8 replies to this topic

[Shiney005]

The 1995 Tooheys 1000 was one of the most memorable races for me because of the gutsy drive put in by Larry Perkins and Russel Ingal after suffering a puncture on the first lap. Larry had to pit to change it, then pulled back out in dead last place and raced his arse off to go on and win the race. (Mostert ran a last to first race as well, but he started last on the grid and had passed a dozen cars by the first corner, so it does't compare really.)

Larry and Russell weren't the first though.  At the start of the 1961 Armstrong 500 Harry Firth got a punture during lap 1 of the race. He had to pit and change the wheel himself using only the spare and the tools supplied with the car. This took 8 minutes. He and Bob Jane then went on to win the race in their Mercedes 220SE, which incedentally came from Bobs Autoland caryard.

 

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[Dr Terry]

Yeah, but I think that the 220 M/Benz out-performed & out-handled most cars in the field back in 1961.

 

While LP's effort was brilliant, he was helped along by the same safety car breaks which helped Mostert.

 

Dr Terry

[Heath]

Very cool! Enjoyed learning that.

[yel327]

Amazing how slow the pit stops and driver changes were back in the 60's. Even up until the later 60's with Monaros running and later, a pit stop and/or driver change took a long time.

[Shiney005]

The wheel brace welded to an old steering wheel sped things up a bit. I think Harry might have even invented that idea while still at Ford.

[yel327]

It does but here is a thinking challenge:

 

Particular "brand" of Series Production cars with 25 gallon fuel tanks need 2 pit stops to complete the 500 miles. All of these cars change drivers at each pit stop (first driver does two stints, co-driver does middle stint), apart from one driver who does the whole race except for one lap..... So that means that particular car did 3 pit stops, co-driver only drove from the second pit stop for one lap, then came back in and original driver got back in. Driver change plus slow down back then wasted well over a minute, probably 2-3. Yet that car won?

[Dr Terry]

The wheel brace welded to an old steering wheel sped things up a bit. I think Harry might have even invented that idea while still at Ford.

I not sure, but I think that was one of Al Turner's ideas.

 

Dr Terry

[Dr Terry]

It does but here is a thinking challenge:

 

Particular "brand" of Series Production cars with 25 gallon fuel tanks need 2 pit stops to complete the 500 miles. All of these cars change drivers at each pit stop (first driver does two stints, co-driver does middle stint), apart from one driver who does the whole race except for one lap..... So that means that particular car did 3 pit stops, co-driver only drove from the second pit stop for one lap, then came back in and original driver got back in. Driver change plus slow down back then wasted well over a minute, probably 2-3. Yet that car won?

That was Bruce McPhee at his best.

 

It was the refuelling which took the longest amount of time, so you'll probably find he put half a tank in on the first driver swap & then the second half in a lap later, when he got back in. That way he only lost the time to slow down & speed up again in the pits, the standing time lost in the pits was around the same as the other cars.

 

Dr Terry

[yel327]

Plus the slow down, pull up, stop. Start again, accelerate etc. It's all in the time sheets!