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#1 David Beard

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Posted 02 February 2005 - 23:39

Keke Rosberg on abandoning his car during his first pit stop in the 1983 Brazilian GP..

"I'm not exactly sure what happened when I stopped, because I didn't notice anything until suddenly there seemed to be a fire in my helmet. I was worried about losing my moustache, so I leapt out"

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#2 Zawed

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 00:04

Ronnie Peterson had a lizard (or some similar small animal) in his car one practice session- I think in his Tyrell days.

#3 Lotus23

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 02:30

I forget some details, but didn't Bobby Isaac suddenly quit NASCAR racing when he heard "a voice" telling him to do so? ISTR he was at the wheel @ Daytona at the time.

Also, Carroll Shelby popping nitroglycerin pills like Chiclets during the '59 LeMans...

#4 xflow7

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 02:46

Not Nostalgia Forum material per se (well it's nostalgic for me), but maybe you'll forgive the digression in the spirit of the thread.

Our Formula SAE car quit unexpectedly in the middle of kicking butt in the endurance event one year when a section of the roll hoop padding slid down a couple of inches and flipped off the emergency kill switch. :mad:

#5 Jim Thurman

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 05:45

Originally posted by Lotus23
I forget some details, but didn't Bobby Isaac suddenly quit NASCAR racing when he heard "a voice" telling him to do so? ISTR he was at the wheel @ Daytona at the time.


Right you are, except it was Talladega in August '73. Same race that Larry Smith died in, but I doubt Isaac was aware of it at the time he stopped (for that matter I doubt any of the other drivers were aware). He got on the radio to his car owner/crew chief Bud Moore and said to get a relief driver because he was quitting. He then said the voice told him to stop "or he'd die".

One of the all-time strange ones. Yet, somehow fitting the bizarre and often tragic events that happened so routinely during Talladega's early years. After reading that part of Smokey Yunick's book, maybe Fonty Flock cursed the place.

He did return briefly to run some early '74 races for Banjo Matthews, with at least one good result and then was back to the short tracks where he died of a heart attack (perhaps brought on by heat exhaustion) in a race at Hickory Speedway.

His grave overlooks the track...where he started out and where he passed away.

I had forgotten about his return because, well, I had mono and post-mono complications and that whole few week period of my life is missing. It's just a complete blank. It's only through books and old film on SpeedVision that I was made aware of Isaac's "comeback".

#6 FredF1

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 12:33

Norberto Fontana at the French GP in 1997. He came into the pits and tried to abandon the car, only to be forcibly shoved back into the cockpit by the Sauber mechanics.

#7 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 12:54

The driver of the Alfa-Alvis at Bathurst in 1955 pulled into the pits sick... he was retiring from the race...

That's not so strange. But when his friend/mechanic got in and drove off out of the pits without having been entered in the race it became a little unusual.

That he never completed his first lap is now history, of course, putting the car into the crowd on Conrod Straight with multiple fatalities. He was unhurt, but later died in a Speedway accident.

#8 bigears

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 15:17

I recall Damon Hill retiring at a GP in 1999 (not sure which one) for no reason. He claimed it was a mechanical problem.

So Eddie Jordan ordered his mechanics to look for the mechanical gremlin and couldn't find anything! But at the near end of the 1999 season, it was obvious that Damon Hill lost movitiation.

#9 ian senior

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 15:27

There was the legend of "a bloody great buzzard landing on the roll bar and pecking James's helmet so hard that he couldn't carry on driving", but I'm sure that's all it was - a legend.

#10 Mike Lawrence

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 17:27

Remember when Ayrton Senna claimed to have had a vision of Jesus during the Japanese GP one year? Since no authentic image of Jesus exists, how did he know? This is the question which should be asked of people who claim to see the image of Jesus in a frying pan or his Mum in a toasted cheese sandwich.

What they see is not authentic. What they see merely corresponds to one of hundreds of thousands of images invented by painters hundreds of years later.

Didn't James Hunt once retire at Brands Hatch (1978?) because one rear wheel on his McLaren had suddenly become big? I think the team was already concerned about James's use of weed.

