A Win For Amon

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30822, 6 August 1965, Page 9

A Win For Amon

IBu

BRUCE McLAREN.]

J STOOD in the pits at i Silverstone nursing some rather painful burns on my neck and hands while 1 watched my young team-mate. Chris Amon, win the Martini Trophy race in our McLarenElva sports car. As his lead grew a little bigger with each (lap, so the lesson of practis- • ing w-hat you preach was I brought home to me. On the ’Friday in practice, a loose i carburettor union set petrol spraying over the engine and my back, and when the petrol caught alight so did I. NYLON JACKET There’s nothing quite so terrifying as a fire in a racing car. I’ve always been a great advocate of wearing safety clothing in racing cockpits, but on this occasion I was wearing a nylon jacket (rather foolishly) and no gloves (again rather foolishly). The burning nylon was melting through my overalls in spite of my ’efforts to beat out the flames | with my hands while also (trying to get the car stopped. | Lessons learned: Don’t wear a j nylon jacket in a racing car; : and wear driving gloves—even lif they aren’t worth half a (second as the advertisements might lead you to believe, (they will certainly save you from a painful scorching (should you be involved in a i burn-up.

'■< Don’t think it doesn’t hap- • pen very often. It’s the first ' time I’ve had a fire at speed, I but last week-end Trevor , Taylor bailed out of his Lotus i 30 when it was well alight. ■ Trev was doing around 80 1 when he jumped out. He said i later that he would have preferred to break a few bones s bouncing on the track rather ; than stay with the car and » get burned. The Lotus was 1 a write-off and Trevor escaped 1 with a bruising and a fright. 1 While we’re talking about fires—you might be getting bored, but I’ve still got the i bandages on, so it's fresh in my mind—l had a cable from ’ Frank Matich in a Brisbane ’ hospital after he had crashed his Lotus 19 sports car at Lakeside and hopped out well ’’ alight. His combustion act had s happened the same day as ' mine, and he was apologising 0 for stealing the headlines r “down under.” The cable was S(signed “Hotlips Matich.” “i Frank’s Lotus was by far y the fastest sports car in Auss tralia and he has been trying 0 to convince me for a long l - time that it would beat one of a our McLaren Elvas. I said in " my return telegram that I n guessed he really did have the a hottest sports car in Australia s after all! !, Chris had a fairly formidu able task in the race at Silverfl stone. He had only managed a two laps on race morning and was sitting on the back of the

36-car grid with John Surtees sitting up on pole position with the 6-litre Lola. The commentators allowed Chris only a few consoling words before the race started, but he went through the field so fast it wasn’t true. It took him just four laps to get through to second behind Surtees, and John wasn’t hanging around. By lap seven the Lola was out with a broken engine and Chris was drawing out a comfortable lead on Hugh Dibley’s Lola-Chewy and Frank Gardner’s Lotus 30. AMON’S CRASH The following Monday Chris was tyre testing down at Brands Hatch when the car turned right for no good reason while he was steaming down the back straight at more than 100 miles an hour. The car bounced off a couple of banks and clipped a wheel off on a bridge support while scattering 'itself over 200 yards of track. Chris was well, aware that he was going to be of no'help in the situation, so he dived under the dash. In doing so he incurred his Only injury—a grazed nose.