1971 F1 team manager race

[p4ilip]

Noticed this clip on Facebook. It's actually a really good race and worth a watch:
http://www.influx.co.uk/blog/ford-escor ... =influxmag

[robin]

Pure fcuk genius. This is a must watch and the surprise finish is especially poignant for us lot ...

Great find, thanks for sharing!

Robin

[j2 lot]

[tut]

Brilliant stuff, Chapman overtakes one of F1 greats on the last lap then blows his engine.

Just checked his F1 record, he got one practice session in a Vanwall and then crashed in to Hawthorn his team mate and never raced again.

tug

[robin]

Hi Tug,

Clearly this is the race in which Chapman realised that the car had to be good enough to cross the finish line (and no more).

Cheers,
Robin

[p4ilip]

It looked like he was very fast. It's good seeing the cars move about a bit like that, it helps show the speed. Colin was obviously quite handy behind the wheel.
F1 drivers are always entertaining to watch when they are in equally matched vehicles I remember watching Prost and Senna on TV karting with the other F1 drivers indoor at Bercy in Paris and then Schumacher in a different year and they really have the edge over the other drivers.

[tut]

Everybody driving the same cars is a great leveller, be good to see more of it. Would have liked to have seen the complete list of drivers in that race but they only named the front runners.

Williams and Mosley were right up there early on, and Chapman's driving was pretty aggressive. Do that today with the F! drivers in 300hp Hot Hatches and it would make better viewing than the race itself.

tut

[robin]

I wonder if the % difference between a bunch of supposedly identical Ford Escorts is actually bigger than the % difference between the middle 4 teams in F1.

[robin]

Copied from inter webs somewhere or other:

Practice times:

Jack Brabham – 65.0
Colin Chapman – 65.4
John Surtees – 65.6
Max Mosley – 66.0
Phil Kerr – 66.4
Frank Williams – 66.6
Mike Costin – 66.8
Eric Broadley - 67.0
Jackie Epstein – 67.2
Ken Tyrrell – 67.4
Ed Nelson – 67.4
Doug Hardwick – 67.8
Alan Rees – 69.6
Ian Williams – 69.6
Tim Parnell – 74.8

Jackie Stewart was manager and pit signaller for Tyrrell and he felt obliged to deprive Ken of his usual lunch-time glass of wine.

Phil Kerr was complaining that he didn’t have enough time to get his roll-bar settings sorted our while Frank Williams reckoned his engine was a real wanker.

Costin and Broadley both felt they could have done better with a little “sorting out” back at their respective factories.

Ronnie Peterson was so disgusted with Rees’ showing that he refused to hand out any more pit signals.

Chapman managed to bend the rules by taking his Escort into the paddock at the end of practice instead of returning it to parc ferme and Tony Rudd spent 20 minutes with his head stuck under the bonnet.

THE RACE (as reported in Motoring News)

The Escort race opened proceedings at 11.15 on race morning, but bright summery weather had already attracted an estimated 40,000 people into the circuit by then and they were all on tenterhooks around the club circuit.

The race was on from the moment when Grahame White dropped the flag, and Chapman was doing his best to rub the trim strips from Brabham’s Escort as they rushed headlong into Paddock Bend. Frank Williams had barged his way through to third place and it was a miracle that no one was actually pushed off at Paddock Bend, for by the time they got to Druids there was hardly a car without a mark of one sort or another, and more was to come.

Brabham held a tenuous lead starting lap two, by which time a particularly brave Frank Williams was doing his level best to oust Chapman from second place, resulting in a long autocrossing moment for Williams along the bottom straight, which lost him his place, for John Surtees came storming through. Frank thus fell into the grips of Max Mosley and the two of them diced splendidly for the remainder of the race, with Mosley trying all he knew to show one of his less happy customers just how it should be done.

The rest of the field really wasn’t in it, for a largish gap opened out before Costin hove into sight with Phil Kerr and Jackie Epstein trying to find a way past on all sides.

Eric Broadley briefly held off one of his principal customers, Doug Hardwick, then began a wheel-to-wheeler with Ed Nelson, Ken Tyrrell and Ian Williams. Bringing up the rear were Alan Rees and Tim Parnell, who between them have the distinction of being the smallest and largest Formula 1 team managers respectively.

It was naturally the lead battle which commanded everyone’s attention, for Brabham was up to all his old tricks as Chapman desperately tried to find a way through. Whichever side Chapman chose, somehow when he came to draw alongside, that particular bit of road seemed to be full of red Escort. Surtees had already had a scare (“I was minding my own business and they all ran into me”) but nevertheless watched the duel from a safe third, his Escort looking very second hand indeed. Mosley, still chasing Frank Williams for all he was worth, had somehow hooked bumpers with someone, while Costin was holding his pursuers through the corners because a wing had been pressed on to a tyre and evertime he turned right, the wheels caught on the arch and the whole lot slowed down!

Chapman got more and more desperate as the laps ticked off, and his efforts to nudge Brabham off line at Paddock had the crowd on tip toes, while the door-shutting at Druids was nobody’s business. On the ninth lap it looked as though he was going to try the inside line through Paddock for a change, but just as Brabham eased over, Chapman yanked the steering wheel hard left and came up on the outside.

They were almost side by side through Paddock, and Brabham was slightly off line. At the bottom of the hill the Escort all but got away from him and Chapman was through, giving him a quick nudge en passant. Motor racing’s David Niven looked all set for his greatest-ever strategical victory with less than three quarters of a lap to the waiting flag.

Bit it was not to be. Pounding through Clearways, Chapman tried to grab top gear, only to find that there was nothing there (“absolutely nothing,” he said, “not a gear of any sort”) and Brabham scrambled past on the outside, having lost only a couple of seconds in the excitement.

Chapman had to coast across the line, and a grateful Surtees was handed second place on a plate, with Chapman a bitterly disappointed third. This hasn’t been a very good season for him and his cars, but it was very unfair to suggest as someone did that he had retired because his suspension had broken!

Frank Williams stayed in front of Max Mosley for fourth place (you’d have thought Max was chasing him for cheques) and a delighted Phil Kerr found a way past Mike Costin’s battered machine for sixth.

So Jack Brabham won the race which had been named for him, and earned a great round of applause. But what a disappointment for Chapman! Televiewers across the country caught a glimpse of him moments after he had seized the lead, with a grin from ear to ear which was dashed from his face so soon afterwards.

More, please Mr Stuart Turner, and please ask them all to do it again.

1. Jack Brabham – 11m 08.6s
2. JohnSurtees – 11m 11.2s
3. Colin Chapman – 11m 11.4s
4. Frank Williams – 1m 16.2s
5. Max Mosley – 11m 18.0s
6. Phil Kerr – 11m 24.4s
7. Mike Costin
8. Jackie Epstein
9. Doug Hardwick
10. Edward Nelson
11. Eric Broadley
12. Ken Tyrrell
13. Ian Williams
14. Alan Rees
15. Tim Parnell
FL. Colin Chapman – 1m 05.2s

[tut]

Thanks, just what I wanted.

Brabham showed his class, but Chapman has Schumacher's genes, win at all costs. He hired/borrowed a Mexico weeks before and spent hours practising on the track. Mosley and Williams going well also.

tut

[Dominic]

Great find!

[pete]

Excellent.