MOTOR-RACING’S STRANGEST RACES Extraordinary but true stories from over a century of motor-racing GEOFF TIBBALLS Motor-racing’s Strangest Races Other titles in this series Boxing’s Strangest Fights Cricket’s Strangest Matches Football’s Strangest Matches Golf’s Strangest Rounds Horse-Racing’s Strangest Races Rugby’s Strangest Matches Tennis’s Strangest Matches Motor-racing’s Strangest Races GEOFF TIBBALLS Robson Books First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Robson Books, 10 Blenheim Court, Brewery Road, London N7 9NY Reprinted 2002 A member of the Chrysalis Group pic Copyright © 2001 Geoff Tibballs The right of Geoff Tibballs to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author and the publishers have made every reasonable effort to contact all copyright holders. Any errors that may have occurred are inadvertent and anyone who for any reason has not been contacted is invited to write to the publishers so that a full acknowledgement may be made in subsequent editions of this work. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 86105 411 4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers. Produced by Sino Publishing House Ltd, Hong Kong CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Working up a Head of Steam (1894) 3 A Modest Beginning (1895) 6 Police Brutality (1898) 9 Charron in Reverse ( 1899) 12 The Tour of Britain ( 1900) 15 The Hound from Hell (1900) 17 Fuelled by Alcohol (1902) 20 Jarrott’s Running Repairs (1902) 22 The Race to Death (1903) 25 Journey into the Unknown (1907) 28 The Race around the World (1908) 34 The Firing Squad (1908) 38 Dogged by Misfortune (1912) 41 Champagne Jules (1913) 44 The Distressed Mechanic (1913) 46 Across the Line Backwards (1919) 49 A Message from Above (1922) 52 A Stroll along the Prom (1923) 54 Fifty Yards from Glory (1924) 56 A Pit Stop for Lunch (1925) 58 v A Clash of the Giants (1925) 60 When Three Wasn’t a Crowd (1926) 62 A Most Peculiar Match (1926) 64 A Grand Day Out (1926) 66 The Pain in Spain (1926) 67 The Riot at Miramas (1927) 70 Three Car Trick (1927) 72 Chiron Beaten by an Ambulance (1927) 76 Benoist All in a Spin (1927) 77 The Actress and the Opera Singer (1929) 79 The Ice-man Melteth (1930) 82 Passing Manoeuvres (1931) 84 Fagioli Brings the Bridge Down (1931) 86 Victory at Vh Mph (1932) 88 Campari’s Hammer Blow (1932) 90 Cortese’s Quick Fix (1933) 93 A Fiery Finish (1933) 95 On the Beach (1933) 98 A Different Corner (1933) 100 The Fixed Race (1933) 103 Le Mans Victory Sealed by Chewing Gum (1933) 107 The Wrong Pit Signal (1935) 110 Nuvolari versus the Germans (1935) 112 Keep Right on till the End of the Road (1938) 116 Ladies’ Day (1938) 119 An Encounter with a Stag (1938) 121 The Tied Monte (1939) 125 The Wrong Side of the Road (1940) 127 Racing on Ice (1947) 130 The Silverstone Sheep (1947) 132 Oranges and Lemons (1948) 134 Farina in a Huff (1949) 137 The Helpful Spectator (1951) 139 vi Levegh Goes Solo (1952) 141 ATragic Invasion (1953) 143 Called from the Bar (1953) 145 Hell in Buenos Aires (1955) 147 Helping Hands (1956) 150 Monzanapolis (1957) 154 The Day the Track Melted (1959) 156 The Final Push (1959) 158 Brabham Goes by Tram (1960) 161 The Grand Prix with No Retirements (1961) 164 The FI Tractor (1961) 166 The Post-race Collision (1962) 168 The Great Escape (1965) 170 The Demolition Indy (1966) 173 Classical Gas (1967) 176 A Hare’s Breadth (1969) 179 The Fall Guy (1969) 181 On Tow around Monza (1969) 183 Punch-up at the Palace (1970) 185 Mad Dogs and Mexicans (1970) 188 The Rally with No Finishers (1972) 190 Through the Barricades (1973) 191 Safety First (1973) 194 Stuck in the Pit Lane (1974) 197 Half Points in Barcelona (1975) 199 Victory in Slow Motion (1976) 202 Six Wheels on My Wagon (1976) 204 Hunt’s Flag Day (1976) 206 Lauda Surrenders the Title (1976) 209 Fan Worship (1978) 213 An Unexpected Obstruction (1979) 215 The Race That Never Was (1980) 217 Mansell: A Painful Beginning (1980) 220 vii The Long Wait (1981) 223 Lost in the Desert (1982) 225 A Falling-out Amongst Friends (1982) 227 All Change at Monaco (1982) 230 A Fit of Piquet (1982) 232 A Hint of National Bias? (1982) 234 It’s a Washout (1986) 237 A Family Affair (1988) 240 The Battle of Suzuka (1990) 243 The 25-minute Grand Prix (1991) 246 Mansell and the Safety Truck (1993) 248 The Race against the Train (1993) 251 Let the Sunshine in (1996) 253 Road Rage (1997) 254 After You, Mika! (1998) 257 Schumacher Wins in the Pits (1998) 260 Carnage at La Source (1998) 263 The Shed, the Bed and the Boot (1999) 267 No Tyres for Irvine (1999) 269 The Six-day World Champion (1999) 273 Coulthard and the Trespasser (2000) 276 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A big thank you to the following for making hours of research so rewarding: The British Newspaper Library, Nottingham­ shire Library Services, Westminster Library, Marylebone Library, Derby City Library, Sheffield Library, Southport Local Studies Library, Donington Park race track and the Derby Evening Telegraph. Thanks also to Lorna Russell and Joanne Brooks at Robson Books, and to Jeremy Robson for giving the project the green light. Introduction When the motley assortment of steam and petrol-powered vehicles lined up in Paris in 1894 at the start of the trial to Rouen, they launched the colourful history of motor racing. Many of the pioneering events were death-defying, trans­ continental marathons, occasionally visiting remote settlements that had never before seen a motor car, in which the competitors were obliged to negotiate basic dirt tracks, muddy bogs, fast-flowing rivers, over-zealous policemen and a seemingly endless supply of stray dogs. France led the way, not only in chiens perdus, but also in promoting the sport of motor racing. One of many ingenious events was an 1899 handicap race between walkers, horsemen, cycles, motorcycles and cars over the 104 miles between Paris and Trouville. The horses were allotted 14 hours and finished first and second; the cars, allowed three hours, were third and fourth. The walkers are probably still out there somewhere. Meanwhile the United States specialised in endurance contests, some of which were highly charged affairs. In 1902 one John Grant Lyman was suspended for six months by the Automobile Club of America for the heinous crime of exceeding 20mph during the Long Island Endurance Run. The first regular circuit race, the Circuit des Ardennes, took place in 1902 but it was several years before this type of event became popular. And in those days a lap could be anything up to 75 miles - as in Germany’s Kaiserpreis - and take the best 1 Motor-racing’s Strangest Races part of an hour and a half. Spectator satisfaction was not exactly high on the list of priorities. Since these humble beginnings, the human race has done many strange things to motor cars in the name of sport - some barely legal. Cars have been bullied and coerced in a manner which would make even Basil Fawlty blush and have taken part in events best classified as innovative. How else would you describe a race where a four-poster bed chases a garden shed around a Grand Prix circuit? Gathered here are races with strange beginnings, strange middle bits and strange finishes, as well as races which were Just... strange. They include the Frenchman who drove 25 miles in reverse; the Grand Prix where the leading drivers were so far ahead that they stopped for a meal in the pits; the Le Mans 24-Hour Race won by a car patched up with chewing gum; and the driver who drank six bottles of champagne - virtually one per pit stop - on the way to winning the Indianapolis 500. Most of the great names are featured as sometimes willing, sometimes baffled, participants - Boillot, Nuvolari, Varzi, Farina, Fangio, Moss, Brabham, Stewart, Hunt, Mansell, Senna and Schumacher. For the purposes of this book, I have included a few memorable rallies, too, partly because rallies are races in all but name and also because their catalogues of incompre­ hensible rules and regulations lend themselves to the bizarre. A race against time which ends with a stage to see who can go the slowest really does defy description! Yet that was precisely what the organisers of the Monte Carlo Rally came up with in 1932. Dick Dastardly and Muttley would have loved every minute! Geoff Tibballs, March 2001 2 WORKING UP A HEAD OF STEAM PARIS TO ROUEN TRIAL, 22 JULY 1894 Motoring was still very much in its infancy when Pierre Giffard, editor and owner of the Parisian newspaper Le Petit Journal, hit upon the idea of staging the world’s first motor event. It was not a race as such but an 80-mile trial along the bumpy roads between Paris and Rouen, the winner to be the vehicle which, in the opinion of the judges (all of whom were on the staff of Le Petit Journal) most closely adhered to their ideal of ‘d’être sans danger, aisément maniable pour les voyagers, et de ne pas coûter trop cher sur la route’, in other words safe, easy to handle and cheap to run.