36 replies to this topic

[Michael Ferner]

Do we already have a thread about racing drivers under the influence? I came about the story of Indianapolis dirt track driver Les Adair being "grounded" after fellow drivers objected to driving in the same race with him, because he "had been drinking" at a dirt track race at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds in Columbus/IN on July 24, 1938. The trouble arose after Adair had won the 5-mile consolation race, and thus qualified to start in the 15-mile feature event alongside nine other drivers, including future Indy 500 starters Joie Chitwood and Duke Dinsmore. "A group of the drivers informed race officials that they would not compete with the Indianapolis pilot in those circumstances", reported The Evening Republican of Columbus/IN the next day.

That, however, was only the start of a messy affair, as soon after "pandemonium reigned (...) when a crowd of several hundred automobile race fans (...) formed a human barrier across the track", and "numerous attempts to disperse the mob on the track (...) failed, and a dozen fist fights" ensued between Adair supporters and the rest of the four or five thousand spectators, who wanted to see a race. In the end, the "stand-up strike" of the group, including "women carrying babies in their arms" (!), "continued for more than two hours until darkness made certain the race could not be run". Adair himself, after attacking the race promoter W. R. Caine, was suspended by the sanctioning group CSRA a few weeks later with the following statement: "The [disciplinary] action was taken against you [as] the result of of countless warnings by board representatives, unwarranted conduct predicating a civil commotion and the refusal of the participants to compete against you in your condition (...) and the committing of assault upon the sponsor of the race meet" (The Evening Republican of August 13).

Adair, who'd been third in association points in 1937, sat out his suspension by competing in IMCA events and Midgets, but from those words in the CSRA statement it seems to follow that this was not quite a singular event - anyone with similar stories?

[Jim Thurman]

Cue the Whittington Brothers/IMSA stories...  

 

Michael, keep in mind the usual "color" of the time, along with hyperbole. Well, as far as riots or near riots, there was the incident with Shorty Wolfe at New Bremen 

 

As far as attacking the race promoter, I know of several of those, with Tony Stewart being the most recent (I was once at a race where I overheard the promoter being attacked but didn't realize it, funny story that).

 

DUI? There are bound to have been some.

[Jack-the-Lad]

Tim Richmond?

[fbarrett]

Jules Goux?

[Collombin]

Chris Amon on the Lambrusco?

I'm not sure how many bottles would be needed in order to have any influence though.

[opplock]

I've heard the story of a certain competitor in the UK based Aurora F1 series being dragged out of the Mallory Park bar and shoved in his car before the race started. Those who told me were adamant that they witnessed this.      

[Doug Nye]

When Edmond drove for Renault in the 1906 Grand Prix at Le Mans his goggles were smashed by a flying stone and the poor chap ended up with glass splinters in and around his eyeball. The track sealing dressing ended up in his cuts, mixed with sweat and oil and general gunge, and the pain must have been near unbearable for him.  Consequently he made his famous pit stop when the Renault crew did their best to wash out his eyes, then gave him a few gulps of brandy just to perk him up a bit, and finally chased that down with a draft of cocaine ... before he was helped back onto his driving seat in the car and sent on his way. He had to give up soon after but I wonder how long after the race he realised what had happened that day...  

 

An old acquaintance of mine who was a very enthusiastic and extrovert VSCC competitor would not dream of going out to race at one of their meetings short of "a good luncheon" accompanied by "a drop of the red infuriator"... His notion of a good sporting day out would certainly fall far short without "a good perk-up" from the demon drink.  I have also been told that when Lord Selsdon - Peter Mitchell-Thompson - notionally co-drove the 1949 Le Mans-winning Ferrari with Luigi Chinetti but really spent minimal time behind the wheel before being "indisposed", he was in fact three sheets to the wind, pissed as a kite, drunk as a skunk - dependent upon which witness I asked...

 

As a near lifelong teetotaller I can't really understand the attraction in any way whatsoever - and despite being generally an extremely tolerant chap, when it comes to different strokes for different folks there is plainly a self-evident limit in the case of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs.  Most of the time this is one area in which I suffer a very rare total sense of humour failure - and I hope that here I am not alone in this attitude. 

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 30 October 2017 - 10:09.

[Vitesse2]

ISTR that Selwyn and Cecil Edge were plied with champagne - in error - by the De Dion mechanics on arrival at Bregenz during the 1902 Gordon Bennett? And I think Austin 'Fatty' Dobson had a bit of a reputation too?

 

Tangentially, Freddie Dixon of course served time for drink-driving offences, as did Luis Fontes, who was banned for ten years and jailed after a fatal accident involving drink. I've found a press report of a road accident in Torquay - after his release - in which Fontes was involved, allegedly as a passenger, but I have a feeling he may have been driving. He's never struck me as the most responsible of fellows.

