Feeling the heat

The re caused by spilt fuel igniting as Jacky Ickx restarted the Moffat Cobra in the pits at Bathurst 1978 was witnessed at close quarters by this writer.

I was standing immediately behind the pit box looking in when it happened, and I can vividly remember hearing the ‘WHOOSH’ as it went up – and feeling the ash of heat on my face. I instinctively turned away and, like everyone else in the vicinity, feared for my safety and that of others who were either in the pit box or nearby. There was that dreadful period of uncertainty.

Happily, the re was dealt with quickly, but it was a truly scary moment which could have ended up being much worse than it was. It was bad enough with team mechanic George Smith badly burned and an official also receiving burns.

Understandably, Allan Moffat was, shall we say, somewhat hot under the collar over what had happened. When asked by Channel Seven’s Evan Green what had caused the re, in vintage Moffat style he didn’t hold back: “Well, CAMS regulations would be a good starting point. Maybe somebody will wake up when we burn one of these cars to the ground; then we can get the dry-break system to prevent that. I don’t know what started it but it’s a fact that we’re vulnerable to this sort of thing. We tried to get the dry-break system, it’s available in America – I don’t know why we have to carry on like we are in the South Pole all the time down here, but that’s certainly an example of it. Maybe somebody else will have to burn to a cinder before we can get it through.” If nothing else, the incident did nally lead to CAMS adopting the dry-break refuelling system for Australian touring car racing.