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Sir Sterling Moss F1, Sports Cars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtRWhPQVAY8 From the drivers seat
with Patrick Stewart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXVReKCrEw0
Stirling Moss gives a masterclass of how to drive the 1959 Cooper-Climax. He narrates several laps onboard at Donington Park, showing that he's lost vewry few of the skills that took him to so much success.

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Willy T Ribbs, Road Racing, Indy 500 and others

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9378199

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Dave Marcis Stock Car Racing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp3ScyY_7V4
by Outdoor Bound

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/auto-x-road-racing/824861-stock-car-racing-dave-marcis.html#post9378657

Live from Pappa's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf73cmoUqsg

Racing in Wisconsin with Dave Marcis and others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qrbq0sGIW0

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Tom Kendall Sports Car Racing


INSIGHT: Tom Kendall's GTP crash, 25 years on

Saturday, 02 July 2016


Marshall Pruett (words & images) We celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and a few other personal milestones that rank as cultural norms but, as Tommy Kendall can attest, something just doesn't seem right about commemorating the event that changed the direction of his life and career 25 years ago in Watkins Glen.

A broken rear suspension component on an impossibly fast Chevy Intrepid GTP car sent the lanky Californian into the Turn 5 wall at unabated speed on June 30, 1991, and with the giant impact, a budding sportscar superstar became a medical project.
Smashed feet and lower extremities sidelined Kendall as multiple surgeries and exhaustive rehab were required. His return in February the following year – in a new Intrepid chassis – was only possible through supreme effort and determination, and with the quarter-century mark adding significance to this weekend's WeatherTech Championship race at Watkins Glen, the IMSA and Trans-Am champion reflected on the life-altering event.
"We do recognize it in the Kendall household, and it's strange in a way; my overall life philosophy is things happen for a reason and serve your evolution, so it would be hard not to give a lot of credit to one of the most impactful things you've ever been through," Kendall told RACER.
"It tests your belief in a philosophy like that, and if you don't apply it to everything that happens to you, it's not a serious philosophy. If you can't be OK with hopping in that car 25 years ago, you haven't properly dealt with it, and I can say now that I have, and would climb in. It's a painful memory from that period, but I wouldn't change it. I like where I am."
Kendall would continue with the Intrepid GTP program through its conclusion at the end of 1992 before moving to the SCCA Trans-Am series, where he would go on to earn multiple titles and set the record for consecutive wins. Life after the Watkins Glen crash was by no means a disappointment for TK, and even with the rerouting of his career path in his mid-20s,

"When I gave my Hall of Fame speech last year, I went down a whole list of all the unlikely things that had to happen to get me there, and that crash was one of them," the 49-year-old said. "It certainly changed where I was headed, but who knows where my career would have taken me without the crash. I did a post on my Facebook page that said,, 'Don't run from your fate, whistle for it to join you,' so it was a tough one, but that's how I look at it."
Living with the effects of the Watkins Glen crash has been an unwavering component of Kendall's daily routine. A significant limp, thanks to the damage and bone loss from the impact, has led to other forms of discomfort and pain that plague Kendall today.
"I know the back problems I'm having today are an outgrowth of having one leg shorter than the other for 25 years, but who knows how badly I would have beaten myself up with all the other stuff I could have gotten into," he said. "I don't have any regrets. Over time, I've stumbled onto beliefs like that. I used to accept things because I couldn't change them. That's what I did after my accident. I didn't spend one minute thinking about it; it was, 'What's next and where are we going?'"
Moving from that goal-oriented approach to a one that dealt with healing the emotional trauma left behind after Watkins Glen has been Kendall's key to letting go of the accident. It makes this weekend's 25-year anniversary more of a historical footnote than a mental trigger for sorrow and loss.
"That 'what's next' outlook doesn't necessarily help your emotional growth, so it took me a while to check it off the list," he said. "The more I was able to accept everything that happened to me, whether I could control it or not, the more the future opened up for me and the happier I became. For me, now, it's part of why I enjoy my life so much."

