Auto Racing Commentary

March was present in F-1 in three distinct times, the first of which lasted from 1970-1977. During that initial period, March was the major provider of chassis to privateers. In fact, in its very first season, March provided chassis to several teams, in addition to running a 2-car works team. The most important privateer team that year was Tyrrell, which fielded cars for current champion Jackie Stewart, Servoz-Gavin and Cevert. And Tyrrell was indeed the last privateer team to have won a Grand Prix, the Spanish GP of 1970. In addition to Tyrrell, Andy Granatelli (STP) fielded a March 701 for Mario Andretti, who raced in a few events, finishing a best 3rd place. Colin Crabbe/Antique Automobiles also fielded a 701 for Ronnie Peterson, and Hubert Hahne also bought a 701. The latter became very flustered when he could not get the car up to competitive speed to qualify for the German GP, claiming March provided him a defective car. When Ronnie Peterson drove his car and immediately got

A huge number of auto races fall in complete obscurity the moment the checkered flag is waved, despite the effort and expense of the participants, often with great sacrifice. Try for example to find the complete results of most races on the internet, or even magazines. The omission of race reports is not uncommon. What is unusual is to find a story about a race that did not happen! Only one pair could get away with such mischief, Motor Sport Magazine, and journalist Denis Jenkinson, both British. Motor Sport is the oldest motoring magazine in the world, published since 1924, and, indeed, still exists today. Jenkinson is one of the best known, and some would say, best and most talented journalist specializing in motorsports. Author of many books, Jenkinson was also known for being the co-driver for Stirling Moss, with Mercedes-Benz in the 1955 Mille Miglia, duly won by the duo. One of the peculiarities of Jenkinson was that he was "old school". It is true that in his

By Carlos de Paula Several European championships emerged during the early seventies, many of which did not survive many years, including the European GT Championship and European 2 liter championship. The Interseries was not a FIA championship, and maybe because of that reason, survived until the early 2000s, although in the latter guise it was but a shadow of its former self. Read more about if here  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426 Leo Kinnunen

I have to confess that the BMW 3.0 CSL is a car that totally strikes my fancy. To me, it is the super BMW of all time, in fact, the car that really brought BMW to the fore in automobile racing. It won a few European Touring Car Championships, starting in 1973, with Toine Hezemans, and most of the races between 1973 and 1980. In Group 2 configuration, it also raced in the the World Championship of Makes, beating quite a few lighter prototypes, and it also raced in Group 5 in 1976, winning three races. The car was also used in IMSA in 1975, winning Sebring, with Brian Redman in the crew, and a few other races with Hans Stuck. The car was also used in the DRM and various touring car series. The car beat competition from Ford, Mercedes, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Opel, and whoever else dared to race against it in the ETC. A number of great drivers raced it, among them Jacky Ickx, Dieter Quester, Vittorio Brambilla, Henri Pescarolo, Ronnie Peterson, Hans Stuck, John Fitzpatrick, Tom Walkins

Nowadays we talk a lot about the pace of change in all walks of life. It seems to me, though, that the era when there was the greatest amount of change in automobile racing was the 70s. I am basically talking about the tremendous volume of changes that had a lasting effect on racing. Commercially, there was consolidation of sponsorship in Formula 1 and all other disciplines of racing. In 1970, a good number of GP teams had some form of commercial sponsorship, however, all teams were sponsored by 1979. Commercial sponsorship not only provided money to teams, but also made racing commercially interesting and sellable on TV, and TV made things more interesting to sponsors. Broadcasting also expanded greatly during the decade, especially in the third world. Thus, by the end of the decade, Bernie Ecclestone in F1 and NASCAR in F1 had began to expand live TV coverage of racing events. The early days of cable TV also provided more outlets and programming needs. Turbocharging, although wid

By Carlos de Paula Around 1968, the horsepower difference between 3 liter Formula 1 and 1.6 liter Formula 2 cars was great. There was a place for an intermediate, high horsepower single seater category in Europe, powered by stock blocks. The U.S. Formula A was just such a formula: stock block 5.0 liter single seater cars, theoretically fast and inexpensive to run, that were being ran in the USA since 1967 The formula was thus adopted in Europe for a 1969 championship. Read more about it here  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426 S

2/11/1959, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Starts:41 Points: 15 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:1 Understanding Roberto Moreno’s career is a major undertaking, for he was an obviously talented driver, with enough stamina to be driving to this day, who simply did not seem to catch the right breaks at the right time, although on paper he seemed to have plenty of opportunities. A pal of Nelson Piquet’s, Moreno went to Europe in 1979, and by 1980 was a major force in Formula Ford, winning 15 races. He went to Formula 3 in 1981, got excluded from some races due to regulation violations, and that early in his career got a testing contract with Lotus. Having won the Australian GP in 1981, against many established GP aces, Moreno went to the USA to drive in Atlantic. He then got what could be seen as the opportunity of a lifetime, but turned out to almost kill his career: he was entered as a Lotus race driver in the Dutch GP, but failed to come to grips with the car and DNQ’d miserably. That was

