At Copersucar we had a, er, moment, when restarting the car during qualifying at Monaco after a routine pit stop. DFVs had a mechanical fuel pump, so to fire it up one used a small plastic bottle (Usually a Fairy Liquid detergent bottle with a small adapted nozzle) to prime the engine and start as no fuel pressure yet.
On this routine stop for adjustment on the squirt from the bottle popped the nozzle, dousing the engine in petrol, upon which, with the usual malevolent behaviour of inanimate objects, it ignited. One rather ineffectually started flapping ones’ lap chart to fan flames out, as it was bigger than one that could be blown out like a candle, usual procedure for trumpet fires.
Wilson Fittpaldi took more direct action, whipping his team T-shirt off and hitting the flames…this might have worked eventually but another ingredient was thrown into the stew when Itoh, our chief mechanic, was spotted grabbing the nearest fire extinguisher to smother the now considerable conflagration.
As it was a powder one, promising a right royal mess, Wilson then lunged at Itoh to stop him, but for some strange reason grasped him by the throat, at which point in a reflex action Itoh clenched the nozzle, setting said extinguisher off. Once started, it would not stop, and as by then dropped on the floor to the lively crackling of the flames, was whipping back and forth with the jet of powder squirting everywhere, despite Bob “Knobby” Clarke leaping onto hose like a Tarzan wrestling a snake, only to be greeted with an eyeful of extinguishing powder.
The penny having dropped by then, Wilson executed a sleight-of-hand masterpiece and crammed the hose down the nearest manhole cover slot. Presto, no more spurting powder on car. But wait! It only meant that after a small respite, the white clouds started geysering out all down the pit lane and drifting out over track like early morning mist, to such an extent that the practice session was halted due to lack of visibility, mercifully blotting out the scene…
The look of disgust from the mechanics in adjoining teams as they ineffectually fanned the powder from their now frost-white toolboxes haunts me to this day.
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/blog ... ps-go-bad/
