Dallas 1984 gp

In the Constructors Championship it was, as ever, advantage McLaren-TAG arriving in Dallas, in spite of the fact that they had been outscored fairly comprehensively in Detroit. Surprisingly, Team Lotus-Renault had ended the weekend in Michigan as their closest challengers, having moved half a point ahead of Ferrari.

Brabham-BMW, meanwhile, had climbed to fourth after their first double podium of the year, while Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth had been catapulted to the back of the field after their retroactive disqualification from the Championship. Piquet leading Senna in practice going into the first turn, with Rothengatter leaving the pits in the background. Practice was supposed to start with a one hour unofficial session on Thursday, just to get used to the circuit.

But, in what was a precursor of the rest of the weekend, things were delayed due to a series of disputes with the organizers. Once the cars got rolling, though, the drivers were in for a shock. First they found that the track was the bumpiest they had ever encountered, much worse than the previous bumpiest track in Detroit , where they had been just two weeks before.

There was insufficient runoff room at the end of the short straights, and no place on the track had any cranes for removing disabled cars. The tire companies were having their own issues, with extremely high temperatures, and the fact that their qualifying tires were almost useless.

The cars were getting as little as half a lap out of the softest tires at speed during practice, and the drivers were learning to drive their out laps at greatly reduced speed, hoping that the tires might last through the timed lap to follow. Race winner Rosberg in his Williams FW09 during practice. Late Saturday afternoon a support race for Can-Am cars was run.

At several corners, the asphalt was completely torn up and thrown aside, leaving nothing but the concrete foundation laid in the s. Workers were mobilized, and all through the night were busy digging up the corners down to the dirt, and filling the holes with quick-dry cement. The drivers arrived about seven that morning for a scheduled a.

But some levity came as a result of Jacques Laffite showing up in his pajamas. With the addition of a large public and filmed argument between Bernie Ecclestone and the race organizers over credentialing, and a pre-race press conference with the drivers almost unanimous in their condemnation of the track, organization and management, the pre-race TV show had plenty to cover.

The race had been originally scheduled to cover 78 laps, but practice times showed this to be wildly optimistic. So the distance was dropped to 68 laps, and was due to start at a.

And while the workers made tremendous progress on the repairs to the track, several drivers, including Alain Prost and Niki Lauda were talking of a boycott of the race, until a complete resurfacing had been completed.

Formula One management's position was that if the drivers did not race, they would be in breach of contract, no matter what. Derek Ongaro added some hope by approving the latest repairs to the track, so at a few minutes after , the drivers were rolling off on three reconnaissance laps, being flagged off by TV star Larry Hagman.

All except for Arnoux , whose car would not fire up until the field had completed more than half a lap, thus causing him to start at the back of the grid. With Martin Brundle still at Baylor Medical Center, and Philippe Alliot 's car beyond easy repair capabilities, 25 cars lined up for the start. Hesnault was the first retiree, losing a wheel at the first chicane. Senna slapped the wall near the end of the first lap, but was able to reach the pits to replace his broken wheel.

Cecotto came around with a flat tire, after colliding with Hesnault after his accident. At the front, Mansell was pulling away, aided by a misfire in the engine of De Angelis, who was passed by Warwick on lap four. By lap seven, Warwick was shadowing Mansell whose tires were overheating , and Lauda had passed De Angelis.

Around lap 10 things got interesting. First, Cheever had clouted a wall with a rear tire at the first chicane, and was out. And Bellof had gone wide at the first hairpin, and broken the suspension both the front and rear of the right side. At the front, Warwick had been directly on Mansell's tail for a couple of laps, and on lap 11 tried a pass at the righthander just before the first hairpin.

Mansell held his line, and suddenly Warwick found himself on the marbles, then into a tire barrier, where his race ended. Lauda found himself in second, but that only lasted a lap, as De Angelis's misfire had vanished as quickly as it had come, and he took Lauda on the straight before the pit complex. Further back, both Patrese and De Cesaris had been victimized by unrepaired portions of the track breaking up, and been forced to park broken cars on escape roads.

And by virtue of attrition and brilliant passing in traffic, Arnoux had moved from the back of the field to 12th. On lap 16, Rothengatter pulled into the pits to retire with one of only two non-accident related breakdowns, a fuel line that was leaking into the cockpit, making him ill with the fumes.

