Letters from readers, June 1998
Reminders of Rouen
Sir,
I write having read Andrew Frankel’s poignant ‘track test’ report on Rouen-Les-Essarts in the May edition. I was there for the last Grand Prix on that fateful day in 1968 and thought you may be interested in some memories of the day.
A friend and I arrived at the circuit on the Saturday afternoon having hitch-hiked from Le Havre. The circuit was still in use as normal road and there was very little to indicate that a Grand Prix was to be run the very next day.
After walking around a large part of the track we found a pleasant grassy area fairly near to the pit area and camped for the night. The place was essentially deserted. Imagine our surprise to wake in the morning and find ourselves surrounded by the F1 team supporters with cars being unloaded and mechanics starting to busy about. Having had a close up look at the cars we made our way to a vantage point at the start of the downhill sweeps.
The infamous section of the track certainly took its toll in the supporting Renault Gordini race, although thankfully as I recall they did not end so tragically as was to be the case later in the clay.
Following Schlesser’s accident only water extinguishers were available and as we know this intensified the fire with the magnesium bodywork. Despite this and as the graphic photo in your article shows, the race continued under waved yellows. As Andrew concludes, the conditions under which drivers accepted the risks gives a greater sense of meaning to such tragedies.
Thanks for such reports. It is interesting that the nostalgia at such locations is still evident with traces of history still to seen and experienced. It’s what motorsport is built upon.
I am, yours, etc.
Alan Folley, Swanmore, Hampshire
Speeding at Spa
Sir,
May I say how much I enjoyed your track test of Spa in April’s issue.
Although I did not visit the track for the first time until 1973 for the 1000km, I became a devotee until it closed down in 1978, and took in the final two 1000km races of 1974 and 1975, as well as the 1977 and 1978 24 hour races.
Of course, by the time of the 1974 and 1975 1000km races, many of the works entrants were already starting to lose interest in the event, so works entries were scarce, but you still had the privilege of watching Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell and Henri Pescarolo racing Matra, Mirage and Alfa Romeo respectively, because they enjoyed racing there. It can be no coincidence that these three great drivers between them racked up a total of 15 Le Mans wins, as they obviously excelled on real road courses.
Your article was both interesting and evocative, but I would just mention that Jacky Ickx’s lap in the Ferrari in 1973 was actually in practice, as the actual fastest race lap was that of Pescarolo in 163.086mph, a lap record that will stand eternally, as they introduced a silly little chicane just before Malmedy the following year.
The other thing is that the current friterie at the Masta Kink was not a friterie in 1978.If it was a friterie, I personally would have found a way of getting there! As a substitute I had to make do with the pub right on the inside of Burnenville, where you could sit on the Armco with a decent mug of Belgian beer and watch the cars aim for you in four wheel drifts.
I am, yours, etc.
Julian Nowell, Brentford, Middlesex
Castle Combe collection
Sir,
We are currently in the process of establishing an archive coveting the history of the Castle Combe race circuit since it was first used for motorsport in 1950. While we have already assembled a great deal of information there are still gaps, especially for the earlier years.
In particular we are still missing copies of entry lists of race programmes for some ’50s and ’60s meetings, and official results of information sheets from most pre-1979 meetings. Other memorabilia (posters, tickets, etc), photographs and film are also of interest if available.
We would also like to contact anyone involved in organising meetings in the ’60s for the Vickers-Armstrong (Hum) CC, BARC Bristol & Bath Centre, Thames Estuary Auto Club and the Bristol Karting Club.
If any of your readers are able to help in any way I can be contacted via Castle Combe Circuit, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 7EY. Tel: 01249 782 417, Fax: 01249 782 392.
I am, yours, etc.
Peter Stowe, Archivist, Castle Combe Circuit
Hitchings – a lift?
Sir,
I am trying to trace a Mr A Hitchings who raced a Cooper MG (Reg No NKC195) at Silverstone in 1952. Would you therefore, if you have space, give it a mention in your magazine.
I now own and campaign the car and am trying to fill in the gaps in its history.
I am, yours, etc.
Mr G Cooper, Kilsyth
Smells like team spirit
Sir,
I am surprised at the controversy surrounding the alleged “race fixing” in the Australian Grand Prix. It was a team result brought about by that team’s total domination of the race and is more a reflection on the state of F1 than on the moral state of McLaren or its drivers. Team spirit is a major contributor to any success story, and Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard have demonstrated that they possess plenty of it. More than enough, perhaps, to totally destroy the opposition this year.
Simon Taylor’s review of events in the April edition was fair and balanced, but for a real perspective of team spirit maybe we should look to Jenks for inspiration. DSJ’s views on the subject are beautifully condensed in his book Jenks – A Passion for Motor Sport in the article entitled “Team Spirit. Team Lotus 1978”. If you really don’t understand why McLaren did what they did in Australia, read the article and let Jenks explain. There is nothing new here; we have seen it many times and perhaps Ron Dennis has learned from seeing his cars locked in mortal combat before.
My biggest disappointment from Albert Park was not the McLaren domination; it was the fact that we saw very little racing, for racing involves out-braking and overtaking for position and we saw neither. If the FIA cannot engineer a formula in which racing decides the outcome, then let us hope that they allow competition to manifest itself through team tactics. After all there has to some excitement; and excitement; excellence isn’t the whole story.
I am, yours, etc.
Mick Stripe, Kineton, Warks
Smooth circuits
Sir,
I have been an avid reader of Motor Sport for more years than I care to remember and was interested in Simon Taylor’s article, in the April issue, on the recent developments in Formula One and specifically about the passing reference to the circuits at Magny-Cours and Silverstone.
