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 Vee: European, plus local championships in several countries

Hill climbing: European Hill-climb championship

Tasman Cup

SCCA and British club racing 

If you are interested on details concerning these individual 1970s championships, plus dozens of other championship and categories, 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

Carlos de Paula is one of the top Brazilian Portuguese translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top Portuguese AI Translation editor as well. 

Quickly fading away

It was almost like a pilgrimage. One of the first things I would do in my trips to Paris was go to Champs Elysees and visit the Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Mercedes and Toyota showrooms. There I would buy miniatures, books, t-shirts, key holders, trinkets of all types (I love trinkets), articles of clothing and take pictures of concept cars as well as racing cars.

I saw very up close a number of Red Bull, Renault and Mercedes Formula 1 cars, Peugeot and Toyota prototypes, Citroen rally and touring cars. Took a number of pictures. Happy days.

First to go was the Mercedes showroom. Granted that everything was so bloody expensive there that it seemed they really did not want to sell anything. There was never a thought of displaying the DTM cars, but at least I saw the Mercedes F1 up close. A show car, I know, fake as fake news.

Then, Toyota pulled the plug, curiously, just before finally winning Le Mans after so many decades trying. In its place, a toy store.

2017 claimed the Citroen multi floor show room, exceptionally designed outside and inside. 2018 was the year of demise of the Peugeot store. Alone carrying the torch now is Renault, the only one that was properly commercially explored from the get go, equipped with a properly run cafe. How long it will last, I don’t know.

Car makers are run by boards, who make purely financial decisions. They are interested on profits, and marketing expenses have to be justified. Trinket buyers can go to hell. While it is true that four of these manufacturers run Formula E programs, a category still in dire need of public relations. which has a Paris round with promotional issues no less, just one of the bunch sees the benefit of continuing with a Champs Elysees presence. None have ever displayed the electric racer. No Formula E participant will admit this, but most racing buffs are not all that keen on the category. It does need promotion, big time, and Champs Elysees was the ideal place.

Mind you, there was not a single race car on display this November at the sole lasting prestige showroom: a somewhat uncharacteristic 30s Renault limousine graced the front of the store, a pretty 50s oldie van was placed on the inside, plus a cutaway and concept car. No race cars, fake or true, were on sight. Racing themes were still abundant in the shop, though.

Racing as a promotional tool or merchandising outlet is losing power with every passing second, I hate to admit. Racing magazines are disappearing, and only Auto Hebdo is doing a proper print job at this time. Websites fail to excite. Stores selling racing miniatures and books are few and far between, resisting against severe odds, and a lot have closed in the last 5 or 6 years.

Peugeot claims that a new prestige showroom will be built somewhere else. Given the FIAT and PSA merger under discussion, I find that implausible, for mergers always mean severe cost cutting. I would not be surprised if the announced Peugeot WEC challenger were cancelled, just like Citroen just cancelled its WRC presence. 

I do hope in my next trip to Paris the Renault store will still be there. Where else would I buy trinkets?

The now empty former Citroen showroom at Champs Elysees

The beginning of the end

As my book Motor Racing in the 70`s indicates, 1979 was a very important year for the Williams team. In Silverstone, Clay Regazzoni managed to win a race for the British team for the first time. This was followed by 4 other wins by Alan Jones in the second half of the year. After trying to make the big leagues since 1969, Williams had finally arrived, with a bang.

The beginning was auspicious. Fielding a Brabham-Ford for Piers Courage in 1969, Williams actually got two second places in its debut season. Then came the De Tomaso chassis of 1970, Piers` death, and a number of years fielded Marches and proprietary chassis. Williams was often the laughing stock of the field, although a number of talented drivers drove for it during the period, including Pescarolo, Redman, Schenken, Merzario, Pace, Ickx, Laffite. The team was often underfunded, failing to collect from sponsors, then failing to pay drivers, and leased many a seat to Formula 1 hopefuls. The trough came in 1976, when a tie-up with Walter Wolf turned disastrous for Frank on and off the track. The more business-savvy Wolf ended up with the team, and actually made the new Wolf team a winner from the start in 1977. Williams regrouped late in the season, at first fielding a March for relative unknown Patrick Neve. The novelty was some Arab sponsors on the car and a young engineer called Patrick Head in the pits.  

The 1979 Williams team epitomized the successful F-1 team of the year and onwards. Well-funded, organized, motivated, with great staff and a talented engineer, plus winning drivers. The first title came in 1980, the last in 1997, a total of six, all won by a different driver. This is a Williams peculiarity among teams that won titles with more than one driver – no Williams driver ever repeated the feat.  The last race win was Pastor Maldonado’s inherited victory in the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix.  For a while Williams seemed on the rebound later in the decade and Valteri Bottas looked a certain winner a few times in the team’s cars.

The 2019 Williams team, on the other hand, looks more like the Iso-Marlboro of 1973 than a large and traditional team. Only Ferrari and McLaren can boost longer continuous career in the current F-1 field. However, 3 other teams, Mercedes, Renault and Alfa Romeo were Grand Prix pioneers from the early days of the sport. Tradition aside, Williams lost its major sponsor, Martini, a sugar-daddy (Lance Stroll’s father) and seems anything but a Mercedes B-team. The fact it is powered by the most successful engine of the age has no apparent effect on its performance.

The Iso-Marlboro of 1973 - at this point no one could guess Williams would be a top F1 team. 

The question is, how long can this continue? As an engineering company Williams makes a lot of money conducting projects for a number of clients. F-1 has become an after-thought since the heady days of the 1980s and 1990s, which might explain the big slip in overall performance since then. A tie-up with a number of engine manufacturers has not helped. In my view, Williams had a good opportunity to remain relevant should the Toyota partnership evolved. Truth is, Williams has lost its winning mentality as a team years ago, going into survival mode. And F-1 has become an embarrassment for the engineering company.

So, although I titled this article “The beginning of the end”, it may actually be the epilogue of a long process that began after losing the BMW partnership. Williams has looked quite lost in the off-season testing, and poor Robert Kubica is back in F-1 in the worst possible circumstances.

It would be sad to see Williams go, but that seems to be just a matter of time.

If you are interested in my book Motor Racing in the 70`s, you may buy it at foreigndocumenttranslations.com/motorracingbooks.php. The book is a comprehensive review of racing in the entire world during the decade and it covers all major championships and disciplines.