78 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

I thought that I might start what might be an interesting thread.
When speedway stock-car racing took off in Australia in the mid
1950's, the prizemoney being paid started to become very
lucrative.

Reading newspaper reports of the time, though, it seems
that there were attempts to "nobble" the cars of some
of the leading drivers, in the hope that they wouldn't
make the start, or else have mechanical troubles,
letting the "nobbler" or his accomplices to win
and thus pick up the major prizemoney.

This might involve pouring something other than
petrol into the tank, or removing a spark plug.

Here is an excerpt from Jim Shepherd's "Power Sport"
column from the Daily Telegraph newspaper of Monday,
February 1955:

"Sydney Showground stock-car drivers are boiling at the
alarming increase of childish, deliberate sabotage on their
jalopies. In the past 3 meetings there have been 15 cases
of tampering with cars.
Car owner Harold Barnes apprehended one character walking
casually out of the pits with assorted coils, spark plugs and
other accessories from Barnes' hot-rod.
Another unfortunate driver suffered engine failure, and discovered
somebody had added gravle to his petrol tank.
A lot of the drivers are paying guards to watch over their meal
tickets, but still the nonsense continues.
Popular Bill Reynolds (twice a victim of sabotage) already has a friend
guarding one side of his car.
Next Saturday night there will be another guard watching the other
side - one large size extremely vicious Alsatian dog, which just loves
tearing large pieces out of silly people."

Here is a site that has some great stock-car pictures from
the Sydney Showground

http://www.speedwayr...e.homestead.com

Would any other TNF members have other stories of possible
"sabotaging" of race cars?

[oldtimer]

One of my fond memories is a telecast/satellite broadcast of the 1966 Indy 500 which I saw in a cinema in England. There were several things to enjoy at that sitting apart from Graham Hill winning.

One was an inflamed team owner claiming his fuel rig had been sabotaged, the said owner waving the offending piece of rag at the camera.

Hmm, thought I, this is quite a bit different from the GP scene.

That was then, of course.

[Ray Bell]

There was the fabled pit board over the timing light in Sweden, of course...

But that's not really sabotage.

Nor was the housefire that destroyed the four new tyres Allan Larsen had bought for the 1949 AGP... the fire also killed his nephew.

Peter Collins crawling under the Williams tent flaps in Austria (?)... no, that's espionage.

Okay, who was it cut the gears at Colotti's for Stirling Moss?

[Ray Bell]

When Bruce McPhee was second-string Ford team driver to Allan Moffat he frequently found changes made to his car between practice and the race... once the ride height was changed, another time the distributor ********...

He knew he wasn't supposed to beat Moffat, that's for sure. Sabotage by the team itself.

[david_martin]

One that springs to mind was the famous fuel contamination of the Jim Richards/Frank Gardner JPS BMW 635 CSi touring car at Bathurst in 1983.

[Buford]

Do you want to hear low? When I was a kid racing Quarter Midgets in the late 1950's, nobody could beat me. Well sometimes my younger brother could in an identical car because I always qualified faster and the fast cars started in back in an inverted start, slowest car on the pole. So my brother would start close to the front and then get through the field sooner and get a lead and I would have to go chase him down and sometimes time ran out. But one of the two of us almost always won. Over 95% of the time.

But then my car started having problems where it would run well, then cut out, then run again, then cut out. This went on for 3 or 4 weekends and they could not find the problem. Eventually it turned out to be one of the proud fathers had put ground cork in my gas tank. We never expected something like that.

This was kid's racing. I was about 9 years old!!! Racing is a cutthroat sport, no matter where you are.

[Frank de Jong]

I remember the water in the fuel tanks of the IMSA BMW, early in 1975 IIRC.

[Pikachu Racing]

AJ Foyt claimed one of his cars (Billy Boat who was on the pole in the 99 Indy) was sabotoge. He said there was saline all over the car parts. He made note of this after the Indy 500. In other words, he is coming up with an excuse why Boat didn't won the race.

[Megatron]

While it is possible that one could have messed with Boats car, I somehow find that unlikely. Even if it was, there are those who would counter this by saying that Foyt had an illegal rev limiter in the car, thus Boat's amazing straight line speed.

There was a good bit where the car that took Bobby Allison to the 83 cup title at Riverside was found with sugar in its gas tank.

Not totally sabotage, but Jochan Winklehock has claimed that AGS made him qualify on full tanks in 89. Perhaps that is why he was so slow.

