190 replies to this topic

[WonderWoman61]

The entire discussion?

I meant about Marcel Tarres and his stint at Equipe Dollop in F3000.

[GMiranda]

I meant about Marcel Tarres and his stint at Equipe Dollop in F3000.

I have no knowledge for it. About the entire topic, I may try

[WonderWoman61]

I have no knowledge for it. About the entire topic, I may try

Well who has? I just seem to have opened an interesting can of worms regarding Marcel Tarres racing for Equipe Dollop.

[GMiranda]

Autodiva forum perhaps

[WonderWoman61]

Autodiva forum perhaps

Worth a try.

[bigears]

To add to that, in practice he borrowed one from Cor Euser.

Tarrès did at least have a smidgeon of pedigree at that level, he had raced F2 in 1984.

Wore Euser’s helmet during practice and Fabre’s helmet during the wet race? Let me check my photo archives!

What was Cor Euser doing there in 1986? I thought he started racing in F3000 in 1987?

[ensign14]

Ah, it wasn't Euser's, it just looked damn like it.  It was one of the French drivers who had something very similar. 

 

ETA: just remembered - Bernard Santal.  Who didn't take part.  I wonder if he was tabbed for the second Dollop.  (Not a sentence I've constructed before.)

Edited by ensign14, 07 October 2022 - 17:48.

[WonderWoman61]

Ah, it wasn't Euser's, it just looked damn like it. It was one of the French drivers who had something very similar. Delestre perhaps.

Now there's a mystery...

Edited by WonderWoman61, 07 October 2022 - 21:20.

[LittleChris]

Thought Santal was Swiss, not that it matters.

[WonderWoman61]

On another minor note, the Brand Motorsport F3000 team that disappeared after just one race in 2003, at least they didn't embarrass themselves as much as MasterCard Lola did in F1. Nicolas Minassian and Gary Paffett finished 11th and 14th.

[WonderWoman61]

Ah, it wasn't Euser's, it just looked damn like it.  It was one of the French drivers who had something very similar. 
 
ETA: just remembered - Bernard Santal.  Who didn't take part.  I wonder if he was tabbed for the second Dollop.  (Not a sentence I've constructed before.)

Mystery solved then.

[AJCee]

If only someone would take an interest in the history of the Birmingham Super Prix…. 😉

[GMiranda]

Worth a try.

Yes, it's really good.

[WonderWoman61]

Yes, it's really good.

Even if it does mean having to translate everything as it's a French site.

[GMiranda]

Even if it does mean having to translate everything as it's a French site.

Yes, it's a disadvantage. I read French quite well, but I have trouble writing.

[LittleChris]

Even if it does mean having to translate everything as it's a French site.

What a shame it's not written in English for the benefit of the English speaking world 

[WonderWoman61]

Yes, it's a disadvantage. I read French quite well, but I have trouble writing.

I'm rusty with my French too.

[GMiranda]

There is a topic about Marcel Tarrès: https://www.autodiva...c.php?f=2&t=805

[WonderWoman61]

There is a topic about Marcel Tarrès: https://www.autodiva...c.php?f=2&t=805

Merci.

[ensign14]

Thought Santal was Swiss, not that it matters.

 

 

Well, he shouldn't have had a French-coloured helmet then.  Didn't he get the memo?

 

 

ETA this ****ing website and its ****ing photolinking bollocks

Edited by ensign14, 08 October 2022 - 08:50.

[WonderWoman61]

Hans Heyer has got to be one of the most famous one-hit wonders. DNQed in his single F1 outing at the 1977 German GP but illegally came out of the pits and started anyway and was only eventually disqualified after retiring 9 laps in.

He was also a one-hit wonder in European F2, entering 2 of the Hockenheim races in 1976, scoring a point in the first (He actually came 7th but race winner Hans-Joachim Stuck wasn't eligible for points) and failing to qualify for the other.

Edited by WonderWoman61, 08 October 2022 - 13:50.

[bigears]

Now there's a mystery...

[AJCee]

But Hans Heyer had multiple hits in touring cars. Isn’t it all a case of what series? Derek Bell and Hans Stuck’s Formula 1 careers don’t begin to hold a candle to their sports car careers. Neither are one hit wonders.

[Glengavel]

I was curious about Le Mans 'one hit wonders'. There are 24 drivers whose only result at Le Mans was a single first place.

 

Five of those are drivers who raced at LM once and won - Nuvolari, Fontes, Lang, Foyt, Hulkenberg.

 

Veyron and Rosier both took nine attempts for their solitary wins - needless to say, retirements were much more common in their day.

