Auto Racing Commentary

Fernando Alonso`s victory at SPA, driving a Toyota in an endurance race was a dream of mine. I appreciate Alonso, but am not necessarily a die-hard fan of his. The dream has to do with something else. I began following racing at first timidly as an 8-year old in 1969, and my first full season of "serious" racing was 1972. By then I had become aware of the different categories, venues, and styles. I loved Formula 1, but I also loved the World Championship of Makes. That season, a large number of Formula 1 drivers still raced in the Endurance championship. Off the top of my head, I came up with this list of drivers that raced in both F-1 and the Prototype championship that year: Ickx, Regazzoni, Marko, Galli, De Adamich, Bell, Redman, Peterson, Schenken, Ganley, Cevert, Hill, Migault, Beltoise, Amon, Pescarolo, Pace, Soler-Roig, Revson, Merzario, Andretti, W. Fittipaldi Jr., Wisell and Stommelen. Out of many drivers used by Ferrari in its prototype campaign in 1972, onl...

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...