30 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

Would anyone be able to tell me the last drivers who started a World Championship Formula 1 Grand Prix/Indianapolis 500 race who did not wear racing gloves?

[Gabrci]

Has anyone ever started a World Championship F1 race without gloves? I never realized that. 

[Bloggsworth]

I thought stringbacks were de rigueur...

[cpbell]

Likewise, I can't think of any F1 or pre-F1 GP drivers who raced without gloves.

[sabrejet]

There must be something on TV surely? Or go for a walk?

[Doug Nye]

This question seems faintly similar to asking who was the last batsman to play a Test cricket innings without wearing a box...

 

Neither course of action would have been entirely sensible. 

 

DCN

[Tim Murray]

This earlier thread didn’t get very far, but it was suggested in the OP that Jack Brabham and Dan Gurney may have done it at times:

Drivers who drove without gloves

[Doug Nye]

For much of his career Jack Brabham preferred semi-mittens, protecting his fingers from abrasion by steering wheel and gearchange but with the back of his hand and sometimes his finger tips exposed, for comfort and feel...

 

Dan did drive occasionally without gloves, at least into the early 1960s, but it seems to have depended upon the car.  Checking photos, Monaco ungloved comes as a surprise...tough hombre.  Unless the images I have studied were from practice only...

 

DCN

[opplock]

I seem to recall that Frank Gardner admitted to not wearing gloves in his Castrol book, the rationale being that doing so might slow down his exit from a burning car. This was written in mid 70s so I assume he did likewise when driving F1 cars a decade earlier. 

[fyrth]

Uninteresting our UK governing body require hill and sprint competitors to wear gloves but those on the circuits not. Make of this what you will.

[Ray Bell]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the advertising potential on gloves today...

 

A few valuable square inches, nobody would be without them.

[opplock]

Uninteresting our UK governing body require hill and sprint competitors to wear gloves but those on the circuits not. Make of this what you will.

 

It was compulsary to wear gloves when I raced back in the 90s.  

[Jim Thurman]

Would anyone be able to tell me the last drivers who started a World Championship Formula 1 Grand Prix/Indianapolis 500 race who did not wear racing gloves?

 

Send the question in to Robin Miller's mailbag, though he's likely to say Jim Hurtubise, and he might be right.

[Rob G]

Send the question in to Robin Miller's mailbag, though he's likely to say Jim Hurtubise, and he might be right.

 

His name came to my mind when thinking of his accident, as well as Mel Kenyon and his burns, but I have no idea if either one was wearing gloves at the time. Of course, Kenyon would fall outside the time in which the 500 was part of the World Championship, and therefore outside the scope of the original post.

[Jim Thurman]

His name came to my mind when thinking of his accident, as well as Mel Kenyon and his burns, but I have no idea if either one was wearing gloves at the time. Of course, Kenyon would fall outside the time in which the 500 was part of the World Championship, and therefore outside the scope of the original post.

 

Yeah, I read it as an either/or, instead of the 1950-1960 WDC era alone.

Edited by Jim Thurman, 03 May 2021 - 15:34.

[Ray Bell]

I don't think Graham intended to imply anything to do with Indianapolis 500s in their World Championship inclusion era...

 

But I could be wrong.

[Rob G]

Yeah, I read it as an either/or, instead of the 1950-1960 WDC era alone 

 

Hurtubise raced in the 500 in 1960, so he'd definitely be in the frame.

[JtP2]

A J Foyt cut his  finger climbing the safety fence during the accident at the start of the 1966 Indy 500 and that might suggest he was not wearing gloves. He was the only driver to receive an injury during the incident

[Lee Nicolle]

Back in the  early 90s we [sedan racers] were forced to wear gloves and many did not want too. Including me. 

Though the scrutineers were trying to force those useless double layer gloves. That were never mandated. 

I wore soft motorcycling gloves but then they wanted 'numbers' on them. Which at that time were not in the CAMS manual.

While I have learnt to use them [single layer only] the fact is that they make everything except maybe driving harder.

Using switches, doing up belts and helmets, pulling tearoffs and occasionally releasing belts will always be inferior.

These days it takes so long to get into and out of a car it is scarey. And for me that is without the complications of HANS. Though I do and have for quite a period a proper foam neckbrace which to me is superior than those dumb straps to your head. While strong enough a big crash may well see me take longer to recover.

BUT said brace still makes if far harder. More so in my Classic Supermodified speedway car but even a tintop is hard.

A fire is defenitly harder to exit from.

At my senior citizen age I can still drive fine, my neck will still hold my head up ok though maybe not for extended period. 10 minute events are all I do. But crashing is a concern, the reason I only do Sprints or spirited demonstrations  where the likelyhood of injury is far less.

