Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesper OH
In the June 1983 Donington video I linked to in the '83 thread it said that Frank Sytner - a former TWR/Sanyo Rover driver - had protested the Vitesses. This, then, must have been the case that was finally ended in June 1984!? What you discribe, KA, seems to be a bit of a mess regarding scrutineering, but raises another interesting question I think.
In the Rover piece it's described that cars used for the BSCC - in Sanyo colours - and cars used for the ETCC - in green/blue Fleet colours - were the same?
What I don't understand is why scrutineering of cars in 1984 should tell anything about cars that had been racing in 1983!
As for the CC BMWs I think that even the continental BMW teams were suspicious about the legality of the CC car racing in the '84 Donington 500.
Jesper
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I still haven't read all of the articles I have here from 1983/4, but there seem to have been two distinct issues- the 1983 protests, which as you say seem to have been instigated by Sytner (think I've got something in one of the reports which gives the background to that-I'll have a look) over the use of illegal engine parts, and which were still a point of contention well into 1984- an RAC tribunal chaired by Lord Shawcross met to investigate these over a period of 5 days, and was unable to hear all of the evidence- this was apparently in April 1984, so the 1983 season issues dragged on well into the following season...
There then seem to have been some
further eligibility problems in 1984 (ie the affair of Sopers' 'Fleet' car at Thruxton) whether this was the same engine parts issue or something new I don't know...?
Austin Rover were already receiving some fairly bad press over the issue- there's an amusing story in one of the early-season reports:
'At Oulton Park, Alfa Romeo driver Jon Dooley showed us an extract from 'Private Eye' which alleged that ARG had spent "£100,000 of taxpayers' money (don't forget Austin Rover was still largely state-owned at that time)
defending themselves against allegations of cheating" Pointing out the relevant passage, Dooley drily commented "Their legal budget is about four times as big as our racing budget"