1967 f1 season review

The race reports as they appeared in Motorsport during 1967

Season preview

Ferrari has announced that his Grand Prix team will consist of Bandiniand Parkes, with Scarfiotti in addition if he decides to run three cars,

such as at Monza. Chris Amon and Jonathan Williams are also on theFerrari books, but at the moment their activities look as though they

will be confined to long-distance racing with the P4 cars. The new36-valve Grand Prix engine that appeared at Monza last year ... [read

more]

Race tracks on the continent

Almost anywhere round the circuit is impressive, the main grandstandsprovide a fine panoramic view of a large part of the circuit, as does theopen grandstand on the slopes of the Eau Rouge hill. This latter standis one of my favourites during practice, for you can get quite close tothe cars as they cross the river bridge and climb up the very fastsweeping turn, and here you see drivers working for their living ...[read more]

Race Reports Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_root.html

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Thoughts before the 1967 season

As these words are being read the South African GP will be taking place, this year at the Kyalami circuit and not at the usual East London one (A fullreport will appear in February MOTOR SPORT). As the event is in the World Championship series this year, many teams have had to get organisedvery quickly, and there have been some interesting changes.

HONDA SHOWS UP, HONDA WINS - For along time the Japanese company hasdominated motor cycle racing. But are theyup to the challenge of thoroughbred formulaone battles - and can they produce the samehigh grade machines as seen from BRMthroughout the last decade?

Graham Hill from BRM to Lotus

Biggest surprise was Graham Hill leaving the BRM team, where he has been number one driver for many years, and joining Lotus as number two toJim Clark. Since the arrival in the Bourne team of Stewart in 1965, Hill has been hard pressed to justify his position as number one, and Stewart'ssteady progress has made it all the harder. During 1966 tension was mounting and the BRM team manager was often put in a difficult position, suchas when he had only one good engine, or one good gearbox left after practice troubles. Most of the time he retained faith in his number one driverand gave the good parts to Hill, even though it was more likely that Stewart could have made better use of them. It is a very good team that canguarantee to have two perfect cars on a starting grid.

All this is not to decry Hill's driving ability or his position as team leader, but it does support the theory I put forward some while ago that until thearrival of Stewart in Formula 1 in 1965 we had been accepting a lower standard of top-line driver than we had had in the past. Bright newcomersare bound to appear on the scene, and many do no more than that, but the occasional one leaps to the top quickly, and inevitably the establishedstars have to take a bit of a knock. Jim Clark did this to Innes Ireland, unwittingly, when he joined the Lotus Grand Prix team, Ascari did it to Villoresiin the Maserati team, Rosemeyer did it to Stuck and Varzi in the Auto-Union team, and so on back through the ages. Personally, I think Hill hasmade a wise move, for he can now drive at the same pace as he has always done, which is a very fast pace, and thus back up Clark, instead ofhaving to drive "over his head" in his efforts to stay ahead of Stewart within the same team.

Ford Grand Prix Cars Ltd

For those of us who accept that Clark is the top driver at the moment there will be no discredit to Hill if he makes second place on the starting gridbehind Clark; in fact, the Lotus team is going to be very strong, for if Hill is behind, it will only be by fractions of a second, for he has always been inthe "top six" in Grand Prix racing. Just how successful Team Lotus are going to be will depend on the new V8 Cosworth engine, which Ford (England)are financing. The Ford publicity machine gives the impression that they have bought Hill and that the Clark, Hill, Chapman, Lotus combine is in realityFord (England). Financially this may be true, but I feel that it will be a Lotus-Cosworth that wins the races.

The Ford workers' newspaper is already telling them that the combination of Clark and Hill driving the new Ford Grand Prix car is going to be a strongchallenge in 1967. My feeling is that the Ford empire have not realised that they are working for Colin Chapman, not him working for them! It is theway to get results, as a look at Indianapolis shows; Clark and Chapman set the landmark there, with the assistance of Ford (USA). The CosworthV8 engine is not expected before the Monaco GP on May 7th, but I feel we can rest confident in the abilities of Duckworth and Costin to do whatthey say they will do.

Surtees' dilemma solved

The next major move that happened at the end of 1966 was John Surtees joining the Honda team. Now this was no surprise at all, for there wasreally nowhere else for him to go, and Honda would have been stupid to have missed the opportunity of signing on this top-flight driver. Sinceleaving the Ferrari team. Surtees has been a bit lost, for though he drove for Cooper-Maserati it was not a satisfactory combination, but he had todrive that or nothing. Obviously he would not join any team as number two driver, so that ruled him out of Lotus, BRM, Brabham and Gurney'sEagle team. He could hardly go back to Ferrari, so the only hope was Honda, and that is what has happened.

Ginther's goes West

Good a driver as Ginther is, he is not in the top six and Honda are out to win, so it was a simple matter of Ginther out, Surtees in. In big businessthings like this are easily done, and Grand Prix racing is big business. The funny thing about this move was that Ginther seems to havemisunderstood what Honda said (perhaps they spoke in Japanese!) for after the Mexican GP there were those who were prepared to believe that

Formula One 1967 - Preview of the Teams http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/teams.html

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misunderstood what Honda said (perhaps they spoke in Japanese!) for after the Mexican GP there were those who were prepared to believe thatHonda were withdrawing from racing. Perhaps Ginther did understand but explained himself badly, or the reporters were not listening properly.Whatever happened, Ginther has left Honda and has joined Gurney with his Eagle team, which is a very good thing, for the diminutive Ginther willmake a very good number two to the giant Gurney, just as Hill will back up Clark.

Had the Eagle team got as advanced as they had hoped last season they would have run two cars, with Jerry Grant as number two and, even if hehad only had the 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax-powered car, he could have spent a useful year learning the European Grand Prix way of racing. As itturned out he did not get a chance to drive in Europe due to a lack of Eagles and this put them a season behind their competitors. By replacing Grantwith Ginther they have saved a lot of time, for Ginther has nothing to learn about European circuits and Grand Prix racing; he can start off using theEagle to its full immediately. It was not a case of dropping Grant, for he had never really started.

Repco practical motors

Another piece of definite news, as distinct from rumour, is the fact that the Australian Repco firm are building an entirely new V8 engine for Brabham.This can cause no surprise at all, for after the amazing success of the "hot rod" V8 engine, it would be a strange engineering firm who were notcompelled to go one better and do the whole job from scratch. There is no intention of building anything exotic or complicated, but merely tocontinue the development line started with the modified alloy-Buick V8 that formed the Repco V8 engine during 1966. Brabham and Tauranac willcontinue with the development of the chassis and, while the new Brabham-Repco V8 will not provide much engineering or design excitement, it willcertainly be a sound and practical job that will take a lot of beating, just like Brabham himself as a driver.

Jochen Rindt rising

With Surtees leaving Cooper-Maserati, young Jochen Rindt has returned to his position as number one, a place he relinquished to Surtees withsplendid grace last July. A lot of up-and-coming drivers could well keep an eye on Rindt as an example of how to succeed if you have not got theoutstanding natural ability of a Clark or a Stewart. I remember watching Rindt in the old Formula Junior racing in Europe, when he was just starting.Austria ran a Formula 1 race and he dearly wanted to drive in it, being his "own" Grand Prix event, and he worked away and got the loan of a1.5-litre Ford pushrod engine, which was put in his Junior Cooper. Against V8 BRM and Climax engines it was hopelessly outclassed, even if he couldhave driven as well as the factory drivers, but this did not trouble Rindt. He was in a Formula 1 race, which was all that mattered, and he drove like ademon, thoroughly enjoying himself and putting up a performance that was no disgrace at all. He has kept this happy press-on characteristic allthrough his brief career, and it often carries him way ahead of better drivers who are busy grumbling and complaining. The Maserati firm arecontinuing to supply engines to Cooper, and while the V12 may not have appeared very fast, and only won one major event, it took the Coopercars to numerous praiseworthy places behind the winning Brabham, as the tabulated Race Results of 1966 elsewhere in this issue reveal. With the1967 Grand season starting on January 2nd we can look forward to a busy and interesting year, though this first event is hardly likely to provide anyserious pointers towards the trends for the rest of the year.

A NEW STAR - Jochen Rindt in the cockpit of his Cooper-maserati is a hard-working new-comer,whereas "Black" Jack Brabham and Graham Hill both are well known to the racing comunity.Brabham controls his and Tauranac's MRD team with a firm hand, and Hill has left BRM after a longstring of succeses in order to set his own pace, after being "threatened" by young Stewart.

After the first raceBritish Racing Motors

The BRM team have confirmed that they will continue to run a pair of H16-engined cars in 1967 with Stewart as team leader and his number two


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The BRM team have confirmed that they will continue to run a pair of H16-engined cars in 1967 with Stewart as team leader and his number twowill be drawn from Mike Spence, Piers Courage and Chris Irwin. The BRM team will be working in liaison with Reg Parnell (Racing) Ltd, run by TimParnell and he will be running BRM-engined cars. In South Africa Spence drove the second works car and Courage the Parnell car, but the driver poolwill be shared in different ways depending on circumstances and circuits.

One of H16-engined cars has been painted and polished as an exhibition model and will tour various International engineering exhibitions as anexample of British design and workmanship. This is well justified because even though it has yet to be completely successful, it does represent anoutstanding achievement in courageous and audacious thinking. During the old 1.5-litre Formula for Grand Prix racing BRM made an experimental4-wheel-drive car, in conjunction with Ferguson Research, using Ferguson patented 4-wheel-drive mechanism. Due to the pressure of racing this carwas never developed or tested to the full. It has now been sold to David Good, who intends to drive it in the RAC Hill-climb Championship, and BRMand Ferguson are co-operating on a new four-wheel-drive car designed around the 3-litre H16-cylinder engine unit.

This is no surprise for the H16 engine was obviously laid out so that a drive could be taken from either end, or both ends. The 1.5-litre BRM 4WDcar was essentially a mock-up, using many components from the old Grand Prix cars, so that it was too big and too heavy, but if an H16 car isdesigned from scratch as was the Ferguson P99 it would be an extremely interesting car that could bring a new meaning to Grand Prix performance.It would require a driver whose mind and reflexes are untramelled by conventional practice, or a natural genius like Stirling Moss or Jim Clark, bothof whom adjusted themselves to 4WD very readily and with control over their natural instincts. This may be the reason for BRM taking an interest inyoung and inexperienced drivers (as far as super-high-performance is concerned) such as Irwin and Courage.

Team Lotus

Team Lotus were well satisfied with the first outing of their two star team of drivers, Clark and Hill, even though the Lotus-BRM H16 cars did notbehave properly. Until the new, small and compact Lotus with the Cosworth V8 engine is ready Team Lotus will continue with the H16-engined cars.Elsewhere in this issue is a letter from Walter Hayes, the Director of Public Affairs of Ford (Great Britain), in which he quite fairly claims one third ofany Team Lotus success that may be coming in 1967.

Chapman does not often make a bad racing car, Cosworth have an obvious "magic touch" where engines are concerned and Ford know-how onproduction and Ford money is beyond reproach. With Clark and Hill as drivers this total combination must surely produce results that will be hard tomatch, and in these days of international miscellany in racing teams it is nice to know that we have another all-British team to support the BRMall-British team. American Ford-supported racing projects used to carry the notice "Powered by Ford" so perhaps we shall see the new Lotus-Cosworth carrying the notice "Paid for by Ford."

Engines of different concepts - Above the H16 BRM; practically two eight-cylinder boxer enginessandwiched together and, Right the Maserati V12 in Joakim Bonnier's Cooper.