Lotus 23 should know that on no account do you suggest that racing heroes popped pills or injected their veins. It invites letters from people who either write in green ink or who have to say, 'Sorry this is in crayon, but I am not allowed anything sharp.'

Stirling says he drove the 1955 Mille Migle on one of Fangio's 'special' pills and didn't sleep for two days.

Masten Gregory's best drives corresponded with chemical supplements, as did Hunt's worst moments.

#11 ensign14

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 18:14

Jocko Flocko...

#12 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 February 2005 - 21:09

Originally posted by Mike Lawrence
Remember when Ayrton Senna claimed to have had a vision of Jesus during the Japanese GP one year? Since no authentic image of Jesus exists, how did he know? This is the question which should be asked of people who claim to see the image of Jesus in a frying pan or his Mum in a toasted cheese sandwich.

What they see is not authentic. What they see merely corresponds to one of hundreds of thousands of images invented by painters hundreds of years later.....


What excellent points...

Even when Jesus appeared to Paul (then Saul, of course...) he had to introduce himself.

But getting back to the topic... did Jim Clark pull out of the French GP when he hit the bird? And I guess Helmut Marko retired from whatever race he was in when he copped the rock in the eye. You can't count the survey peg that hit me that time, though, as I kept going and finished the race.

#13 Jim Thurman

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 03:04

Originally posted by ensign14
Jocko Flocko...


Where to start with that one...

ensign14, after you... :lol:

#14 xflow7

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 03:31

Originally posted by ensign14
Jocko Flocko...


Hee-hee. I've just been off Googling Jocko Flocko. That's the most hilarious thing I've heard this week. :rotfl: :up:

#15 Option1

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 04:59

Was it Eddie Irvine who discovered a spanner had decided to hitch a ride with him?

EDIT Should have googled BEFORE typing. (makes note to self). It was Johnny Herbert - retirement from Italy 1998 due to spanner left in cockpit by a Sauber mechanic.

Neil

#16 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 05:12

I think that probably happens often... but it's not a retirement issue...

Nor was the loose extinguisher that rolled around under Dan'l Sexton's feet for some of the '62 German GP.

Didn't Bruce McLaren also find something under his feet at one time and finish up jamming it up under his thigh? Again, not a retirement issue.

But the fuel boiling in the tanks, that put these cars...

Posted Image
Photo Robert Britton... hosting ImageShack

...out of the Warwick Farm International 100 in 1961.

Although this car won a week or two later at Ballarat despite having been stolen and taken for a joyride overnight!

#17 ensign14

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 07:23

Originally posted by Jim Thurman


Where to start with that one...

How about his career history?

Originally posted by Don Capps

...but, perhaps the Flock(o) with the best racing record was Jocko. In only eight races he had finshes of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 22nd, and 32nd.



#18 St.Hubbins

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 15:37

Derek Warwick drove a couple of laps around Brands Hatch in the 1983 European GP with a fire extinguisher letting itself go directly into his visor. He still managed to finish 5th.

And Gerhard Berger was unfortunate enough to have his suspension damaged by a camera mounted on his teammates car flying off. Ferrari's running first and second... at Monza.... life sometimes isn't fair. Alesi retired soon afterwards but the onboard camera missed it. :p

I guess Warwicks problem isn't unique, although probably relatively rare. But the Berger/Alesi incident must surely be one of a kind.

#19 T54

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 15:58

Since no authentic image of Jesus exists, how did he know?



Well at least, now we have an indusputable image of his mom on which to rest our faith.
From such a divine command, I am quitting racing right now and hitting Pizza-Hut.

T54

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#20 chdphd

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 16:19

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I think that probably happens often... but it's not a retirement issue...

It is if it gets stuck under your brake pedal :eek:

#21 Nordic

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 17:17

A couple of times bridges have fallen apart during a race causing it to be stopped. Sports car races seem more prone for some reason.

2 spring to mind, 1 at either Imola or monza in the early 80's the other on Africa, maybe Angola that had tragic results if I recall correctly.

