I was lucky enough to – somewhat unexpectedly – see two former F1
drivers having fun in the sun at Silvertone on Saturday. I was there
for the Mini’s 40th birthday party (see url in my sig. for pix) and
didn’t even know there was a Supersports race until I heard a Chevy
big-block fire up in the paddock and bothered to take a look at the
programme.
Not only a host of Can Am and European 2-litre sports racers, but
Martin Donnelly and Mike Wilds. Martin is racing a McLaren M8D – in
the correct Gulf/Reynolds papaya livery – in the series. Great to see
him back behind the wheel and clearly giving it plenty. Finished a
strong second behind Charlie Agg in the amazing 8.8 litre March 707.
Star of the race, though, was BRM ace Mike ‘bearded drivers are best’
Wilds in a gorgeous little 2-litre Chevron. (I suppose all Chevrons
are always ‘gorgeous’ in much the same way that Bob Wollek is always
‘brilliant’.) Anyway, Wilds hung on to the big McLaren of Donnely for
the whole race, pushing him hard in the early laps and only really
losing out when lapping the backmarkers. On the ragged edge through
Copse every lap. Great to see.
–
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)
"Believe me, when you did well against Stirling, you knew you’d really
done something: he was the greatest I ever saw – by a long way" –
Richie Ginther
The Mini Gallery:
http://www.zing.com/cgi-bin/album.cgi?album_id=4294919959
On Tue, 24 Aug 1999 17:40:25 CST, "David Betts"
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -
<dav…@dbassoc.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>I was lucky enough to – somewhat unexpectedly – see two former F1
>drivers having fun in the sun at Silvertone on Saturday. I was there
>for the Mini’s 40th birthday party (see url in my sig. for pix) and
>didn’t even know there was a Supersports race until I heard a Chevy
>big-block fire up in the paddock and bothered to take a look at the
>programme.
>Not only a host of Can Am and European 2-litre sports racers, but
>Martin Donnelly and Mike Wilds. Martin is racing a McLaren M8D – in
>the correct Gulf/Reynolds papaya livery – in the series. Great to see
>him back behind the wheel and clearly giving it plenty. Finished a
>strong second behind Charlie Agg in the amazing 8.8 litre March 707.
>Star of the race, though, was BRM ace Mike ‘bearded drivers are best’
>Wilds in a gorgeous little 2-litre Chevron. (I suppose all Chevrons
>are always ‘gorgeous’ in much the same way that Bob Wollek is always
>’brilliant’.) Anyway, Wilds hung on to the big McLaren of Donnely for
>the whole race, pushing him hard in the early laps and only really
>losing out when lapping the backmarkers. On the ragged edge through
>Copse every lap. Great to see.
How I envy you being able to see my dream cars – the CanAm cars I mean
Do you have any photographs of them? Especially the M8D.
Do you know what chassis number it is/was? or is it a replica?
The Bruce McLaren Trust here in NZ is currently restoring an M8D so I
believe.
Ron
Ron wrote
> Do you have any photographs of them? Especially the M8D.
Sorry Ron, I was too busy photographing Minis. Ran out of disks for
the Mavica before I got to anything else.
> Do you know what chassis number it is/was? or is it a replica?
Don’t know the number, but I’m sure it’s the real thing. One of the
cars Nicola Foulston’s dad used to own, I think.
–
David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)
"Believe me, when you did well against Stirling, you knew you’d really
done something: he was the greatest I ever saw – by a long way" –
Richie Ginther
The Mini Gallery:
http://www.zing.com/cgi-bin/album.cgi?album_id=4294919959