[ensign14]

Well, most of those were war/better careers.  Fontes was imprisioned for vehicular manslaughter not long after his win, something about which the motor racing media were silent for half a century, because of the fear of it being used as a stick with which to beat the sport.  Never got going again and died in WW2 test-piloting.

[WonderWoman61]

Pete Gethin winning Monza in 1970?

More recently Aguri Suzuki: 3rd in Japan 1990, scored only two points in the next five years.
Ukyo Katayama...brilliant in 94, nowhere in 95, 96, 97.

Also Takuma Sato, apart from 2004, noteworthy performances from him were few and far between with the possible exception of Canada 2007.

[BRG]

Also Takuma Sato, apart from 2004, noteworthy performances from him were few and far between with the possible exception of Canada 2007.

Two Indy 500 wins don't count then?

[WonderWoman61]

Two Indy 500 wins don't count then?

Oh boy, the term "One-hit wonders" is open to interpretation.

Besides, I forgot about Sato winning the Indy 500 twice.

[WonderWoman61]

Outside of winning the 2008 Macau F3 GP, Keisuke Kunimoto didn't achieve much in any racing series that wasn't held in Japan.

Edited by WonderWoman61, 09 October 2022 - 21:06.

[AJCee]

So what is the definition of one hit wonder then? Surely it should be one performance with a high ranking result/prominent win and nothing else? Ever.
There are so many reasons why a talented driver cannot shine in a particular series. Eff Wun isn’t the be all and end all. I’m tempted to think that drivers with decent results in other series are quality drivers and not one hit wonders.
Or have I missed the point?

[10kDA]

If one Eff Wun race per season was a distance of 500 miles, I suspect we would have a greater number of "one hit wonders" - and if three 500 milers were run, with more points awarded for 500 mile distance like USAC did in the "Triple Crown" era of the 70s, I suspect the list of WDC titlists would be very different as well. It's easy to believe "oval" means "simple". It does not.

[WonderWoman61]

I don't think F1 is the be-all-and-end-all.

I just forgot about Takuma Sato winning the Indy 500 twice.

That's all.

[bigears]

Continuing with the Marcel Tarres story with his various helmets at the 1986 Birmingham Superprix...

 

 

Practice/qualifying photo by Terry Scannell.

 

 

During the acclimisation session before the F3000 race. Photo by Brendan McFarlane.

 

 

Photo scan from a Birmingham newspaper.

 

Now you can see Marcel Tarres borrowing Bernard Santal's helmet on Sunday and possibly Pascal Fabre's helmet on Monday!

 

 

 

[WonderWoman61]

Trevor Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500 but not much else.

[WonderWoman61]

What about Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualifying 4th for Prost at Spa in 2001? Too bad he had to stall on the grid and ruin his chances.

[WonderWoman61]

Team Brazil in A1 Grand Prix as Nelson Piquet Jr won both the Sprint race and Feature race at the series' first ever meeting at Brands Hatch in 2005 then neither driver or team ever won again despite the series lasting until 2009.

[Emery0323]

Trevor Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500 but not much else.

 

And 10 years later, Michael McDowell similarly scored his only victory (to date) in NASCAR's biggest race.

Edited by Emery0323, 20 May 2023 - 02:26.

[WonderWoman61]

Matt Simpson taking pole position and victory in Race 1 at Oulton Park in the 2018 British Touring Car Championship. Seriously, where did that come from? The guy hadn't even scored a Top 10 in 2016 and 2017, and even in 2018, his best result up until Oulton had been a pair of 7th places! Seemed to prove too much for his car as well, started smoking in the closing stages and he couldn't take part in Race 2, what a performance!

[rl1856]

Luigi Musso    His only championship victory was a shared 1st with Fangio in the 1957 Argentine GP.   Other wins were in non championship races (1954 Pescara, 1957 Reims, 1958 Syracuse).

 

I don't think Richie Ginther was mentioned in this thread.   Just a single F1 victory at Mexico in 1965.  His best year was 1963, when he finished 3rd in the WDC with 3 2nd place and 2 3rd place finishes during a very consistent season.  However, Richie will forever be remembered for his drive in the 1961 Monaco GP.

[Michael Ferner]

I think Richie Ginther wasn't mentioned because he hardly fits the description "one-hit wonder". As doesn't Musso.

[Charlieman]

When Richie Ginther arrived in F1 he was quick right away. In those days, commentators didn't talk about championship podiums, but Richie scored 13 of them before his win in Mexico, sadly none afterwards.

 

At the start of this thread, "one-hit wonder" was proposed as a single exceptional drive in a career, not necessarily a win or a finish. Lella Lombardi's half point in the WDC is notable -- she never drove cars which were reliable enough for us to judge how fast she really was. Bruce Halford with his privately entered Maserati got up into fourth place in the 1956 German GP before it went wrong for him.