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World of Sport
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Jim Clark won the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely wet, foggy and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid Clark passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than ever, Clark had not only lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, but he was almost five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper. This would be the first of seven victories for Clark and Team Lotus that year.
He was also able to master difficult Lotus sportscar prototypes such as the Lotus 30 and 40. Clark had an uncanny ability to adapt to whichever car he was driving. Whilst other drivers would struggle to find a good car setup, Clark would usually set competitive lap times with whatever setup was provided and ask for the car to be left as it was.
Led for 190 of 200 laps in winning Indy
Won the british touring car championship
Drove rally cars, finished 3rd at Le Mans, drove a weird 4 wheel drive car in the BOAC 500...
The year he lost to Graham Hill in the Indy because of a miscalculation in number of laps, his win in the Milwaukee Mile, lapping all but 2nd place man...
The tales of running out of fuel, the fuel pump failing, Clark switching the pump on and off top gain that extra yard or two... But the record book speaks volumes of his achievements.. Unequalled.
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However, there is yet another driver who could well lay stake to being one of the greatest of all times - only had destiny had been a bit forgiving.
After Stirling Moss, Jim Clark was the pride of British motorsports in the 60s. The Times put him at number 1 in the list of greatest racing drivers of all time, ahead of the aforementioned mavericks. It wasn't an exaggeration, because when he died in a Formula 2 crash at Germany, he had won more races and scored more pole positions than any other driver before him.
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Earlier in the thread I mentioned Gilles Villeneuve, who even though he never won a world title, I believe he was truly one of the greats.
If he was as cutthroat, and dare I say backstabbing, as the likes of Senna or Schumacker he could have beaten his teamate Jody Scheckter in 79.
If only Pironi had shown the same courtesy to him.
In qualifying in the rain for Watkins Glen 1979 he was 11 seconds faster than the other 6 odd cars that bothered going out in the torrential conditions.
Friend and biographer Nigel Roebuk commented ..."You would think he had 300 horsepower more than anybody else. It just didn't seem possible. The speed he was travelling at didn't bear any relation to anybody else. He was 11 seconds faster. Jody was next fastest and couldn't believe it, saying he had scared himself rigid! I remember [Jacques] Laffite in the pits just giggling when Gilles went past and saying, 'Why do we bother? He's different from the rest of us. On a separate level'."
On returning to the pits Villeneuve whipped off his helmet and beamed at the assembled members of the paddock, who were looking on in disbelief. "That was fun," he said. "I was flat in fifth on the straight, about 160mph. It should have been faster but the engine had a misfire and was down about 600 revs. But for that I could have gone quite a bit faster, but then maybe I would have crashed."
And how many drivers have driven an entire lap without 1 or even two tyres ?
His rear tyre blew when passing the pits in Zandvoort in 1979 and he completed a lap back to the pits.
The suspension was shot to sh** mind you and he couldn't continue.
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That is so typical of drivers trying to intimidate their opponents. I remember seeing the puncured tyre druve on youtube. But, the concensus of opinion, he destroyed the wheel, rear suspension and with the fuel cell of the time, a massive fire risk.
Actually he was by all accounts one of the real nice down to earth guys.
I don't think you will ever find another driver with anything bad to say about him.
The guy wasn't like the likes of Prost or Lauda who were very tactical.
And he wasn't a win at all costs, drive others off the road, ala Senna or Schumacker.
See his Dijon race with Arnoux for prime example of this.
His first GP was with McLaren in a third car at Silverstone in 77.
He had been recommended by James Hunt and Chris Amon.
In practice he spun at every corner and about 30 times in total.
Some thought he was nuts and out of his depth, but he never spun in the same place twice.
And he out-qualified one of the other regular McLaren drivers when he got 9th.
He said he needed to be quick and prove his ability, thus he drove the car as fast as possible to find the limit.The number of conflicts between drivers is legendary, the Proust v Mansell at Ferrari... Mansell would leave to fly back to the Isle of Man and Proust would start swapping bits to get the best car. Leyton House copying the William's car and getting the measurements wrong. If you ever read the transcript from the Ferrarigate and FIA hearings... so one sided.
The moves by Max and Bernie to coerce the car manufacturers into F1.... Machiavelli would have been proud.
Ever hear of Balestre versus Senna at Place de La Concorde.
Supposedly the shouting could be hear a couple of floors down and out on the street.
BTW Bernie would be at home in FIFA I reckon.
Mind you I loved his Parmalat era Brabhams.
Including this one .... the BT46B.
They claimed the fan was for cooling to which Mario Andretti remarked he didn't know they used a jet engine.
The give away was when they revved the car it would plaster itself to the ground.
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Just in case some think the F1 fraternity have hijacked this.
Thought it apt to post this.
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Why not stick with Russian curling ...
Alexandra Saitova
On the ice ...
And ehhh, doing some of those stretching excercises that the Russian womens curling team seem to go in for .....
Fecking hell there were never competitors like this when I used to watch the curling way back.
Now if this keeps going I will be forced to put up the Dutch womens hockey team.0 -
I hear Luis Suarez is in bother again with Barcelona. Verbals this time rather than biting but bother all the same. An amazing player but flawed personality lets him down. I saw him score v Norwich at Anfield and he was easily the best player on the pitch. (I think this pic is from that match).
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Brilliant idea for a thread, certainly makes for interesting reading!
A few of my own favourites:
Ronan O Gara's drop at goal which sealed Ireland's first Grand Slam since 1948. To score such an important kick in the 78th minute in front of a packed out Millennium Stadium was an incredible achievement under pressure.
Paídí Ó Sé, former Kerry footballer. I've always been interested in Ó Sé's story. Holder of 8 All Ireland medals. In 10 All-Ireland apprearences he only ever let the man he was marking score 1 point, an incredible feat. He also remained loyal to his west Kerry roots all his life. Extra points for the cúpla focal
sadly passed in 2012 ages 57, should've had many more years. RIP.
With only 60 affiliated clubs in all of Ireland, I feel that tug of war is a sport which deserves a far greater amount of attention than it gets. Anyone who's watched two well matched and well trained teams pulling will agree that it's utterly captivating. Falls to the wayside against the Gaelic games, unfortunately. Something different, at very least 0 -
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Not a fan of racing, but still admire and respect the achievements of some of sports major Irish stars.
Pat Eddery had over 4,600 winners over a career that spanned 36 years.
He was champion jockey 11 times.
Between 1986 and 1996 he was champion for 7 of the 11 years.
It is sad how it all ended due to drink.
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I've got to admit, I do love a good conspiracy
At the height of the Cold War, one of the more egregious cheating scandals erupted during the Summer Games in Montreal. Boris Onischenko, who'd medalled in modern pentathlon in 1972, was back four years later aiming for gold. During the fencing component of the five-part compeition, athletes duel with electronically modified swords that are triggered to score a point when the tip comes into contact with an opponent.
Onischenko had an advantage, however, one that was revealed when his British opponent noticed that Onischenko was scoring points even when he didn't make contact. As ESPN describes it, the Soviet's sword "turned out to be wired with a clever system that allowed him to score points at will by means of a hidden trigger." In other words, he'd lunge, hit the button, and get a point.
Onischenko was, understandably, disqualified.0 -
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHlaZW9hXd4
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