From Racer…Q & A with Mario
Q: I’m a long-time fan and had the pleasure of watching you win the 1969 Indianapolis 500. Can you explain why your winning Brawner Hawk had only a left-side front wing? Thanks.
Mike J.
Vernon Hills, IL
MA: Thank you for your support. The left-side front wing was all that was necessary to balance what the rear downforce provided.
Also interesting…Gordon Kirby Racemaker press…
Meanwhile, it's interesting to reflect on the lessons of the Brawner/Hawks. Something nobody counted on was the ground-effect achieved by the car's wide shape and flat bottom.
"It was nice and clean but we had that big flat bottom on that car," McGee explains. "The other guys--the Lotuses and so forth--were sleek, cigar-shaped cars. A.J. Watson used to call our car a bathtub. We had this bathtub with the oil tank in front and the oil tubes running from the radiator down the side along the bottom and they were acting like little skirts.
"The 'bathtub' had so much bodywork area and a flat bottom that created a bunch of downforce. This was before anyone had discovered that you could make downforce from the car rather than being mostly concerned with the speed down the straightaway.
"Years later, we figured out we had probably a thousand to 1,500 pounds more downforce than anybody else. We had ground effect and didn't know it. The next year we put little chin spoilers on the nose and we put a ducktail on the back end. It all helped.
"The 'bathtub' turned out to be a much better design than the sleek, narrow Lotus-type car. It was one of those instances where we didn't know what we were doing but it worked much better than the concept that most engineers had at the time."
I am always learning…
Tim
