Auto Racing Commentary

Ok, I myself have a little trouble saying that a guy was unlucky in racing, having raced for many years, winning dozens upon dozens of races, championships, and even earning the accolade of "brilliant". However, I felt very sorry for Bob Wollek's earliest forays in the DRM, in the 70's. I for one thought that Wollek deserved a chance in F1. Many a lesser men (and a few women) drove in the category in the mid-seventies, when Wollek was one of the main Formula 2 drivers. Yet, I suppose team managers either unfairly did not think much of him, or thought there were too many Frenchmen in the category. Be that as it may, Wollek ended up driving GTs, and eventually, sports cars of all descriptions, having already proven to be good in the category, while driving for Matra-Simca at Le Mans, and Chevrons elsewhere. Bob found a nice home at the Kremer brothers team, which was already one of the top Porsche teams. There stood a stone in Wollek's foot, the GELO Team. T...

By Carlos De Paula   In hindsight it is always easy to criticize decisions that went wrong. On the surface, everything was fine with the World Championship of Makes in the configuration it had in 1971, yet, FISA decided to outlaw the 5-liter Group 5 monster machines, and run the championship exclusively with 3-liter prototypes, which would be essentially Grand Prix racers with prototype bodies. While it is true that only a couple of manufacturers, Porsche and Ferrari, had built new generation 5 liter Group 5s, and these would eventually become old, one gets the feeling that the decision was indeed hasty. Perhaps the 5 liters could contest the championship for a couple more years, ably backed up by 3-liter prototypes as had been the case hitherto. By 1971 the prototypes were no longer grid fillers. Alfa Romeo had won three races on merit, Ferrari was often the fastest car (even faster than the 917 and 512s), and even updated Porsche 908s sprang surprises here ...

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...