more History questions ?

G'day Folks , a member on the forum has sent me some excellent dates for the ever growing history project here at ten tenths , Ive been adding them this afternoon and come across a few that are rather interesting.
I thought I would come here and pose some questions to you knowledgable folks and try and get some answers.

the first is the 1936 Australian Grand Prix won by Les Murphy (Funny that I know a guy here in my home town called Les Murphy but it isnt him :)) it was held at Victor Harbour in South Australia , what is strange about it is that the race was held in 1936 but was actually called the 1937 Grand Prix , does anyone know why ????


the second is about the World Touring Car championship held in 1987 , at the very first round of the championship at Monza the 7th place car (WOO HOO a Holden Commodore :)) was awarded the win after the first 6 places (all BMW M3's) were disqualified , an amazing thing to happen I think , but does anyone know why these 6 BMW's were disqualified ?????

interesting stuff I think but Im hoping someone can come up with some answers to these questions for me ?


CHEERS
Marcus

I think it's best that I point you to http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1097&highlight=Australian+1936 because Ray Bell has told the story far better than I ever could.

Now, I used to know the tale of the BMW disqualifications but I'm going to have to gen up on it. I'm sure there was much amused comment in Autosport at the time.

wasnt the BMW story connected with size, I think they found that the cars had been built to 5/6th size but I might be confusing this with something else

All the Homologated GRP panels were fitted with carbon fibre ie boot lids front and rear bumpers ,spoilers and side skirts, the std grp ones weigh a ton.At post race scruteneering the paint was scratched off to reveal carbon whoops !!
Sounds like a tip off by Ford to me.

It was just the boots wasn't it? The bonnets and other bits were as homologated? (Thats what the press said at the time but it may not have been the full story of course).

Then there was Bathurst in 1987 which was part of the World Championship. The 1-2 Finishing cars were disqualified leaving Brock in the Holden Commodore to win.
I do beleive the BMW was underweght or something though.

Seems like the day for 1987 World Touring Car discussions!
The BMWs were disqualified due to some not quite homologated body panels I believe, there were all sorts of rumours about plastic panels that could be bent by just leaning on them, but the carbon panels sound more likely. The Australian teams also had trouble with officials over body panels at Bathurst apparently, though that was centred on the panels not having part numbers or something, because they were removed during the respraying process! There was a lot of tension between the teams and officials that weekend!
As for a Ford tip off I doubt it as I am pretty sure the only Sierra at that race was a privately entered Andy Rouse run car.
Even though the Commodore won, they did not get the points towards the championship, I think a Maserati that was about 36 laps down got them. Something to do with not paying the entry fee to the series, which I seem to recall being about $75 000 US, which I would guess was more than the budget that Allan Moffat and John Harvey had to run the car!
Now I am doing all this off the top of my head but hopefully its pretty close.

For what I remember from period reports the scrutineers found that the Monza factory built BMWs used, for structural panels, thinner metal sheets. Only a M3 from Hungary was saved, it was prepared by the team, starting from a road car.....

As for the 7/8th car probably it's a Smokey Junick product!

The Texaco Eggenberger Sierra's were also thrown out of the Monza opener during scruitneering, from memory something to do with the engine management system not being the homologated one or something.

Perhaps they tipped them off about the BMW's, although if you believe the conspiracy theories BMW and Ford both knew each car had illegal bits on it, and BMW were willing to let the drivers title go to one of the Eggenberger steerers, and Ford were willing to let the manufacturers title go to Munich. This of course culminated in the Bathurst disqualification of the Texaco cars, with Frank Gardner (who was running the local BMW squad) pushing ahead with the protest over the Ford's wheelarches (which were clearly different to the other Sierra's). The protest was ultimatly accepted 66 days later.

Originally posted by racer69
The Texaco Eggenberger Sierra's were also thrown out of the Monza opener during scruitneering, from memory something to do with the engine management system not being the homologated one or something.



Can't recall the exact problem without looking it up, but I'm sure you're right about it being engine management-related.

As Jiminee said, as a result the only Sierra that raced at Monza was the Rouse car, which retired- maximum points in the class going to the Maserati which finished something like 20th, as the 'winning' Moffatt/Harvey Commodore wasn't registered to score championship points due to not paying the $75k registration fee, which was introduced very late in the day, only a week or two before the first race.

Pretty much the only registered entries which could therefore score points were the factory-backed Fords, BMWs & Alfas, the Maserati and the Rouse Sierra....

And amazingly enough Moffat and Harvey have never even received their trophy for the race win.

Marcus
I know this is an old message but I have just stumbled on it. Les Murphy was my grandmother's brother and there is some history on him although it has been hard to find. However the Grand Prix was raced on the 26th December 1936, maybe it was so close to new year they tagged it the 1937. I wonder what date the 1935 was raced as Les won that as well.
Carmel

:rotate:
G'day Folks , a member on the forum has sent me some excellent dates for the ever growing history project here at ten tenths , Ive been adding them this afternoon and come across a few that are rather interesting.
I thought I would come here and pose some questions to you knowledgable folks and try and get some answers.

the first is the 1936 Australian Grand Prix won by Les Murphy (Funny that I know a guy here in my home town called Les Murphy but it isnt him :)) it was held at Victor Harbour in South Australia , what is strange about it is that the race was held in 1936 but was actually called the 1937 Grand Prix , does anyone know why ????


the second is about the World Touring Car championship held in 1987 , at the very first round of the championship at Monza the 7th place car (WOO HOO a Holden Commodore :)) was awarded the win after the first 6 places (all BMW M3's) were disqualified , an amazing thing to happen I think , but does anyone know why these 6 BMW's were disqualified ?????

interesting stuff I think but Im hoping someone can come up with some answers to these questions for me ?


CHEERS
Marcus

From Jim Shepherd's "A History of Australian Motor Sport"
Phillip's Island last Grand Prix was staged in May, 1935 and Les Murphy won in his MG at 67mph.

It was the end of the AGP at Phillip Island because a new, sealed circuit had been completed at Victor Harbour (SA).

The South Australian Centenary Grand Prix (read into this Australian Grand Prix) was held on a road circuit at Victor Harbour on Saturday, December 26, 1936.

There is no record of the AGP being staged in 1937 and what was probably intended to be the AGP of 1936 was actually advertised and staged as the South Australian Centenary Grand Prix.

After a complete break in 1937, the AGP was held for the first time at Bathurst's Mt.Panorama Circuit in 1938.