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Carl Haas driver, racecar entrepreneur, car owner and promoter
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/s...72#post9378872




Carl Haas 1930 - 2016

Thursday, 07 July 2016


RACER Staff / Images by LAT, IMS Photo





Famed team owner, track operator and businessman Carl Haas has died at the age of 86 after a long illness. The news was announced by representatives of his family on Thursday, although he passed away on June 29.
While Haas is best known for his part-ownership of Newman/Haas Racing, which was one of the most successful teams in CART/IndyCar history, he also ran programs in Formula 1, NASCAR and Can-Am. Over 40 years, his various teams won a combined 16 championships, and more than 140 races.
Outside of team ownership he spent 10 years at the helm of the Milwaukee Mile, ran the Houston GP for three years, while his many business interests included serving as the U.S. distributor for Hewland and Lola.
While his eye for driving talent would become a hallmark, he was also highly accomplished in the cockpit himself: he won 10 races at Milwaukee during the 1950s, and also won one of the first races ever held at Road America.
In lieu of flowers, a contribution can be made to the Alzheimer's Association at 8430 W. Bryn Mawr, Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60631 (847/933-2413) or The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp at www.holeinthewallgang.org.

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Carl Haas ....continued
Ralph Hansen, who spent 30 years as Haas' right-hand man, still laughs about those negotiations with the 2001 F1 champion.
"Carl and I were at Watkins Glen for some kind of sponsorship function and we were sitting on a picnic table and Carl had Mansell on the phone," Hansen said. "Then Nigel had to put him on hold because he was getting a call from the Queen. There was a big demonstration outside Buckingham Palace called 'Save Our Nige' and she was imploring him to stay.
"Carl put his hand over the phone and said: 'My god, I negotiated against the Queen and we won.'"
It was such a well-kept secret that even the Newman/Haas team had no idea.
"Michael (Andretti) had just won the CART title but was headed to McLaren so we didn't know who was going to take his place," recalled veteran mechanic Tim Coffeen, who worked for Newman/Haas Racing for 20 years. "Carl called us all together and told us he had hired a driver we were all going to enjoy working with.
"Then a few days later Nigel walked into our shop. We were all in shock and I'd never seen Carl so happy."
Mansell earned the 1993 CART championship, but it was nine years before the team's next one. The war between CART and the Indy Racing League eventually saw a mass exodus to the Indy Racing League, but Newman/Haas remained loyal to CART and then Champ Car.
Bourdais bagged four consecutive Champ Car titles from 2004-07 and raved about his five-year run during a 2014 party for former Newman/Haas drivers, mechanics and employees.
"It was very unique with Carl leading the team and Paul providing the spirit. And when they ran out of sponsorship money, they chipped in to keep us going. I was very lucky to have driven for them," he said.
John Tzouanakis, who spent 28 years with Newman/Haas as a mechanic and team manager, loved the environment. "They weren't hands-on; they simply left you alone and let everyone do their job," he said. "Carl ran the business and Paul flew in for the races and I think racing was their country club. They could get away from people and enjoy their passion."
Hansen helped negotiate major sponsorships from Texaco, Kmart, Budweiser and Beatrice, but he also saw Haas and Newman dig into their own pockets to keep the team on track.
"Carl could be a tough businessman, but he was an incredibly honest person and he always lived up to his word," Hansen said. "He was a man of integrity and he would always underpromise and overdeliver to our sponsors, and they loved it."
The late Justin Wilson scored Newman/Haas' final win in 2008 at Detroit – shortly before Newman died of cancer – and the team shut down following the 2011 season.
Besides his CART team, Haas competed in Can-Am, launched a short-lived F1 team and also had a NASCAR operation. But his true love was Indy cars – especially the Indianapolis 500 – which Newman/Haas dominated on occasion but never won.
"Obviously we had everyone covered in 1987 and Michael was long gone in 1992, but that place always eluded them and it was a big disappointment," said the patriarch of the Andretti clan. "But it wasn't for a lack of trying. They always knew we were there and I always felt bad we couldn't get one."



Carl Haas, Michael Andretti, Mario And Paul Newman

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Bob Glidden Winningest Drag Racer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL3O36LQNoU

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Chris Amon Sports car racer and Lemans Winner
************************************************** **
New Zealand GP course named after Chris Amon NOV 2016
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9383104




Chris Amon: 1943-2016

Wednesday, 03 August 2016

Chris Amon, widely regarded as the best driver never to win a world championship grand prix, has died at the age of 73.

