F3 Tricks - Airborne at Mallory

[DaveM]

I am grateful to Albert Laws, Ben Moore's mechanic, for this series of photos (by an Autosport photographer he thinks) at Mallory Park in June 1969.

To set it off, Jurg Dubler spins his Tecno in the Esses. In the foreground Barrie Maskell leads the two works Lotus 59's of Roy Pike and (possibly?) Mo Nunn. Don't know who is just avoiding the upcoming accident - it's number 5, do you have the programme for this one Andrew?

[DaveM]

Again, numbers 8 and 6 are unidentified, but that's Ben Moore being launched over the top in his Titan. Bev Bond is hidden behind him.

[DaveM]

Ben barrel rolls and Bev climbs aboard No 6. Meanwhile Jurg holds his helmet on!

[DaveM]

Nearly finished

[DaveM]

Bev and Jurg look anxiously to see if No 6 still has his head attached.

[DaveM]

Yes he has, but it was a bit close for comfort!

[DaveM]

More help arrives as Bev tries lifting his car off No 6.

[Andrew Kitson]

Hi DaveM.
I don't have the programme but these shots were in Autosport and taken by Brian Kreisky. Brian set up 'Videovision' and sadly lost his life in an aircraft accident a few years ago.
The car avoiding Dubler is Peter Deal in his BT21.
No 8 is the Chevron B15 of Brendan McInerney. No 6 is Richard Scott's Brabham.
Do you have the last shot in the sequence Dave?
I have it here, a bit battered and torn but it shows Bev Bond's car sitting on top of all the others. Amazingly, he continued in the race!
If you don't, when I get the chance to scan it I'll post it.

[Andrew Kitson]

You beat me to it!

[DaveM]

Last photo in the series. A few more bent F3's but luckily everyone survived to fight another day.

I and some friends were with Ben and Albert at this meeting but until he produced these photos last week I hadn't remembered the incident at all (I'm sure Ben did!). I was spectating at Shaws hairpin and none of these bent cars were in my photos, so I assume that the accident was probably on the first lap of heat one.

[DaveM]

Thanks Andrew. I have a photo in my album which I have captioned as Peter Deal, but he's in a Tecno.

[Andrew Kitson]

Yes, it could be a Tecno I guess. The caption to the Autosport photo does indeed say heat one, first lap.

[DaveM]

No, you were right that the avoiding car was a Brabham. The one I've captioned as Peter Deal is a Tecno and race no 44.

[glyn parham]

Dave, yet more great photos of the F3 headbangers in action.
Did you get photos of the infamous Grand Prix support race at Brands Hatch (1970) when both heats and final were marred by startline shunts that caused a lot heated debate at the time?

[DaveM]

I was at that meeting and took a lot of F3 pics, including one of the starts, but no shunts. Have posted some of the photos from that meeting on the F3 thread I think, and here's the start again.

No it isn't - this thing doesn't allow me to post an image which I've posted before, and came up with a 'don't be a naughty boy or you'll get your wrists slapped' message. Why, when I've certainly seen other images duplicated?

Didn't print all of the negs at the time and I will get them all put on a CD in due course, including some colour.

[glyn parham]

Dave, you will probably remember better than me, but in '69 and '70 F3 was getting very hairy, with big accidents becoming the norm and as Frank Gardner was once quoted "the drivers always wore a good pair of walking shoes for the long trek back from the country".
The British Grand Prix accidents were only the tip of the iceberg as it seemed that most weeks MN or Autosport had photos of another incident involving several cars after slipstreaming or overtaking manouvres went wrong. Indeed was it Bob Wollek who was very badly injured in such an incident in France?

[DaveM]

Frank was/is always one for the witty quip. Yes, I agree Glyn, in those days if there wasn't a startline shunt there was invariably a coming together at the last corner. I suppose looking back at the rudimentary safety measures in the cars and at the circuits it was a miracle that so many drivers survived!

However, I seem to remember that in one of the continental F3 meetings three drivers were killed in one black day.

My abiding memory of these F3 races was that you were guaranteed thrilling racing with incidents or near misses at virtually every corner, plus a few handbag throwing moments either at the scene or in the paddock afterwards!

[Chofar]

Yes, Bob Wollek was injuried at Rouen (bad place for that), it was the same day (in 1970) that 2 french young drivers were killed, Salomon and Dayan, if my memory is correct. I record reading an interview of Niki Lauda where he referred to those days and that race in Rouen particularly. He said that race decided him to go To the biggest formulas and borrow some money to get there.

[Dan Rear]

The worst accident I ever saw was a Mallory FF2000 in about 1980. Geoff Friswell in a Reynard I think, came barrelling down from the hairpin to the start-line, and tocuhed some one else. The car appeared opposite the spectator bank there, upside down flying through the air. Everyone around me went very quiet, fearing the worst, as it looked a very bad one. The race was stopped, but he got out OK as I recall, though didn't take the re-start ...

Just looked at the details, the other 2 not to have re-started were Soren Jensen and Roy Goff, I imagine Friz hit them on returning to earth. The race was won by Rob Cooper from a certain Mr Brundle.