Auto Racing Commentary

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 i...

The 6 Hours of Peru is Peru's major car race, and in fact,m a long standing event, held since 1964. In its current form, it is a touring car race, that features more than 30 entrants. A lot of Peruvian drivers who raced abroad, such as Eduardo Dibos, Jorge Koechlin and Neto Jochamowitz have won the event. Ecuadorians  Fausto Merello and Guillermo Ortega won the race in 1968 and American Jim Pace was one of the winners in 2001. 1964 Percy Fox - Kike Pérez 1965 Eduardo Dibós Ch. - Emilio Fort 1966 Leopoldo Barboza - Ricardo Dewitz 1967 Armando Capriles - Alfredo Asencio 1968 Fausto Merello - Guillermo Ortega 1971 Francisco Schettini - Kike Pérez 1973 Miguel Navarro - Udarico Ossio 1976 Eduardo Malachowski - Denis Gonzáles 1977 Pedro De las Casas - Luis De las Casas 1978 Alfredo Bergna - Coco Corbetto 1979 Julio César De las Casas - Luis F. De las Casas 1980 Ricardo Bentín - Gaspare Dalla Francesca 1981 Jorge Koechlin - Gaspare Dalla Francesca 1982 Jorge Koechlin - Tit...

The pay driver "situation" in Formula 1 is being pictured escathologically as a disaster of the era, the end of the category as we know it. Even Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief who should know better, seems to be blowing the thing out of proportion. First of all, paying drivers always existed in Formula 1, and always will exist, in one fashion or another. Years ago, they came mostly in the form of privateers, drivers who bought and run their own cars on real shoestring budgets, because they did not attract the attention of works teams. Then, when commercial sponsorship came into full force in the 70s (which, by the way, killed the privateers) the teams down the ladder continued to rent seats in their cars to anyone who could bring a few thousand dollars. As a matter of fact, a large number of drivers who raced in Formula 1 in the 70s were paying drivers of one sort or another, and I could list dozens. Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda began their F1 careers renting drives. E...

Any follower of British F3 is quite aware that the once mighty championship is going through crisis. Once a championship with multiple rounds, even some abroad, now the championship is reduced to four double header events, excluding some of the more traditional venues. It is not the first time, and we hope, not the last time British F3 goes through such crisis. I say I hope it is not the last because if it is, it might be the ultimate demise of the series. In 1974, one of the major problems was the oil crisis brought about by the 1973 Middle East war. Oil prices went through the roof (little they know how far the roof would go), European economies were destabilized, and car racing was perceived as a wasteful endeavor. This affected a number of race series worldwide, in fact, in the next couple of seasons a lot of European championships were either gone or transformed into lighter versions. F3 in 1974 also had an image issue. Engine sizes were raised again in a short period of...

Not the son, the uncle. Just if you are wondering. Yesterday, I found a newspaper from Montreal at my local supermarket, and bought it, to practice a little bit of my French. In the sports section, there was a news report about an accident suffered by Jacques Villeneuve. I did not find any report on the specialized press, maybe I missed it. I don't know, but the fact is the lesser known Villeneuve , and for that matter, lesser known Jacques Villeneuve, had been a F1 driver (albeit unsuccessful), an Indycar car race winner, a Can-Am champion, and a notable Formula Atlantic driver. Jacques, like older brother Gilles, began racing in snowmobiles. And it was in one of the contraptions that Jacques had an accident, that resulted in a perforated lung, among other problems. The injuries are not life-threatening, and it seems the 59-year old will recover. Whether the French Canadian will muster the will to race snowmobiles again, I do not know. Carlos de Paula is a translator, wr...

Gil de Ferran pictured 1992 was a very active year for Brazilian drivers in international F-3. Gil de Ferran won the English championship netting 7 wins, 5 second places and 2 third places, driving the Honda powered Reynard from the Paul Stewart stables. His teammate was Brazilian Andre Ribeiro, who only scored points four times, with the best result a fourth place in the penultimate round in Truxthon. Oswaldo Negri drove for West Surrey's  Reynard Honda, and his best result was a second place. He scored points on several occasions. The fourth Brazilian driver in British F-3 that year ended up being the only one to ever get the F-1, Pedro Paulo Diniz, who drove for Edenbridge in a Reynard Honda. The Sao Paulo born driver had 2 third places, earned earlier this year. He did not finish many races and one cannot say he impressed many people. The most interesting fact of the season was the large number of Brazilians to participate in the Italian Championship. The prior year, M...

DATE SERIES CAR/MAKE RACE DRIVER(S) RACE TRACK -------- --------- -------------------------- ----------------- ----------------- 05/30/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER WATSON P.FLAHERTY INDIANAPOLIS 500 06/10/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER WATSON P.FLAHERTY MILWAUKEE 06/24/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER KUZMA G.AMICK LANGHORNE 07/04/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER TEMPLETON P.O'CONNOR DARLINGTON 07/14/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER HILLEGASS E.SACHS LAKEWOOD PARK 08/19/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER KUZMA J.BRYAN SPRINGFIELD 08/26/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER KUZMA J.BRYAN MILWAUKEE 09/03/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER KUZMA J.BRYAN DU QUOIN 09/08/56 INDY USAC OFFENHAUSER KUZMA T.BETTENHAUSEN SYRA...