The month in Motor Sport
July
15: Active ride and traction control are banned from F1 forthwith as FISA’s World Motor Sports Council meets in Paris.
16: Jaguar loses its Le Mans GT victory. The ACO’s decision to exclude the X1220C has nothing to do with technical regulations; rather, the race organiser points out that Jaguar ran in the race under appeal, but had failed to comply with the correct appeal procedure. Ironically, IMSA scrutineers had already declared that it was OK to race the car without a catalytic converter, the original bone of contention between the ACO and Jaguar. . . Victory is awarded to the Porsche Carrera of Joel Gouhier, Dominique Dupuy and Jürgen Barth.
16: Recovering from the brain haemorrhage he suffered during preparations for the Rally of Argentina, Juha Piironen is flown home to Finland.
17: Piironen’s regular partner Juha Kankkunen wins the Rally of Argentina for Toyota. ably supported by Nicky Grist.
18: Amidst the traditional annual chaos that prevails in Sicily, David Coulthard registers his first European F3000 victory at Enna-Pergusa. The Scot hauls himself into a clear championship lead, after closest rival Pedro Lamy crashes out at the final corner. Series returnee Jordi Gene is lucky to escape injury after a spectacular accident which causes the race to be red-flagged.
18: Paul Tracy heads Penske team-mate Emerson Fittipaldi home in the Toronto IndyCar race. Fittipaldi takes over the series lead from Nigel Mansell, who retires with a blown turbo. F1 refugee Bertrand Gachot, who hopes to return to Grand Prix racing with Pacific, makes his series debut with Dick Simon, finishing 12th.
18: One of the talking points at the Toronto IndyCar race is that US Lola importer Carl Haas is to take legal action against the marques former designer Bruce Ashmore, who has defected to Reynard.
18: Dale Earnhardt is the NASCAR winner at Pocono, but the race takes place under a cloud. The sport is still reeling from the death, in a helicopter accident a few days beforehand, of Davey Allison, one of the discipline’s leading stars.
18: Having his first run in a Dallara, Kelvin Burt (main plc) returns to his winning ways in the British F3 series. Victory at Donington extends his series lead over Oliver Gavin. The Italian manufacturer, with no track record in the UK, is now supplying all but a couple of class A runners in the championship.
18: The GTCC comes to Donington (below), for two non-championship races. Christian Danner and Nicola Larini triumph as Alfa Romeo dominates.
18: Gabriele Tarquini (Alfa Romeo 15) and Fabrizio Giovanardi (Peugeot 405 Milt take a win apiece in the ITCC at Varano. Iva Capelli makes his series debut for Nissan but has a troubled day.
18: Bryan Herta stretches his Indy Light series lead with victory in Toronto.
20: Cycling in his native Bologna, Alessandro Zanardi is hit by a motorist and knocked to the ground. The driver then compound his initial mistake by reversing over 61 Italian’s left foot, breaking three bones Lotus puts Roberto Moreno on standby for Hockenheim, but Zanardi (below) pronounces himself fit to race.
22: Formula One’s powerbrokers meet team bosses in a hotel close to Hock helm, to discuss the implications of ruling that active systems and traction control should be banned forthwith. A promise agreement is finally reach whereby teams will be able to continue using their technology until the end of current season.
22: BHL supremo Nicola Foulston wants to bring the series to Brands Hatch, October, for a non-championship race.
23: Benetton is angered when McLaren receives a supply of Series VIII HB engines for use in the German GP, thus giving a ‘customer’ team parity with Ford’s official partner.
23: Formula 3000 team managers meet in the Hockenheim paddock to discuss the category’s future.
24: News leaks out in Japan that Honda is to return to F1 in 1994, with Lotus. The Japanese giant is to build a new VI in conjunction with Mugen. Following the leak, the partnership is soon announced officially.
23: Formula 3000 drivers are in the wars at Hockenheim. Franck Lagorce crashes on his way out of the pit lane, breaking his left thumb, and Vincenzo Sospiri cracks a bone In his right wrist when his steering wheel recoils after contact with a kerb.
24: Olivier Panis dominates the Hockenheim F3000 race, after making a small but vital wing alteration during a red-flag stoppage (the fourth time in five rounds that the series has been thus interrupted in 1993). Pedro Lamy finishes second after David Coulthard’s gearbox breaks; the two now share the European Championship lead, with four races to go. Able to race after taking a course of pain-killing injections, Vincenzo Sospiri finishes third.
25: One and a half laps from apparently certain victory in the German GP, Damon Hill’s jinx strikes again. A deflated tyre brings the Englishman to a halt; he’s classified a frustrated 15th. Alain Prost is the grateful beneficiary. Michael Schumacher delights his huge home crowd by finishing second; team-mate Riccardo Patrese finishes fifth in his 250th GP start. Unperturbed by a terrifying accident during the morning warm-up, Derek Warwick starts and finishes the race.
25: Seven cars start the British F2 round at Brands Hatch . . . and all of them come to a halt in a first-lap pile-up at Druids. Jose Luis di Palma emerges from the dust to win.
25: John Cleland takes his first BTCC victory of the season, in the double-header meeting at Knockhill. It is the Scot’s first-ever race win in his home country. Julian Bailey takes his maiden BTCC victory in part two.
25: PI Jones wins the Laguna Seca IMSA round. Robs Lamplough debuts the Allard 12X, and is classified ninth.
25: Didier Cottaz takes French F3 honours at Paul Ricard. Laurent Aiello (BMW) wins both touring car races on the same programme.
25: Dale Earnhardt collects his sixth NASCAR win of the season at Talladega.
31: Malcolm Wilson wins the Ulster Rally and steals a march on Richard Burns in the race for the British Rally Championship title. Burns retires after sliding off the road on stage five.
31: Director of Ford Motorsport Mike Kranefuss announces that he is to step down, and that he will be setting up his own team probably in IndyCar racing next year.
August
1: Nigel Mansell wins the Michigan 500, and regains the IndyCar series lead.
1: From Michigan comes the news that the Brands Hatch IndyCar race is a non-starter for 1993. The Kentish circuit hopes to woo the Americans in 1994, however.
1: The Spa 24 Hours is red-flagged with nine hours to go, as a mark of respect following the death of Belgium’s King Baudouin. Victory goes to the Porsche 911 of Christian Fittipaldi, Jean-Pierre Jarier and Uwe Alzen.
1: The British Kart GP at Brands Hatch is abandoned after separate accidents claim the lives of Gordon Ellinor and Kenton Owen.
1: Toyota takes yet another IMSA victory. Juan-Manuel Fangio II triumphs at Portland.
1: Marco Apicella gives Dome a rare Japanese F3000 success at Sugo.
1: Varano winners Gabriele Tarquini and Fabrizio Giovanardi serve up a repeat performance in the ITCC rounds at Misano. Despite rumours of an impending split with long-time employer BMW, Roberto Ravaglia picks up useful points, and retains a narrow series lead over Tarquini.
1: Local hero Jos Verstappen dominates the Marlboro Masters F3 race at Zandvoort (above).
1: James Matthews, son of former saloon car racer Dave, wins the Formula Renault Eurocup round at Zandvoort.
2: Williams and McLaren lose their appeal against FISA’s ban on active suspension. However, in line with the mood of harmony that is spreading in F1, the governing body annuls reprimands that it had issued to both teams at the last World Council meeting.
3: FISA confirms that mid-race refuelling will be permitted in F1 Grands Prix from 1994. In addition, a new points scoring system is to be introduced, rewarding the top 10 finishers at each race. As expected, ABS, traction control and active suspension are to be banned; semi-automatic transmissions will be permissible.
3: During F1 testing at Silverstone, Damon Hill runs Williams’s FWI 5D, which features conventional spring-and-damper suspension. It proves to be about 1.5s slower than Williams current ‘active chassis.
5: Heinz-Harald Frentzen impresses Sauber when he tests a C12 at Mugello.
6: Jaguar withdraws its X1220s from the forthcoming International GT race at Suzuka.
6: Carlos Sainz says that he would rather pull out of the World Rally Championship in 1994 than compete in it with uncompetitive machinery. The Jolly Club Lancia driver has been tipped to join Subaru, and there is also a possibility that a small amount of works support could be available for his existing team should it run a Ford Escort Cosworth for him instead.
7: Murray Grierson wins the Kayel Graphics Rally.
8: Nigel Mansell wins a thrilling 200-mile IndyCar race in Loudon, New Hampshire, to increase his championship lead. Rumours during the weekend link runner-up Paul Tracy to a possible F1 drive in 1994, but Penske affirms that he is contracted to his IndyCar programme until 1995. Steve Robertson wins the supporting Indy Lights round, in which former world motorcycling champion Eddie Lawson makes his debut, finishing 10th.