If you hear Michael Andretti, half the field sabatoges his qualifying runs. I remember Salazar blew up in Indy and Michael said something to the effect of the Chillian doing it on porpose to spoil his run. Same thing with Roberto Moreno's pole in Cleavleand in 2000. Moreno takes pole, then spins on a wet track, and Mikey says he did it to keep pole.

[man]

The LeytonHouse March teams had problems at Phoenix for the USA GP in 1991 if I remember correctly. It was one overnight.

[Vitesse2]

Didn't BRM have an engine stolen once?

Probably wasn't an H16 ...

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
Didn't BRM have an engine stolen once?

You're not thinking of Ballarat International races in 1961, are you?

Dan Gurney's car was stolen in the middle of the night, found the next morning buried in haybales at the opposite end of the runway (airstrip circuit)... it won the race.

[Vitesse2]

I thought it was a mid-60s Monaco race, but I can't find it at the moment ...

[Rainer Nyberg]

I remember once (circa 1980) when the Triumph team were at a continental world rally championship event (Tour de Corse?) both cars retired early (SS1?) with loss of oil-pressure/seized engine. Investigation showed that both cars had lost their oil-sump drain plugs. Clearly they were un-torqued and only installed with only a few threads, so that they would come off during the stage.

[unrepentant lurker]

Ari Vattinen had his Puegeot stolen while he was leading the Paris-Dakkar Ralley. Early 80s sometime, IIRC. In the middle of the dessert, where do they hide it...

I'm not sure if you can call it sabotage, but there is the story of Fangio qualifying poorly and complaining of vibrations in his car. His mechanics naturally worked hard all night long and JMF went on to win the next day, while his teammate who was on pole didn't do so well and complained of vibrations in his car afterwards.

[bob_gilliland]

If I remember the year correctly, there was an instance of sabotage the night before the running of the Grand National race at Talladega, in the summer of 1974. I can't remember exactly how many cars were damaged, I think it was close to two dozen. Crews came into the garage the morning of the race and found slashed tires and fuel and oil systems fouled.

[ensign14]

Renault claimed to have been hacked at the beginning of 2001.

There was also a major international incident when a spec formula challenge between European nations had some cheating going on. The competitors had to assemble and race a Mini Moke. Between qualifying and the race itself, it transpired that the Germans had souped up their engines. This was discovered by the British, who solved it by swapping the number plates around before the race...what was the name of that formula? Oh yes, 'Jeux Sans Frontieres'.

[Frank de Jong]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
I thought it was a mid-60s Monaco race, but I can't find it at the moment ...

Just reading the Unique BRM book, which brings up a theft in a Owen workshop. Personal tool kits were stolen, with special tools for changing the... H16 engine. This happened just before Monaco, seriously frustrating the time schedule. Perhaps this was what you meant.

[fines]

In the 1948 Indy 500, that notorious "someone" put sand in the engine of the Bennett Bros. Maserati 8CTF (chassis 3032, the famous '39/40 winner) of master mechanic Cotton Henning and champion driver Ted Horn. Leading up to lap 142, Horn had to slow down because of flagging oil pressure, but still finished fourth.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by bob_gilliland
If I remember the year correctly, there was an instance of sabotage the night before the running of the Grand National race at Talladgea, in the summer of 1974. I can't remember exactly how many cars were damaged, I think it was close to two dozen. Crews came into the garage the morning of the race and found slashed tires and fuel and oil systems fouled.

Glad someone mentioned that. That was a *major* incident. There were other security problems with the garage area at Talladega, but nothing quite to that level.

There also was signifigant sabotage at a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman race at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1971 or 1972. Engines tampered with, brake lines and oil lines cut, etc.

I know I have reports on these events if anyone would be interested in more detail.


Jim Thurman

[rdrcr]

IIRC, wasn’t there some sort of major flap about sabotage with the Darrell Alderman drag racing team in ’95? I think a lot of inventory, including all the engines were destroyed. This was deemed highly suspicious because they were winning in the first part of the season and had won the national championship the year previous… I guess many suspected them of illegalities.

The perpetrators were never caught and I think that the Alderman team was banned for a year or claimed hardship and sat out the next season, I can’t recall now… but I don’t think they have ever recovered from that. Of course I'm not too up on the drag scene.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by rdrcr
IIRC, wasn’t there some sort of major flap about sabotage with the Darrell Alderman drag racing team in ’95? I think a lot of inventory, including all the engines were destroyed. This was deemed highly suspicious because they were winning in the first part of the season and had won the national championship the year previous… I guess many suspected them of illegalities.

