Mediterranean Grand Prix - August 15 1965

It was down to Sicily for the Mediterranean GP the following weekend, and this was a terrific difference from Karlskoga. Enna is a really quick circuit, with lap speeds quicker even than Spa and Reims. Unfortunately, the Enna circuit is spoilt by the large amount of loose gravel that is lying around. This built up along the sides of the course, leaving virtually a single track of gravel-­free surface in the middle. The flying gravel certainly helped to make a mess of the cars. We taped up as much of the sus­pension and bodywork of our cars as we could in order to try to cut down the damage, but after the race it looked as though they had been sand-blasted. Our radiators were completely ruined.

The circuit had been much better when I was there two years ago. In 1963 it was much smoother, whereas now it is rougher and wavy--which is not very pleasant when speeds are so high. There are only two points where it is necessary to use the brakes, and on one of these corners you can almost get away without touching the pedal.

This Formula t race didn't prove an awful lot, except that the BRM engine in Jo Siftert's car is very good indeed on this circuit. It is obvious that the power unit has a lot up the top end. His car was tre­mendously fast; I know because he simply sailed past me, and though I tried to pull in behind to get a tow this just wasn't possible----he just disappeared into the dis­tance.

My engine was very slow, anyway, and though Denny's unit was quicker it was blowing a lot of oil. Both of our engines had come straight from the German GP, and Denny's had also done the Dutch GP, so they were a couple of tired motors. Neither of us went to the race expecting to be in with a chance of winning, and 1 suppose fourth for Denny and sixth for me w as about as good as we could have ex­pected in the circumstances.

The way things went I didn't get much of a chance of seeing the race. except when Siffert and Jim Clark went by me. Mike 5pence was going very well, too, until he had a stone hit him in the face, and he ended upside down. He must have been there at least five or six minutes before the car was finally lifted off him. I should say there were about half a dozen people just standing over the car and looking at it without doing a thing. Yet there was Mike in a most uncomfortable position, singing out because petrol was pouring out of the Lotus. It wasn't until some Lotus mechanics got along to the scene that he was freed. It the car had caught alight there could have been a very serious situation. 1 think it is unbelievable that so many people could stand around and not do a darn thing.

That wasn't the only thing about that race which was ridiculous. The other thing was the start. Even now I just cannot under­stand how anyone could make such a mess of getting a motor race under way. They endeavoured to use a dummy grid, along the lines now widely used, but it was said that any time after the 3 minute signal the cars could be moved up to the proper grid. When the signal went up indicating that there was one minute to go, everybody started to edge forward, but the marshals rushed out and tried to keep us back on the dummy grid. "Then when the 30 second signal was shown they tried to wave us up to the grid. Some cars got there in time, and some didn't, and it was a fair old shambles when the flag went down. How there wasn't an accident I just don't know. You could tell what chaos there was, be­cause Jim Clark was in neutral when the flag was coming down, grabbed the wrong gear, and had to spend some laps pulling it all back from those who beat him away from the line.