Quote:
Originally Posted by KA
I should have a 1985 TT report which might shed a bit more light on the South African drivers
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Took a look at the TT reports in both
Autosport and
Motor Racing, but they don't shed a lot more light on the South Africans in the Drury Alfa at the TT
They both confirm that TDR regular Mark Hales also drove the GTV6 in qualifying, but not in the race- in fact he actually qualified the car, being a couple of seconds quicker than the South Africans:
Autosport: '
Of note further down the order was the performance of Mark Hales who qualified the Terry Drury Racing GTV6 for South African drivers Charles Brittz and Peter Lanz. Mark ran over 2 secs faster than the others, but was not to start....money talks.'
'Motor Racing' confirms that the car (and the Viana/Bianco Sytner BMW) was sponsored by 'Scope' and that Hales qualified it 24th overall /10th in class, fastest of the 3 drivers, but didn't race.
Hales was also entered in Geoff Kimber-Smith's Corolla with GK-S and Peter Buxtorf (qualifying this car as well), but according to Autosport he didn't get to race the Toyota either (it retired)
Not only that, but he was also nominated as a last-minute substitute on race morning for Luigi Alfa driver Pedro Meireles, taken to hospital with a liver problem on race morning. However, in the end, Bernard de Dryver was seconded into the Meireles/Melville car after his own retired early in the race, and Hales missed out on this drive as well!