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari has announced that his Grand Prix team will consist of Bandini and Parkes, with Scarfiotti in addition if he decides to run three cars, such as atMonza. Chris Amon and Jonathan Williams are also on the Ferrari books, but at the moment their activities look as though they will be confined tolong-distance racing with the P4 cars. The new 36-valve Grand Prix engine that appeared at Monza last year, with 1st and 2nd places, willundoubtedly form the mainstay of the Ferrari Grand Prix team, and this design of two inlet valves and one exhaust valve, with inlet ports downbetween the camshafts on each cylinder head of the 12-cylinder engine has been carried on to the large P4 engine in the Group 6 prototype cars.

The P4 follows the design trends of the P2 and P3, but the engine has been enlarged to nearly 5 litres and with fuel-injection and the 3-valvecombustion chamber layout it should present a strong challenge from Maranello. The factory team will be working closely with the agents' teams,the North American Racing Team (NART), of Luigi Chinetti, the British Maranello Concessionaires team of Ronnie Hoare, the Scuderia Filipinetti andJacques Swaters of Belgium, so that the Italian factory will be represented by the best possible machinery in all prototype races.

Cooper Car Company

While B.R.M. and Lotus are all-British Grand Prix teams the Cooper team is quite the opposite, with a British chassis, Italian engine, and Austrian and


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While B.R.M. and Lotus are all-British Grand Prix teams the Cooper team is quite the opposite, with a British chassis, Italian engine, and Austrian andMexican drivers. However, there is no question about the effectiveness of this gathering, for Cooper-Maserati have won the last two Grand Prixraces, and last season they came close to winning many more. The cars for 1967 will not be changed, apart from detail improvements, and Rindtand Rodriguez will certainly make full use of the potential of the cars from Cooper.

Brabham Motor Racing Developments

The Brabham team of Brabham and Hulme cannot make any new moves until the new Repco engine is forthcoming, which one assumes will bebefore Monaco if humanly possible. At the moment the 1966 Repco V8 engine is being sold to one or two private people, and if Brabham couldarrange a good spares and service department at Byfleet this simple and robust 300 bhp power unit would surely sell like hot cakes for all mannerof competition cars.

Clockwise from above left: The new Repco engine for Brabham. Ferrari's GT championship entry P4 with 4-litre version of the Formula One engine.Lotus hopes for succes with the new thorough design Type 49 - will it be as good as the Type 33 ?

Anglo-American Racing

It was a disappointment that the Gurney-Weslake V12 engine did not go to South Africa, for every race that a new project misses means that it isone more race behind its rivals. The Eagle chassis that Len Terry designed for Gurney is well developed and success for the Eagle depends entirelyon Weslake Engineering. At Indianapolis Gurney has been going very fast indeed during some testing, putting in a lap at over 267 kph using a Fordengine in the Eagle chassis, and I would dearly love to see Gurneywin the 1967 Indianapolis in one of his Eagle cars. With Ginther as his number twodriver the All American Racers team really is all-American and the whole organisation proudly carry the blue and white colours of America.

Honda Racing and Development

The biggest unknown factor and the most feared by some people is the combination of Honda and Surtees. Some think that Surtees will solve theHonda chassis problems and become unbeatable, but I do not subscribe to this view, having great faith in Lotus and BRM. The Honda concern cancertainly produce engines and horsepower, but they seem to be lacking in chassis and suspension knowledge, though Surtees ought to be able toput them right, providing that they know what he is trying to convey to them. The suggestion that Honda are or will be all-conquering is a defeatistattitude and one that is not true, they can make mistakes and errors like anyone else.

In the motorcycle world they spread this feeling that they were unbeatable and in 1966 they lured Mike Hailwood away from MV-Agusta andproduced a 500 cc Honda racing bike. It was thought that the 500 cc Championship would be theirs for the taking, but the new bike provedunreliable and not that much better, if any, than the MV and young Agostini won the 500 cc championship on the Italian MV, leaving a lot of verypuzzled Japanese faces about the place "Honourable Honda machine did not prove to be honourable success."


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Left: Surtees in the RA273 Honda. Above:Gurney with the V12 Weslake


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South African GP - january 2nd 1967

Kyalami - 80 laps

Article from Motorsport 1967 - By Jenk

Edited by Per Einarsson - photos from the world wide web

PracticeThree previous South African Grandes Prix have been of world championship status at thecoastal resort of East London. However, after the 1966 race being a non-championship eventthe venue has been moved to the 2.5-mile circuit at Kyalami, just outside Johannesburg. Thecircuit is narrow, but interesting, the corners being varied and tricky, with a reasonable straightand fair pits. One disadvantage of this circuit is that it is 5,000 feet above sea level and when theweather is hot all the atmospheric and fuel vaporising problems arise. The lap speed stood atjust over 100 mph and was held by John Love's Cooper-Climax 2.7-litre.

All the major GP teams had accepted entries with the exception of Ferrari who could not getcars ready in time due to the racing department being rebuilt. The Brabham team had two carsfor Brabham and Hulme. These were unaltered since Mexico and were in their usualwell-prepared state. Cooper had brought two cars for Rindt and Rodriguez. Both had thewide-angled inlet trumpets and had Magneti Marelli coil ignition. The car driven by Rodriguez wasthe one used in Mexico last year by Surtees, and in a pre-practice run the Mexican settled in veryquickly except for vaporisation which slowed him after every few laps. Two new sixteen-cylinderBRMs were here for Stewart, now the no. one driver, and for Mike Spence who has joined theteam for 1967. Since Mexico BRM have had several test sessions to improve handling andengine reliability. Most of the changes are only detail but two noticeable ones are the air scoopstaking air to the centre of the ventilated discs which were first used without scoops at WatkinsGlen, and the rear lower wishbones which have been filled in to strengthen them. Three differentnoses had been brought, the usual one used for most of last year, a very short one which wascut off flush with the radiator and a new wind tunnel designed nose with a number of slit ventsbehind the radiator line.

Team Lotus had two H16 BRM Lotus 43s, both using the older "double-eight" engines, a newchassis R43/2 for Clark and the older chassis R43/1 for Graham Hill. Both cars were the sameand there had been no further development as this was expected to be the last race in whichLotus will use the H16 BRM engine, their own Cosworth V8 being scheduled for the beginning ofthe European season.

John Surtees was entered by Honda Racing and Development Co. Ltd. in last year's car usingthe wide suspension. Some minor changes had been made to the suspension geometry toimprove handling and get over the bump steer they were suffering during the last three races of1966. Surtees was working very hard to get the red and white car sorted before practice beganand had two days of unofficial testing to get the fuel mix right and the car set up. Unfortunatelyfor him some foreign matter in the BP oil caused considerable internal damage to the engine.When the spare engine was fitted to be ready for first practice, it too was damaged by foreignmatter in the oil, so while the other cars practised on the first day the Honda mechanics andSurtees were stripping both engines and rebuilding one from the bits.

The Eagle made up the recognised team entries. Of the two cars entered for Gurney and Gintheronly one turned up. This was the 2.7-litre Climax car which has been run all year. The new Vl2sare still not right although during testing the problems are being successfully overcome. The2.7-litre Climax engine is not affected by altitude as much as the multi-cylinder units, and it washoped that Gurney would stand a very good chance against the more sophisticated machinery.

The private owners made up the further eight entries. Siffert was entered in the Walker-Durlacher Cooper-Maserati, which had boxed-in air intakes similar to those Surtees had lastyear. Joakim Bonnier had his own Cooper-Maserati exactly the same as previously raced. BobAnderson had his own Brabham-Climax 2.7-litre which he painted pale blue with a white stripe.Piers Courage was down to drive the Parnell Lotus-BRM V8.

This was his first Grand Prix drive and he and Chris Irwin will be driving Parnell-BRMs in 1967. Thelast four drivers were all locals from Southern Africa, John Love with his very fast Cooper Climax2.7, Sam Tingle in an LDS-Climax 2.7-litre, Dave Charlton and Luki Botha, both with Brabham-Climax 2.7s, the former with a 1964 chassis and the latter a 1963 chassis.

Practice was from 14.30 until 17.00 on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the race onMonday. Also, cars could practise any morning but there would be no marshals or timing.Thursday's practice was cool by local standards, the temperature being in the 20s, but only tencars turned up. The Honda team were rebuilding their engine, Hill's Lotus developed a leakingpetrol bag which kept it back at the garage and the other competitors felt that two days'practice would be sufficient so missed the first day. Stewart went out first followed by Rindt.

Stewart did a few laps then came in with his tyres decidedly worse for wear. Lumps had beentorn out and gashes had appeared down the middle of the tread. No one connected with theteam was particularly perturbed as this was expected, for the tyres are a new Dunlop raincompound and Tony Rudd wanted to know how many laps they would last after the circuit driedout, and the answer was between five and ten laps. Stewart then transferred to Spence's car tosee whether it was set up properly, and he put in several laps on Goodyear tyres. Both carswere having overheating problems and the new wind tunnel nose was taken off to be replacedby the flush-with-radiator nose.

The Cooper team were not having a very good time, both cars overheating and boiling the fuel.Of the two, Rodriguez was going slightly better and he got second fastest time with a lap of1:29.4 before misfiring brought him to the pits. Rindt, on the other hand, didn't manage to

SCOOPS - The B.R.M. front brakes now havescoops which direct air to the centre of theventilated discs, centrifuge completing the job ofdistribution

COOLING - A flexible air hose blows cool aironto the fuel pump on Siffert's Cooper-Maserati. All fuel pipes are carefully wrapped ininsulated cloth and tape.

FAR AWAY - The Rob Walker team's Cooper-Maserati V12 painted in Scotland's racingcolours (!) driven by Joseph Siffert.

Kyalami Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_kyalami.html

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1:29.4 before misfiring brought him to the pits. Rindt, on the other hand, didn't manage tocomplete one lap with the engine running cleanly and this kept him three seconds slower.

Gurney had only two spells while the car was being sorted out. However, after his second spell,when he clocked 1:32.4, a plug was removed; a spectator who got into the pits leaned on therear wheel and a stone in the tread popped out, landed on the engine and slid into the plughole.After fishing for some time without success the engine was started on three plugs and the stonecame out as dust. When practice finished, the Eagle put in a few more untimed laps at about1:30.

The Brabhams seemed to be the only team not having overheating problems and Jack heldfastest time for most of the afternoon, finishing with a time of 1:28.3, (166.913 kph). Hulmewas not quite so quick, just over two seconds behind. In his usual way, Brabham's fast lap wasdone just as practice was finishing. Charlton and Anderson both practised but their times werewell down. Jim Clark was having problems connected with driving a new car for the first timeand was not very quick.

In the latter stages of practice Spence went out and seemed to settle down quite quickly, whileStewart, who was trying three makes of tyre, coasted in very slowly twenty minutes from theend of practice with a blown-up engine. A liner had shattered and steam was pouring from thecrankcase breather and from the top right rear air intake. This blowup stopped tyre testing untilnext day with no results for Firestone. On the Friday the sky was clear, the wind nil and theresult a very hot practice session. One of the tyre experts took air readings of 32 celcius andtrack temperature of 60 celcius, with all tyres running seven degrees hotter.

More cars were practising although Brabham took the afternoon off, rather than wear out hiscar. Sam Tingle still didn't turn up although his car was in town, while Rodriguez' car was havingits gearbox changed and Stewart took over Spence's car. His own car was still minus an engine,the spare engine not being freed from Customs until late morning. Hulme put in a lot of laps,suffering less from heat than most cars, and he finally just got down into the 28s, the only driverother than Love to better 1:30. on this second practice session.