The perpetrators were never caught and I think that the Alderman team was banned for a year or claimed hardship and sat out the next season, I can’t recall now… but I don’t think they have ever recovered from that. Of course I'm not too up on the drag scene.

Yes, the Wayne County drag team...a fascinating and bizarre story. Their shop was broken into and all the existing engines and key parts were destroyed. Alderman received a ban for his involvement with drugs, but the team itself simply pulled out and then quietly re-appeared and then disappeared just as quickly again (they showed up for pre-season testing at Famoso, near Bakersfield, did a couple of runs and then packed up!). It was a while before they resurfaced.

Truly bizarre.


Jim Thurman

[Megatron]

Hey Vit, of course it wasn't an H16, who could pick one of those up?!

[Paul Hartshorne]

Brian Henton claimed that someone had sabotaged his March before qualifying at the 1977 British Grand Prix when some stray ballbearing were found in his gearbox.

Why anyone would want to nobble one of the slowest cars at the meeting was not explained!

Cheers,
Paul

[Geza Sury]

Originally posted by man
The LeytonHouse March teams had problems at Phoenix for the USA GP in 1991 if I remember correctly. It was one overnight.

That's true! Here's the whole story: (Form the 1991 F1 Yearbook)

Saturday morning brought a nasty surprise for the Leyton House mechanics when they got to their garage. On the T-car the lines to the four brake calipers had been severed, and both race cars' wiring loom had been cut. They were able able to repair the sabotage damage in time for the morning practice, and no expensive parts were affected - just enough harm done to give the mechanics a hard time, which suggested some kind of act of revenge by a team insider.

[Marcor]

a link with a thread about another shady story: http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=34004

[BRG]

There was an instance in rallying on the Tour de Corse, when both the works Triumph TR8s were tampered with in parc ferme before the start. IIRC someone had taken out the sump drain plugs. I can't remember if they were able to start (presumably there would have been oil everywhere). It was never expalined who might have done it.

Slightly OT, ther ewas the case on the Paris-Dakar when soemone stole the leading car, the Peugeot 405T16 of Ari Vatanen, during the overnight halt in Timbuktu or Ougadougou. They were caught driving it out of the city. How anyone could have thought that they could slip away in such a visible car is not recorded...

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by BRG
There was an instance in rallying on the Tour de Corse, when both the works Triumph TR8s were tampered with in parc ferme before the start. IIRC someone had taken out the sump drain plugs. I can't remember if they were able to start (presumably there would have been oil everywhere). It was never expalined who might have done it.

Originally posted by Rainer Nyberg
I remember once (circa 1980) when the Triumph team were at a continental world rally championship event (Tour de Corse?) both cars retired early (SS1?) with loss of oil-pressure/seized engine. Investigation showed that both cars had lost their oil-sump drain plugs. Clearly they were un-torqued and only installed with only a few threads, so that they would come off during the stage.

This would seem to be the same incident...??

[BRG]

Ray and Rainer Oops, I obviously averted my eyes from that earlier post.

[biercemountain]

Here's how to sabotage any GP drivers future:

Convince them to be MS's teamate at Ferrari. It worked for Eddie and Rubens.

[dmj]

I'm not sure if you can call it sabotage, but there is the story of Fangio qualifying poorly and complaining of vibrations in his car. His mechanics naturally worked hard all night long and JMF went on to win the next day, while his teammate who was on pole didn't do so well and complained of vibrations in his car afterwards.

It was Fagioli, I believe...
And there was a rumoured sabotage in 1957 Mille Miglia. A Swedish privateer (Nottorp, if I remember the name correctly) entered a Ferrari 410 and had it prepared by works Ferrari mechanics. After that "preparation" car was much slower than before and Nottorp accused Ferrari of sabotage, claiming that Enzo was worried about possibility of him winning the event and embarrasing works drivers. However, other theory says that Ferrari really sabotaged him, but because of fear that 410 is too demanding for not too experienced and not too good driver like him (I know he won some rallies in Sweden but not much more). So they intentionally sabotaged his car to avoid him potentially be involved in a great accident - and as we all know, such an accident really happened, albeit to much more experienced and better driver...

[scheivlak]

Originally posted by biercemountain
Here's how to sabotage any GP drivers future:

Convince them to be MS's teamate at Ferrari. It worked for Eddie and Rubens.