Sorry for the lack of complete info but there is a snake on my desk and I think I need to retire.

#22 ensign14

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 17:47

Monza had a tree fall down and end the 1000km Group C race prematurely, I think in 1985, leaving the underrated duo of Marc Surer and Manfred Winkelhock as winners in a Kremer 956 or 962.

BTW, Monkeyboy, you'd be best place to continue the Jocko story...

#23 Graham Clayton

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Posted 07 August 2009 - 04:30

I vaguely remember a couple of years ago watching one of the open-wheeler support races to the Gold Coast INDY 300.
During the race, one of the cars had the front bodywork come loose and started flapping all over the place.
I can still see the driver attempting to stop the bodywork from coming back into the cockpit by holding it down, while still trying to steer the car.
The driver eventually was distracted by the bodywork and hit the wall.

Can anyone confirm who the unlucky driver was?

Edited by Graham Clayton, 07 August 2009 - 04:31.


#24 Ronnie792

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Posted 07 August 2009 - 13:12

Ronnie Peterson had a lizard (or some similar small animal) in his car one practice session- I think in his Tyrell days.


Ronnie had a lizard in his Lotus 79 during Saturday qualifying for the fateful grand prix in Monza in 1978. Apparently he tried a number of times to remove it, but it remains to this day, the fastest recorded reptile in Italy.

#25 OfficeLinebacker

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Posted 08 August 2009 - 04:12

Norberto Fontana at the French GP in 1997. He came into the pits and tried to abandon the car, only to be forcibly shoved back into the cockpit by the Sauber mechanics.

any more details?

#26 Rob G

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Posted 08 August 2009 - 04:41

And Gerhard Berger was unfortunate enough to have his suspension damaged by a camera mounted on his teammates car flying off. Ferrari's running first and second... at Monza.... life sometimes isn't fair. Alesi retired soon afterwards but the onboard camera missed it. :p

I guess Warwicks problem isn't unique, although probably relatively rare. But the Berger/Alesi incident must surely be one of a kind.

Well, sort of, in that they were teammates and leading. However, Graham Hill suffered a huge crash in a BRM at the Nurburgring in 1962 when he hit a movie camera that had fallen off de Beaufort's Porsche during practice.

#27 Rob G

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Posted 08 August 2009 - 04:45

I vaguely remember a couple of years ago watching one of the open-wheeler support races to the Gold Coast INDY 300.
During the race, one of the cars had the front bodywork come loose and started flapping all over the place.
I can still see the driver attempting to stop the bodywork from coming back into the cockpit by holding it down, while still trying to steer the car.
The driver eventually was distracted by the bodywork and hit the wall.

Can anyone confirm who the unlucky driver was?

I don't have any insight into that, but that story reminds me of a photo of Robert Benoist (I think) driving a Grand Prix Bugatti with one hand steering and one hand out the side of the car, clutching the bonnet which had come adrift.

#28 Tim Murray

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Posted 08 August 2009 - 05:26

I don't have any insight into that, but that story reminds me of a photo of Robert Benoist (I think) driving a Grand Prix Bugatti with one hand steering and one hand out the side of the car, clutching the bonnet which had come adrift.

Yes indeed - it happened on the fifth lap of the 1935 French GP at Montlhéry. The photo appears in William Court's Power and Glory where it says that the bonnet flew off and 'fell like a blanket on the head of the unfortunate driver'.

#29 FredF1

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Posted 08 August 2009 - 08:20

any more details?




I've just looked at the 1997 Autocourse but that doesn't say much. Only He wanted to quit the race


I remember him pulling into the pits, as if for a regular stop, undoing his belts and trying to get out of the car. The mechanics forcibly shoved him back into the cockpit, did up his seat belts and gestured at him to get going again. He spun off all by himself on lap 40. In his defence, he was a last minute replacement for the injured Morbidelli and had very little time in the car prior to the race.


Found this:

A report of the race.

Fontana damaged an endplate running into Salo at the first corner and decided to pit on lap 15 to have a change of tires. He was back in again on lap 33 to have the nose changed and turned off the engine, complaining that the car was undriveable. The team sent him out again and after another pit stop he spun off. The performance did not impress the team and he is unlikely to be seen again.



