1988
- Jarama
As the budget
would not stretch to a new engine we went for a rebuilt Auriga engine which
was powering Eddie Irvine in Formula
Ford in England
to good effect. Martin McCann, my mechanic this season and I travelled
to England to collect the engine where
we meet Eddie
Irvine in person. What a trip. We had taken in a race at Calafat,
on the way damaging one of the axles on our
Brian James
trailer. Before reaching Calafat we had an overheating problem with
our faithful tow car, a 1977 Ford Fiesta due
to the high
temperatures in Spain. Removing the thermostat at Calafat cured this.
After Calafat we drove to Madrid leaving
the RF86 at
the hostal near Jarama after spending the sunday night there.
On the monday
we drove north to the UK having slight problems with the French on crossing
the border at Irun/Hendaye.
Slept in the
car on the monday night as we could not find a hotel in France. On
the tuesday morning there was a funny noise
from the Ford
Fiesta (Goldie) engine compartment, but we headed north in good spirits
towards Le Harve. Passing through
Nantes, Martin
stopped the car. The water pump had gone. He rushed back
to stop a lorry running over the part! A new part
was secured
at the local Ford dealer about 1 km. back. On arriving at Le Harve
Martin was in his element as the McLaren
Formula One
team had been diverted from Calais to Le Harve due to bad weather so he
spent most of the evening with them.
We were first
off the ferry, but last out of the dock, being pulled in by immigration
- they wondered why an Irishman was travelling
with an ex
RMA Sandhurst officer. It turned out that about a week earlier an
Irish terrorist McCann had been shot dead by police
in Gibraltar!
On the way back we were pulled in again and Martin was asked why he did
not change his passport to a British one
as he had
been born in London. We had obviously been both investigated thoroughly.
Oh well I was cleared to "top secret
clearance"
when I was serving in Korea and knew every position of the North Korean
forces.
We were very
happy with the service from Auriga and whilst in England once again the
temperature in the Ford Fiesta shot up.
We pulled
up and this time the radiator packed up! There was a Ford dealer
just 100 yards away. They asked us not to repair
the car on
the forecourt and we obliged them. The things we do to go motor
racing! (Circuito
del Jarama new /nuevo)
more 1988 photos
a
. b
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