8: BMW works drivers Joachim Winkelhock and Steve Soper score a crushing 1-2 in the BTCC round at Oulton Park. Having missed the Knockhill race to concentrate upon development of its modified 19, Renault returns with a bang. Alain Menu finishes fourth, hot on the heels of John Cleland’s Vauxhall Cavalier. The result increases Winkelhock’s series lead over Soper.
8: Kelvin Burt edges closer, to the British F3 title by winning at Snetterton. Closest rival Oliver Gavin can only finish fourth, behind Marc Goossens and Ricardo Rosset.
8: Nicola Larini (Alfa 155) and Roland Asch (Mercedes 190) take a GTCC win apiece at Diepholz. F3 wins go to Jörg Müller and Max Angelelli.
8: Resisting huge pressure from established world-class performers Francois Delecour and Didier Auriol, Cohn McRae takes his Subaru Legacy to victory on the New Zealand Rally. He is only the second Briton to have won a WRC event, and the first to have done so on foreign soil. The only previous such recorded instance was courtesy of Roger Clark, on the 1976 RAC . . .
8: Mark Martin is the NASCAR winner at Watkins Glen.
8: Chris Stoney wins the feature event at the Silverstone Kart Superprix.
9: Japan’s TI Circuit announces a bid to stage an Asian GP in 1994. If realised, the race could supplant the European GP at Donington Park.
9: The fledgling Simtek Grand Prix team signs David Brabham to race its S941. Testing of the new chassis is due to start in October, when Brabham returns from Bathurst. David’s father, Sir Jack, lends his support to the project, and will act in an advisory role.
9: TWR is tipped to be on the verge of signing a BTCC deal with Honda. In a similar
11: Galmer revives its IndyCar project, announcing plans for its eponymous chassis to race in the remaining championship rounds. Further ahead, Galmer also hopes to be present in 1994.
11: TV’s The Cook Report implicates Peugeot factory-supported rally driver Paul Frankland, a car dealer in Richmond, Yorkshire, in a story about write-offs which have been repaired using stolen parts before being sold on. Frankland, who has been asked by Peugeot to return his competition car, subsequently fights to clear his name, and says that the programme missed out vital bits of relevant evidence. The local police confirm that Frankland is not being investigated.
12: Ashley Blenkhorn, a 23 year-old who’s, leading his class in the Peugeot Gold Star rally series, is nominated as recipient of the 1993 Shell Scholarship. As a result, he’ll step up from his current 1.3 Nova to a Group N Audi S2 next year.
14: Focus of attention in the Budapest F1 paddock is the question of Benetton’s engine supply for 1994. Will it get Renault’s V10? If the deal comes off, Benetton would be Renault’s third team. Meanwhile, Ayrton Senna is reported to have said that he won’t drive anything that doesn’t have a Renault engine in 1994. McLaren, of course, has little chance of cementing a deal with the French manufacturer, because of clashing fuel contracts.
14: Although Roger Penske refuses to comment on the story, the feeling in the USA is that his team will run a three-strong IndyCar programme in 1994, with Galles refugee Al Unser Jnr joining current drivers Paul Tracy and Emerson Fittipaldi.
15: Damon Hill’s run of misfortune comes to an end as he leads the Hungarian Grand Prix from start to finish as main rivals Prost, Senna and Schumacher all have problems of their own. Riccardo Patrese and Gerhard Berger, racing with a sore elbow after an operation to drain away fluid the previous Sunday, join him on the podium; Derek Warwick is a fine fourth for Footwork.
15: Despite his second place in Hungary, Riccardo Patrese is released, by mutual consent, from his two-year contract with Benetton. The Italian is thus a free agent for 1994.
1 5: The British F2 series continues on its miserable way at Snetterton. Mikke van Hoot dominates. Once again, only seven cars turn up.
15: Mark Martin scores a second straight NASCAR success, at Michigan.
15: Just as he had done in Monaco, Mika Hakkinen dominates the Porsche Supercup race at the Hungaroring, where he was again appearing as a guest driver.
vein, Tom Walkinshaw’s company has a been linked with Volvo.
15: Fog causes the abandonment of the Japanese F3000 race at Fuji, to the frustration of pole-winner Mauro Martini. It is less annoying for Martini’s team-mate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The recent Sauber testee had failed to qualify after a practice accident.
17: After 12 years out of the cockpit, expatriate Yorkshireman Tony Dean tests the F3000 Reynard 90D he has just bought at Snetterton. Tony intends to use the car, with which his son Richard won the 1990 Oulton Park Gold Cup, at historic meetings in the United States, where he nowadays resides. Dean was a leading Formula 5000 competitor in the early 1970s and also, memorably, once won a CanAm race.