I occasionally think about going racing again but my commonsense has prevailed so far.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 03 May 2021 - 04:10.

[Graham Clayton]

I don't think Graham intended to imply anything to do with Indianapolis 500s in their World Championship inclusion era...

 

But I could be wrong.

 

Ray,
You are correct - the last gloveless Indianapolis 500 driver, irrespective of what year that was.

[PayasYouRace]

For much of his career Jack Brabham preferred semi-mittens, protecting his fingers from abrasion by steering wheel and gearchange but with the back of his hand and sometimes his finger tips exposed, for comfort and feel...

 

I'd have thought most drivers would wear gloves simply for that reason before any fire safety implications were brought up. Most sim-racers wear gloves for that very reason.

[Jim Thurman]

Ray,
You are correct - the last gloveless Indianapolis 500 driver, irrespective of what year that was.

 

This really was a question for Donald Davidson. I'd still ask Robin Miller, though Jim Hurtubise is likely his answer.

[Red Socks]

Back in the  early 90s we [sedan racers] were forced to wear gloves and many did not want too. Including me. 

Though the scrutineers were trying to force those useless double layer gloves. That were never mandated. 

I wore soft motorcycling gloves but then they wanted 'numbers' on them. Which at that time were not in the CAMS manual.

 

Back in the seventies when  they started wanting numbers and stuff on socks, knickers, suits etc in the UK  I had a girlfriend in the rag trade, who kindly had made up in Hong Kong a roll of ribbon with all the appropriate numbers on so I was able to cut the bits of ribbon off and attach them to the garment in question.

Must have worked because I never caught fire.

[10kDA]

The severe injuries suffered by Hurtubise and Kenyon were consistent with wearing leather - not fireproof - gloves in a fuel fire. They may have been wearing leather gloves when they were burned.

[jm70]

https://www.facebook...39202766205057/

Photo of AJ without gloves at Phoenix.  Comments say that the 15 inch wheels indicate at least 1963/64.

Edited by jm70, 04 May 2021 - 14:33.

[Jim Thurman]

https://www.facebook...39202766205057/

Photo of AJ without gloves at Phoenix.  Comments say that the 15 inch wheels indicate at least 1963/64.

 

If it's Phoenix, which it looks to be, it has to be 1964 as that was the first year for PIR.

 

This reminds me there is a photo on Facebook of Dick Atkins at Phoenix in 1965. It appears he has no gloves, or goggles:

https://www.facebook...54795844645751/

[Emery0323]

The severe injuries suffered by Hurtubise and Kenyon were consistent with wearing leather - not fireproof - gloves in a fuel fire. They may have been wearing leather gloves when they were burned.

Denny Hulme used to have a column in Autoweek back in the early 1970's.  In one of them, he was discussing the burns on his hands after his practice crash at Indianapolis in 1970, and made a declarative statement to the effect of "I will never wear leather driving gloves again.", indicating that he blamed the leather material for the severity of the burns.

[10kDA]

Denny Hulme used to have a column in Autoweek back in the early 1970's.  In one of them, he was discussing the burns on his hands after his practice crash at Indianapolis in 1970, and made a declarative statement to the effect of "I will never wear leather driving gloves again.", indicating that he blamed the leather material for the severity of the burns.

Tight-fitting leather gloves are not much better than nothing in a fire.

[Doug Nye]

Denny described with untypical loquacity how the invisible fuel fire which enveloped him came as a blast of searing heat and that the sight which stayed with him - apart from the spilled-forward fuel coursing up his car's windscreen like rain streaks before it ignited - was his thin leather gloves shrinking into flame, splitting and flaking off his exposed fingers...as they too began to burn. Then the pain.

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 06 May 2021 - 16:28.

[Emery0323]

Denny described with untypical loquacity how the invisible fuel fire which enveloped him came as a blast of searing heat and that the sight which stayed with him - apart from the spilled-forward fuel coursing up his car's windscreen like rain streaks before it ignited - was his thin leather gloves shrinking into flame, splitting and flaking off his exposed fingers...as they too began to burn. Then the pain.

 

DCN

There are Ebay sellers who have, among other things, pictures of the aftermath of the incident:

https://i.ebayimg.co...ZjV/s-l1600.jpg

https://i.ebayimg.co...N~C/s-l1600.jpg

 

In that Autoweek column, I can recall him writing that he wanted to bang his hands against something to distract from the pain.  

The medical people stuck his hands in ice water which helped alleviate the pain for a while, but he began to shiver uncontrollably.

Edited by Emery0323, 06 May 2021 - 16:55.

[D-Type]

I expect the shivering was probably from shock - and not the iced water.