AUSTRIA'S Trivia - Lap 9

[AUSTRIA]

Lap 9 - Michael is on road, so it's a great chance for everybody ...

Question A)
Who was the first british driver to win a GP ? When, Where, why was this victory remarkable?

Question B)
Which was the first fatality, that occured at a World-Championship-GP ? What happened, who was involved, where and when did it happen ?

Question C)
I'm very astonished that there is no glimmer of discussion about Colin Chapman in the 8th lap. So I give you once more a question about him. He also had a short career as a formula one driver. Tell me about.

WARNING! Michael will be back on Monday, so save your points until then.

[Red]

Hi guys, may I play?

A) Mike Hawthorn, 1953 Reims.

B) Buenos Aires 1953. There were so many spectators, near the track, so the drivers could not see what's going on in corners. Giuseppe Farina spun into the crowds, trying to avoid a boy on the track.

[This message has been edited by Red (edited 26 May 2000).]

[AUSTRIA]

Hi Red, welcome to our Trivia!

Don't forget, there were also GP's before the World Championship was established !!!

And it was not Farina ! The rest ist ok.

[Red]

Wow, it remains nothing
How about William Grover Williams, 1929, First Monaco Grand Prix?

It wasn't Farina?

[Peter Mallett]

Lap 9 - Michael is on road, so it's a great chance for everybody ...
Question A)
Who was the first British driver to win a GP? When, Where, why was this victory remarkable?

I think you’re talking about pre world championship GPs here and if so it has to be Dick Seaman at the German GP 1938 in a Mercedes W145. He was 10 secs behind Von Bruachitsch in second place, when they both pitted for fuel. Von Brauchitsch’s car was overfilled and it caught fire. He was doused and put back into the car but fell off after three miles leaving Seaman to take the spoils. Your reference to a remarkable victory may be the political situation in Germany at that time.

Question B)
Which was the first fatality, that occurred at a World-Championship-GP? What happened, who was involved, where and when did it happen?

Well, yet again you seem to have hit an interesting question. Unless I am mistaken it was Cale Yarborough at the 1953 37th running of the Indianapolis 500. Many drivers had to be relieved due to the heat and the fumes from the nitromethane fuel. However Cale Yarborough collapsed on getting out of his car and was taken to hospital where he subsequently died.

Question C)
I'm very astonished that there is no glimmer of discussion about Colin Chapman in the 8th lap. So I give you once more a question about him. He also had a short career as a formula one driver. Tell me about.
WARNING! Michael will be back on Monday, so save your points until then.

It was the third Vanwall and Chapman was given the opportunity to qualify it but he was too slow. It was his only GP entry as a driver. A bit vague but I’m going from memory here. Can’t find the book I originally found it in.

Posted this without looking at the other posts. You lot are too dammed fast for me.

[AUSTRIA]

Peter, nice to have you too in my Trivia - for the first time, if I remember right ?

Dick Seaman, would also had been my first thought. But much earlier there was another lucky guy from UK, who succeeded well in a GP ...

Cale Yarborough collapsing, an interesting aspect. You had nearly hit me, because I didn't know that. ´But in January there was the race in Argentina, as Red mentioned.

And now I am not sure, was it Farina or Fangio. I have Fangio, and the poor boy he hit was killed. But, following FORIX, Fangio did retire from technical reason, not because of an accident. So I have to do some more research ... Sorry for that.

And Colin Chapmans single try - without success - to run a GP? Well, you are right!

[Peter Mallett]

Henry Segrave (a name I had forgotten) won the French GP in a Sunbeam in 1923. Not sure of any special circumstances though.

You could also count the American Grand Prize at San Francisco in 1915 which was won by Dario Resta (GB). But then you would be ignoring the fact that the only recognised Grands Prix at that time were held in France.

Unless you're thinking of William Grover Williams (Who I believe was French by birth not British). He won the 1928 French GP. for Bugatti. It was run as a handicap. Those are interesting circumstances.

Other than that you have to look at Tim Birkin and Woolf Barnato. But they only won non-GP races (Le Mans).

However none of those races actually counted towards the teams prize which the Seaman race did.

Quite right with the fatality. The Argentine race was won by Alberto Ascari. with a fastest lap of 80.74 mph.

Will try to find the background to the Chapman question.

BTW. You can tell I'm on holiday. Usually I leave these things to the experts.

[Peter Mallett]

Still haven’t found the Chapman story, but to take the Seagrave connection forward. It was the British GP in 1957 that saw a repeat of the Seagrave feat.

Moss won in a Vanwall and that was the first time since Seagrave that a British driver in a British car had won a GP. (Special Circumstances).

BTW. Anybody know who built the first “Vanwall” car?

