5 replies to this topic

[tifoso]

It's held on Thursday. Has anyone seen it? I'd love to hear about it. I got curious about it while reading Steve Matchett's Life in the Fast Lane

On Thursday afternoon of the Montreal meeting, the rowing lake plays host to the Annual Formula One Raft Race. This, for some people, is the most important race of the weekend, with the Grand Prix itself being of purely superficial interest by comparison. The competition is fierce, and the will to win immense.

The rules for the event seem at first glance to be relatively simple: the raft must be constructed out of packing material that has been used by the teams to transport their cars and equipment to Canada, and when built it must only carry a maximum of four people at any one time. The raft must cross the rowing lake, pick up a rear wheel and tire, and return to the other side. The first raft to return wins the race.

It may sound simple, but you must remember that this is Formula One. Constroversy and political wrangling are as rife in Thursday's raft race as they are in Sunday's Grand Prix.

The memory is all too clear, for example, of Ferrari's ingenuity when a couple of years ago they produced their raft, which until just prior to the start of the race had remained out of sight in the back of the garage. When the command "READY...GO!" was shouted from the bank, and the rest of the field began to frantically paddle across the lake, Ferrari calmly fired up their outboard motor and shot off, leaving the rest, quite literally, floundering in their wake. It was shortly after this incident that the rules were rewritten, to make it quite clear that engines of any description were banned.

[taran]

The raft race was a throwback or a last lingering item from the early days of Grand Prix racing. It was a fun thing for the mecanics who would pour massive effort to build their rafts from scraps & scrounging in the paddock and pits (preferably their own ;) ).
The ATS boys even asked their designer, Gustav Brunner, to design a raft for them which was of course a technical tour de force compared to the home made designs of the other mechanics. After that, the rafts steadily improved as the other designers got in the act (especially Gordon Murray) culminating with the famous Ferrari "motorised" raft...

A lot of prestige was available for the winners. But in the age of austerity & performance, allowing the mechanics enough time off for such pleasure was always in danger and soon enough, teams started forbidding their mechanics from entering. I believe Ron "we're a happy family at McLaren" Dennis was the first to do so. The other teams concluded that that gave McLaren an "unfair advantage" as their own mechanics were either soaking wet or engaged in open warfare (water balloons) with rival teams after crashing into each other. The whole race was eventually dropped .


Does anybody still remember the F1 cars fashion show? The liveries of each car were judged by a panel and the winner was awarded a trophy. Some winners I still remember were the Brabhams of 82 or 83, the J.P.S. Lotus and the 1986 Ligier. I wonder what happened to that? Does anybody know?

[Newfie]

lol sounds like it was good fun, too bad it was cancelled.

[arcwulf7]

On my occaisional visits to the Montreal GP in the late 80's and 90's i remember what an event the raft race had become -- always garnering a front page picture on Friday morning in the local papers, along with some entertaining, tongue in cheek analysis of the race and designs -- it was great publicity for the event in the pre Villeneuve days when crowds were more likely to be 60,000 than the present 100,000+. It's sad to see this colourful tradition give way to the team efficiency experts and budget analysts.

[Nomad]

I seem to remember that the Jordan crew won quite a few of these races And yes it was Ron who spoilt the party

[tifoso]

Originally posted by Nomad
I seem to remember that the Jordan crew won quite a few of these races And yes it was Ron who spoilt the party

They won at least 3 years in a row, according to Matchett's book.

I'm disappointed this is no longer going on. It sounds like a blast. I remember in one year-in-review tape seeing Eddie Irvine on the banks of the rowing basin cheering his mechanics on and being photographed with the trophy.