6 replies to this topic

[island]

Hi!
Walker and Wisell raced a F1 Lotus in 1972
and both were fired by Chapman.
Four years later, he dismissed Evans and
hired Andretti.
Did all three drivers quit major racing after
their Lotus "experience" ? I found no more
traces of them.

[Keir]

Do you know the meaning of the phrase,
"In over their heads"??
In 1970, Rindt told John Miles that he should use very big mirrors on his car.
The story on Dave Walker, "No one was as good in F3 and so bad in F1"
Wisell had to be shown which was the front of the car!!!!
Evans!!! Short driver in a big hole!!!!

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"I Was Born Ready"

[Jonathan]

I thought Bob Evans drove what was left of the BRM 'Stanley Steamers' ?

He may have breifly been a part time test driver for Lotus.

I think it was actually Jim Crawford and Brian Henton who drove the Lotus (part time drives) prior to Mario Andretti.

[Keir]

Bob Evans did indeed start the '76 season for Team Lotus, but when Mario Andretti's Parnelli drive expired after the US GP-West,
Colin dropped Bob and hired Mario. The rest is history>

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"I Was Born Ready"

[Ray Bell]

There used to be a common saying about Number Two drivers at Lotus... Walker drove the gas turbine car to its highest placing, did he not? He drove the Lotus 70 (a works car) in the Australian GP of 1970 and was ferociously defending anything said against Chapman (I made an innocent comment and found out about his strong affliction for the man), but later he lost an arm in an accident - it was stitched back on but he never felt he had total recovery. He lives in Northern Queensland, there was a story about him recently in MRA.
Reine Wisell seemed to go down that dusty path to obscurity... anyone know more?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Huw Jenjin]

Reine Wissell drove a Camaro in ETC for a while, and was seen at somewhere like Goodwood driving something exotic.
Tony trimmer was a Lotus driver wasn't he? He did well in Araura F1, and finished a few races in amn M23 McLaren.
Brian Henton, and Jim Crawford both drove second string antique Lotus 72s. Crawford went on to a reasonably succesful Indy career.
A second string lotus seat was not a good career move for an up and coming driver. Although as always Nigel Mansell is the exeption to prove the rule.

[Vercertorix]

I sort of have a memory that Reine Wisell was killed in a prototype somewhere - or maybe I'm mixing him up in memory with Ignazio Giunti. At any rate, though negligible in F1, Wisell was pretty well-regarded as a prototype pilot.

I do remember quite clearly that he was the innocent bystander who managed to essentially eliminate Ferrari from LeMans in 1970. (Ferrari has a wonderful - and loopy - history at LeMans of having accidents with themselves, that eliminate, like, three of five cars at one blow.) They did this on more than one occasion through the fifties and sixties, culminating in 1970, wherein four of the 512s were scooped up at once, with poor Reine widely considered to be mostly to blame.

For those of you who don't remember, the Fazzazz were in fairly easy stalking mode when the heaven's opened. Whoever Wisell was following left his windshield coated with oil and water. Unable to see anything, Wisell was creeping back to the pits when teammate Clay Regazzoni belted him from behind, putting paid to two 512s. A few seconds later, before they'd stopped spinning, Regazzoni's car managed to collect Mike Parkes - three 512s down. Derek Bell, driving the fourth factory 512, managed to avoid his piled-up-all-over-the-track team-mates - but unwisely took the engine to about 20,000 rpm for a fraction of a second while in the midst of the effort to do so. Bang!

The four of them went for a walk in the rain to sort things out amongst themselves - and, one has always suppposed, come up with a really creative story...