Skip to main content

Winds of change from the East


These days, we are quite accostumed with the idea of GP drivers from the old Iron Curtain. After all, drivers from Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and Hungary have all driven in Formula 1, and the Pole actually won a race before a rally accident ruined what looked like a great career.

However, in the 70's, we still lived under the Cold War, and the Eastern Block was basically shrouded by mystery. Russia every once announced even more mysterious GP level cars, touring car races were held in Brno, Czechoslovakia, as well as Budapest and Belgrade in the 60s, and East Germany also had a fairly active racing scene. However, dreaming of  an Iron Curtain GP driver in Formula 1 in the 70s was as far fetched as an imagination could go.

Not that the Eastern Block did not have a representative in F1, for Edgar Barth, Jurgen's father, did drive in the category while still East German. And later as West German.

Allow me some poetic liberty. As Formula 2 was, at least in theory, the step category before Formula 1, the driver pictured below almost became the first modern Eastern Block driver to reach Formula 1 in the 70s. Allow me a lot of poetic liberty.

Ok, there was Count Adam Potocki, born in Poland, who raced briefly in F2 in the late 60s, early 70s, however, by that time he had French citizenship. The guy below was the real deal.

The car is a Surtees TS16-Ford, and the driver, Yugoslav Francy Jerancic.

The "lot of poetic liberty" stems from the fact that Francy, who apparently had lots of bourgeois sponsorship in his car, never even came close to qualifying in any of the Championship F2 races he showed up for in 1975. That, of course, meant GP teams were not really lined up to hire the slow Titoland driver, and perhaps bring Vesna sponsorship to F1. Elsewhere, Francy did not steal any headlines either.

Notwithstanding, Jerancic makes a nice conversation piece about "almosts", of which there are so many in car racing.


Carlos de Paula is a translator, writer and auto racing historian based in Miami

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

INTERNATIONAL RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS OF THE 70S

Many international championships were added to the International calendar during the 70s, which spike interest on the sport globally. These, plus the existing championships were: Formula 1 – World Championship, South Africa (also included F5000 and F2), Aurora Championship + British Group 8 (which also included Formula 5000, Formula 2, even Atlantic early on) Formula 2 – European and Japanese Championships Formula 3 – British, European, German, French, Italian, Swedish championships Formula 5000 – American, European, Australian, New Zealand Sports cars: World Championship of Makes, World Sports Car Championship, DRM (also ran Touring Cars), European GT Championship, European 2 Liter Championship, IMSA, Trans-Am, Can Am, Interserie, PROCAR, Le Mans Touring cars: NASCAR, European Touring Car championship, Avenir Cup, USAC Stockcars Formula Atlantic: Canada, South Africa, Britain Formula Indy: USAC Championship Trail   + CART Formula Super

CASERTA'S HELL

  Racing history enthusiasts will readily remember some of the darkest days of the sport, when multiple drivers and spectators died on a same race. Le Mans 1955, Monza 1933, Rouen 1970, Indy 1973, Imola 1994, are just some of those sad days that remind us how thousands of people lost their lives   at race tracks or places where races were held since the late 19 th century, in spite of today’s false sense of security.   The earliest races took place on open roads, generally from one city to another. With increasing number of vehicles and the inconvenience of closing roads for racing events, soon closed circuits emerged, while the “stradale” Targa Florio insisted in remaining open for business until the 70s. Now such racing is restricted to rallies and hill climbs.   It is not surprising that it was in Italy, in spite of the veteran Monza circuit, that there was some resistance to building of purpose made tracks with a semblances of safety. Very dangerous races were held in seve

CARLOS DE PAULA LAUNCHES NEW BOOK CELEBRATING THE 100 YEARS OF 24 HOURS OF LE MANS

 Author Carlos de Paula, known for his historical auto racing books, has launched a new book, the "24 Hours of Le Mans Curiosities", which is available in most Amazon shops worldwide.  The 279-page book contains year-by-year milestones of the great race, including details on drivers, constructors, regulations, track changes, basic statistics, nationalities represented, debuting marques, plus curious details that may be overlooked even by the most knowledgeable racing enthusiast. It is meant to be a fun book, offered at a lower cost than most 24 Hours of Le Mans books.                           Carlos de Paula has authored several auto racing books since 2018. The book is selling well in several markets besides the United States, such as UK, Germany, France, Canada, Spain, Australia. Because the book is sold in non-English speaking countries, it is written in simple English.  The Le Mans book follows the successful Formula 1 Curiosities series that took Amazon by storm in 2022