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2006 HISTORIC
GRAND PRIX |
Monterrey,
Mexico |
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The Historic Grand Prix's first race of the season this year was in Monterrey, Mexico. We were supporting the globe-hopping A1 GP Series, a virtual spec racer series with 600 HP-engined F3000-style cars making up national teams sponsored by their respective countries. We saw some really famous faces amongst the teams – John Surtees managing the English team, Jan Lammers with the Dutch team and most significant to us, the great Alan Jones, now managing the Aussie team. Alan spent time with Hamish during the course of the weekend reminiscing over his days with Williams and the car he drove, now owned by Hamish -- the FW07-04 with five GP wins to its credit. Alan spent more time with our team on Sunday after the race, autographing the rear wing of #27 and joining a photo shoot with Hamish and the car, both in full Williams' period attire, which we had provided for the entire team. |
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Wayne, our driver and Man Friday, had left for Mexico the previous Friday afternoon with Hamish's FW07 and Pete Gulick's recently acquired FW08 (the ex-KK Rosberg 1982 car, chassis #1). Pete had recently tested the car at Moroso to familiarize himself with it, as up until that point, he had only once seen and sat in the car. The test had gone well, but now he was embarking on a baptism by fire with a full grid of HGP cars performing in front of what proved to be a truly enthusiastic Mexican crowd. |
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The third "team" car was Joel Finn's Lotus T79, chassis No. 19. Driving the car was to be none other than Lady-Star-Driver Divina Galica, who had also been testing along with Pete at Moroso a couple of weeks ago. (Divina had been awaiting this drive for nigh on 28 years. She had hoped to drive it at the U.S. Grand Prix, but Jean-Pierre Jarrier had got the ride instead.) |
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Wayne picked up Mike Fitzgerald's Williams FW08C from Highcroft Racing in Danbury, CT, and then Lee Brahin's 009 Tyrrell from his workshop at VIR. We transported the two race cars and their equipment for these two teams. Wayne then went on to Mexico, driving across country to Texas where he joined the rest of the HGP transporters to convoy from Laredo on the border down to Monterrey, some 150 miles inside Mexico. All the rest of the "troops" flew in, including Racer Rick Carlino, who had come down to check out this HGP business. We met up with him on Wednesday night at our rather unique Holiday Inn at Fundidora Parque. Our pits and the actual track were right in front of the hotel, barely a two-minute walk. |
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Thursday was unload, setup, orientation and tech day. The weather was warm and fine....
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....The cars all looked great and we had them ready to race for Friday morning.
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Then it was off to a welcome party hosted by local businessman and vintage/historic race car driver Rudy Junco. The party was held in a huge brick hall that had been part of the steel works, which is now Fundidora Parque. Remains of huge machinery and equipment from early steel manufacturing days are everywhere, all beautifully restored and preserved, appearing to be enormous works of art. |
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This was perhaps one of the best receptions we had ever enjoyed. When we arrived, we were greeted at the door with earthenware cups of tequila, the beginning of a never-ending flow of the drink. Much of the floor of the hall was glass, which was a little unnerving the more tequila we drank. The buffet was sumptuous, with classic Mexican cuisine beautifully prepared and presented (this wasn't finger food, but a proper banquet). The entertainment Rudy had organized was traditional Mexican, with a huge Mariachi band playing in one of the side halls, complete with horn section and violins. |
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Later, traditional Mexican/Spanish dancers – beautiful girls in full Spanish costume with their partners – provided a wonderful performance accompanied by another style of Mariachis. See all the party photos here. The evening finally drew to a close and when we departed, we were surprised to find it raining. This was only a prelim to a very wet first day. |
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Friday was hectic from the word go. It was pouring with rain. Tires had to be demounted and mounted, and rain settings implemented on the cars all in a very short space of time before the first practice session. Thank heavens for our man Chuck Golder, who was able to show the Mexican tire service how to use their own machinery to break down and remount rain tires and balance them. He even showed other teams how to change their tires in order to stop a huge backup in the line awaiting tire service. Some teams had come completely unprepared with no "wets" at all, so consequently missed out on valuable track time (no one had even driven this tricky course before). We were prepared – although the first session proved to be a bit of a disaster for Hamish because of tire diameter issues. Pete struggled on in the very bad conditions, as did Divina. |
