Pierre SOUKRY

[WANHER]

Whi is the F5000 driver, he usually didn't qualified or DNA in the beginning of the seventies

Robert

[Team Gunston]

Hi Robert,

My records are not very accurate, but I'm able to tell you that Pierre Soukry was an amateur Swiss driver.

As far as F5000 is concerned, I remember that he entered his McLaren M10B (chassis number 400-20) in various hillclimbs in France, and good pictures of him were published in the French magazine Echappement in 1972 (unfortunately, I don't have the concerned copies anymore).

May be, is car was not as competitive in the British F5000 Championship as it was in hillclimbs, but the man was a pretty good gentleman driver, well used to powerful machinery.

He sported an open-face helmet late in the '70s, what is for me the proof that he was a true gentleman driver of the old school. His McLaren had a distinctive twin air box.

Best regards,

Philippe, aka Team Gunston

[Barry Boor]

Although I never met him because I had moved on by then, M. Soukry attempted to tie-up with Peter Connew's outfit by bringing his (I think) Morand Chevrolet engine to bolt on to one of the PC chassis.

It was not a successful liason. I believe the driver was not actually all that quick, and neither was the engine.

There was an attempt to qualify for a race or two but I don't think he ever made a race start. (I could be wrong on that last one - better people than I would be able to confirm or otherwise, these facts.)

[GIGLEUX]

Barry your are right. Pierre Soukry made three attemps in the 1973 F5000 Championship:
-Round 10 08-07-1973 Mallory Park N°24 did not qualify with 53.0
-Round 12 05-08-1973 Silverstone N°14 didn't arrive.
-Round 13 27-08-1973 Brands Hatch N°14 did not qualify with 50.5

[Dan Rear]

Blimey, Soukry really wasn't that quick was he. At the time a good FF1600 time at Mallory was around 50.5 ...

[allenbrown]

Originally posted by GIGLEUX
Barry your are right. Pierre Soukry made three attemps in the 1973 F5000 Championship:
-Round 10 08-07-1973 Mallory Park N°24 did not qualify with 53.0
-Round 12 05-08-1973 Silverstone N°14 didn't arrive.
-Round 13 27-08-1973 Brands Hatch N°14 did not qualify with 50.5

Did he really DNQ at Mallory? Clive Baker was slower and he started. I have Soukry as a DNS but I don't know the reason.

Can you tell me your source for the DNA at Silverstone? I don't have that entry list.

Regards

Allen

[allenbrown]

Originally posted by Dan Rear
Blimey, Soukry really wasn't that quick was he. At the time a good FF1600 time at Mallory was around 50.5 ...

He did a 48.0s in his M10B the previous year. A bunch of cars were slow in the 1973 race - I wonder if it was damp in practice. Or maybe the engine in the Connew was seriously tired.

He was pretty useful going up a hill. But it's all relative.

Allen

[Team Gunston]

Yes, the man was not Jim Clark, just an enthusiastic amateur enjoying a gipsy racing life with a big brute on his trailer. To become a world champion was not his goal. Something we have not to criticize today in my opinion. Those were the old good days.

Thanks to him, French spectators could see a terrific F5000 on their roads (Hervé Bayard being the only one, there, to do the same in 1972, with his sometimes "DFVised" Surtees TS8).

Also remember that Soukry used the very same car on the British circuits as on the French hills, and one can understand it was not the best way to beat the track record at Brands Hatch.

My old issues of the 'Echappement' magazine have gone and I cannot remember if the Connew was once entered in a French or Swiss hillclimb.

Best regards,

Philippe

[GIGLEUX]

Allen, my source is Formula 5000 Fact Book 1973-1977 Sheldon-Rabagliati.

[Barry Boor]

No, Philippe, I am pretty certain that the Connew was NEVER entered for any European hill climbs.

[Jeremy Jackson]

Originally posted by allenbrown
Did he really DNQ at Mallory? Clive Baker was slower and he started. I have Soukry as a DNS but I don't know the reason.

Regards

Allen

Autosport's report (Mr. Titchmarsh) says it DNS because the Oil tank split.

[allenbrown]

Thanks Jeremy. Exactly why I prefer original sources.

[Barry Boor]

Oh no! Not again.....

[allenbrown]

Huh?

[Barry Boor]

One un-named member of the Connew outfit got a right rollocking in Austria for producing a fibreglass oil tank that leaked all over the Oesterreichring.

Well, it was a first attempt! Seems like history repeated itself - but not the same tank, I guess.