It was announced that the factory Porsche GT1 will also make appearances in the second half of the year. Plans currently are to run at Brands, Spa and Zhuhai. This has focused minds on the practical issues of having out and out racers in the series. Most have accepted that you cannot uninvent these cars and their concept and the McLaren teams were resigned to playing second fiddle - at least for this year. BPR has put forward some thoughts on the need to retain the privateers and keep costs within sane levels, but nothing concrete has emerged, perhaps at Anderstorp I will winkle out some other ideas from Messrs. Ratel, Peter and Barth.
There is often discussion between journalists and photographers as to who has the most stressful and dangerous task when covering these events. The journalists contend that photographers are an idle bunch who are always loading film when something dramatic happens in front of them (in the unlikely event that they are at the right part of the circuit) and who always spend the weekend complaining about the light or the sun or the heat or their hangovers. Photographers know that the journalists spend their lives in air conditioned press rooms with free beer on tap, never find out what the circuits are REALLY like (with their collection of power crazed policemen and officials, and illogical access points) and that the only danger of being involved in a crash comes from the computer's hard disk. However occasionally a writer can hit danger through a careless phrase or expression. At the Ring I boldly strode into a nice motorhome at around lunchtime to be greeted with the cry of "it must be lunchtime he's here" from the mechanics. My colleague did not receive such a friendly welcome as he had written something he considered inoffensive and inaccurate about a pitstop at Le Mans, the boys had a different interpretation. Mechanics are rarely men of silence and contemplation, indeed they use direct action when confronted with any problem and they had no shame or reluctance in telling "Gary Lager"- a strange nom de plume for a man who drinks little and buys less - what the consequences of repeating this serious breach of racing etiquette would be. My mistakes end up in the bin at Suttons - they have a very large one - one advantage over journalists..... Mind you it not only the press that is on the receiving end of sharp wit of the teams. Jeff Hazell and the engineers from McLaren have a habit of suddenly appearing on the pit wall during a race if it looks as if one of their products is going to win. I have heard one team manger exclaim "F*** me, we must be winning, the gorillas are here". Gorillas hang around apparently...............
Down in GT2 the Marcos could not register a hat trick of BPR class wins and it fell to the victors at Paul Ricard and Monza, the Roock entry of Bruno Eichmann and Gerd Ruch joined by Michel Neugarten to salvage some pride for Porsche after the disastrous performance of the GT2EVO cars in GT1. Soames Langton and Paul Burdell ran in second despite dropping Stanley Dickens from the line up and though still awaiting the more powerful engine the Morgan ran strongly if a little slowly to record a finish.
Next weekend we all go to the wilds of Anderstorp where last year there was an action packed race playing to a huge crowd. More of the same is expected and provided that we do not all get bitten to death by the allegedly huge mosquitoes I will be back to bring the news and gossip from the last round before the summer recess.
Adios amigos !
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