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The second session was somewhat better – Hamish establishing himself as our front runner, being second quickest overall (to a young, 23-year old professional). The cars were cleaned up (a big job in light of the terrible weather – the cars had got filthy), and everyone trooped back to the hotel, wet and cold. Hot showers and baths became the order of the day. |
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Next day, Saturday, practice and qualifying were undertaken on a damp but drying track. The sky was blue and even a light breeze got up; but our first session in relative dry was spoiled by the local vintage group that preceded our session, which liberally doused parts of the track with oil. After a delayed start, our boys and girl went out to play. The speed-dry put down in cleanup made it almost impossible to see. Hamish pulled in after one lap and decided to sit in the hot pits for a while and let the rest of the pack clean the track up for him. He went out for the final ten minutes or so and set a blistering lap that firmly placed him on pole for the afternoon qualifying race. |
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Pete was getting used to his new car and gradually came to terms with it and the track. Like everyone else, he was appalled at the lack of grip provided by the track's surface. Divi, however, was plagued with her engine cutting out. The car had been dying in corners on the track and finally stopped altogether. This was diagnosed by our good friend Phil Reilly, along with advice from Phil Denney (who had worked on this and the other T79 for JPS in period). Phil provided a new mechanical fuel pump, as the original had seized solid and sheared the pump drive. Our trusty and very clever Ed Barker, with Wayne's assistance, found a way of removing the old and fitting the new pump without having to detach the engine from the chassis as we were told would be necessary. Divi made the qualifying race, the job completed in around two hours. Quite remarkable by any standard. Well done Ed and Wayne!! |
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 (click photos to enlarge) |
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The qualifying race got off to a good start, Hamish holding the lead for five or six laps, although under intense pressure from our HGP leader, James King, in his Beta March. In fact, there were three cars leaning on Hamish – James, Paul Edwards in the Wolf (who had been the real superstar in the wet), and our old chum, Rick Knoop in his Tyrrell. Hamish made an uncharacteristic slip around the back of the circuit and they (all three) were by him in a flash. By the time he gathered it up, they had checked out. He set off after them, hotly pursued by another group, including Pete and Divi. |
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Hamish
tried really hard on the final lap and cut his best time, good
enough for fourth on the grid. |
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Pete had worked really hard as well, keeping his car out of trouble and moving up the field. He secured a grid position immediately behind Hamish. |
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Just behind Pete was Fitzgerald and his Williams, and behind him, Divi -- the car running fine, but bogged down with backmarkers whilst working her way up the running order. Great work though, having started last and finishing up 8th. |
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Needless to say, we were pretty sure things could have been better, but all of our cars were reasonably well placed. Pete and Divi went out again for hardship practice, an extra session allocated to us, and this gave these two team members the extra track experience they needed. |
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Sunday morning dawned and again it had been raining. In fact, there were spots of rain on and off all early morning, but the track was beginning to dry. The team went out for morning warm-up. Pete and Hamish seemed okay, but Divi's 79 was difficult to start and did not sound right on the track. Had the late night tuning session worked against them? Ed and Wayne checked out the car as best they could and found nothing. Time between warm-up and race did not allow for much to be done and our erstwhile engine man had not arrived with sufficient time to check things out. |
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We all went off to the grid. Not one of our cars started on their starters and all required push starts. Divi's car would not start until the whole pack had taken the green flag, so she joined at the tail end, starting from pit lane. Alas, her race was short lived. As the pack went by for completion of lap one, Divi appeared in pit lane and retired. Such a shame after so much hard work by the team! |
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- Photo by Junmei Zhao
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Wayne & Ed
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Photo by Junmei Zhao |
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