The New Zealander, who finished on the grand prix podium 11 times for the Ferrari, March and Matra teams, also won the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours sharing a Ford GT40 with compatriot Bruce McLaren.
Born of sheep-farming stock, Amon started his racing career in an Austin A40 and tested a Maserati 250F at the age of 17 – remarkably young for the era.

Driving Bruce McLaren's 1959 United States Grand Prix-winning Cooper-Climax T51, he then caught the attention of teams during the 1962-63 Tasman Series, essentially a winter F1 season in Australia and New Zealand. This resulted in Reg Parnell bringing him to Europe to race for his team.
Amon's first race in Europe was in the Goodwood Easter Monday meeting in 1963, finishing fifth in the Glover Trophy F1 race driving a Parnell-run Lola-Climax T4. While only 10 cars contested the race, the field was high quality, with Innes Ireland winning from McLaren and Amon one place ahead of Jack Brabham.
After taking sixth in the Aintree 200 later that April, he was set to make his world championship debut in the Monaco Grand Prix, only for teammate Maurice Trintignant to take over his car before the start. Amon did make his debut in the Belgian Grand Prix at the age of only 19, retiring early on with an oil fire.
Throughout '63 and '64, Amon continued to impress for Parnell's team, taking a best finish of fifth driving a Lotus-BRM in the '64 Dutch Grand Prix.
The '65 and '66 seasons were patchy F1-wise, with only occasional appearances – although he did win the Solitude Grand Prix Formula 2 race driving a Lola T60.

But he did deliver the greatest achievement of his career, winning Le Mans (pictured) in the controversial finish that led to the two Fords, which had completed a formation finish with Ken Miles and Denny Hulme crossing the line alongside, having their positions reversed in the results on the basis of total distance completed.
During '65 and '66, he was also successful in Can-Am and won races for McLaren.
After the Le Mans win, he met with Enzo Ferrari to agree a deal for the '67 season, which meant parting company with McLaren.
"I was in a difficult situation," said Amon in John Julian's "1967: Chris Amon, Scuderia Ferrari and a year of living dangerously." "Bruce wanted me to stay at McLaren but driving for Ferrari was also a boyhood ambition of mine."
His pace in the Ferrari 330 P4 early in 1967, winning both the Daytona 24 Hours and the Monza 1000kms (621 miles), earned him a place alongside sportscar teammate Lorenzo Bandini in the F1 team. When Bandini was killed during Amon's first F1 outing for Ferrari at the Monaco GP, the 24-year-old became Ferrari's team leader.
He took a quartet of third places, finishing fifth in the championship, and could have won the United States Grand Prix but for a lack of oil leading to engine bearing trouble.
The following year, Amon had the pace that should have allowed him to battle with Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart for the 1968 world championship.
Amon and the Ferrari 312 were a potent combination, the first of three poles coming at the Spanish GP. Amon then dominated the race, only for fuel pump failure to put him out – with a similar problem costing him a possible win in Canada.
He also led at Spa but retired with a holed radiator during a season in which results criminally under-represented his performance, with second place in the British GP at Brands Hatch behind Jo Siffert, another race Amon could have won but in which he struggled with tire wear and the lack of engine torque, his sole podium.
Such poor reliability meant Amon could not capitalize on his pace and ended up well behind new teammate and rising star Jacky Ickx in the points table.


Above: Chris Amon, 1968 Spanish GP
But Amon's class was underlined in the Tasman series. He battled Jim Clark's Lotus during 1968 in Ferrari's 246T, winning two races, then took the 1969 crown against the likes of future world champion Jochen Rindt.
Unreliability was again the story in 1969, with Amon leading in Spain before retiring with an engine failure, which played a part in his decision to leave Ferrari during the year ahead of a move to the new March Engineering team for 1970.
With Ferrari hitting form in '70 and March struggling, it was a characteristically ill-timed move.
Although Amon did finally win an F1 race – the International Trophy at Silverstone – the world championship season was a difficult one.
Amon did briefly lead at Spa, finishing second behind Pedro Rodriguez's BRM by just 1.1s in the difficult March 701, with further podiums in the French and Canadian GPs helping him to eighth in the championship, but he did not gel well with team owners Max Mosley and Robin Herd and headed to Matra in 1971.
The Matra move wasn't without its troubles, but again Amon should have won races, as shown by his success in another non-championship event, the 1971 Argentinian GP.
A leading role in the epic 1971 Italian GP lead battle ended when he inadvertently pulled off his whole visor instead of a strip, and finished sixth having started from pole.
He was driving away from the field in the 1972 French GP when he suffered a puncture. Amon regarded his recovery to third – lapping two seconds faster than winner Stewart – as his finest drive.

