“Entered the race illegally”

During the 1974 US Grand Prix held at Watkins Glen, 15th round of the FIA F1 World Championship, Australian Tim Schenken, driving for John Player Special Team Lotus, was disqualified from the race as he “entered the race illegally”.

Ian Hubbard remembers: “Driving a one-off race for Lotus to test the ill-fated and modified Lotus 76-Ford (picture-above), Schenken had failed to qualify, but a quirk of the rules at the time, allowed the non-qualifying drivers to do the warm-up lap. The thinking was that if a driver broke down on the warm-up lap, there would be someone else ready to take their place.”

The non-qualifying cars were meant to pull into the pits before the start, but Schenken (on the orders of Colin Chapman), started the race anyway (picture below). After a few laps, the organisers realised there was a car on track that shouldn’t have been and he was disqualified.