#30 OfficeLinebacker

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Posted 08 August 2009 - 16:44

ty Fred. Interestingly enough he came back to finish 9th, 9th, and 14th in three sunsequent races that year for Sauber.

#31 Graham Clayton

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 04:20

Ernie Koch retired after 59 laps of the 1961 Tony Bettenhausen 200 at the Milwaukee Mile due to a bloody nose.

#32 Marc Sproule

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 06:03

This probably fits...Hobbs in his IMSA BMW 320 Turbo at Laguna Seca in '77....didn't cause any major problems but it was pretty amusing.....

http://www.flickr.co...157623186793517

Later that weekend...

http://www.flickr.co...157623186793517

#33 Graham Clayton

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 10:24

During Round 9 of the 2007 Australian V8 Supercar championship at Sandown, Jason Bright's Pirtek Falcon broke a gear lever during qualifying. Bright used an Allan key that was taped to the roll-cage as an emergency lever to get the car back to the pits.

#34 chdphd

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 11:22

Spanners jammed under brake pedal

Johnny Herbert, 1998 Italian Grand Prix, Monza 1998

At the 1998 Italian Grand Prix at Monza Johnny Herbert experienced a situation Toyota owners across the world currently live in fear of. His Sauber’s brake pedal jammed as he approached the high speed Lesmo corner, causing his car to slide off into the gravel.

To the millions of fans world wide watching on television the spin appeared simply to be a driving error, yet the hapless Herbert was not to blame. Incredibly, a mechanic had mistakenly left a spanner in the cockpit before the GP, which had worked its way into the footwell and became lodged beneath the brake pedal. Herbert was predictably unimpressed, labelling the mechanic responsible ‘stupid’, and perhaps unsurprisingly he left the team just a few races later


http://www.f1fanatic...f1-retirements/


#35 midgrid

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 12:45

Just before the start of the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, David Coulthard found a loose nut in the cockpit of his McLaren MP4-16. He threw it away, only to find his car handling oddly once the race got underway, the result of the left-front anti-roll bar not being fixed in place. Despite this, he was in fourth place when his engine failed on lap 55.

#36 snettertonesses

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 13:55

in 1991 ...or 1992 during the Canadian round of the WSPC a manhole cover became dislodged and caused damage to at least one car.

wasn't Stepan Bellof's fatal accident caused by a deer?

#37 chdphd

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 14:13

wasn't Stepan Bellof's fatal accident caused by a deer?

You're thinking of Stefan Johansson who hit a deer with his McLaren in Austria. He was OK, the deer wasn't.

Stefan Bellof died trying to overtake Jacky Ickx's Porsche into Eau Rouge in a sportscar race.

Edited by chdphd, 05 August 2011 - 15:20.


#38 D-Type

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 15:25

~ wasn't Stefan Bellof's fatal accident caused by a deer?

Are you thinking of Paul Hawkins's accident that may have been caused by a hare?

Basically Bellof tried to overtake where it wasn't possible.

#39 Bloggsworth

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 17:15

I was approaching the old hairpin at Snetterton as fast as my Mk11 Merlyn would carry me, as soon as I touched the brake pedal I knew I was in trouble. Using Buzz Buzaglo as a brake I managed not to crash off the end of the straight. When I got back to the paddock I found the brake reservoir completely empty. We filled and bled the brakes, then I stood on the pedal as hard as I could; and as a former prop-forward, that's hard; for a few minutes and nothing, zip, zilch, nada; not a drip, or even a tiny teardrop of Girling's finest was to be seen. After the race the bowl was half empty again. On the Monday morning I rang Girling and spoke to their top man "Aha! That's rare." He went on to explain that a combination of the track surface and the suspension set-up on my car had set up a resonance which rocked the fluid from side to side in the reservoir, the severity increasing until the fluid had reached as far as the vent hole in the cap whence it syphoned its way out of the master cylinder. The solution was to bend up a pig-tail out of bundy tubing and braze it over the vent hole - I did, and it never happened again...