Above: 1972 French GP
After leaving Matra at the end of 1972, his world championship grand prix career was effectively over, even though he raced in F1 for another three years.
In 1973, he was persuaded to drive for the Tecno team, but other than sixth place in the Belgian GP results were poor, while a late season run for Tyrrell in the final two races of the season led to nothing.
There was one success that year, as he won the Nurburgring 6 Hours sharing a works BMW with Hans-Joachim Stuck.
Amon's decisions outside of the cockpit were sometimes unfortunate, and a sequence of unsuccessful moves followed. Perhaps the worst was the decision to build his own car – the Amon AF101 – which retired from the 1974 Spanish GP and failed to qualify on two other occasions.
He did manage to impress during his final F1 campaign in 1976, driving for the underfunded Ensign operation after late-season appearances the year before, but a poor finishing record meant that one fifth place was all he had to show for his efforts.
After parting company with Ensign before the end of the season, he entered the Canadian GP for the Wolf-Williams team, but a heavy accident in qualifying prevented him racing.
Amon started the 1977 Can-Am season with Wolf, but decided to retire after one race. His seat was taken by Gilles Villeneuve, who Amon later recommended to Enzo Ferrari.

Amon, 2008
After retiring, Amon returned to his family farm in New Zealand, though he retained connections to the sport.
He helped redesign the Taupo circuit, supported Toyota's TRS single-seater championship, and was an occasional star at historic events.
Amon's family released a statement saying: "Chris battled cancer in recent years but retained not only a close interest in Formula 1 - and his very wide range of favourite topics – but also his wonderful sense of humour complete with infectious chuckle."
McLaren chairman Ron Dennis added: "Chris started 96 grands prix but won not one of them – and it is safe to say that he was the greatest racing driver never to have won a race at the very highest level.
"He nearly won a fair few, but it always seemed that his luck would run out before he saw the checkered flag.
"I have not met Chris for many years but, even so, I have extremely fond memories of him and I would describe him as one of the most likeable men I have met in my long racing career.
"A true gentleman and one of the fastest racing drivers there ever was: the one and only Christopher Arthur Amon."


