The Marlboro BRM crew working on Jean Pierre Beltoise’s car. He would finish 9th.
Story and photos by Charley Seavey
As with a lot of my European pictures I’m amazed at the ability then to wander around pit and paddock and watch the guys at work. In this day no bits and bobs of cars lying around on the ground, or random guys with cameras snapping away. I’m glad I was around for those days. Here are some shots from Silverstone, 1973.
Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake. Or, in American, station wagon. Although current usage would be SUV or something equally horrid. The DB5 shooting brake was in production from 1963-1965. I apparently spotted this on the way in. To this day it remains the only one I’ve ever seen.
The Elf Tyrrell pits.
Emerson Fittpaldi’s Lotus. Fittipaldi was the reigning world champion, but he finished 6th- coupled with team mate Ronnie Peterson’s win, it won the constructor’s championship for Lotus. I always liked the iconic gold on black paint job- seen on any number of Pontiac Trans-Ams, as well as Team Lotus.
One of the Shadows. I had to blow it up some and finally saw the name on the rear wing. There were four Shadows there that day- Follmer and Oliver in works cars, Graham Hill in the Embassy car, and Brian Redman in another one.
George Follmer’s Shadow. Or at least parts thereof.
Howden Ganley’s Iso-Marlboro Ford. In 1971 or 1972 I was passed by the van carrying Ganley’s racer on the autobahn in Germany. I was doing 80 – which was about all I could get out of my Volvo wagon full of kids and camping gear. The van went by as if I were anchored.
Graham Hill’s Shadow. Hill was a private entry sponsored by Embassy cigarettes. The whole project was Hill’s creation after he parted company with Brabham.
In the pits. The van belongs to the Tyrrell Ford team- with the name of the unfortunate Francois Cevert still on it. The three cars visible are McLarens, however. Car 8 is driven by Peter Revson who finished 5th that day. The other two McLarens were driven by Denis Hulme and Jody Scheckter.
Shadow team toolbox. The Shadow team had built some awesome Can-Am cars, but never really had success in Formula 1. George Follmer was the team driver, and Graham Hill had a privately entered Shadow as the Embassy Racing entry.
Is that a red Iso Grifo in the background of the picture of Howdy Gaines’ Iso-Marlboro car?
E-55, kind of looks like it. The series I Can Am with the monster Chevy V-8.
Howden’s ISO was a special version of the Lele. Given to him as part of his 1973 retainer. See page 282 of his “Road to Monaco” book.
What a great era. Lovely photos.
I was in England in ’73 and went to several of the European F1 races, great time indeed to be there.
Looks like ISO 454 engined car
Charles, I think you may have got your events mixed up. These photos appear to have been taken at the 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, were you there as well? The clues are the Daily Express (a British newspaper) banner in the background of the pic of the shooting break, the back of the old Silverstone pits visible in the Tyrrell pic and the words Bass Charrington (a British beer brewer) in the background of the McLaren pic. It appears the race numbers were the same at both events for the cars shown, so an understandable mix-up!
Michael, good grief, you may very well be right. The numbers are the same. My problem is that I think I was back in the states by mid-July of 1973. I’m going to have to see if I can find my military orders and check my return date. In my defense I had just gotten through going through a lot of 1961-62 F1 race pics where the car numbers changed pretty much every race, and I definitely remembered being at Watkins Glen that year, not so sure about Silverstone. Does anybody remember when F1 started using the same car numbers all season long? Good catch on the beer sign and newspaper advert. I identified another picture I had taken by spotting a Belgian beer sign in the background.
Later… well, it turns out this is the British GP at Silverstone. I was in Europe until July 26th and the race was July 14th. Since I had (and still have) the USGP program when I was scanning these slides, and had very strong memories of the USGP weekend, it didn’t occur to me it might have been a different race. Would that I’d had a digital camera with all that nice imbedded EXIF data to inform me what I had been doing. Major style points to Michael Oliver, and apologies to Peter Vack.