One of those years I was photographing the event down in like turn 15, at the end of Ford tunnel. On about lap 7 or 8 Rene Arnoux crashed his Ferrari, and the part of the nose that had the '28' on it landed at my feet on the other side of the wall. I guess the Ferrari Club NA was having an event on the top level of the garage above me, and guys started yelling down 'I'll give you $50 for that', and so on, the last dollar figure I heard was $1,000...... Well, a corner worker took it from me (and probably kept it), my question is, is anyone on here one of the people in the club, does anyone remember that ? I wish I could have kept it.....
I went to Detroit in 1987 & '88, and in one of those years, they had a "pit walk" during which the pit lane was open and you could view the cars up close. (Ahh, those were the days!) Of course, everyone was looking towards the cars, that is, away from the river. Well, just for a moment I looked towards the river, and there, sitting all by himself on the wall (and not being noticed by anyone) was.....Rene Arnoux! We had a brief conversation, and in fact he seemed happy to be noticed by anyone! (If I recall, his English was pretty good.)
Wow that's funny, because in 1984 I was talking to a guy sitting on the pit wall named Ayrton Senna DaSilva (as best I could), I knew who he was because I paid attention to Formula 3 back in those days, Senna, Brundle and Calvin Fish 'owned' F3 the prior year), and I also talked with Mansell for a bit after Senna. I had an all-access pass, one thing I did was wander into the basement of Joe Louis Arena in the evenings, all of the teams had all of their cars stored in there - NO GUARDS and NO PEOPLE WHATSOEVER, I could walk right up to any car and do anything I liked - anyone could have - for the most part I kept my distance just in case - the LAST thing you want is to get your credential yanked - I went thru pure hell with FISA to get it. The only thing I did was go up to a Renault that was on stands with the motor cover off, I could not believe how small the motor was - the block I mean - so I put my forearm near it, and it was as long as my forearm ! (or as short as my forearm !), and I also put my hand in the McClaren cockpit and spread my fingers as wide as I could - and that's about how wide the cockpit was at the bottom on it ! Incredible ! (I have large hands, BTW) I have no cluse how anyone can fit in one if their waist was over about 24 inches (or so it seemed). Those were the good ol days for me.
being that i've lived in and around Detroit; not to mention, being a F1 fan, and general auto enthusiast... these are some stories i love hearing about (not to mention; aspiring auto photographer ) 85 would've been an amazing race to watch... with Bellof racing from 19th all the way to 4th in the Tyrell... you dont happen to have a site with any photos you've taken? cheers ~nth
I was there in 1985 serving as crew for a friend who was driving in the Super Vee race (the Grand Prix support race). This was a time when Super Vee was very professional with most teams having large tractor-trailer transporters, spare race cars, 6 - 10 mechanics, etc. Quite a few of that year's drivers went on to Champcar, F3000, ALMS, and other major series (Davy Jones later won Le Mans). We were on a tight budget and although we did have first class racing equipment we didn't have the impressive extras (our pit board was one I found that someone had thrown out at Willow Springs). We weren't expected to do much but wound up winning the race. We were garaged in the arena with the F1 cars and shared the pit area. Although we didn't have much free time, I did have an opportunity to talk to some of the F1 drivers and watch a few laps of the practice and race. Bellof's drive sans front bodywork and Senna's artistry stand out. A great weekend.
Who was your driver? Unfortunately, '85 was the only DGP I missed. I was lying in Henry Ford Hospital recovering from an appendectomy.
The driver was Peter Pandur from Germany. He had previously finished 2nd in the German F3 championship -- missing it by only one point if I remember correctly. He also knew Bellof and Gerhard Berger quite well, both of whom were driving in the GP. In fact Berger came over and chatted with us while we worked on prepping our car. That got us a few strange looks from the other Super Vee teams.
It appears that 1984 was the year that Arnoux crashed the #28 Ferrari on lap 4 "Rene having spun and wiped off part of the nose of the car" (per R&T). I see that I have the TV tape of the 1985 Detroit GP in my box, I'll have to look and see if there are highlights from '84 on there that might show the crash.
if you have the netatives; it could be easier... http://photography.about.com/cs/adamsansel1/ht/Scan_Negs.htm but for scanning 11x14... i wouldn't call this cheap http://www.scanstore.com/Hardware/scanners.asp?ITEM_ID=17381 and of course, there is ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-DR-2580C-25PPM-B-W-13PPM-Color-http://search.ebay.com/Canon-DR-2580C-25ppm_W0QQfromZR40QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQfstypeZ1QQsatitleZCanonQ20DRQ2d2580CQ2025ppmQQssPageNameZRC0021 places that do it? hmm... perhaps kinkos? the only place ive done large image scanning was at Jansky Labratories in Green Bank, west virginia... but thats another story.
1984, lap whatever, I don't recall, I can't remember when Arnoux left Renault, and with all the Ferrari driver changes, but that actually sounds about right, because I believe Warwick and Cheever were with Renault....... All those years just run together for me, but I KNEW someone would come on and nail it down here, no doubt. I never shot negative film, only Kodachrome and some AgfaPan 25 B&W. The Kinko's here do not go past 8x10, and I'm not buying any Scanning hardware. I have stories about PL Newman from 1987, and Mark Donohue from 1971, but those are for other times.
