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44 years ago today Jim Clark died at Hockenheim

Posted on April 7, 2012 by driverjohn

I was sat quietly pondering about the lack of international motor sport over the Easter weekend; no F1, NASCAR or IndyCar, and reminiscing about the glory days of the sort of events we could enjoy when I was a teenager, those races where several of the F1 stars of the day would turn out to drive a GT or saloon in one or more events on non GP weekends and we had plenty of non championship F1 races too.

We also had F2, and of course it was in one of those races that we lost Jim Clark, 44 years ago today. I’ve written at length about that day here in another blog post so I won’t go all over it again, but it underlined those words that used to appear in motor sport programmes and on the back of tickets: Motor Racing is Dangerous.

It is of course a lot safer today and I would not want to go back to the days of such high risk, even for those with the highest skills, but I must say that those days of my youth were times when there was more opportunity to watch racing here in the UK and also to get close to the top drivers.

Anyway, with the recent loss of Alan Mann, we have lost another key player in that April day 44 years ago, for had the cards fallen slightly differently, Jim Clark and Graham Hill might have been at Brands Hatch driving for Mann instead. As it happened they loaded up the Lotus 48s and went to the European Championship F2 race deep in the woods of southern Germany and Jim’s number was up.

That’s how things were back in those days. Motor racing was dangerous.

 

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The #F1 Silly Season drags on

Posted on November 7, 2011 by truckertoggle

So will Robert make a come back at Renault (sorry, Lotus)? Has the Barra Boy had his time at Williams? Who will be Forcing India?

It’s all getting a bit boring really and we wish that they would all make their minds up. Maybe Robert is the key to some of this and it will be a shame if all of that great potential is lost to F1 should he be unable to make a return. It could be that it is already too late, and that a year off will have dulled the edge.

That would also apply to the Ice Man of course, but he has long been an enigma. Could he make a difference in a Williams. or would a return to F1 in mid grid just bore him rigid? Would we notice if it did? All these questions’ let’s have some answers.

As for the name changes, well we are pleased that it has all gone through, but can’t really understand why there was all that fuss. Yes there can be complications over a name; we here are old enough to remember 1967 and Gulf’s Mirage win at Spa causing a bit of controversy because it didn’t count as a Ford win for manufacturer points even if it was just a modified GT40, but that is hardly relevant in modern F1. There are far more important issues for the constructors and ruling body to be considering; for a start the former mob could get on with sorting out their drivers for 2012.

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where did all the Easter motor racing go?

Posted on April 23, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

When I was really getting into motorsport as a teenager the Easter break was a veritable treasure trove of racing here in the UK.

Take 1967 for example; Good Friday saw the F2 European championship circus at Snetterton and then they all trooped over to Silverstone and did it again on Easter Monday. Both events were also supported by the British Saloon Car and Sports Car Championships. In F2 Jochen Rindt beat Graham Hill in Norfolk and his own team mate Alan Rees at Silverstone, Jackie Oliver won both saloon car outings in Alan Brown’s Mustang and Paul Hawkins in his own GT40 beat Denny Hulme in Sid Taylor’s similar car on Friday with that result being reversed in Monday’s race.

All frantic activity, and there were club races up and down the country to choose from as well. We were spoiled for choice really, but now we don’t get any major racing over the holiday weekend at all. Shame really, but there you go. At least I have the memories of the Easter weekends that I was able to enjoy as a teenager.

If you’re interested to research some of the racing further, try these links:

British Sports Car Championship

1967 British Saloon Car Championship

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coming soon; Hunt v Morgan and GT40s at Le Mans

Posted on March 13, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

No F1 or NASCAR Sprint Cup this weekend (apologies to the truck series), so just a preview of a couple of things that I am working on in my Setting the Record Straight series.

The first one will be on the notorious James Hunt and Dave Morgan incident on the 3rd October 1970. I’m prompted to this one because of Tom Rubython’s book on the former where, in amongst a whole series of things that should never have appeared in a serious book, he raised the last corner crash at Crystal Palace. I was there and saw the whole thing, so I’ve got something fairly well advanced that will talk about the 1970 F3 season in general and that race in particular.

Also in production is something on the record of the Ford GT40 at Le Mans. This one comes from the erroneous utterings of one Jeremy Clarkson who has claimed that the GT40 won the Sarthe classic 4 years running, when it plainly did not.

Both of these are taking a lot of research to make sure that what I write will be as factually accurate as I can make them; that’s what setting the record straight is all about.

Thanks to all of the people that have read my posts here over the months. I hope that I can keep you entertained. Both of the above articles should be posted here before the end of April. Feel free to challenge me on any racing incident that you would like to know more about.

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