BUY THE BOOK!
Click here for the paperback and hardcover options
En route to Cortina
Esteemed biographer Graham Gould wrote about the event and noted that the drivers from England were treated to a private, chartered plane to take them to Cortina, thanks to Walter Hayes. He continues:During the flight down to Cortina the drivers tried to persuade one of the stewardesses to do a strip tease. They decided to have a whip-round and, when word of this got to the captain, the pilot came on the tannoy and remarked "If you are getting Susan to do a strip, put us in for one and tenpence".
What's funny is that's the second time in just two days that I've written something here about strippers. This site is supposed to be about rallies!
Recently added
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 20th
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 19th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 18th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 17th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 16th
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 15th
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 14th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 13th
- London to Cape Town – January 12th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 11th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 10th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 9th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 8th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 7th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 6th, 1963
- Petrol in My Blood – trade enquiries
- David Benson’s article about his arrest
- Press quotes from Eric Jackson and Ken Chambers
- The roads in Africa
- Round the world delays?
- The pretty girl on the docks at Cape Town
- Guns and tear gas
- Rosie’s Bar, Monte Carlo
- A few things I’ve discovered
- How’s the book going?
- Ouch
- Tulip Rally 1966
- The great meat pie race
- Cortina d’Ampezzo
- Mud, glorious mud
- First rally car – last rally car
- Meanwhile, back in Barnsley
- Across the Sahara and back
- Timbuktu
- George Hinchcliffe – London to Cape Town
- London to Sydney can’t be tougher than this
- Edgy Fabris
Cortina d’Ampezzo
Jim Clark and Eric Jackson. The snowball fight at Cortina d'Ampezzo
The Ford Cortina was named after a place called Cortina’d'Ampezzo in northern Italy. The town is in the Dolomites (wasn’t there also a car called the Dolomite many years ago?)
In 1964, Ford Motor Company were enjoying huge success in many forms of motorsport, particularly with the Cortina. Eric Jackson had won the British Rally Championship (and of course had used a Cortina the previous year when he broke the London to Cape Town record), Henry Taylor was the British Touring Car champion and Vic Elford had won the Monte Carlo Rally – all these successes in Cortinas. Also present were John Whitmore, Jack Sears, David Seigle-Morris, Colin Chapman, Peter Hughes (Africa), Bo Lungfelt (Sweden) and Harry Firth (Australia).
Watler Hayes, ever on the lookout for publicity-worthy stunts, had the idea of successful racing drivers and rally men to Cortina d’Ampezzo; calling the event ‘Salute to Champions”.
There were several events for the drivers, including the now-famous drives around the bobsleigh run. Jim Clark was amongst then and history tells that he strained his back during a snowball fight. This led to Jackie Stewart taking his place, thus starting his F1 career. I wonder if that was the same snowball fight as the one pictured here? See video below: