Dave,
The wheel in Claude's video is - Claude's offside front. Watch what happens when he bumps over the rumble strip at the side of the track without a wheel. Ouch! The cause was the wrong taper on the knock-off nut, which allowed it to work loose.
The loss of the rear clip isn't apparent from the video, but Claude said the car got very light at the back without it. . . . .
Apparently the Pit Marshal had seen the car leaving the pit with the loose rear clip but had done nothing because 'it wasn't his job'. No doubt accompanied by a Gallic Shrug, I would probably have responded with a swift Swiss Bunch of Fives!
What finally stopped the car was fuel pump failure. This was in addition to failure of the main headlights a couple of laps previously.
Claude said that, after the third failure, Sylvie his wife insisted that he stopped before anything more disastrous happened! The good news is that Claude and 1016 are none the worse for their adventures and will, I'm sure, be back in 2008.
On the magazine delivery problems, we are investigating what could have caused the delay. The magazines were definitely taken to the post on 24 March. When we know why they were not postmarked until 29 March, I will report back.
PS Have you seen Brian's neons? - they really glow!!