[Red]

Austria, it was Farina (31 laps to go, out of 97). Fangio retired before (35 laps), with a "universal joint" failure. (don't know what it is )

[AUSTRIA]

Yep, Red!

I took it from Bruce Jones. Thought he can be trusted. Better, I will do some safety-research next time.

Excuse me for that.

[Michael M]

Q A)
Believe Peter is right, is was Major Henry Segrave winning the 1923 French GP at Tours (June 2)with a Sunbeam. Remarkably? Hmm, don't know. May be that 2nd and 4th place also fell to Sunbeam, with 5 finishers in total only? Or the fact that the Sunbeam was not supercharged (only next year Sunbeam introduced a supercharged race car)? Or that Sunbeam poached engineers Bertarione and Becchis from Fiat - the company dominating racing the year before - to construct a state-of-the-art raceing car? Or that this victory was the beginning of Segrave's land speed record career with Sunbeam? Nothing else coming to my mind for the moment ...

[Michael M]

Q C)
Peter is right again, but only partly. At the French GP 1956 at Reims Colin Chapman in fact drove the third Vanwall, but he was not really slow. He finished 5th in qualifying, 3.5 seconds slower than Fangio in his Lancia D50, and 0.7 seconds behind his team mate Harry Schell. But surprisingly 0.2 seconds faster than his other team mate, Mike Hawthorn! Unfortunately he crashed the car in practice, so was unable to start. Remarkably is that Lotus Engineering - which already exists - was involved in the car's construction. However, this was his first and last appearance as F1 driver, may be the crash convinced him that it would be better to stay at the other side of the barrier ...
And the failure of this forum to start a Colin Chapman discussion...? No, not because there is nothing to say, but simply too much. Where to begin...?

[Hans.ca]

To Peter M.
Re. Answer to Question B:
Slight correction to your answer. Cale Yarborough was not the driver that died in the 1953 Indy 500, to my knowledge he is still with us to this day.
The driver that died was Carl Scarborough, driving the McNamara. After completing 190 laps he was flagged as the race winner Bill Vukovich had commpleted 200 laps. He died of heat exhaustion in the field hospital at the track.
Sorry to be so late with this but I had to get the garden planted.

[Peter Mallett]

Well. I will bow to your superior knowledge Hans, but the book I used as a reference definitely said "Cale Yarborough". I thought it may have been an ancestor of the current Cale.

[Gerard]

Hans is right. It was Carl Scarborough from Clarkston, Michigan.
This is from Forix:

Still smarting from having the 1952 victory snatched from his grasp when almost in sight of the checkered flag, Bill Vukovich set fast time to win the pole position in a driving rainstorm. He then proceeded to lead all but five laps to win the race, during which track temperatures soared above 130 degrees. Freddy Agabashian, Jim Rathmann and Sam Hanks, the only other drivers to win lap money, led those five laps while "Vukie" was in the pits. The "Hottest 500" was one of endurance rather than speed and drivers and cars were tried to their limits. On the third lap, Andy Linden hit the northeast wall and spun into the infield and 50 laps later Gene Hartley did the same thing in the same place. On the 70th lap, veteran Carl Scarborough came in for a routine pit stop and was relieved by Bob Scott. The heat had been too much for Scarborough and he collapsed. Within an hour he was dead in the Field hospital. Later, the heat got Pat Flaherty and he hit the north chute wall, receiving serious head injuries. Don Freeland hit the northwest wall on his 76th lap and skidded into the infield. Hartley, driving relief for Bettenhausen, hit the northeast wall and Duke Nalon spun his Novi to miss him. On May 15, Chet Miller died when he hit the southwest wall.

[AUSTRIA]

Question A)
Peter is right. And remarkable, as he mentioned, that it lasted another 34 years, until a british driver won a GP in a british car.

Question B)
As already said, Red was right with Farina. But I have only one point for him, because the stuff about Indy the same year is very interesting. So one point to Peter again and also to Gerard.

Question C)
Look at Michael! He comes some days later, has a short look at the gaps, that could give some points, delivers his best and scores 3 points more - not only for his infos, but also for correcting Peter. I was in deed astonished about the fifth place on grid for Chapman, but a short research tells me, well, Michael was right again! We have clearly to consider, that he is the star of my trivia and if you throw a short look on the standings, you can see - he is really!
Congratulations Michael and thanks for your fantastic contribution; Of course the remaining point goes to Peter, who made the best score of this lap.

The 10th bonus point: Red, because he was rewarded to bad on question B)

[Red]

Altough this is not a very nice subject to discuss, I want to add that Carl Scarborough was the second victim of the meeting. Chet Miller was killed when he crashed in practice.

(The source is not very far away from here: Just check a very fine work at Park Ferme section: F1 History Part 5 - 1953)