65 replies to this topic

[Catalina Park]

Was Leo Mehl involved?

 

I would guess so. 

[Roger Clark]

Dan was also loaned a McLaren in 1970...

I think that was more a case of Gurney joining the works team for a few races after Bruce McLaren's death.  Similarly, McLaren joined the Eagle team for a few races after Ginther's retirement while the M5A-BRM was being built.

[Tim Murray]

I think Dan was loaned the spare M8B at the Michigan Can-Am race in 1969. He started at the back of the grid but charged up to third at the finish close behind Bruce and Denny. Chris Amon was loaned the same car for the next race but was not so lucky, retiring with diff failure.

[Bikr7549]

Dan was also loaned a McLaren in 1970...

Wasnt that because he was part of the team for F1 and CanAm after the accident?

[Tim Murray]

Yes indeed, and this is why the relationship couldn’t continue. Gurney was sponsored by Castrol, and after the first few races together he had to part company with the Gulf-sponsored McLaren team.

[Henri Greuter]

not car racing but how Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti once helped rivals of him to make the run that eventually did cost himself (Monti) the Olympic Gold medal is still one of the highlights in sportsmanshop for me.

[Doug Nye]

Interesting - ultimately heart-breaking - Wikipedia entry for Monti:

 

But it was during the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck that Monti performed the best-known act of his sporting career. Realizing that British bobsledders Tony Nash and Robin Dixon had broken a bolt on their sled, Monti lent them the bolt off his sled. The Britons won the gold medal in the 2-man bobsled, while Monti and his teammate took the bronze medal. Answering critics from the home press, Monti told them "Nash didn't win because I gave him the bolt. He won because he had the fastest run." Monti also showed his act of selfless generosity in the four-man competition. There, the Canadian team of Vic Emery had damaged their sled's axle and would have been disqualified had not Monti and his mechanics come to the rescue. The sled was repaired and the Canadian team went on to win the gold medal, while Monti's team took bronze. For these acts of sportsmanship, he was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal.^[1][5]

Finally, at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, a 40-year-old Monti won a gold in both the two-man and four-man events (the first non-German to do so). After his victory, he received Italy's highest civilian honor – the Commendatore of the Italian Republic and then retired to labor in his skiing facilities in Cortina.^[1]

Struck by numerous hardships (separation from his wife, the departure of his daughter for the United States, the death of his son from an overdose), suffering from Parkinson's disease, on 30 November 2003 he shot himself in the head; transported to the hospital in Belluno, he died the next day.

DCN

[Dick Dastardly]

During a marathon in 2010, a Kenyan lady runner ...Jacqueline Nyetipei-Kiplimo....saw a Chinese disabled athlete with no hands struggling to drink....so she slowed and ran with him, helping him through the water stations for the rest of the route by collecting and holding his water bottles, enabling him to take on water. She...a favourite to win the race... finished 2nd, the gesture cost her the win and $10,000 in prize money. 

Edited by Dick Dastardly, 02 August 2022 - 17:29.

[Sterzo]

Maybe not on the scale of some of the examples, maybe not strictly "sportsmanship", and too recent to be in nostalgia territory, but:

 

When Zhou Guanyu's Alfa Romeo was inverted by contact with George Russell's Mercedes at the British GP this year, Russell leapt from his cockpit and ran towards the wrecked Alfa.

 

Needless to say he received some derision for this: he wasn't needed, the marshalls got there first, the collision was "his fault" and so on. Nevertheless, as far as I'm concerned he was going there in case he could help and that's pretty impressive.

[Doug Nye]

Groundless derision certainly appears to be a natural default for so many creatures from the social media generation.   

 

Much of the time - especially where politicians are concerned - I condone it absolutely!

 

DCN

[john aston]

The Silverstone incident almost made up for when Russell punted Bottas of at Imola at very high speed. He ran over to the car - how decent I thought , this should be get him the freedom of Wisbech at least -  or at least I did until he started berating  Bottas (for Russell's own mistake ..) and tapped his helmet . As it were .

[Zoe]

Interesting - ultimately heart-breaking 

 

That was 1964. 

 

I claim that back then (more) people still had decency and less egoism and recklessness as today.

 

(and there were half the people on the planet as today, maybe there is a correlation? The war with the bad times was also still present in most people's memory)

[robert dick]

During the third stage of the 1899 Tour de France (for automobiles), on the Saint-Étienne road, René de Knyff stopped his Panhard to rescue and pick up Edmond Williams who rode a De Dion tricycle, had fallen and was seriously injured. De Knyff lost about twenty minutes while battling for the lead of the race with Charron. Later, Charron went out and de Knyff won the Tour de France. De Lucenski, director of the Journal des Sports, presented de Knyff with a handsome scarf pin in a case, bearing the inscription: "To my friend René de Knyff, for his generous act of 19 July in the Tour de France".

A few days after the accident, Williams wrote une lettre de remerciement published in Le Vélo:

 

[68targa]

Maybe not on the scale of some of the examples, maybe not strictly "sportsmanship", and too recent to be in nostalgia territory, but:

 

When Zhou Guanyu's Alfa Romeo was inverted by contact with George Russell's Mercedes at the British GP this year, Russell leapt from his cockpit and ran towards the wrecked Alfa.

 

Needless to say he received some derision for this: he wasn't needed, the marshalls got there first, the collision was "his fault" and so on. Nevertheless, as far as I'm concerned he was going there in case he could help and that's pretty impressive.

 

and he's not the first to do this.  119 years ago didn't Camille du Gast stop and give assistance to Stead trapped beneath his overturned car during that Paris Madrid race whilst others raced by. She gave up a creditable place to help eventually continuing but finishing well down when the race was halted. I hope she was not derided for this act of 'sportswomanship' but then social media was not what it is today !

[Dick Dastardly]

And of course David Purley stopped to try to save Roger Williamson in the 1973 Dutch GP.....the only driver to do so, the others just carried on racing.....

[Tom Glowacki]

Today's winner is the story of a 12 year old Little League hitter who got hit in the head by a pitch and knocked down.  He recovered nicely, got to first base and saw that the pitcher was crying over the bean ball he'd thrown.  The batter went over to the pitcher, hugged him, and told it was all OK.

 

https://www.cnn.com/...cher/index.html