That’s a great story John. It was a surprisingly good show, it’s too bad that you weren’t able to make it.
> On Sep 28, 2021, at 9:22 AM, John Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 01:53:48PM +0100, Steve Cottrell wrote: >> Nice shots Larry - thanks for posting! That Europa is a rare beast. > > When I first saw one of those it wasn't actually a Europa - it was a Lotus 47 > (which is an even rarer beast). This was the competetion version, painted in > "Gold Leaf Team Lotus" livery, which was being raced at Brands Hatch on the > following weekend (by Jackie Oliver if my memory is to be trusted, which is > by no means guaranteed). > > This was very early on in the history of this variant - in fact it may well > have been the debut race. Fortunately for me Lotus wanted to keep the car > out of the public eye, and so chose to garage it for a day or two a couple > of miles away from the track at a garage where I sometimes worked weekends > (pumping fuel, checking oil levels, etc.) > > > Rather more publicly visible on the forecourt that weekend (this was not the > race weekend - it was the weekend before) was a GT40 which had ended up there > when the transporter carrying it had broken down. One of the cars I filled > up that weekend was a rather nice black car with a badge I didn't recognise > (Iso Grifo - not exactly a common sight; there were probably less than 50 of > them in existence at that time). The driver wandered over to look at the > GT40. > I remarked that there was something even more unusual behind the doors to the > service bay, to which he replied that he was aware of that - he was organizing > the race on the next weekend! "Got any free tickets?" I joked. "Sure", he > replied. I thought he was continuing the joke when he dug around in the glove > compartment for a while, then turned back to me empty-handed and said "sorry; > I don't seem to have any with me today". Then a thought struck him, and he > reached back into the car. "Will this do?" he said, handing me a mechanic's > full weekend pass. Needless to say it did very well - admission to the track, > and paddock for the whole weekend, and pit lane access for everything except > the actual race. But it also allowed me to watch the race from the mechanic's > grandstand at turn 1. I guess the joke was on me! > > P.S. The GT40 owner eventually gave up waiting for the replacement > transporter > to arrive, and drove the car the two miles up the the public road to the > track. > -- > %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- Larry Colen [email protected] -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
