17 replies to this topic

[Magee]

In 2010 Vancouver-Whistler will host the winter Olympics.
(Just up the road).
This got me thinking about the Olympics and its history.
Anyone have any information about road racing or rally activity
co-incidental to an Olympic tournament anywhere?
Was there a car rally at Lake Placid during the
winter Olympics there?
Is it perhaps too daring to propose that one be held?
Here in Western Canada we have lots of great
rally territory especially challenging in the winter.
The Shell Rally was a tradition for many years in Canada.
No reason why it can't happen again in British Columbia.
The rules for athlete participation was that the entrant
had to be at the amateur level. However, the rules
have been changed to allow professional athletes.
And what reason could there be to keep out amateur
or professional drivers? Speaking about motor sport
and Olympics Gold,
here's a jpg showing Bruce McLaren and Nancy Green
at Edmonton CAN-AM in 1968. Nancy was the Gold Medal
winner of the downhill race in the Olympics.
According to the news, McLaren drove fast enough
with her as passenger to equal the qualifying time
for fourth on the grid.

[David McKinney]

The 1956 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park is often called the Olympic GP. In honour of Melbourne hosting that year's Olympics, the GP organisers staged a far more glamorous meeting than had ever been held in Australia before, with the GP backed by the TT for sportscars, and entries from the Maserati factory as well as a load of European-based private entries. S Moss (Maserati 250F) won the GP while the TT went to S Moss (Maserati 300S)

[Vitesse2]

Do my eyes deceive me, or is Nancy Green wearing Roger McCluskey's overalls?

IIRC there was an Olympic Rally in 1936 in Germany, but perhaps that's not an auspicious precedent .... :

[Ray Bell]

And you have to wonder, of course, what the Japanese had planned to go with the Tokyo Olympics in 1940...

[Geoff E]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
Do my eyes deceive me, or is Nancy Green wearing Roger McCluskey's overalls?

They deceive you - it's Roger McCaig!

[Vitesse2]

/hunts for reading glasses.....eventually finds them under dog .....

Nope, it's definitely Nancy Green!



Oh - you mean the name on the overalls! Okay, I'll go with McCaig - who he? McCluskey I'd heard of!

[Leif Snellman]

I think it has been discussed before but I cannot find the thread.

Anyway, the only official motor sports events ever in the Olympics were three motor boating events in London 1908.

[jarama]

In August '72 was organised the "1st Olympia München Rallye", amongst other complementary activities to the Olympic Games. Was eligible for the ERC, there were 340!!! entries and the winners were Jean-Pierre Nicolas / Jean Todt at the wheel of the works berlinetta Alpine-Renault A110 1800.

Carles.

[wildman]

On a related note: At the 1992 Games in Barcelona, the cycling team time trial was held on the then-new Catalunya circuit.

[Ray Bell]

Well there's another angle...

I'm sure that the Eastern Creek circuit figured in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and I'd be surprised if Albert Park wasn't used for something in 1956.

[Magee]

Vitesse2,
Here's the bio on Roger McCaig, a member of The Canadian Motor Sport
Hall of Fame:

Roger McCaig
Category: Competitor

Born: 1934
Died: 1976

Roger McCaig competed successfully in the Can-Am and Continental 5000 series in the late '60s and early '70s in a series of McLaren Group 7 and Formula 5000 cars. He became a full-time racing driver in 1969, the same year he was diagnosed with cancer. Despite the disease, he was top Canadian in the Can-Am series in 1970 as well as sharing successes with brother Maurice in major endurance races. Roger died in 1976, just 43 years old.

[humphries]

Magee

On October 1, 1972 a race meeting was organised at the Salzburgring and titled the "Olympia Trophae". I'm not sure but I think it had been announced that the 1976 Winter Olympics were to be held in Austria again at Innsbruck and the title appeared to be in recognition of this fact. Of course it could easily be the trade name of a soap powder or cigarettes!!!

The Formula 3 race was won by Randy Lewis in a Brabhan BT38 after a slipstreaming battle with Ernst Maring in one of his Maco creations. More information about this race would be nice. It seems to have slipped the net of the F3 chroniclers.

The Touring car race was won by Dieter Quester in a BMW which was the main event.

John

[Rob29]

The location of the Olympics is anounced more than 4 years before the previous one,and in the 70s Winter & Summer games were in the same year.
Olympia Trophae was a regular title of a meeting at Salzburgring-I think it was also held for F5000.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Rob29
The location of the Olympics is anounced more than 4 years before the previous one.....

While this is true today, it wasn't always thus...

I mentioned previously the Tokyo games of 1940... they were announced during the running of the 1936 games in Berlin.

[wildman]

Originally posted by Rob29
The location of the Olympics is anounced more than 4 years before the previous one...

Not in the case of the '76 Winter Games, either. Those were originally awarded to Denver, but in 1972, Colorado voters rejected a $5 million bond issue to pay for them. Then the IOC recruited Innsbruck, site of the '64 Games.

[Peter Morley]

Originally posted by Leif Snellman
I think it has been discussed before but I cannot find the thread.

Anyway, the only official motor sports events ever in the Olympics were three motor boating events in London 1908.

Every Singer owner knows that Betty Haig won an Olympic Gold Medal for winning the 1936 Olympic Motor Rally in her Singer.

Her un-expected (e.g. wrong nationality) success meant the awards ceremony was moved from the main stadium to somewhere less visible.

No Olympic websites (both official & un-official) mentions this event, is that because it was un-official (in which case how could they have awarded medals?), or the result was stricken from the records?

[Rob29]

The position of the IOC as I understand it is that no motor powered sports will be admitted. I suspect that parties took advantage of the the name and organized unofficial events even to the extent of gold medals. Nowdays the IOC would sue them out of business but I can't coment on what might have happened in Nazi Germany.

[kabouter]

During the Paris 1900 Olympics (held in conjunction with the World Fair) several motorsports events were held, but these events are now not officially recognized by IOC as Olympic events.

A friend of mine has written an article about motorsports at the 1900 Olympics for the Journal of Olympic History. If anyone is interested, he can contact me for a PDF-file of the article.