Now this is how to celebrate! http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=48772716
The other silly celebration I just remembered was Bjorn Wirdheim slowing down to wave at his crew and loosing the F3000 Monaco race in 2003. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R43mBWirio
Gotta love Petter Solberg. That just ROFLMAO'd me. I've looked for video from the '75 Austrian GP where Vittorio "The Italian Gorilla" Brambilla won the race and crashed his car right after the checkered flag because he was celebrating in the car. Nigel Mansell stalled out his car on the last lap leading a race because he was waving to the crowd and let the engine die.
Like him or not, like nascar or not, Darrell Waltrip doing the 'Icky Shuffle' was a CLASSIC. I cannot remember most celebrations, but THAT one I remember !
Hubris! Mind you, back in the skirt/ground effects day smashing up the car on the cooling off lap was a way of keeping the officials from finding out if it had illegal ride height. Tearing off a corner also made it difficult to weigh, something to keep in mind if you came in the first three. Ah, the things folk do to win a race....
I don't ever remember anyone tearing off a corner, and I sure don't remember anyone purposely messing up the ground effects on a cool down lap, and I lived and breathed F1 from 1978 to about 1988. Can you cite a couple of examples ?
If you really think back Im sure your remember the winner hammering every curb on the cooling off lap in order to raise the skirts and make the car legal. The skirts of most cars were a nylon strip that ran down the outside of the pod. The strip was held on to the side pod with bolts that ran through slots rather than bolt holes. One good bang of a curb and the strip would be knocked up - Voila! the car was legal! If you have any old races on tape watch Monaco or Monza where the curbs are high. As for the wheel, that happened in a much lower formula, as in Ford. Mind you weight was a real concern in F1 too. Do you remember the water-cooled brakes in the Tyrrell, and how there somehow seemed to be lead shot in the water? But back to the topic: The hubris of those winning drivers was incredible.
I know all about sliding skirts, and I remember very well the lead shot put in the Tyrrells in Detroit - I was there, I was in the pits after the race. I attended every DGP from 1982 thru 1988. I can also tell you the lead shot idea was handed down to other classes over the years, I had a friend that was DQ'd from a race for being FOUR POUNDS under weight. From then on, he was handed an ice-cold can of 'Pepsi' as he was driving to the scales.... hehehe.
Each time I see that video I cant help but grin a little. The guy who won, Nicolas Kiesa, is on another forum I visit. He's rarely online though and don't want to bother him with questions like these. I believe he's going to drive DTM this year, although im not certain.
??? After the race, we were checked for legality, if the sidepod was too low because of damage, we were DQd. Been there done that. The only ride height game was the air jacks to raise the car to the 4.0" spec , on track the car ran as low as possible when it came into the ppits we pressurised the small cylinders under the springs which raised the car for tech. Cars like Supervees and Indy/Cart had a spec for the lower edge to be within a spec height above the tub floor, maybe that's what you arwe thinking of?
Kiesa has been out of professional racing for a while. He's done some driting stuff, but I was wondering if he'd ever be able to get a budget together for better things. I know he tested a DTM car recently, but I dunno about getting a seat in the series. LMAO!!! at Peter Solberg, never seen that before!