At the front, Mansell was just ahead of both teammate De Angelis, and Rosberg, who was benefiting from everyone else having the same handling problems that he usually had with the FW On lap 19, Rosberg managed to squeeze past De Angelis coming out of the stadium lefthanders when the latter was baulked slightly by Mansell, and caught right up to Mansell.

On lap 22, Mansell managed to get some breathing room when he lapped Surer just before the pit hairpin, but within a couple of laps he had a train comprised of Rosberg, De Angelis, Prost and Lauda on his tail, and it seemed that his tires were going off for good. Tambay was closing in on the lead pack until lap 26, when he cut the second chicane too close, and left his right front wheel behind. About then Cecotto did almost the same thing at the chicane before the pits.

On lap 28, Prost was shown on TV, slapping the wall with his right rear coming out of the first hairpin. But, astonishingly, his car seemed none the worse, and he passed De Angelis for third on lap This eventful race seemed to settle down a bit at this point with the exception of Arnoux carving his way up the field , but it was by no means boring.

Rosberg was all over Mansell, trying to find a way past, and Mansell seemed to have less and less grip from his front tires. Things were so close that Rosberg and Prost passed each other twice, while never getting more than a second behind Mansell. On lap 36 Rosberg finally managed to pass Mansell before the left hander at the back corner of the circuit.

Only to have Mansell try to repass him at the last chicane, with both drivers waving their arms at each other. Once clear, Rosberg quickly opened up a five second lead, while in the space of two laps Mansell fell behind Prost, De Angelis and Lauda, before brushing the wall and pitting for new tires. This dropped him two more places to seventh, behind the incredible Arnoux, and Piquet , who had been fighting a sticking throttle for most of the race. Rosberg's hopes of keeping his lead were short lived, as Prost started catching him at a second a lap.

De Angelis found that his front tires were worn out, too, as he was passed by Lauda, then a few laps later by the amazing Arnoux, now up to fourth.

He got out, hopped the fence, and watched the rest of the race from one of the VIP suites. At the back of the field, Palmer retired with electrical problems, and Senna suffered a broken driveshaft on the wheel that he had hit the wall with on lap two. On lap 49, Prost caught Rosberg, and shot right past him, as Keke had no intention of driving like Mansell had. Carroll Shelby, one of the race organizers, believed that the conditions for the race would be much better as the Dallas Grand Prix requested to be moved from July to cooler weather in the spring for the season.

However, the Dallas Grand Prix would not return despite only being one year into a five-year contract. Dallas is an infected carbuncle on the ass of hell. Fair Park is worse. The A. About Jalopnik Advisor Jalopnik Store. By Ryan Erik King. A couple of laps later he clipped a wall, a mistake which not only necessitated a tyre change - dropping him to fifth - but which quite probably led to the gear linkage problem which brought his black and gold machine to an agonising halt within sight of the finish.

Instinctively Mansell leapt from his cockpit and, in a moment of incredible, almost irrational single-mindedness, tried to push his car across the line. But exhausted and dehydrated from toiling for nearly two hours in the blazing heat, the future world champion was always fighting an uphill battle and within a matter of metres collapsed dramatically to the ground. When the ingredients for a race include searing heat, a treacherous surface and a track lined with unforgiving concrete blocks, it should perhaps come as no surprise when the end product is a sackful of retirements.

The rate of attrition in Dallas was so high that only 8 of the 26 starters were classified as having finished the race, with 14 of them - including Derek Warwick whilst attempting to take the lead , Patrick Tambay, Michele Alboreto, Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda - eliminated after clobbering or spinning into the barriers.

The young Brazilian, just nine Grands Prix into his fledgling F1 career with Toleman, went out on lap 47 after clipping a wall and damaging a driveshaft. So we walked out to where he'd hit the wall and do you know what? The wall had moved. What had happened was that someone had hit the far end of a [concrete] block and pushed it, which made the leading edge come out a few millimetres. Yes he benefitted from the retirement of others, but nonetheless Arnoux's was a truly special performance.

The great irony was that many thought Laffite must have been dozing during qualifying when he lapped nearly five seconds off Williams team mate Rosberg. Hardly on peak form, he clearly woke up during the course of the lap race, surviving the mayhem to finish fourth, albeit two laps down on the Flying Finn.

The six-time Grand Prix winner then provided one of the images of the event when, having ditched his helmet, he gave not one but both stranded McLaren drivers a post-race lift back to the pits on the sidepods of his FW