F1Weekly Podcast # 1039
Play Podcast: 04-15-24f1weekly1039.mp3
Nasir and the host are both thrilled for Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. We are also anticipating Toto’s big LCH replacement decision. This week’s Motorsports Mondial spins the globe with racing news from Austin Texas to Montenegro. We top it all off with our Bonus interview from the F1Weekly archives Howden Ganley part one Enjoy.
Howden Ganley
Howden Ganley’s F5000 racing brought him to the attention of the BRM F1 team, who signed him for 1971 and he took a strong fifth place in the Italian GP at Monza and fourth at Watkins Glen while in non-championship races he finished second in Oulton Park’s Gold Cup, fourth at Hockenheim and fifth in the Race of Champions. In taking his fifth place at Monza, he was involved in the closest finish in GP history when just 0.61 seconds covered the top five finishers. In the team, he watched the strong competition between Pedro Rodriguez and Jo Siffert “As the new boy I saw their rivalry at first hand. Each was determined to beat the other. If I ever set a faster time than one of them in practice or in a test, the other was always delighted. They each wanted the new kid to put the other down. But they were both just wonderful characters, wonderful blokes.”
Racing in sports cars, he had a third place finish in a Can-Am race at Riverside with a BRM P167 and co-drove (with Paddy Driver and Mike Hailwood) to third at the Kyalami 9 Hours with a Chevron B19. At the end of the year he was awarded the Wolfgang von Trips Memorial Trophy, for the best performance by a newcomer to Grand Prix racing. Continuing with the team the following year his best finish was fourth at the Nurburgring but in sports cars he won Interserie races at Nurburgring and Zeltweg with a BRM P167 Chevrolet plus finished second at Le Mans with François Cevert in a Matra-Simca MS670.
For 1973 he raced Frank Williams Racing’s Iso–Marlboro, with his best results being seventh in Brazil and sixth at Mosport. However, that Canadian GP at Mosport could best be described as one of the most chaotic seen. When the race started, it was raining though it stopped and with the track drying the drivers headed to the pits to change tyres. However a number of drivers had to drive through as there was no space for them to be serviced in the small, busy, pit lane. When Jackie Stewart came in his teammate François Cevert’s car was up on jacks and he was waved through to take another lap. Once they were back racing nobody knew exactly where they were in the scoring and after Francois Cevert and Jody Scheckter crashed a safety car was deployed. But the safety car pulled in front of Howden, who people maintained wasn’t the leader at the time. But nobody has ever been able to say who was the leader plus nobody was really sure who had won, (was it Howden, Jackie Oliver, Peter Revson, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mike Hailwood or James Hunt?). In the end, the race organizers decided Peter Revson had won, with Emerson Fittipaldi second and Jackie Oliver third.
