Very sad to hear of Willie Rutherford passing away.
To answer the original question, the Rutherford / Harrison Mazda RX7 was in the 1981 event, the second of the Willhire 24 hour races. What actually happened was the car caught fire during one of it's routine pitstops. I can vouch for this as it was right next to my pit where I was running the DJ Electrical ex-Norris Miles Ford Capri 3-litre, along with Norris himself and Clive Philips (who actually worked for Dave Jackson (DJ) at the time. We were pitting at the same time as the RX7 when it suddenly exploded into flame. Everyone in our pit did a 'Permission to panic, Mr. Mainwaring' except for Sheila our timekeeper who stuck to the pit counter and didn't miss a lap!
Anyway, they patched the Mazda up, got the chief Scrut. to check it over, and it went back out (don't know how many laps it lost). Later on, it went off opposite the pitwall and hit the barrier, exploding into flames for a second time. Willie got out unscathed but the car was left where it was, only to be completely totalled a few laps later when Jeremy Shaw got Russell all wrong in his Capri and jumped on top of the burnt out Mazda.
I can probably dig out a few more facts and figures if I search hard enough through my archives. If so, I will post them.
By the way, 1981 was for team cars and singletons, and our Capri was running as a single. Graham Scarborough (my brother) was actually driving for Gerry Marshall's three-car Capri team, not us, although we cannibalised his own car for spares on several occasions throughtout the race, including the diff. assembly which we changed in about half an hour.
I would be pleased to know the identity of the contributor who was our pit 'gopher', so if you could kindly reveal yourself . . . .