By the late 60’s the German economy was in full recovery and local auto racing, which was long a subdued affair, began to flourish. Surely Porsche’s success in the World Championship of Makes revived German interest for auto racing, for such a long time maintained by Mercedes Benz, which quit big time racing after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. However, BMW’s rise to prominence in saloon car racing, as well as F-2, also was a shot in the arm of a moribund local scene. This, in turn, resulted in Ford Germany’s involvement, primarily in the European Touring Car Championship. In fact, the latter two marques waged huge battles all over Europe during the period 1971 to 1974, which brought to light the DRM, the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterchaft, in 1972. The championship was divided into two divisions, Division I for cars above 2 liters, and Division II for cars above 2 liters. This meant Division I was mostly contested by Porsche 911 and Ford Capris, with an odd BMW, and Division II sp

1972-1976 By Carlos De Paula Today GT racing is in a healthy state the world over. We do live in more affluent times, with quite a few dream cars eligible to run in the category and a lot of sponsorship money, which was not the case in the early 70’s. However, the world of sports car racing has always been a struggle between bona fide, purebred racers, mostly called prototypes, and GTs, which are basically racy, production based cars. Plus, there have been categories in between, such as the Group 5 of the mid 70’s/early 80’s, and the 5 liter sports cars of the late 60’s, which required a minimum production run of 25 units. Rad more about it here  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426

After a brilliant season in 1969, with a Brabham-Ford driven by Piers Courage (two second places), Frank Williams embarked into what seemed to be an eternal career as a back-marker in Formula 1. In fact in the next season, not even Piers Courage's brilliance could make the De Tomaso-Ford competitive, and other great drivers, Brian Redman and Tim Schenken also failed to make the car fast, after Piers' untimely death. In 1971 and 1972, Frank fielded Marches, experimenting with the first Williams designed car in 1972, the Politoys. In spite of having good drivers, such as Henri Pescarolo and Jose Carlos Pace, Williams' cars were mostly back-markers. Having attained sponsorship from Iso-Rivolta and Marlboro, in 1973, Frank fielded upgraded versions of the Politoys, then a revamped car, which still used bits and pieces from the original Williams. In spite of the theoretically good sponsorship deal, the Iso-Marlboros were again back-markers, and got two points in the champi

By Carlos De Paula By 1969, there were quite a few 2 liter sports cars around in Europe to warrant a separate championship. These cars normally competed in the World Championship of Makes, with no chance of outright victory, so competitors welcomed the chance of actually winning races, rather than classes. Read more about it here  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426

Born 8/5/1943, Tampere, Finland Starts:1 Points: 0 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0 Curt Lincoln had been, until 1970, the only Finnish race driver of any international reputation. Curt did not go as far as Formula 1, after all, Finnish drivers were mostly known for their rally exploits. Leo Kinnunen made it to the upper echelons of motor racing in 1970, named Pedro Rodriguez’s partner at John Wyear Racing. He did well enough not to mess up the work of expert Rodriguez, and manage to manhandle the difficult Porsche 917 to four world championship victories. This was followed by three titles in the reasonably prestigious Interserie championship, supposedly the European equivalent of the Can Am series, from 1971 to 1973. For 1974, Kinnunen was to make the big move. The Finnish AAW Racing team decided to field their local hero in the F-1 championship, but the weapon of choice was anything but ideal: a Surtees TS16. Unfortunately for Kinnunen, his Formula 1 career comprised of 6 entr

The Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the Sun, hinting that new happenings are nothing more than revamped versions of yesterday's occurrences. For those who do not believe the Scriptures, consider the macroeconomic books, that suggest there are Economic cycles of prosperity and scarcity, caused by a number of external factors, such as supply and demand imbalances, climatic factors, extreme speculation. This tells us that continuous prosperity on a macro level is a fallacy. Let us talk about another book, Autocourse. I was reading an annual from the early 70s, and the writer forecast problems ahead for the world of racing; He simply said there are too many categories in European racing, and the market could not support it. In the late 60's,  there was F1, European F2, British, French and Italian F3, World Makes Championship and the European and British Touring Car Championships. Then, with the advent of commercial sponsorship, beginning of TV c

Let us be honest. The last two North American Formula 1 endeavors were resounding failures, to wit, the USF1 race team and Craig Pollock's PURE engine. I find that both projects were very naive from the onset, thus their failure. In USF1's case, I followed the project closely. I could tell it was ultimately doomed when the team announced its driver would be Argentine Jose Maria Lopez. Nothing against Argentines or Lopez, whom I rate highly. It seemed, though, that such a patriotically named team would only be successful with American sponsors and drivers. The fact it was turning to Argentine driver and funding augured poor for its future. So, I see the current purchase of HRT by American-Canadian Scorpion Racing concern with a pinch of salt. I understand that what they are really doing is buying a slot, no more no less. They are certainly not buying HRT's race car designs, at least I hope not. In the time HRT was in F1, it just got worse and worse, in spite of drivers`