RACER INTERVIEW: Chris Amon on Le Mans '66

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Chris Amon Lemans 1966


RACER INTERVIEW: Chris Amon on Le Mans '66
Thursday, 16 June 2016
The 1960s Ford/Ferrari rivalry at Le Mans is one of motorsport's great grudge matches, and after a couple of years spent weathering Maranello-borne humiliation, Ford's response in 1966 was ferocious.
An unprecedented development program over the previous winter helped the Blue Oval to roll into La Sarthe in 1966 with a fleet of GT40 Mk IIs that ticked all of the boxes: they were quick, they were bulletproof, and they had some of the best driving talent in the world. The fact that the cars also looked amazing was just a bonus.
But while Ford's pre-race confidence was vindicated by a 1-2-3 finish, the race still had plenty of scope for intrigue, not least when Ford tried unsuccessfully to engineer a photo finish: the ACO decided that if the leading pair of GT40s finished side-by-side, the No.2 car shared by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon would be declared the winner over the sister car of Ken Miles and Denny Hulme. And you can't fault the reasoning: McLaren and Amon started further back on the grid, therefore by finishing side-by-side with a car that started ahead of them, they'd have covered a greater distance over 24 hours.
Regardless, the problem became an academic one when, depending which version you believe, either McLaren surged slightly or Miles lifted as they approached the finish, and the all-Kiwi McLaren/Amon car with its patriotic black and silver livery was first to greet the checkered flag.
To suggest that McLaren and Amon won because of confusion at the finish line does them a disservice, considering that they'd led a good portion of the race from dawn onwards. McLaren then backed off to obey an instruction to hold station, and was promptly overtaken by Miles, who had already won the long-distance races at Daytona and Sebring, and wasn't about to let team orders to stand in the way of a rare triple.
Most of the main protagonists from that day are now gone. Miles was killed in an accident while testing Ford's experimental J-car at Riverside later that year; McLaren died in a testing crash at Goodwood in 1970, and Hulme suffered a fatal heart attack during the Bathurst 1000 in 1992. Amon continued to be a mainstay in F1, sportscars and a variety of disciplines before retiring and returning to New Zealand in 1977.
Fast-forward to the present day and Amon, now aged 72, punctuates his chat with RACER.com with frequent apologies for occasional memory lapses as he continues to recover from recent health problems, although in reality his recollections are hard to fault. And is his sense of humor. "My memory hasn't been improved a great deal by having brain surgery," he says. "I'd rather been hoping for a miracle on that front".
He continues to follow the sport closely – over the course of more than an hour, our conversation detours into discussions about everything from the struggles to assemble a 33-car field at Indy to the prospect of canopy protection in open-wheelers. But the main focus is very much on that day in 1966; a day that cemented Ford's place in sportscar history, a day that helped define the 1960s at Le Mans, and a day that created a legacy that will be continued by this year's fleet of Ford GTs.
***
RACER: Leading up to the 1966 race at Le Mans, what sort of expectations did you have based on your previous experience with the GT40?
CHRIS AMON: I did quite a bit of testing in late 1965 and early '66. A lot of the Sebring testing was with that torque converter, two-speed gearbox thing - which seemed a good idea at the time, but I don't think it was, really.
Then I did quite a bit at Daytona. And when we went to the 24 hour at Daytona, I was still concerned about the reliability of these things. Well, when I say 'reliability', I mean the ability to really drive them hard and have them survive the whole race. I'd said to Bruce, 'I'm still not convinced that if we drive these things hard for 24 hours that we'll get to the finish line'.
For Daytona we were seventh on the grid, and I told Bruce that I thought we should set ourselves a fairly conservative lap time and stick to it. 'We may be running five or sixth in the early stages, but we could be the only one there at the end.' And the net result of that careful planning was that we finished fifth. [laughs]
So the car proved very reliable. I thought there was no question those cars could win Le Mans. I'd driven with Phil Hill previously with the first of the big-block ones, and Bruce and Ken Miles were in the other one. I'll never forget going down the end of the Mulsanne Straight at the end of the first lap and looking in the rear-vision mirror, and the nearest Ferrari was about 300 yards behind. So in terms of top speed, the Ferraris had no hope of even looking at us.
I went to Le Mans very much with the expectation that it was going to be a race amongst the Fords. The Chaparral was there as well, and it was quick but there was no way it was a 24 hour car. So when we went to Le Mans, Bruce and I discussed it and decided that there was no point messing around. We'd go for it.
One thing you really had to watch at Le Mans was the brakes, because the thermal shock loads were huge, and you'd come out onto the Mulsanne Straight with hot brakes and by the time you got to the end of the Mulsanne Straght they were basically stone cold. And then you'd put a tremendous amount of heat into them through stopping at the end of the Mulsanne, and then you had another long burst down to Indianapolis, where once again you'd lose all the brake temperature. Thermal shock and thermal loadings were huge. That was the one thing that you really had to think about. The rest of the car was bulletproof.
Daytona had demonstrated that the transmissions were sorted – in '65, Phil and I were leading comfortably and the gearbox went, and I think Bruce and Ken were leading quite comfortably after that when their gearbox broke. That had been our Achilles' Heel. But by 1966 we were pretty confident that that wouldn't be a problem.
Of course, the one big difference between our car and the rest [of the GT40s] was the tires. Bruce and I were both personally contracted to Firestone, and Bruce's fledgling company's main source of income was tire testing for Firestone, with Firestone's entry into European racing. So we were the only car on Firestones. That, of course, had a significant outcome during the race. I guess you're probably up to speed on that already.