Simon seems to infer, although I suspect not intentionally, that Magny-Cours is still the smoothest circuit in the Formula One calendar. Certainly that may have been the case before Silverstone was resurfaced in December 1996, but I wonder if Simon is aware of the attention to detail which went into producing surface regularity of ±3mm at Silverstone. This is, to the best of my knowledge, by far the finest tolerance ever imposed for a motorsport facility and compares with a tolerance of ±6mm specified by the Highways Agency for the UK’s motorway and trunk road network.
I am, yours, etc.
Rodney Byles, Farnham Common, Bucks
Gearbox gremlins
Sir,
Hugh Hunter’s 2.9 litre Alfa gearbox (The Fastest Road Car Challenger, April 1998) did not break in the above race at Brooklands “to decide the fastest road car”.
During the war I owned the only other short chassis 2.9 (now property of Simon Moore). At the end of the war I bought Hunter’s car, thus becoming the proud owner of the two!
Hugh told me that in the excitement of the start of the second part (Mountain circuit) he pushed the gear lever into the wrong gear! In shoving it into the right gear (bottom) the selector rod twisted. Simple as that. The gearbox was in unit with the back axle hence the remote selection. It was easy to select the wrong gear, too first being where third is on most cars.
When I got Hunter’s car, we modified the gear selection rod. The car having been made for the long Mille Miglia, it had an all steel multi-plate clutch. This had to be ‘in’ or ‘out’ and the only way to ‘get off the line’ was to engage it at precisely 1500rpm before accelerating. This lost time and we modified it with more conventional plates. Borg and Beck helped; the getaway was much improved.
I am, yours, etc.
Tony Crook, Bristol Cars, London
Size obviously matters
Sir,
I write to endorse those sentiments of previous correspondents; that the new incarnation of Motor Sport is splendid but would be improved by the inclusion of a small summary of current F1 results.
But also, a question. Why on earth do some of the extracted sentences with which you feel it necessary to adorn your pages have to contain stridently enlarged words? Do you believe that we are all morons incapable of detecting the significant? Or are you the victim of the excesses of your designers?
That said, keep up the (otherwise) good work.
I am, yours, etc.
Alan Jessop, Durham
School daze
Sir,
I am 11 years old and in my last year at Junior School. We have to do a project on a subject of our own choice. I have chosen Formula One, up to the present day.
I would be grateful if you could print this letter for me in the hope that some of your readers (teams or drivers) could reply to me with any information they might have.
I am, yours, etc.
Anneka Saunders, Weybridge, Surrey
Herbert rides again
Sir,
I refer to your reprinted article by DSJ on the subject of Racing Cars On The Road and subsequent readers’ letters on the subject.
At one time the Quest Racing Car factory was based in Bircholt Road in Maidstone and that company gained fame when Johnny Herbert, driving one of their cars, won the 1985 Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. One day during the following year I parked my car opposite the Quest premises and was suddenly aware of two mechanics standing at the gate anxiously looking up and down the road.
Apparently, happy that there were no police or other vehicles on the road (actually a cul-de-sac) they started giving feverish hand signals and suddenly a Formula Ford car, devoid of body work, appeared from the gate driven by no less than Johnny Herbert.
It accelerated steadily up the road towards the cul-de-sac, turned around the bulb, and then promptly accelerated down the road and back through the gate into the factory entrance! I spoke to the mechanics and they explained that the car was being given a shakedown to check a few adjustments. Later that year, during the Formula Ford Festival weekend while collecting for the Motor Racing Safety Fund, I mentioned the episode to Johnny who laughed, went his usual shade of pink and promptly coughed up five pounds for the fund!
I am, yours, etc.
Michael Stark, Maidstone, Kent
Name games
Sir,
I was looking forward to your feature on Jacques Swaters and his racing team with special interest, as I was hoping that it would help to clear up some of the confusion between histories of Ecurie Francorchamps and Equipe National Beige. Indeed, at one time the two names seemed to be almost synonymous, though I accept that this may have been the result of careless errors by contemporary reporters as so many of the Gallant Little Belgians were involved with both organisations.
Instead we are merely told that the name Equipe National Belge was dropped for 1958 while Swaters claims that he “dissolved ENB and went racing as Ecurie Francorchamps once more.” This cannot possibly be the whole truth…
I am certainly no expert on the politics of Belgian motor racing in the late ’50s, so I quickly dug out my old copy of Starting Grid to Chequered Flag by Paul Frère to double-check what he had to say on the subject Briefly, he confirms that ENB was formed with a pair of Ferrari Monzas in 1955 but he also tells us that Pierre Stasse had “become the Director of ENB” by the start of the ’56 season. It would be Stasse who would subsequently invite Frere to drive the Equipe National Beige Cooper-Climax F2 cars in 1960 and who also nominated Paul together with Olivier Gendebien as the ENB driver pairing for what turned out to be that year’s Le Mans-winning Ferrari.
None of this was referred to by Swaters, while other omissions from the article include the 1961 Emeryson-Maserati F1 cars which were to be such slops as well as the ’62 ENB-Maserati – a dismal attempt to salvage something from an investment if ever there was one.
A couple of points arising from Adam Cooper’s equally fascinating article on the Brabham fan can I well remember Dave Cox telling Autosport that he had seen a design for a fan system at the Tyrrell HQ. I also remember that in the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix issue that the editorial team claimed “to know that at least one other major British Formula One team is currently engaged in the building of a ‘sucker’.” I wonder was that Ken Tyrrell or AN Other who was hedging his bets?
I am, yours, etc.
David Cole, Oakham, Rutland