Rindt did a lot of laps, trying to get over the heating problems and finally did a 1:30.2 lapalthough the Cooper still did not sound right. The Lotus team were still sorting out problems andClark improved by two seconds, while Hill only completed five laps, his car over-heating badly.Stewart continued tyre testing, finally deciding the Dunlops were two-tenths faster, which settledthe argument for this race. BRM's over-heating problems were better, although Stewart'sradiator developed a leak before the end of practice.

The two private Cooper-Maseratis were in real trouble, both suffering badly from vaporisation.The 2.7 Climax engines were giving the least trouble due to heat, Dave Charlton finishing with atime faster than Stewart, Clark, Hill and Gurney. The big surprise, however, was the speed JohnLove got his Cooper-Climax 2.7 round. He lapped at 1:29.5, which gave him a second fastesttime for the Friday practice.

TESTING - The mechanics built one enginefrom the two damaged units.

NUMBER TWO - Mike Spence is the newdriver in Mr. Owens green H16 machines.

LOCAL HERO - John Love made anunforgettable appearence in front of hisfellow countrymen. Here shown in the longdice with Gurney.

The next day Surtees was still in trouble. The rebuilt Honda engine was having vaporisation problems which kept the speed well down even thoughtwo fuel radiators were fitted, one on the side and one behind the driver's head in the roll-bar. Surtees refused to take his car to the scrutineeringbay as this meant wheeling it over a dusty, rough track and he did not want to get any more dirt in the engine. The paddock area was very roughand dusty and most cars kept well away. Practice finished and a lot of work was going to have to be done by next day to try and cool everythingdown. The Honda team called for a special unofficial session at 07.00 on Saturday where they got well under 1:30 for a series of laps. Also, Surteesdid tyre tests, finally finding Firestone half a second faster than Goodyear. As the day warmed up it again became very hot by early afternoon whenpractice was due to start, although a breeze made spectating less trying than Friday. Overnight Lotus had put the water pipes outside themonocoque to get a bit of extra cooling.

Sharp on 14.30 the two Coopers were off to see if the vaporising problem had been overcome. Other than cutting the nose away, both engineshad their mechanical fuel pumps reversed so the pump stuck out the back and, instead of mounting direct on to the engine, it was mounted on to afibre ring which was in turn mounted on to the engine. A flexible air duct sent a flow of air over the pump and after a short time out it was obviousthat the cure would last. Graham Hill went out but was soon back in the pits after he spun at the Esses when his throttle stuck open, also he had afuel leak which found its way on to his seat. When the throttle and fuel leak were rectified Hill went out again only to find that the engine would notrun properly and the diaphragm in the metering unit had broken. This went again later and Graham only managed to do eight laps which, added tothe five laps the previous day, made a total of thirteen, a figure very much lower than he would normally have liked to do. Spence's BRM was readyto go as practice started but Stewart's car was being worked on "to stop their No.1 driver wearing himself out." When the master cylinders hadbeen changed, Stewart went out and after trying very hard, he got down to 1:30.3.


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OVERSTEER - The Honda coming out of Clubhouse Corner always had opposite lock applied.

PLUMBING - The honda V12 seems to consist of four cylinder-units. The wail is wonderful, whenthe engine is working.

Some oil at the Esses caused Clark to spin, although whenever he really tried the tail of the Lotus was hung well out. Brabham and Hulme werehaving trouble-free runs until Hulme stopped on the circuit when his fuel pump packed up. A mechanic was sent out and repairs made whichallowed a few more laps before the flag went out. Both Brabham's were under 1:30, with Jack setting the fastest time of the day at 1:28.5.Surtees arrived late, and put in a number of laps under 1:30, but he was not really happy with the car, for it was still overheating and thehandling was not all that could be desired. Sam Tingle turned up for this practice and put in a lot of laps to make up for the two missing days, andhis time of 1:32.4 put him on the same line of the grid as Spence.

Between the private Cooper-maseratis Bonnier had got over his heating problems but Siffert was still in trouble with the engine cutting andsounding horrible. Piers Courage did not seem to get as much as he might out of the BRM V8 and was the slowest time on the grid. John Lovedecided to conserve his car as he felt certain that he could not better his previous day's time and he did not want to wear the car out. Practicefinished on time but an extra untimed spell was allowed for Hill and Rindt, as they still needed to do some further laps. A lot of work was stillneeded to make sure the cars had a chance of finishing in the hot sun. Gurney decided to change his engine, as it seemed flat. Other teams hada lot of preparation work to do. However, mechanics had all of Sunday to get the work done, while those not actually getting their hands dirtycould either sunbathe by their hotel pool or go with Goodyear to the Kruger National Park and commune with Nature.

On the night before the race a tropical thunderstorm washed the circuit clear of the rubber build- up of the last week. Under normalcircumstances this would have been very acceptable but the Kyalami track is made of very sharp, abrasive materials and some of the tyreswould not last 80 laps on a clean track. Very early a large crowd was parked all round the circuit and at 06.30 Rindt put in Some practice laps tosee if Sunday's tuning had squeezed the little extra power at the top end that Rodriguez was getting but it hadn't. Unfortunately, the engine wasstill down on power and revs.

Starting grid

#1 J. Brabham (Brabham-Repco V8) 1:28.3

#2 D. Hulme (Brabham-Repco V8)1:28.


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#2 D. Hulme (Brabham-Repco V8)1:28.

#7 J. Clark (Lotus-BRM H16) 1:29.0

#4 P. Rodriguez (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:29.1

#17 J. Love (Cooper-Climax 4-cyl.) 1: 29.5

#11 J. Surtees (Honda V12) 1:29.6

#3 J. Rindt (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:30.2

#19 D. Charlton (Brabham-Climax 4-cyl.) 1:30.2

#5 J. Stewart (BRM H16) 1:30.3

#14 R. Anderson (Brabham-Climax 4-cyl.) 1:30.6

#9 D. Gurney (Eagle-Climax 4-cyl.) 1:30.7

#15 J. Bonnier (Cooper-Maserati V 12) 1:31.8

#6 M. Spence (BRM H16) 1:32.1

#18 S. Tingle (LDS-Climax 4-cyl.) 1:32.4

#8 G. Hill (Lotus-BRM H16) 1:32.6

#12 J. Siffert (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:32.8

#20 L.Botha (Brabham-Climax 4-cyl.) 1:33.1

#16 P.Courage (Lotus-BRM V8) 1:33.8

The race

A half-hour's practice between 11.30 and 12.00 had Honda changing back from Firestone to Goodyear due to over-revving now that the enginewas going better and the Goodyears had slightly greater diameter than the Firestones. BRM had followed Lotus' lead and had moved the waterpipes outside the monocoque. Gurney was a bit quicker with the changed engine. Lotus had changed the complete metering unit on Hill's car and itwas certainly running better. After some preliminary races and a parade of drivers in vintage machines, the cars did a warming-up lap and formed upon the dummy grid.

At 15.10 the flag dropped and at once Hulme leapt into the lead. Clark, who was nearly sandwiched by the two Brabhams, hesitated and Surteesshot by in the wake of Hulme and Brabham. On the line was Luki Botha; his engine had died and he lost a complete lap getting going again. As thecars streamed by at the end of L1, Hulme was several cars' lengths ahead of his team leader with Surtees right up with them. Then cameRodriguez, Clark, Rindt, Charlton, Stewart, Love, Anderson, Bonnier, Courage, Gurney, Siffert, Tingle, Spence and Hill with Botha almost a lapbehind.

Visibility on the early laps was not very good, as over-enthusiasm by certain marshals to cover up oil had led to clouds of cement dust being blownup by the car in front, obliterating all except the front car's view. On the next lap, Rindt went by Clark to get at his team-mate Rodriguez. Spence


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up by the car in front, obliterating all except the front car's view. On the next lap, Rindt went by Clark to get at his team-mate Rodriguez. Spenceand Hill went ahead of Courage and Tingle, while Gurney picked up three places on the second lap. Stewart passed the pits on L2 in the same eighthplace but he did not appear next lap, for his engine had blown up in a big way and the first of the multi-cylinder cars was out. Rindt was no soonerright up on Rodriguez than he went by into third place behind the Honda, for Brabham had got sideways on at Crowthorne and Surtees just touchedhim, putting the Australian back to fourth place between the Coopers.

Rindt's third place did not last long, for he was stretching the road-holding to the limit, and on L5 he dropped to sixth place after a spin. Spence andHill moved up two more places on the third lap, then the Lotus went by the BRM and for two laps these two diced for 12th place. Then, on L6, Hillwent off at Crowthorne and when he regained the road, a front wishbone was bent and an oil-pipe had been torn off. As the Lotus limped backslowly to the pits a wide swathe of oil was laid on the road behind him, which gave rise to clouds more cement dust. Hulme's lead was by L8 up toeight seconds over Surtees who had started to slow up a little in the Honda. For a few laps, the positions remained stable while Brabham, withRodriguez and Rindt just behind slowly gained on the Honda. On L15 Brabham caught Surtees but was unable to get by and, after trying for a lap,Rodriguez slipped by Brabham so that he could have a go at the very wide Honda. As the four cars came out of Clubhouse Corner the Mexicanpulled up alongside the Honda and it looked as if he was past, but just before the braking point, the Cooper hesitated and the Honda remained insecond place.

On L19 both Brabham and Rindt were past Rodriguez and the no. two Cooper driver was in trouble, for he could not get all his gears and it lookedas if his race was run. However, he plodded on, always seeming to be in a gear either too high or too low. Surtees couldn't hold Brabham backindefinitely and on L21 the Brabham team were once again first and second. Rindt was next to try and pass the Honda but he overdid it at Leeukopbend and again dropped back behind Rodriguez. This time he was much quicker regaining his lost place and on L23 he was by his team-mate and onthe next lap he went by Surtees into third place.

While this place-swapping was going on the next casualty of the heat and altitude made a pit-stop. Clark had noticed the Lotus-BRM over-heatingand came into the pits. The nose was removed and Clark did three more laps, which had no effect on the high temperatures. The Lotus retired onL22 with a broken diaphragm in the metering unit. This left only one H16 engine running. About the tenth lap two of the 2.7-litre Climax-enginedcars had got together. Love and Gurney were coming up through the field from 10th to fifth. This dice between the Californian and the Rhodesianwas keeping the crowd more on their toes than the leaders. Gurney made some efforts to get by Love, but it was only on L32 that he managed itand then, to the delight of the crowds Love re-took him. Two more casualties fell by the wayside on L30, Bonnier retired with a broken valve springin his Maserati engine; from an early stage he had been having difficulty changing gear and had never been well placed. On the following lap Spencecame in with smoke issuing from the remaining H16 engine. The smoke had been pouring off for some time and it was found that an oil pipe hadbroken and most of the engine oil had been pumped on to the track over eight or nine laps. The repair was simple, but as no oil could be added, theBRM was retired.

Still out in the lead, Hulme was going well with a 20-second lead over Brabham. Rindt, lying third, gave up on L38 when his engine finally expired.Charlton had a pit-stop to adjust his rear brakes which were not functioning. Botha made two stops for electrical trouble, then replaced the batteryand continued. Tingle hit a stone at the edge of the road and burst the left rear tyre and he limped round on the rim to the pits where a new wheelwas fitted. At the halfway stage the two Brabhams were at the front, then on the next lap Brabham coasted to the pits with a dead engine. Themechanics checked over the wiring but could find nothing loose, then when the starter was pressed the engine burst into life and Brabhamcontinued, four laps down. Although the engine popped and banged, it kept going but the fault stopped Brabham making any fast times. As cars hadbeen coming to the pits, the tyre technicians had been taking readings and from the worried looks the wear at the halfway stage was causing someconcern. As Brabham was in the pits, Siffert retired with a broken engine. Some laps earlier he had come into the pit with a blocked fuel line. Thishad been cleared, but the damage from running very lean had been done, and the engine finally broke.

