Mini Marcos at Mugello 1966

THE RACE.

Mugello '66 The Start. Storm clouds gathering.

I think I may have jumped the start. We were started at intervals and the Director of the course must have gotten his hand caught in my door handle or something because he apparently tried to stop me and got pulled to the ground. I was unaware of all this and was on my way behind a pretty slow 1100cc Osca. The road surface was rough and already breaking up in parts. It was very hot, yet in the mountains we had fog and rain.

Another problem the car would cut out from fuel surge in the SU carburetors on hairpin bends, of which there were quite few. Although we hadn't discussed race strategy (Well we got the starting money - Right!) I felt I should try and conserve the car and concentrate on finishing in the money. Already the gear change was dipping at every thrust reversal indicating that the engine tie bolt had probably failed.

After Tim took over he came in with a broken gear lever where we had modified it to suit the driving position by heating and bending the gear stick.

Also we couldn't keep the pistons in the SU carburetor dashpots which caused a low end misfire but didn't seem to affect the top end. My impression is that we were ahead on the road of the Johnson/Edwards Mini Marcos although that doesn't seem to be reflected in the results. I remember being lapped by the winning Porsche Carrera but we did finish. Maybe I was penalized for the jumped start.

We didn't really care, we had gone racing, collected some money and had a great time.

A Mini Marcos at Mugello (continued)

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