francois cevert in tyrrell at mallory park

[fosheti]

Hi iam new to ten tenths and wondered if anyone can remember a race meeting i went to at mallory with my dad.
Iam sure it was august 1973 and francois cevert was there with the tyrrell team, francois done some demonstration laps and smashed the lap record if i can remember correct.
I was only ten at the time and i canot find the race program i would like to know what the event was (ford sport?)and the races of the day.
I can allso remember going to a f2 meeting there but the old memory gets a bit mixed up with the events.
The reason i ask is i have found some old slide pictures but have no dates, they are of me with the tyrrell in the padock
many thanks anthony.

[simon drabble]

having spent yesterday testing at Mallory I can imagine his laps were very busy! What times was he putting in? It is a great circuit for testing but I cant help hinking that larger grids would lead to inevitable contact. I am especially thinking of things like the Top Hat there on Sunday...

[Milan Fistonic]

The meeting you went to was the Fordsport Day run by the BRSCC at Mallory Park on August 26, 1973. Francois Cevert did demonstrate the Tyrrell 006 but he did not break the lap record which was held by Jean-Pierre Jarrier in a F2 March. Cevert did eight laps and Ken Tyrrell claimed he was not trying to break the lap record "although it would have been nice if he had done."

Other winners on the day were Bill Burley in the first Formula Ford race; Mick Hill, driving his 6-litre Ford Capri V8, in the Special Saloon race; Derek Lawrence in the second Formula Ford race; Gerry Marshall in the Celebrity Escort Mexico race: David Purley in the Formula Atlantic race; Allan Wilkinson in the Escort Mexico race and Tony Brise in the Formula 3 race after first finisher Alan Jones was penalised for a jumped start.

[Andrew Kitson]

Jarier's lap record at the time was around the 40 sec mark if I remember correctly.
Rosberg apparantly did a 36 testing the Williams-Honda during a shakedown in '85.

[Junior Senior]

Piquet did a 35.0 in the Brabham while testing at Mallory in the early 80's.
Julian Bailey also managed a 37 sec lap while testing the Nissan World Sportscar in the early 90's. This time was achieved with the use of a tow from an Austin A35 that was out in the same session.......

[fosheti]

Thanks milan, they are very happy child hood memories from That day as it was the first time i had seen a f1 car up close, and run in anger,francois was also the first f1 drivers autograph i collected along with ken tyrrell,it was a great day out
Sadly my fond memories of the events are tarnished by the later ones that year of francois tragic crash at watkins glen, i was devestated by the news and it left a lasting impresion of how cruel this sport we all love can be.

[Dan Rear]

Anthony, nice thoughts. It was one of the first meets I attended too, and remember the Cevert demonstration well. My first ever GP car seen too. As I recall, Stewart should have been there, I guess due to his Ford links, but for some reason he couldn't make it, and Cevert subbed.

I remember, aged 10 also, that the Atlantics were great, I've loved them, and that era ever since. From memory the meet was shortly after the Williamson Zandvoort tragedy, and of course Purley was very well kinow for his efforts there. I think most people were willing him on that day, and he duly delivered, as he often seemed to at Mallory.

[Milan Fistonic]

I've just checked the preview of the meeting in the previous week's Motoring News and it mentions that Cevert "is a star addition to tne names who will appear" so maybe you are right and he was a late replacement for Stewart.

It also ststes that the entertainment included the celebrity race, an ascent by a hot air balloon, a helicopter display and a demonstration by Ford GT40s, custom cars and by Dunlop.

[grantp]

Old thread resurrection time. (An Easter special.)

I stumbled across this whilst searching for something else on the web-net-thingy.

One of the reasons that Francois did not attempt to break the lap record was that the car had entirely the wrong gearing and setup for Mallory. It was still in Österreichring spec. That meant the hairpin was, to say the least, a bit of a challenge.

From memory he was about 2 seconds off the outright lap record on the day - pretty good considering his only previous experience of the circuit, as far as I know, was in qualifying for the Escort Mexico Celebrity race. There wasn't much of that either. As I recall it was slightly delayed so that he could get into the circuit just as the qualifying was due to start.