John Love in his old Cooper was in second place with Gurney in his 2.7 Climax-Eagle just behind. The American's luck was not in and he was forcedout of the race when the left rear inner wishbone mounting broke away from the chassis. This let the Honda back into third place with Rodriguez notfar behind. Surtees had thought of stopping several times as the car was getting slower and the handling worse, due to the valve of the left rearwheel leaking air from the tubeless tyre. Heat from the very early laps had made the pedals almost red hot and the driver's feet were getting badlyblistered. However, there was a challenge to get the Honda across the line so he limped on and on L54 Rodriguez limped by with the only remainingMaserati engine. Courage retired the Parnell-Lotus BRM when he had a fuel line pulled off after an excursion on to the grass. The leader still seemedin control. Tingle retired when he lost the right wheel due to hitting a bank.

The huge crowd (said to be the largest number of spectators ever gathered in the whole of the African Continent) were just beginning to think allwas over bar the shouting when Hulme came into the pits at full speed, made some erratic locked-wheel slides, shouted at the mechanics and wasoff again. All was action, mechanics opened a can of brake fluid, marshals cleared the road and one and a half minutes later, the leader was in. Offcame the nosepiece, in went the fluid, dry ice was packed round the fuel pump, then, as the nose was being replaced, the crowd leapt to its feet andJohn Love went into the lead, then Rodriguez and Surtees went by. Hulme left the pits in fourth place, two laps down. He came in again for a briefmoment, and on his way out nearly collected a worried tyre expert who was having a too-close look at his worn tyres.

All was set now for a home win. Love's engine was misfiring as he passed the pits but it had been doing this for most of the race. Unfortunately, themisfire had been causing increased fuel consumption and when only six laps from the end the very popular Rhodesian came in for only two gallonsof fuel the groan could be heard all round the track. Rodriguez went by into first place and Love came out of the pits into second place beforeSurtees went by. Roy Salvadori slowed Rodriguez right down and the order remained to the end. Two Coopers were first and second, and the onlytwo cars on the same lap, the winner, a 1966 car with the latest V12 Maserati engine, while second was an old Cooper with an old Climax4-cylinder 2.7-litre engine. When the winner stopped, his tyres were completely bald, while Surtees limped in after the slowing-down lap with onlyabout eight pounds of pressure in the bald left rear wheel while the right-hand tubeless tyre was bald and completely flat. The surface, which wasonly paper thick, had given way to a stone which was on the track. Hulme came in fourth a very disappointed man while Anderson, who at thebeginning had been almost last, came fifth. Jack Brabham was the last to qualify. The only other two still running, Charlton and Botha, had notcompleted the required number of laps. The organisation and atmosphere made this an enjoyable well-run race.


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TWO IN A ROW - Rodriguez drove to victory in his first race for Cooper. After a lull of six yearswithout much success Cooper have won two consecutive World Championship events.

DUEL - John Love and Dan Gurney diced for many laps before the American retired

IN THE POINTS - John Love in the 4-cylinder Cooper-Climax


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BRUTAL MACHINE - pedro Rodriguez throws the 12-cylinder car round club house bend

INCONSISTENT - Clark qualified the H16 Lotus-BRM onto the second row of the grid, but did notfinish quite so well

BEFORE THE FALL - Surtees in the Honda during practice

CONFIDENT LEADER - Hulme took hisBrabham-Repco into the lead at the first cornerand slowly pulled away from the field

WAIT - Hulme stands with one foot in thecockpit as brake fluid is poured in.


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SAM TINGLE - In the Climax-powered LDS-racerNO SHOW - last seasons Ferrari V12 3-litre didnot materialize at Kyalami

Kyalami Results

P1 Pedro Rodriguez Cooper-Maserati V12

P2 John Love Cooper-Climax 4-cyl.

P3 John Surtees Honda V12

P4 Dennis Hulme Brabham-Repco V8

P5 Robert Anderson Brabham-Climax 4-cyl.

P6 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco V8

Winner's Speed - 156.255 kph

Fastest Lap - Denny Hulme: 1 min 29.9 sec.

Championship Table After Kyalami

9 points - Pedro Rodriguez

6 points - John Love

4 points - John Surtees

3 points - Dennis Hulme

2 points - Robert Anderson

1 point - Jack Brabham

Go to the next GP in Monaco 2nd May 1967


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Monte Carlo GP - May 2nd 1967

Monaco - 100 laps



PracticeIt is now just one whole year since the present Grand Prix Formula really got under way, for thistime last year the Monaco Grand Prix saw the first big outing of the 3-litre Formula One cars andwhile 1966 saw some ups and downs 1967 is showing terrific progress. Although this year'sMonaco GP was the first Championship event in Europe it was not the first in 1967 for back inthe winter the South African GP was held, though in character it was a 1966 event. With theMonaco starting grid limited to sixteen cars, invitation entries were only given to manufacturerswho have been building Grand Prix cars for at least three years, the rest of the entry having tofight among themselves during practice for the remaining places, and these in-cluded the A.A.R.Eagle-Weslake team and McLaren. The Owen Racing Organisation entered Stewart with a 2-litreV8 Tasman BRM and Spence with a revised H16 BRM as used at Oulton Park, and they hadanother similar H16 car for Stewart if he wanted it.

Honda Racing entered Surtees and he had two V12-cylinder cars to choose from, both to thesame basic specification but differing in detail, the spare one being virtually brand new. They bothhad entirely new 5-speed gearboxes with a rearrangement of the crownwheel layout and thegear shafts, that provides lower friction losses and the whole unit was lighter than the previousone. They were also using new cast alloy wheels, with wider rims than before, now made inJapan whereas previous wheels were made by Halibrand in America.

The Brabham team had their two 1966 cars for Brabham and Hulme, the leader having the"interim" engine, of old bottom end and new cylinder heads, but they had a brand new all-Repcoengine in a box in case it was needed. This had a Repco-designed aluminium crankcase and blockin place of the basic American block used in the past, and it had the latest cylinder heads withinlet and exhaust ports in the vee of the engine, but still with single overhead camshaft to eachbank of cylinders.

The Cooper Car Company entered Rindt and Rodriguez with Maserati-engined cars, unchangedto any great extent from the end of last year, but they had a spare car, which was also a 1966monocoque chassis, with a brand new Maserati engine installed. This used the bottom end of thecurrent 12-cylinder engine but had interesting new cylinder heads with three valves per cylinder.There are two inlet and one exhaust and the angle between the inlet and exhaust valves is verysmall so that the two camshafts on each head lie close together and are under one cam cover,not unlike the Eagle Weslake cylinder head. The inlet ports, fed by Lucas injection, lie in the veeof the engine and the exhaust ports are on the outside, while the twin sparking plugs per cylinderare under the exhaust ports in the side of the combustion chamber instead of in the more usualcentral position. Exposed toothed-belts at the front of each inlet camshaft drive twelve-polespark distributors, ignition being by Lucas transistor system. All three cars were using ZFgearboxes and new one-piece drive shafts with rubber "doughnut" couplings were being tried forthe first time, in view of the hard life that the Monaco circuit gives the transmission system.There was also a smaller and lighter radiator being experimented with and some interesting newfabricated magnesium wheels, but these stayed in the garage and were not used.

With the V8 Cosworth-Ford engine not being ready Team Lotus had to rely on old material,Clark having the Lotus 33 from last year with 2-litre Coventry-Climax V8 engine and ZF gearboxand Graham Hill having the Lotus 33 with 2-litre BRM V8 engine and Hewland gearbox.

The Ferrari team had three entries but actually only took up two of them, for Bandini and Amon,both cars having the new 36-valve engines with central exhaust system, as first appeared atBrands Hatch earlier this season. They were fitted with new nose cowlings and cockpit surroundswith faired-in rear-view mirrors and very small Perspex windscreens. There were enormous airscoops to the front brakes, a small one to the driver's feet and at the back great fog-horn likeair scoops to the inboard rear brakes.

This made a total of eleven invited entries leaving five places to be decided among the remainingten entries, but these were reduced to eight when neither Bonnier nor Ligier turned up with theirprivate Cooper-Maseratis.

The remaining eight comprised Gurney and Ginther with the two Eagle-Weslake V12-cylindercars, as raced at Brands Hatch, looking resplendent in highly polished and chromium plated finish,with blue and silver bodywork; Siffert with the Walker/Durlacher Cooper-Maserati V12 freshfrom a fine drive at Silverstone; McLaren with his compact little monocoque Formula 2-basedcar, with 2.4-litre BRM V8 engine and Hewland gearbox, the car being fitted with a short nosecowling and pannier fuel tanks, so that it looked almost as wide as it was long; Anderson withhis Brabham with 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine; Courage with a 2-litre V8 BRM carrunning under the Parnell banner; and two works Matra entries driven by Beltoise and Servoz-Gavin, those being Formula 2 cars with Cosworth-Ford FVA 16-valve engines and Hewlandgearboxes and both cars had to carry ballast to bring them up to the minimum Formula Oneweight. Of these eight the fastest five during the three practice periods would join the selectseven to make up the field for the 25th Monaco GP.

Activity began on Thursday afternoon, with Rindt being first away in the Cooper with the newMaserati engine and Surtees was right behind him with one of the Hondas. Pretty soon everyonewas under way and the only absentees were Clark and Hill, their cars not having arrived due tothe transporter getting held up by a shipping strike in the Channel.

The lap record for the Monaco circuit was set up last year by Bandini with a Ferrari in 1:29.8

FOG HORN - The Ferraris were fitted with largeair scoops directed on to the rear brake discswhich are mounted "inboard". Note the ModenaTrade Plate number stencilled on the side

MINI SCREEN - The Ferraris had revised cockpitfairings with tiny Perspex screens and faired-inmirrors.

EAGLE - The Anglo American Racing cars forGurney and Ginther had the expectedWeslake V12-engine.

Monaco Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_monaco.html

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The lap record for the Monaco circuit was set up last year by Bandini with a Ferrari in 1:29.8during the race, and in practice Clark was the fastest with 1:29.9 so it was reasonable to view1:30.0 as bogey time for the factory runners in view of the general progress over the pasttwelve months. The general pace while everyone was settling in was around 1:35, but graduallythe tempo increased and it was Stewart who was setting the pace with the 2-litre BRM.

McLaren had not gone far before a rear suspension mounting broke and that was the end of hispractice, and Brabham was equally unfortunate as a connecting rod broke in his Repco engine.However, Hulme was in fine form and a joy to watch as he took the hairpins in a big tail slide,seemingly the only one who was enjoying the slow corners. Bandini was going well, as wasGurney, but Ginther could not match the pace of his leader, and Amon did not look too happywith the suddenness of the throttle response on the Ferrari. Spence was doing very well with theH16 BRM and Stewart did a few laps in his H16 but was putting all his efforts into the smaller andlighter V8-engined car.

ROYAL BLUE - Two F2 entries were allowedfrom France, but only Servoz-Gavin in one ofthe Cosworth FVA-powered Matras qualified.

MODENA RED - The second outing for ScuderiaFerrari let the italian Bandini and New ZealanderChris Amon show the sleek machines in themonagasque streets.

SAME PROCEDURE - The new Repco engine has a new-developed crank housing, and thegasflow lay-out has been changed. However Brabham stays with his concept of trust-worthyand simple technology; there is only a single overhead camshaft.

