Photos: 1985 Wellington Street Race Photos

[ERC]

Thanks for the reports on the race and the interesting TV aspect. I feel much better for that!

As the Sytner/Morton team kept accurate lap charts (which was the norm, even for F1 teams years ago with a triple analogue stopwatch board - stopped, running, ready) it is almost impossible to get it wrong, just as long as the scorer presses the lever each time the car goes past. They are used to watching just their own car and it is/was very rare to miss it.

As I remember it, at Manfeild, each timer wrote the lap time on a pad so I am not sure if the above mentioned 'flip pad' system was in addition to the time keeper's or was combined? Maybe someone will know?

If combined, it was far from fool proof and even lap times could be very dubious, as in handicap racing particularly, if they failed to spot a car until it was past the finish line, that lap would be a second or two longer than normal, meaning that the next lap would then be a second or two quicker, leading to some weird 'fastest laps'! The same applied to timekeepers at other circuits of course.

As always, the timekeeper was a judge of fact, but the stewards could have accepted the Morton/Sytner pit crew's summary and compared it to the Petch charts, (I assume they were doing the same?) as it is extremely difficult to fake - especially given the time scale - as the cumulative time and the individual lap times could have been tied to the TV coverage, particularly the pit stops, which was of course filmed and broadcast live.

[crunch]

Thanks for the reports on the race and the interesting TV aspect. I feel much better for that!

As the Sytner/Morton team kept accurate lap charts (which was the norm, even for F1 teams years ago with a triple analogue stopwatch board - stopped, running, ready) it is almost impossible to get it wrong, just as long as the scorer presses the lever each time the car goes past. They are used to watching just their own car and it is/was very rare to miss it.

As I remember it, at Manfeild, each timer wrote the lap time on a pad so I am not sure if the above mentioned 'flip pad' system was in addition to the time keeper's or was combined? Maybe someone will know?

If combined, it was far from fool proof and even lap times could be very dubious, as in handicap racing particularly, if they failed to spot a car until it was past the finish line, that lap would be a second or two longer than normal, meaning that the next lap would then be a second or two quicker, leading to some weird 'fastest laps'! The same applied to timekeepers at other circuits of course.

As always, the timekeeper was a judge of fact, but the stewards could have accepted the Morton/Sytner pit crew's summary and compared it to the Petch charts, (I assume they were doing the same?) as it is extremely difficult to fake - especially given the time scale - as the cumulative time and the individual lap times could have been tied to the TV coverage, particularly the pit stops, which was of course filmed and broadcast live.

Hi Ray
Manfield Organisation did their usual timing system that had be proven over the previous 20 years at the Castrol 6 hour motorcycle race, and which you allude to. If you look at the photo of the hairpin I was marshalling on, and you can see Shoreboy's flag point in the background. Just to the left of Shoreboys container was another that had a timing stand erected on it that looked down the front straight to the start finish line where the 40 odd timekeepers sat. Personally; I think the BMW won, and some of that has come from information from some of those timekeepers....

[Frosty5]

Hi Ray
Manfield Organisation did their usual timing system that had be proven over the previous 20 years at the Castrol 6 hour motorcycle race, and which you allude to. If you look at the photo of the hairpin I was marshalling on, and you can see Shoreboy's flag point in the background. Just to the left of Shoreboys container was another that had a timing stand erected on it that looked down the front straight to the start finish line where the 40 odd timekeepers sat. Personally; I think the BMW won, and some of that has come from information from some of those timekeepers....

I think the evidence is overwhelming in favour of Morton/Sytner and that comes from various quarters. It made me sit down watch and re-watch videos several times and I conclude that the BMW won. The party after however, was a ripper!!!!LOL Refer post #20

[Mark Petch]

ERC,

That is exactly what the Stewards did, and as you say it was virtually impossible to fake the teams own hand written lap scoring, so all these years later people are still debating this issue, which given the fact's is somewhat disappointing.

Cheer's,

Mark.