Yeah, if Rubens had just stayed at Stewart/Jaguar....

[biercemountain]

Yeah, if Rubens had just stayed at Stewart/Jaguar....

You do have a point there

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by dmj
.....And there was a rumoured sabotage in 1957 Mille Miglia. A Swedish privateer (Nottorp, if I remember the name correctly) entered a Ferrari 410 and had it prepared by works Ferrari mechanics. After that "preparation" car was much slower than before and Nottorp accused Ferrari of sabotage, claiming that Enzo was worried about possibility of him winning the event and embarrasing works drivers.....

Well, I just happen to have typed this up from the relevant issue of Motor Racing, it gives so much character to the pre-event days at Modena and brings the swelling excitement to life that I thought it really deserved to be looked at again... and Nottrop gets a mention, too!

Please, enjoy reading this report:

A week before the Mille Miglia, sporting cars of all sizes and makes were parked along the front of the Albergo Reale in Modena. The dining room resounded to shouting voices in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish, as drivers, co-drivers, journalists and mechanics indulged in pre-race prognostications.

Down Viale Ciro Menotti and in the Via Emilia lights were still burning at three in the morning as Maserati and Ferrari worked at high pressure to get both team and customers' cars ready in time. Further away near the station the clanging of hammers disturbed the night as Scaglietti worked ceaselessly to finish three Gran Turismo, and two Testa Rossa Ferraris in time for the race.

Gendebien was the first to start practice with his Mercedes 300SL, followed by Behra with a 2-litre Zagato Maserati. Von Tripps arrived with a special Porsche drophead with wire wheels and set off early, in the rain, with a 3.5-litre single cam Ferrari. Jenkinson was waiting for Moss who finally arrivein in a 190SL Mercedes and prepared to leave in a 2-litre GT Maserati just to see if everything was still there. The Gran Turismo leaked so much in the perpetual rain, however, that he decided to use the 190SL instead.

Portago and Nelson practised tyre changing on their Gran Turismo and then set off for a quick lap. Collins was kicking his heels at Maranello building model boats whilst impatiently waiting for "co-driver" Louis Klemantaski to arrive. On the Maranello-Formigine road the haycarts and bicycles took greater care than usual as Ferrari's testing increased in intensity. martino Severi, Ferrari's chief tester, was screaming up and down the narrow road trying all shapes and sizes of Ferraris.

From the Maserati factory the 3.5-litre 12 cylinder went to the Autodrome for its preliminary testing, still unpainted and emitting a shattering roar as Guerrino Bertocchi kept up the revs in traffic.

Gendebien returned but went off again for another lap, so did Behra. Bordoni acquired the new 4-cylinder 2-litre Maserati and asked to race it at Florence as a tyrout before the Mille Miglia. The Swede Nottrop anxiously waited as his 4.9-litre twin ignition Ferrari was modified by Scagliatti to conform with Appendix C. Ron Flockhart stopped at the Albergo Reale with the Ecurie Ecosse D-type Jaguar with sported a miniature fin on the headrest, Ecurie Ecosse had made their headquarters at Count Maggi's country home near Brescia, Gendebien was back, and off for a third.

Then news came through that Taruffi would drive for Ferrari for the first time since their disagreement in the Targa Florio. News came also that Musso was very ill again and would not be able to take part in the Mille Miglia. Von Tripps returned with his front dented by a motorcycle, and Portago's Gran Turismo was considerably more battered than when it left. There was a rumour that Maserati would carry advertisements for spaghetti.

Moss was back and Jenkinson complained of having been violently car sick. The 4.5-litre was wheeled out and the pair took off for a ride across the Futa. Within half an hour they were back, soaked to the skin and the car half full of hailstones. Fron then on the 4.5 was in and out of the factory testing air ducts, servo brakes, overdrive gearbox, and Moss was contenting himself with going up and down the road.

Behra took off for Brescia with Scarlatti at 12pm and returned ten minutes later with a frightened Scarlatti who had already had enough. Everyone was waiting for Ak Miller to pass with the Chrysler Kurtis "Caballo de Hierro II" but he appeared to be busy staking out the sites for his cine camera teams. Moss left for two days' rest and Portago took in one more lap when he found that he would be driving a sports instead of a Gran Turismo car. The afternoon before the race a big depression descended upon Maserati - Jean Behra has crashed with the 4.5 and was in hospital, the Maserati had been destroyed and Jean had stayed with the car only long enough to collect his money, cigarette lighter and plastic ear before thumbing a lift from a shaken Fiat Topolino driver to the hospital at Modena.

