Quote:
Originally Posted by Amaroo Park
The story at the time was that Robbie and John Sheppard did not see eye to eye, Sheppard took contol of the team at the begining of 1986
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According to the Sandown report in the '86 Bathurst annual, the relationship between the two was so bad, Sheppard apparently said that had Francevic not been leading the ATCC when the Sheppard-managed Volvo Dealer Team took over the Petch car, he'd have fired Francevic at the first possible opportunity...
As William said a few posts back, the flashpoint came at Sandown when the cars missed qualifying after the team had worked a series of all-nighters to have the new car ready.
Sandown qualifying featured a top 10 run-off for the fastest eight, plus potentially two cars at the organiser's discretion, and Francevic apparently thought (and claimed he'd been told by the officials) the Volvo would get one of those two discretionary slots- Unfortunately, the regs only allowed a car that hadn't run in practice to take one of those slots if it was given the OK by all the other competitors- which obviously wasn't going to happen...
According to the report in the book, the officials dithered over this, not telling Francevic he wasn't in until the last minute, with the result that he, in his own words, 'vented my rage and frustration' first at the Clerk of the Course, and then in front of a TV crew- these last remarks, including the comment
'I am sick of the whole outfit' (which according to the book referred to the officials) and suggesting he might not start the race, were unsurprisingly seen by Sheppard as being critical of the team....
On race morning, the cars had been gridded 22nd and 33rd by the organisers, and the older car (33rd) was withdrawn by the team 'for technical reasons' after Francevic drove it in the warm-up session and told the management it was uncompetitive and
'I was going to have to drive it slowly or it was going to break something' (It had already had a diff failure while driven by McRae late on Saturday afternoon).
After the car had been withdrawn, Sheppard apparently gave Volvo an ultimatum:
'I said to management this morning that if he drives today, he will not be driving with me at Bathurst...You can tip me out or tip him out'