Iconic Images Of Motorsport Other Than F1
- Thread starter Incubus
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I've been in two minds about Ickx for years, never sure whether he just scraped a reputation or is an absolute fucking legend. I tend to go with legend.
Ickx always seemed to find himself in the right team at the wrong time, Apart from his two runner up spots in the WDC for Ferrari, he left them just as they went through a strong period with Lauda, He left Ken Tyrell to join Ferrari in 68, He left Ferrari to join Lotus just at the time when they'd produced the awful Type 76 and then had to race on with the 4 year old Type 72. He left them to join Frank Williams racing but left them in 76.
Then he became the Crown Prince of Le Mans in his endurance career, that's why I struggle.
His 1974 season with Lotus is the one that gives me pause. He was teamed with Ronnie Peterson, who managed to win 3 races with the (relatively) ancient 72, while Ickx couldn't win a race. As good as he was in F1, I still think that his real prowess was endurance racing. The same was true of Pedro Rodriguez and Jo Siffert.
And, so the legend goes, he's also the man who cost Prost the 84 Championship by doing Prost a favor and red flagging the 84 Manaco GP resulting in half points being awarded and thus Prost lost the title by half a point.
If you look at the amount of rain that was falling, that race wouldn't have gone on much longer. It was absolutely chucking it down.
If you look at the amount of rain that was falling, that race wouldn't have gone on much longer. It was absolutely chucking it down.
Yeah, well you know how the Belgians and French get along.
Nah, it was supposed to be a Porsche thing wasn't it. Ickx, clerk of the course and Porsche endurance driver, Prost driving the TAG Porsche Car. Like I said, it's a pre - internet conspiricy theory and almost certainly a load of cobblers.
Ahhh, I see, must read up on it.
Olivier
Race Winner
I'd add Olivier Gendebien to the list
Olivier
Race Winner
Legend also says that Prost was having issues with his brakes, so he would have retired from the race, thus losing the title by 5 points ...
I would also add Phil Hill even though he was a WDC. He and Gendebien made a virtually unbeatable combination.
Incubus
Champion Elect
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I don't know whether he'd have retired but he wouldn't have kept second place either. It's been somewhat forgotten that while Senna was catching Prost, Bellof was was catching and lapping faster than both... It would have been ingteresting to see how that one would have worked out had the race concluded with Bellof the winner, with Tyrrell later being excluded from the championship. Would Bellof have keptthe win, in the same way Schumacher in 97 had his championship points erased but his wins that year maintained?
Prost did have troubles with his brakes at that race, which were affected by excessive cooling. McLaren were (I think) the first team to use full carbon brakes, something at the time in its infancy in F1. Definitely advantageous performance-wise but with a much narrower operating temperature than steel brakes. Great on "normal" tracks but a handicap on street circuits. and totally unadapted to a wet Monaco track.
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Single best corner in the USA by a long way and probably one of the best in the world.
Allard J2X c. Conceptually light years ahead of it's time. My Avatar. Sadly never provided with the opportunity it deserved in competition, but inspired and continues to inspire sports car design to this day. A true game changer.
Allard J2X c. Conceptually light years ahead of it's time. My Avatar. Sadly never provided with the opportunity it deserved in competition, but inspired and continues to inspire sports car design to this day. A true game changer.
Want one.
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