The 70s, a Porsche decade

One can argue that the 70’s were the Porsche decade. The company’s cars won Le Mans for the first time (and then four additional times), won hundreds (if you consider class wins, thousands) of races in all corners of the world, by that meaning every continent, dozens of championships, including world championships. A number of types represented the company in such wins: several versions of the 917, 908, 911, Carrera, 934, 914, 935, 936 won major races, even the old 910 and 907 could be called upon to win an occasional minor race. Porsches dominated at times not only the World Makes Championship, but also Can Am, Interserie, European GT Championship, DRM, IMSA, Trans Am. Porsches won domestic championships in the USA, Germany, Netherlands, Benelux, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Sweden and other countries. A Porsche Carrera was also the first turbo car to win a World Championship race, which also happened to be the last Targa Florio valid for the world championship. Porsches also won in hillclimbs, rally, autocross. This level of success was sustained throughout the decade – as the 917 was the dominating force in the 1970 Makes Championship and Le Mans, the 935 was doing the winning in 1979. Porsche cars comprised most Le Mans starters during the decade, sometimes, well over half of the field. Porsche quite simply ruled endurance racing all over the world, from Japan to Senegal and the USA.   

Curiously, there was no Porsche representation in Formula 1 during the 70`s, in any shape or form. While Porsche Formula 2 cars ran sporadically in the 50’s, a bona fide Porsche Formula 1 ran and won in the 1.5 formula of the 60’s, the TAG Porsche engine ran and conquered Formula 1 in the 80’s and there was even an ill-fated Porsche-Footwork tie up in the 90’s, Porsche was absent from the Formula 1 scene, even though the 908 Porsche was equipped with a 3-liter power plant, excellent for endurance but insufficiently powerful for Formula 1.

To find out a bit more about Porsche’s achievements in the 70’s, you may consider acquiring my book Motor Racing in the 70’s – Pivoting from Romantic to Organized.Much more information about racing in the 70's can be found in my book MOTOR RACING IN THE 70'S - PIVOTING FROM ROMANTIC TO ORGANIZED. It is a 472-page book about racing in the period,  with 242 photos, covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 5000, other lower formulae, Formula Indy, NASCAR, Touring Cars, Sports Cars, Can Am, Trans Am, IMSA, DRM, local racing scenes, main driver profiles, plus long lists of makes that raced in the period, main drivers and racing venues from 85 countries, year highlights, performance and financial analysis of the sport. It can be bought at Amazon shops in the USA, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia, Japan, 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426

On the matter of racing sponsors in Formula 1 and elsewhere

Cigarette manufacturers spent billions of dollars in automobile racing, starting in 1968. Back in the 1800’s, cigarettes were sold as healthy items – believe it or not, good for the lungs! By the way, that was the approach used to introduce cigarettes to the Chinese market in the latter part of the century. Soon the medical profession caught on with tobacco’s twisted rationale, but as the multi-billion dollar industry has always involved money and power all over the world, cigarettes are still sold freely all over, but advertising it has become impossible. It was not entirely so back in 1968, although there were some prohibitions in certain medias and certain countries. That was the very reason why cigarette manufacturers embraced racing with gusto, specially because direct tobacco advertising was prohibited in TV almost universally. As racing became more of a TV product, it became a very useful advertising medium for cigarette advertisers, almost the only way their brands could appear on an ever more relevant and influential platform. With time we got used to seeing Marlboro and Gitanes sponsored Formula 1 cars without signage in races such as the British and German Grand Prix. Eventually, cigarette sponsorship has become universally outlawed.

Now, we see logos of the likes of Martini and Chandon omitted from Formula 1 cars in the Abu Dhabi and Bahrain Grand Prix. I have not quite understood why the Singha logo is allowed to appear on Ferrari, for Singha is Thailand’s main beer brand. Maybe beer is allowed, champagne and vermouth not allowed?

Be that as it may, I was just meditating about the condition of the Brazilian Stock Car championship. Although a local championship, a number of well known drivers of Formula 1 pedigree race in this championship, including Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa, Ricardo Zonta, Antonio Pizzonia, Lucas di Grassi and Nelson Piquet Jr. A large percentage of the grid is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, mostly generic drug makers. This pattern began years ago, with the success of Medley.

This works in Brazil, it would not work in the US, for instance. Brazilians are prone to self-medication and buying medicines in pharmacy without prescription is a national pass time. In the US, you never even see the medicine’s packages for most prescriptions, generic or not: medicines are removed from boxes and placed in pharmacy containers. So generic drug makers have no reason to even thing about advertise. Of course, this does not apply to brand names such as Viagra, which most famously sponsored NASCAR cars. In fact, a lot of TV and magazine advertising these days is done by pharma companies, specially as TV audiences become older and older. The young set is leaving TV aside, after all.

Returning to the Brazilian Stock car championship, if the government does decide to curb or prohibit generic pharmaceutical companies advertising, the championship would be in a dire situation. Both this year’s champion and runner up (Daniel Serra and Felipe Fraga) are sponsored by pharma, in fact, Fraga’s team, Cimed, had no less than five cars in the Interlagos season closing event.

I have discussed the matter of sponsorship and money at length in my book Motor Racing in the 70`s – Pivoting from Romantic to Organized which can be bought here or in several amazon.com stores worldwide. I discuss the astounding wide variety of industries that sponsored racing endeavors back in that pioneering decade, and funny enough, pharmaceutical companies were not common at all. Things change. For the sake of Brazilian Stock Car, let us hope there is no advertising ban on generic drug makers. And let us hope not many thousand Brazilians die from improper self-medicating…   

Much more information about racing in the 70's can be found in my book MOTOR RACING IN THE 70'S - PIVOTING FROM ROMANTIC TO ORGANIZED. It is a 472-page book about racing in the period,  with 242 photos, covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 5000, other lower formulae, Formula Indy, NASCAR, Touring Cars, Sports Cars, Can Am, Trans Am, IMSA, DRM, local racing scenes, main driver profiles, plus long lists of makes that raced in the period, main drivers and racing venues from 85 countries, year highlights, performance and financial analysis of the sport. It can be bought at Amazon shops in the USA, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia, Japan, 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426