Rob W, thanks for your post and your insistence. Good memory.
I know some people won't believe Joules Goux and his mechanic drank six bottles of champagne in pit stops during 1913 Indy 500, but, hey, is in the history books. Anyway, I digress. The point is that you are right, as captainmorgan points out.
The happening was at the beautiful circuit designed by De Thier near the town of Francorchamps, down the valley towards a stream called the Eau Rouge and then uphill to the crest of Les Combes. The year was 1925 and the guy's name was Vittorio Jano. It was the
Belgian GP at Spa, and it was more than a joke. It is one of the most studied displays in the history of racing: I've wrote about it somewhere in the forum.
Mr. Jano directed the Alfa team. The local favorite, the Delage team, has retired and the public was booing because the Romeos he had designed, lead by Antonio Ascari, were dominating. Mr. Jano ordered the cars to pit, in response. Not only he had lunch properly presented, on a table with tablecloth in full view of the "howling spectators" while the cars were attended, but you can read here that
the cars were cleaned and buffed. Ascari won the race and was killed in his next outing at the French GP. His son, the famous Alberto Ascari, won the same race in 1952 and 1953. The history of italians at Spa is really, really old and full of surprises.