[Allan Lupton]

An old acquaintance of mine who was a very enthusiastic and extrovert VSCC competitor would not dream of going out to race at one of their meetings short of "a good luncheon" accompanied by "a drop of the red infuriater"... His notion of a good sporting day out would certainly fall far short without "a good perk-up" from the demon drink. 

I think "the red infuriator" was Jumbo Goddard's term, though I do admit to using that expression myself on occasion, and it rings true of him. Could equally have been Pom of course.

[Dipster]

 

 

"As a near lifelong teetotaller I can't really understand the attraction in any way whatsoever - and despite being generally an extremely tolerant chap, when it comes to different strokes for different folks there is plainly a self-evident limit in the case of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs.  Most of the time this is one area in which I suffer a very rare total sense of humour failure - and I hope that here I am not alone in this attitude. 

 

DCN"

 

I heartily concur.

Edited by Dipster, 30 October 2017 - 07:28.

[Collombin]

Yesterday's Mexican GP had banners over the track saying "no alcohol at the wheel", although it wasn't entirely clear what penalty the stewards would apply.

[Doug Nye]

I think "the red infuriator" was Jumbo Goddard's term, though I do admit to using that expression myself on occasion, and it rings true of him. Could equally have been Pom of course.

 

Hah - right first time!  

 

Nearly every case cited above was very much a man of his time, of course.  And times - and attitudes towards social-acceptability - have changed markedly over the long decades (yes - that's right, I know...tell us about it...)

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 30 October 2017 - 10:12.

[Stephen W]

Between practice sessions at the British GP of 1967 I was in the "Beer Tent" and a certain driver came to the bar alongside me & my Dad. He ordered two gin & tonics and we engaged in conversation. When he had paid for the drinks he knocked back the first one in a single gulp and then drank the other slowly. We had an interesting chat and when he finished his second G&T he returned to his car to prepare.

 

I remember at a British Hillclimb meeting at Prescott the BOC announced late on Saturday that on Sunday morning there would be random breath tests - six drivers retired from the event overnight!

[ensign14]

 

Nearly every case cited above was very much a man of his time, of course.  And times - and attitudes towards social-acceptability - have changed markedly over the long decades (yes - that's right, I know...tell us about it...)

 

 

To give one example, Luis Fontes' state of inebriation was used in his manslaughter trial as mitigation...

 

[B Squared]

"a drop of the red infuriator"

My friends and I referred to them as "brown mumblers" back in my drinking days.

[BRG]

Yesterday's Mexican GP had banners over the track saying "no alcohol at the wheel", although it wasn't entirely clear what penalty the stewards would apply.

It would depend on whether you gained an advantage from it.....if the criteria for track limits is anything to go by.

 

My old motor club had a motto 'Never drink and drive, you might spill some'

[DogEarred]

Remember, if you're thinking of drinking & driving   -   don't forget to take the car.

[lanciaman]

There was rather a lot of boozing in USAC especially at INDY 500 time, back in the 60s-70s, including the famed backward race from the White Front saloon on 16th st to the IMS in the Avises-  "thank you Mr Hertz, thank you Mr Avis"- by Msrs Unser and Jones.  And one of the perks about SCCA club racing was that the Saturday night before  a race would be filled with camaraderie and booze and good cheer unless it rained, then a lot of booze and card playing transpired, the result of which was a hangover race morning.   But I didn't know anyone who purposefully went to the line drunk.  The same cannot be said about the term "unimpaired."

Edited by lanciaman, 30 October 2017 - 22:08.

[LotusElise]

James Hunt drove at least one test session under the influence of, ahem, herbal cigarettes, didn't he? He thought the wheels were changing size. I know it's not alcohol, but it's still classed as a DUI in most jurisdictions.

 

I do wonder whether rally drivers' judgement was at all impaired in the '50s, when the use of amphetamines was common and not even a secret. I've read some articles by Sheila van Damm where she chats quite openly and matter-of-factly about "pep pills".

[chunder27]

It happens routinely in lower level motorsport.

 

You still see bans even now for people in two day meetings say being tested the Sunday and banned for  a year or even more.

 

Sadly, these are meetings people want to drive at, I have seen it myself on numerous occasions and I guess we are all guilty of turning a blind eye!

[Doug Nye]

Of course Stirling took his Fangio 'stamina pill' before the 1955 Mille Miglia, and he had enough pep left in his personal tank to drive on overnight to Stuttgart for breakfast with the Daimler-Benz board, then on to the ferry port for the UK, and all the way on home to Tring. Many ex-servicemen involved in racing and rallying (particularly) through the late 1940s and 1950s saw benzedrine as a standard pre-requisite, having consumed the pills like M&Ms in their long-range aircraft, flying boats, tanks, trenches etc during the war.  When the cost of losing could be one's life, or at best one's liberty, if a pill helped, you'd pop it. Alcohol too - in the Normandy campaign local farmers' stashes of Calvados were eagerly sought and consumed by combatants from both sides...

