Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Wilkinson
The Shawcross tribunal seemed to have a specific remit re: the '83 results. When they announced their decision at the end of July '84, they made 2 decisions, over-riding previous findings of scrutineers at and after races:
1. Remove a Ted Grace BMW from the results of a Silverstone meeting, due to an illegal steering mechanism. (Could this be the loss of 4 points, 21 vs 25, round 6?)
2. Remove the TWR Rovers from the results due to illegal panels and modified rockers. (The statement printed in Autosport doesn't name any drivers, just the teams. Is it possible that TWR had only nominated Soper and Lovett, or that only Soper and Lovett were protested, so Allam was outside the remit of the tribunal?)
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Good questions Tim. I hadn't started reading Autosport in '83, so the only source I have to hand are the reports from Performance Car magazine- monthly, and often the reports are sketchy, sometimes covering two rounds in one report or concentrating on a couple of particular stories (I don't have all of them either, which doesn't help)
Not sure about Point 1, though TWR certainly protested both the Ted Grace/Frank Sytner and Cheylesmore 635s at least once during the season-
Just had a look at the result as listed by Frank de Jong, and it seems to be the GP meeting where Sytner had issues with the scrutineers- the first four finishers (the 3 TWR Rovers and Sytner's 635) are all listed as DQ'd for technical infringements.
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...tone%20GP.html
Point two sounds like the outcome of the protests Sytner instigated against TWR at the two Donington rounds, in June... (rear inner wheelarches- is this the infamous 'African-market-spec' modification that led to the team being dubbed 'Third World Racing' by some wit at the time?)
...and again in August (valve gear- IIRC this was the modified rockers issue). TWR counter-protested both 635s on this occasion over alleged bodywork irregularities.
Before the second Donington meeting Walkinshaw had taken out a writ against the MSA alleging mishandling of the previous protest- according to PC magazine, the rumour in the paddock at Donington was that he'd tried to get an injunction to prevent the race happening at all!
I'm guessing that the Donington affair may have been the beginning of the process that led to Shawcross?
I don't remember whether it was 1983 or 84 (I think the latter) but as I recall there's a lovely quote in one of the Performance Car articles from IIRC, Jon Dooley who apparently said something like
'Their legal budget is bigger than our racing budget for the whole season'.
I wondered
very briefly if the removal from the championship table of Soper and Lovett had been based on solely on the evidence gathered after Sytner's protests at the two Donington rounds- Jeff Allam's car was a DNF at both of these, so somehow was never actually inspected by the scrutineers over the protested issues at these two meetings?
That doesn't stack up though, as Soper and Lovett scored one retirement each from these two rounds as well, only one TWR car seeing the chequered flag at both Donington races.
The Rovers were also apparently protested at the Silverstone GP meeting (between the two Donington races), where all three finished- though I'm not sure on what grounds.
Still, there's enough there to shoot my 'Allam's car somehow never being inspected over the protests' theory down pretty comprehensively!