Edited by Bloggsworth, 05 August 2011 - 20:59.


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#40 Doug Nye

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 19:45

Aah yes - the 'scent spraying' phenomenon...quite rare but certainly VERY nasty (speaking as a veteran of two total Ferrari brake failures in Classic Adelaide Rallies, though they were caused by pipe fractures, not scent spraying fluid loss).

A bridge collapse at Aix-les-Bains killed Chris Threlfall and six spectators as he crashed into the wreckage - and on the startline for one Monaco Grand Prix Jack Brabham was adjusting his mirrors when he noticed in them that there was a bolt missing from his car's rear suspension, and he had no option but to take the start regardless..."That Ron Dennis was the worst chief mechanic I ever had (but I must admit he was always very good with the money)".

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 05 August 2011 - 19:51.


#41 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 23:41

Not Nostalgia Forum material per se (well it's nostalgic for me), but maybe you'll forgive the digression in the spirit of the thread.

Our Formula SAE car quit unexpectedly in the middle of kicking butt in the endurance event one year when a section of the roll hoop padding slid down a couple of inches and flipped off the emergency kill switch. :mad:

In the 80s running at Collingrove hillclimb the engine cut out at the bottom of the dip. Centrifigual force had turned the isolator off. It came good when the car lifted over the next crest. But a bit scarey and damned annoying. I bypassed the isolator for the rest of the day.And bought a different brand. Though I have had more than my fair share of problems with them over the years. They get hot when trying to start the engine and die then or soon after. A spare is always in order!

#42 ellrosso

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 12:23

Bit of topic but whatever happened to Buzz Buzaglo? Anyone know his background etc?

#43 Bloggsworth

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 12:46

Bit of topic but whatever happened to Buzz Buzaglo? Anyone know his background etc?


I would meet him on the BOC circuit occassionally, and even less frequently at the Revolution Club if I dropped on my way from my girlfriend's in Wimbledon to my basement hovel in Harley Street.

There's a bit about him here.

He seems to have a Facebook page.

He seems to have shared a Chevron B19 with John MacDonald

Edited by Bloggsworth, 06 August 2011 - 12:52.


#44 alansart

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 12:49

Bit of topic but whatever happened to Buzz Buzaglo? Anyone know his background etc?


He's still around living in Melbourne, Australia. I've seen him pop on Facebook occasionally.

#45 Patrick Fletcher

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 13:19

An IOM rider had some problem with his middle parts recently.
Seems the outer shroud moved back and rested tender pink part against interior zip on his leathers just after start - had to endure this for his three laps.
"eyewatering" and was his excuse for coming second.

Edited by Patrick Fletcher, 06 August 2011 - 13:33.


#46 cheapracer

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 18:15

Monza had a tree fall down and end the 1000km Group C race prematurely, I think in 1985, .


2010 Bathurst 12 hour was stopped when a very large tree fell onto the track blocking it entirely ... a bit of luck that the race was under safety car at the time and the bunch were on the other side of the track.

Posted Image


#47 cheapracer

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 18:22

Just before the start of the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, David Coulthard found a loose nut in the cockpit of his McLaren MP4-16.


He looked in the mirror ...??


#48 alansart

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 18:25

He looked in the mirror ...??


Probably looking too much here!!




#49 AllTwelve

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Posted 06 August 2011 - 21:54

[quote name='midgrid' date='Aug 5 2011, 07:45' post='5218718']
Just before the start of the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, David Coulthard found a loose nut in the cockpit of his McLaren MP4-16...

... reminds me of an old trick one-design sailboat (Etchells spring to mind) racers used to do: toss a clevis pin in the cockpit of another boat just before the start just to mess with their heads!

AT


#50 JackMcFadden

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Posted 07 August 2011 - 03:37

Hi: Regarding post #36, the driver's name was Jesus Pareja. Apparently, the high groundforce of the car in front sucked up the manhole cover, sending it into the following car. I didn't see it, but the car was a fireball. I believe Jesus was unhurt. There wasn't much left of the car when it came back on the back of the truck.

Jack