Getting all the wrong breaks

Bobby Unser’s eventual GP debut at Watkins Glen (below) was peppered with blown engines and crashes. Aside from his problems with BRM and F I ,there was something more specific troubling him that weekend which he didn’t reveal at the time.

“I had a broken ankle! I did it in a charity basketball match the night before practice — exactly the sort of thing a race driver shouldn’t have been doing. I told the doctor,look, I’ve got to do this race,’ but instead of just filling me with novocaine or whatever, he gave me pills for the pain. Whatever those pills were, they really screwed me up.That’s how come I wrecked the car. I should not have been out on the track.”

The time he really was unfit, Formula One let him drive!