RACER: That was the chunking during the first stint, when Bruce was in the car?
AMON: I have a feeling that he had two tires chunk, although I struggle to remember when. It was only after a few laps. I think we were on an intermediate tire, and I'm not sure that they'd ever been tested under those sorts of speeds. We were doing probably 210, 220mph. After a few laps Bruce came in with one rear tire chunked, and then he had another one go. When he came in, I poked my head in the door while they were changing the tire, and he said, 'Be prepared to take over from me if this happens again, because I've got to go and sort something out'.
I'm pretty sure it did a third one, and I got in the car at the next pit stop. After a few laps I got called in, and they put Goodyears on. What Bruce had effectively done was go to Firestone and said, 'Listen, either we withdraw the car or we've got to put some different tires on'. And Firestone said, go for it.
The upshot of that was that we'd had three pitstops before any of the other cars had done one. So Bruce said, 'Hey, we've got nothing to lose, let's just drive the hell out of it'. Which is effectively what we did. By the daylight hours of the morning, maybe seven or eight o'clock, we'd actually gotten ourselves into the lead. And then of course later in the morning the sign went out saying 'Ease'. And that meant, hold station. That's when everything started to go pear-shaped.
Bruce was in the car, and we were close on a minute in front. So Bruce slowed down, and unfortunately the second car didn't, and caught and passed us very quickly – we'd slowed by something like four seconds per lap. It was at that point that the senior Ford people made the decision to go for a dead heat, because if they couldn't control the drivers and stop them from racing each other, then that was the solution – it would make racing each other pointless.
Little did the team know, the [race] organizers had decided that they were never going to have a dead heat. So it all got a bit messy there over those last few hours. I guess the situation after the race ... Ken was very upset because he was a full-time resident Shelby driver, and he'd won at Sebring, he'd won at Daytona, and I think he wanted the triple crown. [ED: The job of running Ford's factory entries that year were split between Shelby and Holman Moody].
I think Ken sort of felt that he had the right to win, which I never really understood. And the whole thing wasn't helped by the fact that he died at Riverside just a few weeks later. That was a bit hard to cope with at the time.
RACER: The way the story is sometimes told, Ford was informed during the race that the ACO wasn't going to allow a dead heat, but the team wasn't able to communicate that to the drivers in the cars. So were you standing there in the pits knowing that if they crossed the line side by side, you'd win?
AMON: I'm not sure at what point Carroll Shelby and the other people were told by the organizers, but as we came to the finish, I was still thinking it was going to be a dead heat. It wasn't really until a few minutes after the finish that I knew we'd been declared the winners. It was a bit strange standing and watching the finish, because Bruce crossed the finish line a few car lengths ahead of Ken anyway. Bruce always said to me that Ken backed off ... whether Ken backed off or Bruce accelerated, I'm not sure [laughs]. But that was always Bruce's line.
Bruce was really quite annoyed about the whole thing, because he was the one in the car when the 'ease' sign came out – he was the one who had obeyed it, and Ken ignored it. It was the one thing that really put a dampener on things at the time. Having said that, the next morning Ford flew us all to New York and we had a celebratory dinner, and we'd all forgotten who'd finished where.
RACER: It must have made for a weird vibe on the podium.
AMON: [Slowly] Yeah ... It took a little bit of time for it all to sink in. But I remember standing up there with Bruce on one wide and Henry Ford II on the other, and thinking 'My God ....'. I was still only 22 or something. And the whole atmosphere at Le Mans is huge; it's like the [Indy 500]. I think think it's one of motorsport's special events – that, the 500, and the Monaco Grand Prix.
RACER: For you guys within the team, how big a deal was the internal rivalry between the Shelby cars and the Holman Moody entries?
AMON: It was quite big, but probably more between the management than it was between the drivers. Equally, I think the Shelby operation had more experience with the cars and had done more of the testing, so I think we had more of an edge anyway, not in speed terms but in experience terms.
The one unknown coming into it was how the British team run by Alan Mann was going to go, because if I remember correctly they hadn't been around long. So they were a bit of an unknown. I think we pretty much knew what the Holman Moody situation was. Personally, I always felt it was going to be a Shelby team battle. It was a superb team, the Shelby team. Not saying that Holman Moody wasn't.