While mechanics were checking over the Honda Surtees was concentrating on, he did a few slow laps in the newer car and by the end of theafternoon Stewart, in the V8 BRM was the only one to get below 1:30. However, Hulme, Bandini and Gurney were not far behind, though Gurneysheared a welded joint in a drive shaft, fortunately without any damage, but it meant a close inspection of the other shaft and of those on Ginther'scar. Second practice was on Friday morning when most people were thinking about breakfast and this time the whole field were present, the Lotuscars having arrived in the night. All night work by the Brabham team had got the brand new 1967 Repco engine installed in Brabham's own car, butit had involved a lot of modifying and fabrication and he had to spend this practice period running-in the new engine. The whole pace of practice wasmuch faster than the day before and a sense of urgency seemed to pervade everyone.

Clark was soon setting a furious pace with the Lotus-Climax V8 and Stewart was watching him all the way, but Surtees was getting the Hondagoing in a most impressive manner. Hulme was still working away with very serious intent as was Hill with the Lotus-BRM V8, but trouble was rife,for Rodriguez had his normal Maserati engine break so his numbers were put on the experimental car with the new engine and he practised withthat. Beltoise had hardly begun to practise when a rear suspension upright collapsed on him as he took a bend in the Casino square, and Courageoverdid things and crashed the Parnell BRM 2-litre V8. Bandini opened up a bit too soon at the Mirabeau hairpin and hit the wall, breaking his frontsuspension, and Stewart came to rest with bolts sheared in the final drive. Gurney had changed cars with Ginther, taking chassis number 103, andgot well below 1:30 and by the time practice finished and the dust had settled there were quite a lot of repairs needed.

Surtees had made fastest time in an heroic drive with the Honda in 1:28.4 and Stewart, Clark, Gurney and Hill had all broken 1:30 while manyothers were not far off. Stewart had done 1:29.9 with his H16 BRM in only a very few laps and without making any adjustments so he wasbeginning to wonder whether he had been concentrating on the wrong car. Siffert was faster with the Walker/Durlacher Cooper-Maserati than boththe works cars, which pleased the owners enormously, and he along with McLaren and Gurney seemed assured of a place on the starting grid.

It rained steadily on Saturday morning so it began to look as if Friday's time would be the fastest, but practice was not due until late afternoon,after two Formula 3 heats and before it began the circuit was nearly dry and the sun was shining again. There were no absentees for the mechanicshad all slaved away and repaired the ravages of the Friday practice, Bandini's front end being straightened out, Courage's BRM being put straight,Rodriguez having another engine installed in his Cooper, Gurney and Ginther changing back to their original cars, the spare Honda having a 1966gearbox fitted as one of the new ones had broken and Stewart's BRM transmission was repaired. The tempo of practice seemed to start up fromwhere it left off the day before and there was some furious driving going on, the guaranteed starters trying to get on the front row of the grid andthe non-guaranteed trying not to be left out. The Cooper team were not at all happy for the new engine in the Rodriguez car just would not functionproperly and Rindt hit a kerb "harder than usual " and broke a rear wheel as well as doing extensive damage to the chassis frame. Graham Hill brokethe second gear in his Hewland gearbox and had to wait while his mechanics removed the broken bits and then continue practice without secondgear. Bandini was none the worse for his mistake and was going faster than ever, beating the best time of the Honda with 1:28.3, while Clark and


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gear. Bandini was none the worse for his mistake and was going faster than ever, beating the best time of the Honda with 1:28.3, while Clark andHulme were very close with 1:28.8.

The two Formula 2 Matras were being driven way over the limit to try and qualify among the tail-enders and Anderson equalled the best time put upby Courage with the BRM and actually beat the best time of Amon, but he failed to make the select five by one-tenth of a second. Gurney was wellqualified as was McLaren, but Ginther could not make the running, being slower than Anderson and the two Matras. As practice drew to a close andAnderson, Beltoise and Ginther realised they were not going to start, the wily old Brabham had been gradually extending his new Repco engine andon his very last lap did a fantastic 1:27.6. While this did not affect Bandini too much, he having been fastest up to this point, it knocked Surteesfrom the front row and relegated Clark to the third row along with Stewart, so that the first four cars were all full-blooded 3-litres and Hulme wasquietly and confidently alongside the Honda on the two-by-two grid.

Starting grid

#8 Jack Brabham (Brabham-Repco V8) 1:27.6

#18 Lorenzo Bandini (Ferrari V12) 1:28.3

#7 John Surtees (Honda V12) 1:28.4

#9 Dennis Hulme (Brabham-Repco V8) 1:28.8

#12 Jim Clark (Lotus-Climax V8) 1:28.8

#4 Jackie Stewart (BRM V8) 1:29.0

#23 Dan Gurney (Eagle-Weslake V12) 1:29.3

#14 Graham Hill (Lotus-BRM V8) 1:29.9

#17 Joseph Siffert (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:30.0

#16 Bruce McLaren (McLaren-BRM V8) 1:30.0

#2 J. Servoz-Gavin (Matra-Cosworth FVA) 1:30.4

#5 Mike Spence (BRM H16) 1:30.6

#6 Piers Courage (BRM V8) 1:30.6

#20 Chris Amon (Ferrari V12) 1:30.7

#10 Jochen Rindt (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:30.8

#11 Pedro Rodriguez (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:32.4


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SLIPPERY - The oil-flag is out during the second passing of the chikane. Both Hulme and Stewartuses this oportunity to nip by the leading Bandini. The dust from the excess cement causedClarke to take the escape road; a safety precaution that sent him to the back of the race.

The race

This year the timekeeper's box and the start and finish line had been moved from just after the Gasworks hairpin to just before Sainte Devotecorner so that any last-minute dashes for the finishing line could now take place on the whole length of the pit straight. Conditions on Sunday wereas good as could be desired as the cars lined up for the start, on the old starting grid so that when Louis Chiron dropped the flag the sixteen carshad a flying start over the timekeeper's line.

Stewart in the 2-litre V8 BRM was on Firestone tyres, while the other two BRMs were on Dunlop, the Honda had had an oil cooler fitted to the leftside of the new gearbox, Bandini's Ferrari had the cockpit cover joint to the body sealed with red tape and Amon's car was sealed with blue tape.Both Brabhams were still on low-profile 15 in. Goodyear tyres, Rindt's Cooper chassis had undergone some major re-riveting during the night, andHill's Hewland gearbox had been repaired. Gurney was still driving Eagle number 103 and it had been fitted with a very short nose cowling in casethe normal long "beak" got bent in the opening lap scuffle.

It was Bandini who led away and Brabham's car seemed to hesitate as it took off and as the sixteen cars streamed round the town on the openinglap the new Repco engine broke a connecting rod and when Brabham got to the Mirabeau hairpin he was throwing oil onto his rear tyres from a holein the block! The engine was still running on seven cylinders and Brabham spun in the middle of the jostling throng and travelled backwards down tothe Station hairpin while nearly everyone scrambled past safely, the exception being Siffert, who in the process damaged his radiator. At the end ofthis exciting opening lap Bandini led from Hulme, Stewart, Surtees and Gurney, while Siffert limped into the pits and had his radiator changed andBrabham arrived to be rather surprised when he saw the hole in his brand new engine. What he did not realise was that he had laid oil on the course,which was being covered by cement dust while the pack were on their second lap.

As the leading hunch approached the "chicane" after the tunnel there was a lot of slipping and sliding about and clouds of cement dust and Clark,who was just behind expected a multiple accident to happen so he deliberately went up the escape road. When he backed out to rejoin the race,everyone had gone and he was all alone at the back of the field of fourteen cars, which almost immediately became thirteen for the Cosworthengine in the Matra of Servoz-Gavin broke its injection unit driving belt. During this panic Hulme and Stewart had nipped past Bandini, so the orderwas now Brabham, BRM, Ferrari, followed by Honda, Eagle and McLaren.

Gurney took his Eagle-Weslake past the Honda on the next lap and past the Ferrari on the lap after that, while Hulme was being pressed hard byStewart. On L5 the Weslake engine broke the toothed belt driving the fuel pump and the Eagle lay stricken by the roadside after a short sharp race.

Clark was driving hard to make up time for his error and had already passed Courage andRodriguez, the Cooper-Maserati running on about ten cylinders by the sound of it. Rindt washanging on to the leading bunch and got by McLaren for a couple of laps and at the end of L6Stewart crossed the line alongside Hulme, making his bid for the lead, which came off. Thelittle Scot was in terrific form and Hulme could keep him in sight but not stay with him and asmall gap began to appear between the two cars. Bandini was in third place, with Surteesright behind him, with McLaren and Rindt in the Honda's wake. This group had alreadyoutdistanced the rest of the runners who were being led by Hill in the Lotus-BRM V8, butAmon who was next was about to be caught by Clark, who was making fastest race lapsevery time round, but nowhere near the lap record as the circuit was still slippery.

At the end of L15 Hulme was leading and Stewart was seen travelling slowly along theharbour front, his crown wheel and pinion having broken up and the others went by him ashe made slowly for the pits so retire. This put Bandini back into second place, still withSurtees just behind him, followed by McLaren.

Rindt had gone out when his gearbox broke up and Clark had caught and passed Hill by thistime, though with the drying track everyone had speeded up and Hulme now held the fastestlap at 1:31.5, but it was significant that Clark was the first to appreciate the changingconditions and increase his lap speed.

By L20 Hulme was comfortably in the lead with some 15 seconds over Bandini, but Surteescould not get the Honda past the Ferrari and McLaren was still hanging on to them and goingextremely well. The Honda was showing signs of tiring and as it went by on L27 there was anominous trail of smoke coming from the engine and on the next lap McLaren took third placefrom the Japanese car.

Clark was still making fastest laps and as he clocked 1:30.6 on L28, he caught right up withthe ailing Honda and on the next lap Surtees waved him by as they raced down thepromenade behind the pits. The smoke from the Honda was getting worse all the time and itwas obviously not going to last much longer and it finally succumbed, with suspected brokenpiston on L33, stopping at the "chicane". At this point Hulme was rounding Saint Devotecorner as Bandini was rounding the Tabac corner, so that there was just twice the length ofthe promenade between them.

Clark was still going as fast as ever and now had his sights on McLaren and third place and byL40 he was right behind McLaren, having set up a new lap record on L38 in 1:29.5 and only

BLACK JACK - After spinning on the opening lapBrabham had to reverse down to the Stationhairpin to turn round, after everyone had goneby.

BIG CARS - Spence in an H16 BRM is closelyfolowed by Amon in a 3-litre V12 Ferrari aroundthe Station hairpin


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L40 he was right behind McLaren, having set up a new lap record on L38 in 1:29.5 and onlyAmon and Hill were still on the same lap as the leading foursome, the Lotus-BRM clutch wasplaying up and Amon had got by on L23, but was making no impression on the leaders. AsClark was completing L43 he hurled the Lotus into the Tabac corner and at that moment theright rear spring unit broke and the car spun into the wall and wrecked the rear suspension.Clark climbed out unhurt, but now a spectator, with the small consolation of holding the laprecord.

Bandini was now beginning to get his second wind and he slowly reduced the gap betweenthe leading Brabham and his Ferrari down to 7 seconds, but Hulme was equal to thechallenge and held his lead to around 8 seconds and it became a trial of strength with therugged New Zealander coming out on top.

At L50, which was half-distance, the order was Hulme (Brabham-Repco V8), Bandini (FerrariV12), McLaren (McLaren-BRM V8), Amon (Ferrari V12) and Hill (Lotus-BRM V8), all still onthe same lap, Spence (BRM H16), Rodriguez (Cooper-Maserati V12) and Courage (BRM V8)being well behind, while Siffert was circulating having lost 19 laps while his water system wasrepaired.

