Welcome to another week of the TheJudge13 #F1 Bar Exam.
Last week’s question(s): Can you name the car in the picture, the year in which it took part in Formula 1 and in which race it won its first (and only race). Also, can you name the two founders of the team and the primary funder.
The answer(s) I was looking for was: The car in the picture was the 1955 Connaught Type B. The one and only race it won was the 1995 Syracuse Grand Prix, a non-championship event.
In 1955 money was running short as the teams main backer, Ken McAlpine had grown tired of the constant red ink. The organizers of the Syracuse Grand Prix, a non-championship event, were desperate for entrants and offered £1000 per car for Connaught. The story of what happened next is one of Grand Prix racing’s greatest upsets, when an unknown British team found themselves facing a flotilla of Maseratis.
Driven by two young drivers including a young dental student named Tony Brooks, the cars were late in arriving. To top it off the drivers were limited to 15 practice laps. The Italians could not help but feel confident that they would soon crush these British upstarts. All that turned to dust as Brooks qualified to the amazement of all including himself on the front row.
The day belonged to this vastly underrated driver who could easily have won a World Championship later in his career. The Maserati 250Fs of Musso, Schell and Villoresi were beaten and long after the sound of racing engines had died and all of the other teams and spectators had left the circuit, the tiny British contingent were still celebrating in the Connaught pit. Two years later the money ran out and Rodney Clarke went back to his garage business.
The two founders of the team were Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver. Rodney Clarke was an outstanding design engineer and through his far sightedness Connaught was the first Formula1 team to own their own wind tunnel. During his career Rodney Clarke conceived a rear-engined GT car as early as 1950, a rear engined monocoque Formula 1 car in 1955 and other systems such as anti-lock braking and self-leveling suspension. Unfortunately none of these ideas ever went into production.
Well done to JJPM, Stephen, Mike, John, Cassius and Alonzo.
This week’s question(s): Can you name the year and circuit where the Formula 1 race in the picture was held and who won it? Can you also name the drivers of cars #12, #8 and #6.
Please provide your answers in the field below.
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