11 replies to this topic

[uffen]

I took these at the CART (Indy) race in Toronto in 1999. I am trying to put a name to them but I wasn't close enough to the series at the time.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

https://www.flickr.c...57651802458157/

Edited by uffen, 29 April 2015 - 18:51.

[dbltop]

Adrian Fernandez, Castroneves,Fernandez again, ?, Bourdais.

[Richard Jenkins]

Uffen -

Respectively - Adrian Fernandex (Telmex gives it away although at first I wondered if it was Jimmy Vasser), Helio Castroneves (I'm not 100% but arrived that way by process of elimination due to Mercedes engine backed drivers), Adrian Fernandez (again),  Dennis Vitolo, Roberto Moreno.

 

Nice photos by the way.

Edited by Richard Jenkins, 29 April 2015 - 19:21.

[Risil]

Could the last one be Tony Renna in the Pacwest Indy Lights car? Looks a bit more like his helmet than Moreno's.

 

Compare Renna with Moreno

[AAA-Eagle]

The 5th photo is definitely young Tony Renna.

 

Edited by AAA-Eagle, 29 April 2015 - 19:53.

[AAA-Eagle]

And in that last fifth photo there is a man (which is talking to Tony Renna) who had a plenty of F1 experience, much more than you could initially expect being at Indy Lights event -- his name is Allen McDonald, in 1999 being PacWest's technical director.

 

After completing a masters degree in mechanical engineering and naval architecture at University College, London - where Colin Chapman studied - McDonald joined spent three years working with the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, helping to design equipment for the Royal Navy and then joined the Brabham team in Chessington in 1985, his job being to design and build a one-third scale windtunnel for the team to use. When that was completed he moved into the drawing office and helped Sergio Rinland design the Brabham BT56 which was used in 1987. In 1988 the team withdrew from the World Championship and Rinland and his team worked on the design of a prototype Procar (the Brabham BT57) for Alfa Romeo. The team then returned to F1 under new ownership and McDonald was involved with the design of the BT58. That year he also race engineered Stefano Modena.

At the end of 1989 Brabham ran into financial trouble and McDonald took up the offer of a job with the Arrows team, race engineering Alex Caffi and then Michele Alboreto, Aguri Suzuki, Derek Warwick and ultimately Christian Fittipaldi. But by 1994 the team was struggling for money and McDonald was offered a job at Paul Stewart Racing, on the other side of Milton Keynes. While race engineering Allan McNish in Formula 3000 he produced a technical proposal, charting what the team needed to do to get into Formula 1. In 1996 he went back to Arrows and race engineered Jos Verstappen. That year he received an offer from PacWest to become the CART team's technical director and went to the United States, working with Mark Blundell and Mauricio Gugelmin. Since the closure of PacWest McDonald has remained in America.

 

Here is Allen McDonald sitting with late John Anderson -- the native of Australia who came to America in 1981 to work for VDS Racing and held management roles for several U.S.-based teams, including A.J Foyt Racing, Team Green/Andretti Green Racing and De Ferran Motorsports and was set to manage the never-born USF1 Formula One team, but most remembered as the heart and soul of PacWest Racing Group, which he built and led from 1993-2000:

 

And it was exactly Anderson that changed the life of McDonald by inviting him from the UK and F1 to the States and Indy. That is how Allen McDonald recalls this: "I had worked in Formula One for 12 years and was with Arrows in 1996 when this strange Australian bloke rang me up. To be honest, when I went out there, I really didn't have any great intention of doing it. I couldn't see uprooting my family and the whole bit on almost like a whim. But John was such a great bloke and PacWest just seemed like such a nice organization with such nice people. I thought it had a decent chance of success, so I ended up saying, 'Ok, I'll do it.' I don't think I'll ever again feel the kind of attachment I felt toward that team," he added. "Maybe this was one of its faults, but it was very much a family. Everybody loved working there, and that was all down to John Anderson".

 

On this picture from 2008 Indy 500 miler, Allen McDonald already working for Andretti Green Racing, is chatting with Michael Andretti.

[uffen]

Thanks so much, everyone.

[AAA-Eagle]

In connection to McDonald's story, here is rather unusual photo of Stefano Modena driving a Brabham-Judd BT58 around the street of Phoenix during 1989 US GP:

 

This race was the first experience to Allen McDonald in a role of race engineer on U.S. soil...

Edited by AAA-Eagle, 29 April 2015 - 22:40.

[AAA-Eagle]

Just to make the thread logically completed here are all five photos together that were initially in question:

 

© UFFEN

 

1 and 3 -- José Adrián Fernández Mier
2 -- Hélio Castroneves
4 -- Dennis Vitolo
5 -- Tony Renna and Allen McDonald

[uffen]

I was too hasty in removing my unidentified shots. So, here is a larger album with many more from the Toronto CART race in 1999.

 

https://www.flickr.c...57652269892191/

 

Also, an F1 Favourites album for those so inclined (warning, some shots are not too nostalgic!)

 

https://www.flickr.c...57651724148439/

[E1pix]

Damned fine work, Uffen!!!

[uffen]

Damned fine work, Uffen!!!

Many thanks.