OMINOUS - The V12 Honda driven by Surteesretired with engine trouble after vainly trying tocatch Bandini's Ferrari, and retitement washeralded by a smoke haze that followed the carfor many laps, as seen in the photograph of thecar in the Casino Square

PLAN - This unusual picture of Hulme in theMonaco winning Brabham-Repco V8 shows thelayout of the car to good effect, as he runsonto the pave surface of the harbour front pasta Monagasque lamp-post

The deadlock between the two leading drivers continued for fifteen laps, with McLaren always in third place and Amon fourth, while Hill was lappedby the leaders. McLaren's engine began to lose power for his alternator was not balancing the consumption and his battery was running down andaffecting the ignition. By L70 the deadlock had been broken, Hulme's superior physical condition obviously coming out on top and poor Bandini wasbeginning to flag and he began to show signs of tiredness and lack of concentration, occasionally being untidy and ragged on some corners. Therewas a mild panic at Saint Devote at this time, when Courage spun his BRM and could not restart the engine so he had to abandon the car on thefootpath, and on L71 McLaren's engine was sounding awful so he pulled into the pits and had a new battery fitted but this dropped him behind Amonand Hill, and two laps behind the leader.

On L82 as Bandini took the "chicane" the Ferrari struck the wooden barriers and was immediately out of control. It mounted the straw bales on theoutside of the corner, a wheel was broken off, and the car landed upside down in the middle of the road with the driver trapped underneath. Almostinstantaneously the car was a sheet of flame and by the time Bandini was extricated from the wreckage he was in a very serious condition, andsubsequently died from his burns.

This very nasty incident now left Amon in second place, nearly a lap behind Hulme who was driving as regularly and smoothly as ever, but on L91the Ferrari suffered a punctured rear tyre, probably from running over something near the crash, and Amon wallowed into the pits to have itchanged. This put him behind Hill, but still ahead of McLaren and in that order the race ran to its close at 100 laps. During the confusion of theaccident Rodriguez had got his sick Cooper-Maserati ahead of Spence's H16 BRM, though opinion was sharply divided as to whether this was strictlycorrect. The Cooper had never fired on twelve cylinders all afternoon and the pit were reluctant to bring the car in, as knowing their Maserati enginesthey were pretty sure it was overheating and would not restart again.

The accident to Bandini threw rather a cloud over the finish of the race and detracted some of the glory that was due to Hulme, for he had drivenwith the will to win from the very first practice period and had shown outstanding stamina.

SIFFERT - Joseph Siffert points the red Cooper-Maserati onto the chicane at the habour front


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HULME - The Brabham on opposite lock

FATALITY BY FATIGUE - Enzo's number one driver Lorenzo Bandini before the accident in thebeautiful Ferrari 312

RINDT - The Cooper on opposite lock

RINDT - Followed by a BRM around the stationhairpin

SLOW DOWN - Dan Gurney (beak in place again) enters the tight 1st gear hairpin at the MonacoRailway station on his way to the habour front. In hot pursuit is seen Jackie Stewart in the V8BRM of the Owen Racing Organisation.

BANDINI - Trapped under the burning Ferrari

SELF-CONFIDENT - Monaco Champ of the sixties, Graham Hill, powers into the Casino Square inhis 1966 Lotus. Cosworth did not manage to have the promised 3-litre V8 ready for the firsteuropean gathering.

AMON - In the paddock just before the race.The cockpit fairing is sealed with blue tape


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RODRIGUEZ - Exiting Casino square and aiming for Mirabeau

JOHN SURTEES - Leading Dan Gurney in thenose-less Eagle

AMON - In the splendid new car as "number two driver" for mr. Ferrari, here seen exiting thepit-lane for a stint of practice

MCLAREN - On full lock coming around thehairpin at the railway station

CHICANE - John Surtees in the Honda RA273trailing Lorenzo Bandini in the Ferrari 312through the needle eye of the chikane. Nowonder the marshalls decided to spraycement at the slightest sign of oil on thetrack. The photo shows claerly taht it takesskill and bravery to shoot down from thetunnel and zigzag the car down to thewaterfront!

RINDT - Drifting around the corner at the "tobacconist's store"


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HILL - Station hairpin the Lotus 33 proved to be a good choice for the twisty circuit

HULME - Leading Bandini, Stewart and Surtees in the opening laps of the race

BANDINI - Breaking hard for the station hairpin


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BANDINI - Same spot, but more relaxed

MCLAREN - Entering the hairpin at the gas works before the pits area

Results

P1 Dennis Hulme Brabham-Repco V8

P2 Graham Hill Lotus BRM V8 2-litre

P3 Chris Amon Ferrari V12

P4 Bruce McLaren McLaren-BRM V8 2.4-litre


P6 Mike Spence BRM H16


Fastest Lap - Jim Clark 1:29.5

Championship Table After Monaco

12 points - Denny Hulme


6 points - Graham Hill


4 points - Chris Amon


3 points - Bruce McLaren

2 points - Bob Anderson

1 points - Jack Brabham

1 points - Mike Spence

Go to the next GP at Zandvoort 4th june 1967


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Dutch GP - June 4th 1967

Zandvoort - 90 laps



PracticeA very full and complete entry was received for the seventeenth Dutch Grand Prix held on thesandy Zandvoort circuit and it was notable for the number of brand-new Grand Prix cars thatwere ready for first practice; either brand-new models of existing designs, modified versionsor entirely new designs.

The Brabham team had four cars in all, a brand-new chassis with 1967 Repco engine and aHewland FT2OO gearbox, as used on Formula 2 cars; Brabham's 1965 chassis that he usedat Monaco, with a 1967 engine and heavyweight Hewland box, and the two 1966Brabham-Repco V8s for Hulme.

The Scuderia Ferrari also had four cars, the long perspex-cockpit 1966 car with 1967 enginefor Parkes, a 1967 car for Amon, a brand- new 1967 car for Scarfiotti and one of the 1966Italian GP cars as a spare.

Team Lotus were almost off the ground with pride, having two Lotus 49 cars with Cosworth3-litre V8 engines, one being the car that Graham Hill had been testing in England and theother being brand-new, which Clark saw for the first time when he arrived on the morning ofthe first practice day.

Honda Racing had the two 12-cylinder cars for Surtees that he had at Monaco, both lookinga bit ponderous and dated alongside all the sparkling new cars.

The BRM team had their two 1966/67 cars with H16-cylinder engines, and a brand-new onethat was lighter and slimmer across the cockpit, Stewart having the choice of an old one andthe new one, and Spence having the second old one.

indt and Rodriguez each had a Coper-Maserati V12, but neither of them had the new36-valve Maserati engine that appeared briefly at Monaco. Rindt's car was the lighter 1967car with Hewland gearbox and was using the new welded construction magnesium discwheels and Rodriguez had one of last year's cars.

Gurney was all alone with his Eagle team for Ginther had decided to withdraw from seriousracing after trying all he knew and failing to qualify at Monaco and at Indianapolis, but hisplace in the team remained open should he change his mind at the last moment. The teamhad three Eagle-Weslake V12 cars, the two from Monaco, though one of these was notassembled, and a brand-new car that was some 50 kg lighter. The overall design had notbeen changed but great use of titanium and magnesium had been made, and this was thenumber one car that Gurney was intending to use.

The rest of the entry was made up of single entries, these being McLaren with his neat littleBRM V8-engined car, Irwin with Tim Parnell's R3 Lotus-BRM V8, Anderson with hisimmaculate Brabham-Climax 4-cylinder and Siffert with the Walker team's Cooper-Maserati,though it did not arrive until the second day of practice. Courage should have driven a secondParnell car, but it could not be got ready in time.

Practice took place all day on Friday, in three separate sessions, and again on Saturdayafternoon, and during Friday the tempo seemed rather steady and cautious, with new carsbeing tried and everyone seeming to expect great things from the other teams. Ferrari, BRMand Honda had all been to the circuit previous to official practice and all claimed spectacularfastest laps, but the known standard was the official lap record of 1:30.6 set up by Clark in1965 with a 1.5-litre Lotus-Climax V8, a time which Hulme equalled last year, on an oilytrack, with a 1966 Brabham-Repco V8. In practice last year, with a sister car to Hulme's,Brabham made best time in 1:28.1, so it was obvious that any time above 1:30 wouldmean that the driver was not really trying, or the car was hopeless.

PREMIERE - Clark preparing to take the Lotus49 on its first public outing at Zandvoort

NEW STANDARD - The general opinion of theracing world seems to be that the Lotus 49 hasset a new standard for 3-litre Grand Prix cars

REAR END - All the mechanism on the Lotus 49is naked and unashamed

Zandvoort Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_zandvoort.html

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Video - 320x240 - wmv@384kbit/s duration00:48 - 2.08 MB

SEEN BEFORE - The Lotus 49 shares the front end with the Lotus 43 as seen at Kyalami injanuary, but the BRM H16 is exchanged for the new splendid powerplant from the hands ofCostin and Duckworth.

Those drivers with brand-new cars obviously had to do some "bedding-in" of components or acclimatise themselves to the new cars, while otherswere able to press-on madly and set the pace. Brabham's old chassis/new engine combination would not start, so he practised with the brand-newcar, but he did not intend to race it and before the end of the day the recalcitrant engine was being removed from the old chassis, prior to beingreplaced. Hill was having the pedals of the new Lotus fiddled about with to suit his feet and Clark was finding out about his new car. During the lunchbreak both cars had the gearbox changed, for similar ones with different ratios.

As it seemed certain that Ginther was not coming, his entry was given to the Ferrari team so that Scarfiotti could have a definite entry and manypeople cast covetous eyes on the spare Eagle-Weslake. All day the weather was dull and overcast and somehow the atmosphere at the Zandvoortcircuit always seems the same, so that Friday practice seemed to pass in a rather lugubrious fashion, even though there was a lot of quick motoringtaking place as the accompanying table of practice times shows. The Brabhams were quick and competitive as always, the Ferraris seemed to lackfire, the new Lotus-Cosworth V8s were beginning to show their true form, Surtees was satisfied with his Honda time as it had been done in fullstarting line trim, Gurney was in great form and very happy with his new lightweight car, Coopers were progressing without any fuss but BRMseemed a bit despondent, lacking in high-speed acceleration.

It was Gurney and Graham Hill who began to stir things up towards the end of the afternoon, with the new Lotus 49 coming out on top on its firstpublic outing, much to the displeasure of a lot of people. Clark was about to extend his Lotus and make a bid for fastest time when he wasconscious of a feeling of instability. Nothing could be seen to be wrong, but he was convinced that something was not as it should be and the onlylikely thing seemed to be the front wheel bearings, which had been brand-new and being taper rollers had probably settled and needed re-adjusting.

The Friday practice ended with Hill recording 1:25.6, but Gurney was right behind with 1:25.8 and as both the Cosworth V8 and the Weslake V12engines were new to Zandvoort, each with well over 400 bhp, this was reasonable and natural as the standards from last year were set bylow-powered engines. The performances of these two engines also made a lot of people much more conservative in their bhp estimates, evencompared with their 1966 quotes. Before the Saturday practice Clark's suspension and steering was checked closely and slight play in the frontwheel races seemed the only suspect thing, Gurney had a different engine fitted into his lightweight Eagle chassis, Brabham had the good 1967engine taken from his new chassis and installed into his 1965 chassis, and the rest hoped that they could keep up with the Lotus and Eagle cars andsearched around for excuses such as wrong tyres, wrong plugs, wrong springs, etc., reluctant to admit that the two really powerful engines didhave over 400 bhp.