Maseratis hopes then depended on Moss, since the reliability of the new 3.5-litre to be driven by Hermann was still uncertain, and the team was made up with Scarlatti on a 3-litre.

Ferraris left early Saturday morning for scrutineering driven by their respective drivers, Portago with a 4.1-litre twin ohc engined car.

Nottrop decided against taking part with his 4.9-litre and Masten Gregory and Temple Buell called from Rome to announce the same decision. There were five Ferraris and three Maseratis in the big sports car class, whilst 14 Maseratis faced seven Ferraris in the two litre class. Eleven Mercedes 300SLs were ranged against ten Gran Turismo Ferraris. Osca announced their withdrawal in the 1500cc class as the new engine had blown up in final trials the morning before the race. Cabianca was given the new 950cc to run in the 1100cc class. The only Italian 1500cc to face the Porsches was Berger's 1500cc Maserati, 11 Oscas faced two Erminis, two Lotus a Moretti and a Stanguellini in the 1100cc class, whilst four Stanguellinis, four Oscas, three DBs and two Bandinis prepared to do battle in the 750 class.

Not much of a mention, but a mention....

Best part of the report is in the final bit, about the touring car results, but that's not relevant here... nor is the realistic description of de Portago's Mille Miglia-destroying crash.

[dmj]

Ray
Great, colourfull report.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by unrepentant lurker
Ari Vattinen had his Puegeot stolen while he was leading the Paris-Dakkar Ralley. Early 80s sometime, IIRC. In the middle of the dessert, where do they hide it...

I'm not sure if you can call it sabotage, but there is the story of Fangio qualifying poorly and complaining of vibrations in his car. His mechanics naturally worked hard all night long and JMF went on to win the next day, while his teammate who was on pole didn't do so well and complained of vibrations in his car afterwards.

Team leader's prerogative. I've heard rumours that Fagioli's fillings and/or teeth fell out in the race...

[John B]

An Autoweek article about F1 espionage opened with a story about Schumacher's Bennetton getting hacked in 1994 (I think that was the year) and all the telemetry disapearing suddenly.

Megatron - glad the Bobby Allison/sugar in the tank incident was brought up. I remember that race, and for a while it looked like Allison might lose his long-sought title as he fell well back in the field with a number of pit stops.

Talladega's security problems in the garage area also involved one of their pace cars!

[doc540]

I read suspicions that Alderman purposely sabotaged his fully insured engines to prevent the NHRA from determining they were illegal. But having been involved in drug operations who knows what shady debts and pay-backs might have existed.

During the heated Super Stock wars of the middle 60's, Hayden Proffitt, a top contender for the S/S championship driving a 426 hemi Plymouth suffered the misfortune of a handful of bolts and washers being clandestinely tossed into his open carb throats.

Needless to say, after the hemi's initial crank-up it was significantly "off song".

[titrisol]

Can't rememeber if it was 98 or 99 but in Brazil there was a lot of talk about sabotage when teams had their laptops stolen and then a Marlboro ad almost fell over Alesi!

Originally posted by John B
An Autoweek article about F1 espionage opened with a story about Schumacher's Bennetton getting hacked in 1994 (I think that was the year) and all the telemetry disapearing suddenly.

Megatron - glad the Bobby Allison/sugar in the tank incident was brought up. I remember that race, and for a while it looked like Allison might lose his long-sought title as he fell well back in the field with a number of pit stops.

Talladega's security problems in the garage area also involved one of their pace cars!

[Vitesse2]

A very early case of sabotage ....

In the 1905 Tourist Trophy, run on the Isle of Man, the hot favourite was CS Rolls, pioneer racing motorist and aviator and co-founder of Rolls-Royce. His Rolls-Royce Grey Ghost was first away, but barely a quarter of a mile into the race he went to change into gear at Quarter Bridge and was rewarded with a grinding noise which was evidence that something was stripping teeth from every gear in the box. Investigations afterwards showed that a number of broken metal nuts had been introduced into the gearbox through the top of the gear case. The start was downhill and, as fuel economy was an important element in the race, drivers started by coasting towards the first corner, where they would engage a gear: as the car rolled down the hill, so the loose nuts distributed themselves around the gear mechanism, with results which became only too clear! Afterwards, a bitter Rolls remarked "It is the sort of thing that has happened frequently in France but I had hardly thought it was possible that it could occur in this country."