RACER: You said earlier that Bruce told you to 'drive the hell' out of the car. Given the power that thing had and the general dangers of the era, how difficult was that psychologically?
AMON: The problem with Le Mans – and it still exists in sportscar racing today – is the speed differential. And at Le Mans at that time, you probably had cars that you were catching on the straight by something like 80mph. We were doing over 200mph, and you had things out there that were probably flat-out at 130. During the day it wasn't so much of a problem because you could see what was coming up, but at night, all you had was tail lights in the distance. Whilst you could guess based on the speed at which you closed up, it was still quite hard to determine exactly what the speed differential was at night. That was probably the most dangerous thing. And it still happens today – [Porsche LMP1 driver] Brendon Hartley ran into a backmarker [GTE Porsche driver Michael Wainwright] at Silverstone; somebody who was in a different class and going way, way slower. Thankfully, it's all a lot safer today.
That was always something that you had to be conscious of. But in terms of actually going for it, in terms of danger, I don't think we ever really gave it a lot of thought. Unfortunately – and it seems crazy when you look back in hindsight – it wasn't that we were super-brave. It was just, if you wanted to race, that was what you did.
In Formula 1, you could go into the drivers' briefing at the first race of the year and look around the room, and you knew bloody well that four or five weren't going to be there at the end of the year. It was crazy. You wouldn't know who they were, but statistically, that was going to be the result. It's a bit like the 'getting run over crossing the road' thing – it's always going to be somebody else.
RACER: One of the unexpected ramifications of being part of the Ford line-up that beat Ferrari at Le Mans was that a year later you became a Ferrari driver trying to beat Ford. What was that like?
AMON: Yeah, that was interesting [laughs]. My first time driving for Ferrari was in testing at Daytona at the end of '66. Having gotten out of the Ford and into the Ferrari ... it was a totally different car. I guess you'd say the Ferrari was a lot more nimble. We approached Daytona [in 1967] with the feeling that we had a good chance of winning, because while they had the banking at Daytona, they also had the infield section, which would suit the Ferrari far more than the Ford.
So after we won Daytona, with Lorenzo Bandini, pictured, and then won the 1000km at Monza, the Ferrari guys were all gung-ho that they were going to win Le Mans. And I said, 'Hang on, just watch it because we're going to get crucified by the Fords in a straight line'. And they said, 'oh no, we'll be fine'. And of course we were crucified in a straight line [laughs]. I think we were hanging on to the top three by our fingernails, but it was a real struggle.
The Ferrari P4 was certainly very different to the GT40. Once again, the P4 had no real vices either – it was a really well-sorted car. But it certainly lacked straightline speed. Probably in acceleration there wasn't a lot in it, but we'd run out of puff not a hell of a lot more than 190, 195mph. I'm not sure what that Ford Mk IV was doing in 1967, but it was probably 220 or something. So there was a big margin there. At a lot of tracks, that didn't matter so much. But certainly at Le Mans it did.
RACER: Was the GT40 hard to drive on the limit?
AMON: No, it wasn't. It wasn't a tight-circuit car, I'd have to say. But it was absolutely in its element at a place like Le Mans. I always felt it was an easy car to drive. It was very progressive, it didn't do anything in a hurry in terms of snap oversteer or understeer or anything; it was well-balanced ...
The '65 car that I drove with Phil had the longer nose and the longer tail, and that was a bit unstable on the straights. You had to almost work at it. But the '66 car, with the shorter nose and tail, you could literally sit there going down the Mulsanne with one hand on the wheel and not worry about anything really, in terms of stability. Even pushing on the limit, it had no vices.
It was a little bit different in the wet. At Le Mans, as the race progressed in those days, everything was leaking – you'd end up with a lot of self-leaked oil – and you'd suddenly get a little rain shower and with all of the oil on the track with was like driving on a skating rink. But again, it wasn't a difficult car in those conditions. We had a little bit of an issue late in the race with the throttle sticking open a bit – not wide open, but it made it a bit tricky in the slower corners and the wet because the engine was still trying to push you into the corner when you backed off. But that wasn't major. It was a great car to drive.
RACER: How do you view the 1966 Le Mans win now in the context of your career?
AMON: Formula 1 was always the number one priority. As it turned out, results-wise I didn't have the greatest of luck in my Formula 1 career, so I guess Le Mans goes down as my biggest achievement in racing. I had a few other good sportscar results, but Le Mans would definitely be the biggest one.
As time goes by, you're remembered more for your records; not so much for peripheral things. So that will probably rate as my single biggest achievement.
But it's certainly very a important win to me. More than anything, it is a special memory of Bruce McLaren; a very special memory. He wasn't with us for very many years after that. So it was very special from that point of view.
And I think that [win] was probably the catalyst that got me into Ferrari, as well. In fact, I'm almost sure it was - not that Ferrari ever said so.

senor honda

see also:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9399753
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Dan Gurney All American Racer, Road Racer, Indy Car, Formula One( first American to win and he built his own car), Winston Cup Stock Cars, Trans Am, and Le Mans ( first American).