Clark had barely started to practise before the trouble he had been sensing, which Chapman could not locate, revealed itself forcibly; a ball-race inthe right-rear hub broke up and split the hub carrier, and it was the first roughness that Clark had sensed the day before. Until it was all taken apartthere was a gloom in Team Lotus as it looked as though it was a design failure in the hub casting, but it proved to be a faulty race, so the gloomlifted. While a new hub assembly was prepared and fitted, which took most of the afternoon, Clark had to stand and watch Hill fend off any attackson the fastest lap. Brabham was very happy with his old chassis and was putting in some really fast motoring, equalling Hill's best time, while Gurneywas still not far behind. Hulme felt he was lacking in brakes and his discs certainly looked frail and puny compared with the Lotus and BRM discs.

Stewart was depressed by a lack of horsepower from the H16 B.R.M. and too much bulk and weight, compared to the Lotus, and Gurney's extrapowerful Weslake engine was leaking oil from the rear main bearing. The engine in Hill's Lotus suddenly went rough and popped and banged, whichbrought gloom back to Team Lotus, this time on the Cosworth side, but it gave heart to the other teams who were getting despondent over theappearance of the Lotus. It was an electrical fault that was finally cured, even if no one was really certain from where it had originated, and as thesharp rasp of the V8 rang out loud and clear once more there were a lot of unhappy rivals. The leaking oil seal on the Weslake engine cured itself bysome freak chance, so Gurney's team were smiling happily once more, but the BRM team looked very depressed; Surtees was putting on a bravefront and trying to look confident, the Ferrari team were working away hopefully, Brabham was actually smiling and enjoying the fact that his simple"old-fashioned" and unsophisticated car was on the front of the grid, and the Cooper team had quietly got themselves on the second row.

With practice nearly over there was a sudden rush of activity as everyone tried for a last final very quick lap, but the only two real challengers wereGurney and Hill and they battled against each other at around the 1:25.3 mark. Gurney stopped when he got down to 1:25.1, feeling he had putTeam Lotus in their place, but Hill went straight our and equalled this, doing two or three laps at the same pace. His final lap as the chequered flagstopped practice was a real scorcher, and many people clocked it at 1:25.0 exactly, but the official time-keepers gave out 1:24.6, so the Lotusfans hastily pocketed their stop-watches and cheered loudly. Even the opposition did not protest, they all seemed rather bewildered. While this


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fans hastily pocketed their stop-watches and cheered loudly. Even the opposition did not protest, they all seemed rather bewildered. While thislast-minute excitement had been taking place Clark's car had been completed and he was able to get in a few laps, but with no opportunity to goreally fast.

All seventeen entries had got below the rather artificial existing lap record and of the non-factory runners Irwin was particularly outstanding with1:27.5 in the 2-litre BRM-engined Lotus, a time that put him ahead of McLaren and Scarfiotti, among others. It was difficult to see why the two BRMworks cars were slower than the Cooper-Maseratis and the front row of the grid had a trio of widely differing cars on it, as well as widely differingdrivers. With practice over, Team Lotus were faced with all-night work checking all the rear hub assemblies as they did not want a repetition ofClark's trouble.

The race was due to be run over 90 laps of the circuit, a distance of 377 kilometres and the cars were allowed a "warm-up" lap on their way fromthe pits to the "dummy-grid" behind the starting line. Brabham was driving his new centre-exhaust engine in his old chassis, Hulme had a 1966 carcomplete, Amon had a 1967 Ferrari with the latest centre-exhaust, 36-valve engine, as had Scarfiotti, while Parkes had this type of engine in hisspecial long-cockpit 1966 car. Clark had Lotus 49/2 and Hill had 49/1, Surtees had the newer of the two Hondas, Stewart and Spence were drivingthe earlier BRM H16-cylinder cars, with the external water pipes, Rindt and Rodriguez were unchanged from practice, and Gurney was using thelightweight Eagle. The remainder had no choice of cars, except that Irwin was having to use an early 1930 cc BRM V8 engine as his 2070 cc unit hadbroken a camshaft in the final practice.

Starting grid

#6 Graham Hill (Lotus-CosworthV8) 1:24.6





#2 Denny Hulme (Brabham-Repco V8) 1:26.6


#5 Jim Clarke (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1:26.8


#4 Mike Parkes (Ferrari V12) 1:27.0



#18 Chris Irwin (Lotus-BRM V8) 1:27.5


#20 Jo Siffert (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:28.8

#22 Ludovico Scarfiotti (Ferrari V12) 1:27.9

#21 Robert Anderson (Brabham-Climax) 1:29.0

-

The race

When everyone had their engines running and 14.30 was approaching the "dummy-grid" wascleared of extraneous people and the seventeen cars moved sedately forward towards thestarting line, with Clark easing his way up into the second row With 30 seconds to go and theengine notes rising, an official was seen wandering amongst the cars, trying to persuadeRodriguez to move back a bit! As he turned to Rindt's car the flag dropped and Hulme andSurtees were completely put off as they avoided the man, and they in turn baulked thosebehind them. More by luck than judgment the man was not killed, and he joined the other


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behind them. More by luck than judgment the man was not killed, and he joined the otherrace officials by the side of the track.

The inevitable strong wind was blowing off the North Sea and the skies were grey, buteverywhere was dry, at least for the opening lap. Hill led from Brabham round the firstcorner, with Rindt, Gurney, Amon and Clark right behind. The Eagle had got away well for asit accelerated petrol sprayed out of the tank overflow system and went straight down theengine inlets, causing a rich mixture and a hesitant pick-up. Hulme's Brabham seemed to beslopping petrol or oil as it cornered on the opening lap. Hill had the new Lotus out in front, butthere were five cars hot on its heels, Clark being at the end of this group as he was having tolearn to drive the car and do some practice. He had virtually missed all the Saturday practiceand in the light of Hill's successful practice times, Clark's car had been fitted with different rearsprings and rear tyres, so it was all new to him.

On the second lap McLaren skidded off the track and damaged his car, but was unhurthimself, and this caused an official car to go round the circuit with a white flag on it, whichmade one realise that the Zandvoort circuit lacks any communication road system. Hillseemed to be in complete command, with Brabham trying vainly to keep up, while Gurneygot past Rindt on L3 and Amon and Clark were close behind. Hulme made up ground veryfast, after the baulking on the start line and by L4 was behind Clark, who had already passedAmon, while he had retaken third place from Gurney. It was quite a busy bunch of cars at thefront, led by Hill in the Lotus 49 and, though he had pulled out a 2 second lead over Brabhamin five laps, the others were very much nose-to-tail, the order being Brabham, Rindt, Gurney,Clark, Hulme, Amon, the rest trailing along behind, with Surtees in a hopeless eleventhposition. The situation at the front was not presenting a very realistic picture, for Gurney'sWeslake engine was not running properly, the injection mixture not being right, Rindt waskeeping pace mainly because he was happy on the slippery surface and others were not,Clark was still practising in effect, and Hulme was still suffering from the start line nonsense.

The pace looked fast but was in fact quite slow, the leaders lapping around 1:33.0 and on L7Gurney was missing from the pack and could be seen heading for the pits. He made a briefstop to have an adjustment made to his fuel metering unit and then shot back into the racejust as Surtees went by, but next round the Weslake engine sounded horrible and the carcame to rest behind the pits with a broken fuel injection metering unit, and Gurney's racewas over. The leading Lotus was not getting any further ahead of the Brabham in secondplace and the gap was still two seconds at ten laps, with Rindt (Cooper-Maserati), Clark(Lotus 49), Hulme (Brabham) and Amon (Ferrari) following. Then at intervals cameRodriguez (Cooper-Maserati), Stewart (BRM), Parkes (Ferrari), Surtees (Honda), Scarfiotti(Ferrari), Spence (BRM) and Irwin (Lotus-BRM), while Anderson had been lapped and Siffertwas in the pits having his suspension looked at as his Cooper-Maserati was feeling odd.

Next time round there was consternation in the Lotus pit as Brabham was leading, followedby Rindt, Clark, Hulme, Amon, and all the others, with no sign of Hill. By the time the leaderswere round again, Hill's car could be seen coasting along the straight with a dead engine andhe pushed it the last few yards in the pit area. While the race went on a crowd huddled roundthe Cosworth V8 engine, and after a time it gave one short flat-sounding "blurp" and then theLotus was wheeled away to the paddock. Teeth had broken off one of the camshaft drivinggears and, before the engine died, Hill had been conscious of an obtrusive ticking noise.

For five short laps Brabham held the lead, but it was clear that Clark had done sufficientpractice and was now going to start motor racing. On L15 he took second place from Rindt,on L16 he took the lead from Brabham and then just motored relentlessly on into thedistance. This coincided with the track drying right out and as fast as Clark went ahead, Rindtdropped back, as he couldn't seem to steer the car properly on a dry track. By L20 Clark hadpulled out a 2 second lead on Brabham, but it did not stop there, the gap got wider and widerand it was not long before it could be measured at a second a lap. Without much effort thebrand-new Lotus-Cosworth V8 was lapping at just over 1:28 a lap, there being no need togo any faster in order to leave the rest of the field behind. Although none of the positionschanged it was not for lack of trying on the part of the drivers, for Amon in fourth place, waspressing hard on Hulme all the time, but had neither the surplus of power nor experience toovercome his fellow New Zealander.

Rindt gradually slowed until he was caught by Stewart, even though the excitablecommentator seemed to think that it was Stewart who was speeding up, and at the back ofthe field of those who had not been lapped by the flying Clark, there was Scarfiotti keeping upwith an unhappy-looking Surtees in the cumbersome-looking Honda. These two appeared tobe gaining on Rodriguez, but in actual fact the Cooper-Maserati was slowing and it finallycame to rest behind the pits with a broken gearbox. This was on L40 and on the next lapRindt took his Cooper-Maserati into the pits and retired as he could not cope with the way itwas handling, there obviously being something wrong, but nothing visible so for want of anexplanation the ZF differential unit was blamed. By now Irwin and Spence had been lapped byClark and Scarfiotti was about to be, Anderson was running smoothly and steadily and Siffertwas following.

On L44 the devastating Clark in the new Lotus 49 lapped the mighty Honda and was elevenseconds ahead of Brabham and still gaining, while Hulme in third place was still being houndedby Amon in the first of the Ferraris. A very poor fifth was Stewart ahead of Parkes, but onL45 the 16-cylinder BRM was lacking effective front brakes and it stopped at the pits. Thebrake fluid had gone from the reservoir and most of it seemed to be down among thepedals, so the container was topped up and Stewart rejoined the race. He only did six morelaps before it had all gone again, so he stopped once more and this time retired. Theall-conquering drive by Clark in the new Lotus continued unabated and unchallenged, hisdriving being smooth and effortless, while the Cosworth V8 engine never missed a beat.Parkes was lapped in due course and Irwin and Anderson were lapped yet again and by L61even Brabham had lapped the Honda.

Amon was not giving up the battle and was waiting for any opening that Hulme mightinadvertently give him, but the Monaco winner was not making any mistakes and was

INTO THE LEAD - Clark took the lead on L16and from then on was never challenged. Herehe leads Brabham, Hulme, Rindt, and Amonround the Hugenholtz hairpin on L18, alreadyshowing signs of drawing away from them

TENACITY - Chris amon made a good impresionwith the way he kept the pressure on Hulmethroughout the race. Here Hulme leads theFerrari driver past Scarfiotti (Ferrari), who hasmoved over to let them through. In thebackground is Siffert (Cooper-Maserati)

DRY - Brabham gives the lead over to clark asthe track dries up.

