When the farcical track conditions at the 1985 Belgian Grand Prix caused drivers to abandon practice and call for the event's cancellation, the supporting Formula 3000 teams and drivers were left with a conundrum. Should they too abandon ship, or accept Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's offer of a live TV slot the following day and hope that the promised fixes to the circuit would materialise?
In the end, Ecclestone got the outcome he wanted and the F3000 race went ahead, with a history-making front row of two brothers leading the field away on a newly-laid surface that Autosport described as "like the wet on slick tyres".
But while poleman Michel Ferte shunted his ORECA March after four laps, elder brother Alain - making only his second outing in the Corbiari March having begun the season in the woefully uncompetitive Lola - kept his cool and held on with the unfavourable Avon tyres to finish second behind Bridgestone-shod Mike Thackwell, the only man in the top five not running the Japanese rubber. "It was like driving on eggs in some corners," was Ferte's witty summary.