13 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

Fellow members,

Here is a story about an Australian speedway sprintcar team who have been robbed of approximately $200,000 worth of equipment from their transporter:

http://forum.austral...ead.php?t=12205

Have their been any other examples in the past of theft of such equipment? With the lower level of security in the pits and paddock areas in the past, was it relatively easier for parts and equipment to go missing? Have complete cars been stolen as well?

[Jim Thurman]

Graham, yes...

There were several cases of American short track racers having entire cars (and trailers) stolen in the 1980's. One of the most memorable involved Wisconsin stock car driver Steve Burgess. IIRC, the car was later found somewhere in Texas, near the Mexico border.

There was a thread on this "Stolen Race Cars".

[JSF]

One of the most famous theft events was Ari Vatanen's Group B based Peugeot 405 that was stolen half way through the Paris-Dakar rally whilst they were leading the event. They eventually got the car back but by that time they were out of contention for the rally.

I have the odd spanner disapear at the race meetings all the time, it's bloody anoying and expensive replacing snap on spanners. I am replacing these with lower cost items now and keeping the Snap On stuff for my workshop.

We have had car trailers stolen in the past even though they had wheel and hitch locks fitted.

The most gobsmacking i saw was at a Trackday at Donington Park, driver pulls into the pits and gets out of his car leaving the engine running to let the turbo cool down. Next thing you know his car is blasting down the pits, out the back of the garages to the padock exit barrier at warp factor 3, security guard lifts the barrier, so long Subaru Impreza, last seen heading down the A50 towards Birmingham.

[David Shaw]

At the Adelaide round of the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1973, title leader Allan Moffat had his Falcon GTHO stolen from a workshop on the Saturday night. He had pole position for the race and ended up racing in a similar car borrowed from Murray Carter.

[f1steveuk]

And a Shadow from Argentina????

[Huw Jadvantich]

There is has been a series of thefts of fairly specialised equipment from different teams in the NZ Touring Car series this year

[Cirrus]

Classis F3 racer, Richard Trott had his trailer and Ralt RT1 stolen about a year ago. Neither car or trailer have been seen since.....

http://forums.autosp...&threadid=85761

[Frank de Jong]

Reinhard Stenzel's Carrera RSR was stolen just after he won the last race (a hillclimb) of the German DRM 1973 series.

[sterling49]

Before the start of the 1975 Welsh International Rally, a Boreham Works Escort was stolen, I cannot remember if it was taken from the Sofia Gardens Cardiff start area, or an overnight stay over location. IIRC the registration number was XPU220L...or YEV208L, there was a time I coud have rolled it out for sure, but not 32 years later The car was never recovered, it was worth a large sum of money...............The driver I think was supposed to be Nigel Rockey, but he never made it.....

[2F-001]

There's an interesting little tale in Mark Donohue's book about the Penske Daytona 24-hours-winning Lola being stolen with loads of spares, tools and equipment. It seems the car itself was found dumped soon after, but so badly mauled that it was never much use again until it was rebuilt and sold on as a road-car!

That all happened just after winning Daytona, then being quickest at Sebring, and just as they were planning to head on to Le Mans with a load of support and assistance from Chevrolet. I wonder what might have been... if anyone could have made a Chev-engineed Lola go fast, and go the distance, at Le Mans it was probably them!

[sterling49]

Originally posted by 2F-001
There's an interesting little tale in Mark Donohue's book about the Penske Daytona 24-hours-winning Lola being stolen with loads of spares, tools and equipment. It seems the car itself was found dumped soon after, but so badly mauled that it was never much use again until it was rebuilt and sold on as a road-car!

That all happened just after winning Daytona, then being quickest at Sebring, and just as they were planning to head on to Le Mans with a load of support and assistance from Chevrolet. I wonder what might have been... if anyone could have made a Chev-engineed Lola go fast, and go the distance, at Le Mans it was probably them!

The "Sunoco" pait jobs looked great especially in the Lola T70, blue with the contrasting yellow striping, lovely

Sterling

[Ray Bell]

And nobody's mentioned the night Dan Gurney's BRM was taken from the hangar at Ballarat airfield and buried among the strawbales?

It was found and won the race the next day, the only victory Dan had for the team...

[rdmotorsport]

on the same subject anybody seen my march 803,Ralt RT3 and ancillaries which vanished ?,minst you very unlikely we are speaking feb 1984!

[Frank S]

Coming at it from a slightly different angle: a few members of the Tijuana Auto Sport Club were found to be in possession of stolen race cars, all small production or sedans, when another member's extenstive theft ring was 'busted'. According to then-current Mexican custom, for enough money they could buy them again. Not many did, as pretty much everyone was on a shoestring.

I missed out because of my impatience; the crook told me to pick out a car and he'd buy it and sell it to me at dealer's cost. He was out of town for a week and I bought it from the dealer. Still have it - the 1967 MGB GT out back of the house ...

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Frank S