Sandown Historics 2018 - Celebrating Alfie Costanzo

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Helluva chauffeur and helluva driver pairing!!

Saturday Drama

A shunt not by Hunt...

The poor old MR8 has a history of damage at Sandown over the years.

Very sad to see. Great shot of KB and Alfie.

Alfie and some other blokes.

Back in the early days.

What a difference a few weeks (and a race meeting) can make. The Elfin MR8 (post 6) looks very sad, compared to its Motorclassica appearance.

Here's the Geoff Munday Elfin MR5B on Friday morning.

Stephen

Two Seton Sierras were at this year's Historic Sandown. One there to race and this one I assume remained a static display at Rusty French's camp for the weekend (for sale).

Stephen

The Group N Touring Cars out having a Friday play along the front straight.

The red Mini is Will Walker having his first run in a Cooper S. Will used to share the race bus with James Calder (pallas1970) and their Lotus Super Sevens. Longtime Mini racer and preparer, Lindsay Siebler was fettling Will's Mini. Turn's out Will has become a fly in / fly out racer to Oz having returned to the UK. The next event intended for Will (in Oz) with the Mini will be Historic Winton in May next year.

Stephen

Originally posted by SJ Lambert
pic sharing
 
 
Helluva chauffeur and helluva driver pairing!!

i read in the official  VHRR program details and history of the Brabham BT31.

Running a 3.0 litre engine ,because it was to be the team Formula one car for season 1968?

Did not run in the F1 1968 season due to not having  fuel cells?

interesting read that the VHRR are now promoting !

Alfie: "It's a nice sunny day out here..."

KB: "Now, did he say to turn right or left at Shell?"

Was KB actually racing, or a very well dressed Chauffer? He appears to be wearing a driving suit unlike Alf in casual clothes.

Saturday Drama
 

Edited by TerryS, 12 November 2018 - 05:18.

A few Lolas made it through the weekend unscathed.

But not Frank Harris's Chevron 

:( :(

That is a very sad pic. I presume that was scrutineering impound for damaged cars.

 

James, did it appear that there was a good crowd attributable to featuring Alfie?

He used to draw good crowds in his heyday

I didn't make it to the Grandstand during the middle part of the day, but the pits felt a bit light on compared with previous years. I reckon the recent F5000 races in New Zealand have thinned the Sandown field too.

Thanks for the memories Alfie! I've included the Birranna F2 shot from Sandown 1975 as it has his brother-in-law Marino in shot (standing, no shirt). I don't think I ever saw Alf race without him in his pit crew. Last time I saw Alf race was at Bathurst in 1998

when he was sharing the extremely evil Maserati Biturbo Ghibli Cup with Matt Coleman in the GTP race,(poor Matty came in from practice beetroot red, probably scared himself silly.) At the end of the days racing on Saturday there was Alf and Marino in the old truck (70's International flat bed from memory) with the Maser on the back driving out of the circuit...... I've got a shot of it at Murray's cnr somewhere - I'll dig it out later.

88 is the Toron special built by Kerry Luckins in 1963. Recently rebuilt from a pile of bits by Soren Luckins and Greg Smith. Greg's Holden engined MG special is on the right.

Subject of a little discussion within the Lotus 39 thread. The Eagle Imp sitting on the pit garage apron.

Stephen

I think the Sandown Historic meeting needs a little revitalising. Advertised as celebrating Alfie Costanzo’s last race of a wonderful career. Entered in the McLaren M10B and Tiga FA83 but did not appear in either; a disappointment. Same could be said for other classes with no shows.

Formula 5000, 16 entries, 6 running. Unfortunate accidents accounted for a few but the last few years has seen much advertising hype but no delivery.

Looking back at the programs for 20 years ago many more entries but they were a lot slower and closer. Today’s fields are spread out

Hyundai Excels, come on, on an historic program.

Seemed to be less people on top of the pits and the grandstand numbers were sparse. Encouraging point was the number of families and young people.  

Jay Bondini's done a brilliant job in re-commissioning his Lola for it's first run in a long time

Andrew Robson after the restart on Saturday, came a cropper on Sunday......

 
I think the Sandown Historic meeting needs a little revitalising. Advertised as celebrating Alfie Costanzo’s last race of a wonderful career. Entered in the McLaren M10B and Tiga FA83 but did not appear in either; a disappointment. Same could be said for other classes with no shows.
 
Formula 5000, 16 entries, 6 running. Unfortunate accidents accounted for a few but the last few years has seen much advertising hype but no delivery.
Looking back at the programs for 20 years ago many more entries but they were a lot slower and closer. Today’s fields are spread out
 
Hyundai Excels, come on, on an historic program.
Seemed to be less people on top of the pits and the grandstand numbers were sparse. Encouraging point was the number of families and young people.

pic sharing
 
 
Helluva chauffeur and helluva driver pairing!!

Edited by TerryS, 14 November 2018 - 03:01.

It's Bob Harborow's McLaren M6B. Not sure of it's antecedents.

Re the F5000 races, according to Natsoft the fields were:
Race 1 13 starters 9 finishers
Race 2 10 starters 7 finishers
Race 3 7 starters 6 finishers

Re the Excels appearance, I too cannot understand their appearance at an Historic meeting. Should not have been allowed.
There were 17 starters in each of their 3 races, but were they really just stocking fillers?

Like it or not they have numbers. HQs have been used in the past but struggle to get a decent field these days. And while have been around 27 years are still not historic. Though nearly!

Hopefully I'm not out of order posting non Sandown pics but they are all Alf Costanzo so shouldn't be too out of line. Last two shots I'm guessing are Alfie but any input appreciated.

Thanks Ray, I'll look at that page of negs again to see if there are any clues.

I reckon the 68? shot is Alfie in the ex Garrie Cooper Mk 2 prototype Mono chassis no. MB6550 - I'm not 100% sure though.........

Lindsay, in the 2nd from last photo the numbers are correct for the December 1967 Warwick Farm, as Ray suggests.

Earlier in 1967, the Grice Mono was number 17 also. But his colours mentioned as yellow/green don't really match the Phillips photo.

Stephen

Edited by Ray Bell, 15 November 2018 - 20:57.

i read in the official  VHRR program details and history of the Brabham BT31.
 
Running a 3.0 litre engine ,because it was to be the team Formula one car for season 1968?
 
Did not run in the F1 1968 season due to not having  fuel cells?
 
interesting read that the VHRR are now promoting !

Thanks Stephen and Ray for the info - very much appreciated. I'll change the captions.

It's Bob Harborow's McLaren M6B. Not sure of it's antecedents.

I'm not sure - this one got amongst it though!

Did this car race on the weekend? I can't see it in the Natsoft results.

It was in at least one of the PQR races...   

http://racing.natsof...241.85C/View?18