stop putting off improvements that are clearly necessary, and thinning out the people in the pits is clearly necessary.

The method chosen was what caused the trouble. The participants felt unwilling or unable to try to distinguish who should be allowed to remain - several of them did say privately they saw no reason why certain non-team people should not stay - so they simply demanded a blanket ban of everybody. All the children, the dogs, the schoolboys with toy cameras and autograph books, the scantily-clad girlfriends, the old family friends, the sponsors and potential backers, the wandering press writers and the clustering press cameramen. The organisers complied and established the ban - or tried to. It just didn't work. Enforcement was spotty and ineffective, besides being inevitably misguided as individual enforcers misunderstood their instructions, and all during practice there were just about the usual hordes of children, dogs, schoolboys and scantily-clad etceteras milling around in the way. But the threat was enough, some circuits will be less easy-going, and anyway a couple of team managers (most notably ferocious Ken Tyrrell) were doing policing duty themselves. An element of the journalists rebelled. At the start of the second practice on Saturday several dozen of them, led by Bernard Cahier in his role as President of IRPA, staged a stand-in at the end of the pits road. The idea was to block practice until the "other side" agreed to a meeting to sort out the conflict. Whether by chance or crafty design, their first blockee was the measure of them. Clay Regazzoni came droning along, saw the blockade of determined people with their arms crossed, and simply aimed straight at them with his foot down. They scattered like startled fish. They formed up again to await the next man, who was Hailwood, and he did stop (from the expression on his face he hadn't the faintest idea what was going on) but as his engine died away with more of its fuel troubles the ranked masses allowed him to be pushed on through out of the way. The next two cars along were the two works Brabhams, and they went through the crowd with almost no pause at all. Then Max Mosley in his capacity as one of the major spokesmen for the constructors came up to the group, and surrounded by impassioned arm waving and heated facial expressions he agreed to a meeting of aggrieved parties right after practice.

Eventually a compromise was reached. Each circuit is to impose a ban on obviously non-essential personnel in the pits road, but there are to be 150 passes for accredited press. These are all to be assigned by IRPA . .

Edited by Tim Murray, 21 April 2012 - 09:05.

[Vitesse2]

Just learned that Force India has not been out for Friday practice for the 2012 Bahrain GP. The Arabian peninsula has few original inhabitants and a lot of the manuel labour force has been imported from Pakistan and India, as I understand it. Have this been a contributing point for Force India to make a (so far) partial withdrawl?

Jesper

I think the fact that four of their staff were near a bomb attack yesterday while driving back to their hotel has more than a bit to do with it. Two have gone home and it appears that other staff had serious concerns about safety, to which end the team decided that they would withdraw from second practice so that they could return in daylight.

Bernie apparently offered them a lift in his limo if they wanted to stay later. They refused.

Martin Brundle thought he was serious but also ascribed it to Bernie's sense of humour. Hmmm ...

[D-Type]

Was DSJ there? If so, did he join in? Did he write about it? (I haven't got the seventies Motor Sport disc yet)

[Doug Nye]

Tee-hee - Jenks was perfectly happy to see 'journalists' totally banned from pit lanes and paddocks.

Indeed, when we were involved with the revival of racing at Donington Park, Tom offered Jenks residence in Red Gate Lodge, plus a role in charge of vetting press credential allocation there. Wheatie listened in sage agreement as Jenks described to him an office with a sliding pigeon-hole window, which DSJ could choose either to open or to leave shut dependent upon who the applicant pressman might be, seeking a free pass in the corridor outside. Jenks wanted it to be a narrow corridor, "...so they can't queue side by side, but in a looonnnggg single file...".

He really could be a contrary little bugger.

Of course, he never categorised himself as being "a journalist".

DCN

[D-Type]

I did just this! The tears are rolling down my cheeks.

Edited by D-Type, 20 April 2012 - 22:03.