And lest it be thought this was an isolated incident, another competitor in the same event complained that his plugs and air valve had been tampered with after scrutineering.

[Buford]

One of the fine fathers in my Quarter Midget club sabatoged my car when I was about 9 years old by putting ground cork in my gas tank.

[Twin Window]

Didn't the Andrea Moda team's equipment go missing en route to a long-haul race? Smacked of sabotage instigated from the 'highest level' to me...

TW

[Tom Glowacki]

The Phil Hill Daytona Cobra finished well down at the 500 km of Spa in 1964 due to fuel contamination that was suspected sabotage.

[BRG]

Last weekend saw some extremely unpleasant and dangerous incidents where misguided people (or fu****ng idiots, as we call them round my way) tried to nobble rally competitors, perhaps in attempts to influence championship positions.

In Ireland, some debris was put on the road on the final stage of the Cork 20 Rally causing one of the two contenders for the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship to leave the road. To their credit, the Irish authorities and the two drivers (Donnelly and McGarrity) have agreed to share the championship between them to negate the effects of the sabotage.

Whilst in England on the Trackrod Rally (penultimate round of the British Rally Championship), a concrete block that mysteriously appeared on the day of the event removed the front wheel of one of the championship contenders. The other reported a mixture of water and grease being flung onto his windscreen whislt he was travelling at high speed. No-one knows who did it, but the rally was in Yorkshire and local hero Johnny Milner was playing catch-up in the championship.

Thinking back, I can recall a few other instances, also on rallies. On the Monte Carlo Rally one year (late 1970s?), Bjorn Waldegaard hit some rocks deliberately placed in the road just for him. And on the RAC Rally in 1995(?), some fanatical Colin McRae fan put debris in front of Carlos Sainz’s car when the two were fighting neck and neck for the WRC. This is not a phenomena peculiar to rallying of course, but the remote and open venues used in rallies, plus the fact that cars run singly does offer a lot more opportunity for nobbling!

[Mark Bennett]

Not quite sure this counts as sabotage, but this thread has reminded me of the time that the team boss of ATS (Gunther Schmit?) jumped up and down on a new (and apparrently better performing) rear wing that he "didn't like the look of".
He wrecked it so that it could not be used...

Sabotage, or stupidity?

[Teapot]

Well, I don't know if this one should be called "sabotage" or "punishment for speaking too much "...anyway...
Not long before the start of a Targa Florio (I can't remeber the year) some members of the local press asked Jacky Ickx what he thought about Sicily: his answer was something like "It's a piece of ****. The only interesting thing is the volcane". After few hours he was out of the race, having collided with a boulder magically appeared just after a blind bend.

And about the Paris-Dakar thing involving Vatanen and some masked raiders who stole his Peugeot in the middle of the desert...there where rumors (fantasies) about Jean Todt being the one behind the (fake) attack: a quick way to hand the leadership to the other - French - Peugeot's driver...

[Graham Clayton]

A report from the May 1962 issue of "Australian Motor Sport" about engine sabotage carried out to visiting US speedcar driver Leroy Warriner:

[Graham Clayton]

Heinrich-Joachim von Morgen's Type 35B Bugatti was sabotaged before the 1931 Tunis Grand Prix. He only went 500 metres in unofficial practice before the car stopped. It looked in perfect order, but wouldn't move. von Morgen and his mechanic removed all the fuel lines, and cut open the fuel tank. They discovered the remains of sack fabric,which had been dropped into the tank when the car was in transit from Marseille to Tunis. The racing fuel in the tank dissolved the fabric, into tiny numerous pieces of fibre, which clogged up all the lines and jets soon after the engine was started. It took von Morgen and his mechanic three days to remove all the fabric traces before the car ran properly.

 

Source: http://www.kolumbus....an/gp3101.htm#2

 

 

[Greatest]

Howabout the role of the rats in the "Le Petoulet" incident? 😂😄

[GMiranda]

AJ Foyt claimed one of his cars (Billy Boat who was on the pole in the 99 Indy) was sabotoge. He said there was saline all over the car parts. He made note of this after the Indy 500. In other words, he is coming up with an excuse why Boat didn't won the race.

 

I remember that Boat's alleged sabotage in 1998 was even noticed in Portugal - our best motoring newspapers didn't comment on IRL back then - and it was said it had been poured something like glue on the brake fluid and something bizzarre