Dan Gurney to receive Peter Bryant Award

Friday, 05 August 2016
Doug Stokes
ABOVE: Peter Bryant (left) and Dan Gurney at the Legends of Riverside reunion in 2009.

On Saturday night, Aug. 20, Dan Gurney's name will be added to the honor roll of names already inscribed on the Peter Bryant Challenger Award. This unique award is named for the late racecar designer Peter Bryant, who designed and engineered many well-known racing machines, among them the cutting-edge Ti22 and UOP Shadow Can-Am cars as well as the Shelby Series 1 road cars. Beginning as a young racing mechanic in his native England, Bryant went on to become a brilliant and innovative engineer/designer (and an every bit as brilliant storyteller and celebrity impressionist.)
The man's classic biography, "Can-Am Challenger" is a fascinating recounting of a life well-lived in the sport. At a Riverside Raceway reunion event in 2010 (on the first anniversary of Bryant's passing) the "Peter Bryant Challenger Award" was unveiled and presented to former McLaren mechanic/Formula 1 Driver/racecar constructor Howden Ganley by Bryant's widow Lois.
The ceremony honoring Gurney will take place at a special dinner at the Monterey Plaza Hotel held as part of the historic races and concours and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic Can-Am racing series.
"We've got the plaque ready," said Can-Am event producer Dave Wolin. "In truth, Dan Gurney's name should have been on this perpetual trophy long ago. Dan Gurney has always been celebrated as championship driver ... and now we're very pleased to be able to recognize him for his many contributions to racecar engineering with this prestigious award."
Whether it was his overseeing the design and construction the Formula 1 Weslake Eagle and then driving it to become the first American (and still the only one) to win a Grand Prix in a car with his own name on it; or talking Ford into working with Colin Chapman to install a modified Ford Fairlane engine in a upgraded Lotus 33 chassis for the Indianapolis 500; or taking Toyota to victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona; or building the Eagle Indy car that Jerry Grant broke the 200 mile-per-hour barrier with at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1972. ... Dan Gurney was never satisfied with the status quo and always sought a technical edge to go along with his great talent behind the wheel.
"The general public really never thought of Dan Gurney as any of an engineer when he was driving," Wolin remarked, "but, in many ways he was." Perhaps one his best "engineering" feats took place at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. Some years after his famous champagne-spraying victory there, Gurney let on that he really never went as fast as he could in practice, figuring very rightly that his congenitally competitive co-driver (one Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr.) would try to match (or beat) his times and possibly end up screwing up their chance at the win. Dan Gurney set a strong but solid pace... their Ford GT won.
The award celebrates excellence in motor racing engineering and the sort of spirit that Bryant brought to the craft. Phil Remington, Bruce Burness, Trevor Harris, Tyler Alexander, Alwin Springer, and Ike Smith are the names that precede Gurney's on the clear Lexan award that features a likeness of his sleek Ti22 car and pieces of titanium sheet sourced from the Timet Company, the company that originally produced that exotic super-strong/super-light metal for Bryant's incredible "Ti22" car.
Due to prior commitments Gurney will not be able to attend the Can-Am dinner. Accepting for him will be Vintage Racecar Associate Editor, historian, and the author of "Dan Gurney's Racing Eagles", John Zimmermann.
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The founding of CART and a great Dan Gurney story...many videos
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ney-story.html
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Robin miller tells Dan's Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc5PR4FfSeQ
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Dan Gurney raced a Lotus Cortina ay 1964 Sebring...rare film
1964 Sebring Jim Clark Lotus Cortina in the 3 hour sedan race plus 12 hour race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zqJOtYGtYI
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PODCAST: Dan Gurney Saturday, 31 December 2016


Marshall Pruett / Image by LAT Dan Gurney, the 85-year-old American icon and winner of the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, takes Marshall Pruett through his history at the great French endurance race that started in 1958, the lessons he learned and indelible memories that came from 10 visits, and what it was like racing and winning for Ford with A.J. Foyt in the legendary GT40 Mk IV.