 

DCN

[FLB]

Not just drivers. Other team members, too. Jacques Laffitte tells stories of 'Ligier Lunches'...

Edited by FLB, 02 November 2017 - 19:10.

[F1matt]

I remember reading a report in Autosport covering a round of the WRC in the 1990s and how a world championship contender was seen staggering back to his hotel at one of the overnight stops. Perhaps I am naive but it shocked me to think things like this went on.

[Mallory Dan]

I've heard the story of a certain competitor in the UK based Aurora F1 series being dragged out of the Mallory Park bar and shoved in his car before the race started. Those who told me were adamant that they witnessed this.      

Still with us? Still racing even?

[Updraught]

The story is that one driver missed the 1957 Indy 500 because the night before the race he was "struck in the eye with a rock thrown by a rowdy".

 

Real story is that he was caught in the "throes of passion" (while he was drunk) with a woman whose husband or boyfriend proceeded to beat the crap out of him.

[RCH]

I seem to recall hearing that when Bracco won the 1952 Mille Miglia, beating the Mercs, he was sustained by endless cigarettes and nips of brandy from a flask. Literally a case of drinking AND driving.

[opplock]

Still with us? Still racing even?

 

Able to afford lawyers? The same gentleman's F1 career allegedly stalled after failing to turn up for a test session at Snetterton after a good night out in London. The team owner, an ex world champion, was seriously unimpressed.  

[Mallory Dan]

Ahh, got it I think. Had a good year despite the MP incident though...

[ensign14]

The story is that one driver missed the 1957 Indy 500 because the night before the race he was "struck in the eye with a rock thrown by a rowdy".

 

Real story is that he was caught in the "throes of passion" (while he was drunk) with a woman whose husband or boyfriend proceeded to beat the crap out of him.

 

Interesting story, but surely everyone who qualified for the Indy 500 at least made it into their cars for the race?

 

Although it might explain why Elmer George, to whom these sorts of things tended to happen, crashed into Eddie Russo before they even started.  Especially given that George should have been two-thirds of the field ahead of Russo.
 

[7MGTEsup]

Duncan Hamilton?

[2F-001]

Duncan Hamilton?

If you are thinking of Le Mans, 1953, I thought that unlikely tale had been comprehensively debunked (by both Lofty England and Tony Rolt's son)?

[Michael Ferner]

Interesting story, but surely everyone who qualified for the Indy 500 at least made it into their cars for the race?
 
Although it might explain why Elmer George, to whom these sorts of things tended to happen, crashed into Eddie Russo before they even started.  Especially given that George should have been two-thirds of the field ahead of Russo.

Twasn't George who forfeited because of a bar room brawl, that 'honour' fell to the brother of a soon-to-be-winner . And the reason why he (George) was in the vicinity of Russo is that all cars started the warm-up lap from their pit stalls, not in starting order. George had to come from behind to make it into the 9th slot, while Russo had to drop back into 26th. Neither paid enough attention.

[Jim Thurman]

Twasn't George who forfeited because of a bar room brawl, that 'honour' fell to the brother of a soon-to-be-winner . And the reason why he (George) was in the vicinity of Russo is that all cars started the warm-up lap from their pit stalls, not in starting order. George had to come from behind to make it into the 9th slot, while Russo had to drop back into 26th. Neither paid enough attention.

 

I knew Michael would get to this. The story I've read was that the driver in question was at, ermm, an establishment where one can purchase time with women. He then got into a fight outside the establishment, which led to a badly swollen eye (or eyes), which necessitated a stand-in driver for the race.

[Jim Thurman]

Jules Goux?

 

I'm kind of surprised that Michael didn't tackle this one. The story of Goux swigging bottles worth of champagne or wine during the race is one of the more stubbornly enduring myths surrounding the Indianapolis 500. IMS Historian Donald Davidson has lamented the fact that this is one that persists. The real story apparently was Goux doing a quick mouth rinse at pit stops.

[Doug Nye]

Never trust the local water.  Or conversely, such a wimp.  At least Bracco took a real swig in the driver's seat of his Mille Miglia-winning Ferrari...

 

DCN

[BRG]

There was a story - perhaps apocryphal - that back in the 1960s, BMC works rally driver Timo Makkinen had a special centre console in his AH 3000 to hold a couple of bottles of booze.  Whereas In the 1970s, Ford works driver Roger Clark was said to have a holder for his apples in his  Escort.  How times change...

[chunder27]

There were also rumours that most of the works drivers int he 70's were taking more than drink!