1984 paris six hr - Powerboat Archive

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Hill and Williams were out front from every angle.
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ritain's John Hill, partnered by
past champion Tony Williams,
won the 1983 Paris race Oct. 2 on the
River Seine, which returned to its
traditional six-hour format.
It was an outstanding victory for the
British pair. Alternating the driving as
they refueled, they led the fleet from
shortly after the start. The result was
particularly pleasing for Williams, because
it was his first real success since
being seriously injured during a record
speed attempt on Lake Windermere two
years ago. To make a comeback in such
an important event is probably without
precedent.
Driving their Anglo Petroleumsponsored,
Mercury-powered Burgess
ON catamaran, the winning crew completed
173 laps of the 2.9-mile River
Seine circuit, to finish 38 laps ahead of
fellow countrymen Mick Bridge and
newcomer Bill Ormiston, in a Mercurypowered
Pentax-Hodge rig.
This second pair was successful
despite losing vital time in the pits
changing a lower transmission unit
after hitting a submerged log on the
42lPOWERBOAT

JOHN HILL AND TONV WILLIAMS
TOOK THE PARIS SIX-HOUR
By Ray Bulman
TWO BRITONS
WIN IN FRANGE
*\riR.F-. *
Andrew Elliott in his Yarnaha-powered Molgaard cat moves into the OE class lead.
Third place went to Austrian Wilfried
Weiland and Herman Gruberfrom
West Germany in a Mercury/Regal-
Seebold outfit. They clocked 133 laps,
and also owed their success to the
efforts of their pit crew. Weiland
collided with another competitor
during the fourth hour and unknowingly
holed his craft, but it was not until he
came in for fuel and the hull lay
stationary that the boat began to sink.
It submerged completely, but in less
than an hour had been recovered,
repaired, the engines had been dried
out and the boat had been put back in
the race.
The Paris event marked the finale of
the seven-heat, Fonda Formula II world
ON series. With a 2,000-cc engine
capacity limit set by the French
organizers three years ago, these were
the largest craft competing. Nine of the
52 starters were in this category, with
the rest of the fleet made up of the
smaller 850-cc racing OE and restricted
SE classes.
Unfortunately for Hill, who held
second slot in the Fonda championship
Michael Werner won ON points trophy.
point standings, winning did not improve
his position. Defending champion
Michael Werner of West Germany
already held a score of31 points, gained
in four heats (the best six of seven to
count), and therefore Hill had to be
content to finish the season as runnerup
to Werner.
If Werner was lucky in the championship,
his Paris challenge was the
opposite. He teamed up with Nick
Cripps (Liqui-Moli /Seebold/Mercury)
for the event. Cripps, a past winner of
the Six-Hour, together with the West
German had already pummelled everyone
in his class for two seasons, and the
pair looked set to make a clean sweep to
the winner's rostrum. Unfortunately,
their race never even entered the
second lap.
Cripps headed away from the start
and was soon in the lead. Within 40
seconds. however. well before the first
Iap was completed, his boat was
virtually cut in half by a French
Formula II outfit driven by Charles
Favede. Cripps'and and Werner's race
was over almost before it had begun.
Although the leading ONs gave a
creditable performance, without doubt
the outstanding effort ofthe event was
that of another British pair, Andrew
Elliott and Ken McCrorie (Molgaard/
Yamaha), competing in the small
production-engine SE category.
Not only did they win their class prize
easily, but at one point they were third
overall as the larger and more powerful
ON outfrts underwent repair in the pits.
Their overall finish of frfth was no mean
feat, particularly since they crossed the
finish line ahead of the potentially
faster, OE class-winning rig driven by
Italians Redaelli and Bagioli (Gardin/
Johnson).
This Paris meeting also saw the first
serious attempt behind the wheel by
Fiona Brothers since her near-fatal
accident in a British national race on
May 8. She was partnered by Ken
Zeilinski of the U.S. in her Coltsponsored
Mercury/Seebold. Together
they managed to take fifth in Formula
II, not a bad effort for someone many
felt would never race again. Pr
POWERBOATI4s