Clark overtakes Hulme and goes for the leadingBrabham

SOLO PERFORMANCE - Gurney only ran foreight laps before fuel injection meteringproblems stopped his race. Ginther didn't race


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inadvertently give him, but the Monaco winner was not making any mistakes and wascertainly not going to be worn down by the Ferrari driver. This fruitless pursuit for third placetended to overshadow the beautiful performance by Clark way out ahead of everybody anddriving with such ease and style, even though his clutch mechanism was not operatingsmoothly. Now and again Amon would get his Ferrari alongside Hulme's Brabham, but therewas never any question of getting it in front, for Hulme always made sure he was in the rightplace at the right time, thus preventing any "diving into the corner" or "chopping" tactics byhis young adversary.

At the back of the field Spence was having a bad time in the remaining 16-cylinder BRM,having to hold the gear lever in place all the time, and at one point he got his hands crossedand spun the BRM, this letting Irwin get by in the Lotus-BRM V8 which he was driving veryneatly and smoothly, auguring well for better cars in the future. The Honda was runningworse and worse and Surtees finally gave up after 73 laps, having had a mild spin due to thethrottle slides sticking, and muttered about differential gears that were not working properly.This retirement saved the Honda the embarrassment of being lapped for a second time bythe green and yellow Lotus in its record-breaking flight. With fifteen laps still to run thesituation was that Clark was completely unchallenged, Brabham was holding second place buteasing off, which meant that the Hulme/Amon duel was gaining on him. These four were theonly ones on the same lap, and one lap down came Parkes and Scarfiotti, the Ferrari teamstill being complete as was the Brabham team. Two laps behind were Spence and Irwin andstill running, hut a long way behind were Anderson and Siffert.

problems stopped his race. Ginther didn't raceat all.

DRIFT - Hulme pressing on in the fight with ChrisAmon in the Ferrari.

COMBINATION - Mike Parkes drowe a 1966chassis fitted with the new 1967 V12, nowsporting 36 valve heads.

Clearly if no one ran into trouble this was how the race was going to end and it was an anxious Team Lotus pit crew that ticked off the laps,knowing that Hill's Cosworth engine had developed a fault, and equally it was a thankful Clark that was holding first place without being challenged,for he had no idea what had happened to his team-mate's car, just hoping that whatever it was it would not happen to his car. With seven laps togo the Hulme/Amon pursuit race caught up and lapped Parkes and the Ferrari engineer did his best to cause some fumbling in the hope that youngAmon might get by, but it takes more than two Ferraris to ruffle the swarthy Hulme.

The gap between Brabham and Hulme was down to six seconds, as Australian Jack was taking it easy, realising he could do nothing about Clark,and suddenly the Brabham pit realised that Brabham was not aware of the fact that Hulme was being hotly pursued by Amon. They had only beensignalling that Hulme was many seconds behind, so they came out with a signal that said: Hulme and Amon-6 sec, whereupon Brabham quicklyopened the gap to 10 seconds and so the race finished, with a jubilant Team Lotus, which included Chapman, Duckworth, Lotus engineers andmechanics unbelievably happy with this outstanding victory by a brand-new design and Clark having showed once more his true ability as a GrandPrix driver. Brabham was well satisfied with second and third places, and Ferrari must realise that all they need is one of the "top five" in the team togain success.


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BAD SETUP - Surtees kept motoring for 73 laps. But after a spin due to s sticking throttle andbad setup of the differential he gave up and retired the Honda RA273.

OPPOSIT LOCK - Amon guns the big Ferrari out of Hugenholtzbocht on his way to fourth place infront of the other two Scuderia cars

IMPRESSIVE DEBUT - This season the GP cars have broken the 400 bhp border and has movedinto the land of the compressor-driven titans of earlier years. The roadholding - however beingmuch better, the cars are "running on rails".

POINT AND SHOOT - Scarfiotti didn't reallylive up to his successes in sports car racing,but managed to obtain a single point forhimself and Scuderia Ferrari

DISAPPOINTED - The high spirits of the firstpractice was somewhat subdued in the racewhen Graham Hill retired his new Lotus 49 abit early


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Result

P1 Jim Clark Lotus-Cosworth


P3 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco V8


P5 Mike Parkes Ferrari V12

P6 Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari V12



Championship Table After Zandvoort




9 points - Jim Clark








2 points - Mike Parkes

1 point - Ludovico Scarfiotti

Go to the next GP at Spa Francorchamps 18th june 1967


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Belgian GP - June 18th 1967

Spa Francorchamps - 28 laps



PracticeUnlike the French, German and English national clubs, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium haveno doubts about the status and location of their Grand Prix. It takes place on the magnificent"National Circuit of Francorchamps" in the wooded hills above the town of Spa, and it representsGrand Prix racing at its best.

The entry list was very similar to that at Zandvoort, as were the cars, Ferrari running the samethree cars and drivers, Amon, Scarfiotti and Parkes, Honda had Surtees with their two12-cylinder cars, B.R.M. had Stewart with an H16 and a Tasman V8, and Spence with a V8,Parnell with his Lotus-BRM V8 and an H16 BRM for Irwin, Team Lotus with the two Type 49 carsfor Clark and Hill, the Brabham team with the new car that practised in Holland, but now with aF1 Hewland gearbox, for the owner, and the 1965 chassis with 1967 engine that Brabhamraced in Holland, for Hulme. Cooper had the same three cars as Zandvoort for Rindt andRodriguez, and Gurney had Eagle number 104, the lightweight titanium car and a spare car andengine. Anderson, Bonnier and Ligier had their own cars and Siffert the usual Rob Walker car.AAR-Eagle would have entered McLaren on one of their cars but were short of a good spareengine.

Practice from 16.00-18.00 on Friday and Saturday afternoon saw Clark dominate everyone inthe Lotus-Cosworth (Ford) V8 and while he was expected to go fast, few people were preparedfor the speeds he achieved. Last year in practice Surtees was fastest at 3:38.0, without toomuch effort with the 1966 Ferrari, so it was natural that 3:40.0 this year should be minimum laptime for any works driver. In May the Chaparral driven by Phil Hill had lapped at 3:35.6 (approx.236 kph) so that the good 3-litre Grand Prix cars could expect to beat that, and it seemedwithin the bounds of possibility for a real flyer to approach 3:30 by the end of the second day.The Lotus cars had small air deflectors on the sides of the nose cowling as they were anticipatingreaching 305 kph and there was a feeling that the front might suffer from aerodynamic lift;Brabham was also trying similar deflectors.

BRM arrived prepared to be depressed by the performance of the H16 cars and had lent one toParnell, but before practice was very old they had snatched it back for Spence to drive, as theywere agreeably surprised by the way the cars were going. Stewart tried a V8 and an H16, as didSpence, and both soon settled for the 3-litre 16-cylinder cars, which were getting well wound upon the fast descent to the Masta-ess-bend, even if they lacked some steam up the long dragfrom Stavelot to Francorchamps. Irwin felt his way round in Parnell's Lotus-BRM V8, then had ago in the H16 before it was snatched away, and finished up in the Tasman V8 that the Parnellteam had used at Monaco.

CLOSE CONVOY of heavy machinery.Amon's Ferrari leads the Cooper-Maseratisof Rindt and Rodriguez, the Mexican driverfailing to finish the race due to enginetrouble.

REDEMPTION - Stewart's second-place H16B.R.M., seen locking a wheel under braking,achieved its best Grand Prix result at Spadespite the customary gear linkagedifficulties.

By 17.00 times were beginning to fall below 3:40 for a lot of drivers, but the Brabham team were not happy, for Hulme thought the handling onBrabham's old car was awful and did not do any flying laps, so was untimed officially. Brabham had a go in it and seemed happy enough, but neitherRepco engines were giving enough power to challenge the Cosworth engines. Towards the end of the second hour both Team Lotus drivers began touse their 400 bhp and everyone sat up when Clark did 3:31.5 and Hill 3:32.9, while a watchful eye was kept on Gurney as he had done 3:34.1 on alap where he slowed up and came into the pits at the end. Then Clark really showed who was the Grand Prix master-driver by clocking 3:31.2,followed by 3:29.0, an average speed of 242.870 kph including the bottom gear hairpin at La Source - Grand Prix driving in its purest form.

Just before practice ended Gurney gave an impressive reply with 3:31.2, the Eagle being in fine form. As Colin Chapman was not terribly satisfiedwith the Lotus chassis performance, one wondered what was to happen when he and Clark considered it to be right!

Next day was another of ideal weather conditions and for the first hour there was not too much activity or high speed motoring, Irwin was learningvery nicely about Grand Prix driving with the V8 BRM, Amon was getting quite impressive with the leading Ferrari and Stewart was trying really hardwith his H16 BRM and getting good results. Poor Surtees could not even improve on his 1966 Ferrari time with the Honda V12 and was slower thanthe slowest Ferrari, driven by Scarfiotti. The Walker Cooper-Maserati had trouble in its gearbox so Siffert borrowed the spare works Cooper-Maseratifor a number of laps, this one having the disc-type magnesium wheels.

Not long after 17.00 things began to warm up and the pace quickened as everyone got wound up for a last do-or-die effort. Clark was about to dohis "quick one" when he found Amon and Scarfiotti in his slip-stream, so he backed off and let them get well ahead and then put in a lap at ashattering 3:28.1 (243.921 kph). Gurney equalled his time of Friday, showing that it had been no fluke, but Brabham was only able to get a goodtime by reason of some crafty slip-streaming. Hill's Lotus 49 was going quickly but blowing out oil from its Cosworth engine and he did not improveon his first day's time, but Rindt and Stewart were both in fine form and really trying all they knew.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that the really fast Grand Prix cars were beginning to out-perform their road-holding ability, a situation we havenot known since 1951. Even the Lotus did not look its impeccable and serene self at the speeds Clark and Hill were cornering on the ultra-rapidBelgian circuit. The "cornering-on-rails" stuff we have become used to is disappearing now that real 400 horsepower 3-litre engines are on the go,and the drivers are earning their bread-and-butter.

Spa Francorchamps Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_spa.html

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Starting grid

#21 Jim Clark (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 3:28.1


#22 Graham Hill (Lotus-CosworthV8) 3:32.9



#14 Jackie Stewart (BRM H16) 3:34.8


#3 Mike Parke (Ferrari V12) 3:36.6

#2 Ludovico Scarfiotti (Ferrari V12) 3:37.7



#39 Joakim Bonnier (Cooper-Maserati V12) 3:39.1



#17 Chris Irwin (BRM V8) 3: 44.4


#19 Bob Anderson (Brabham-Climax) 3:49.5

#39 Guy Ligier (Cooper-Maserati V12) 4:01.2

CLARK'S LOTUS - Again to the forefront withthe new Ford 3-litre engine, made two stopswith plug and gear trouble but still finishedsixth.

LONE WOLF - For most of the season Chris Amon has been the sole runner for the Ferrari teamin GP racing.

ANOTHER GO - When the drivers take LaSource corner they are going for yet anotherlong lap of high speed thrill.


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BLUE LIGHTNING - Gurney's Eagle-Weslakekept going and going.

ROAD COURSE - The Belgians around Spa, Masta, Stavelot and Malmedy use the roads everyday. At another pace however! This is entering Malmedy after Burnenville.

AIMING - Chris Amon braking and turning in forLa Source

DIVING - Amon in the Ferrari turning roundalmost 180 degrees through La Source

NO CIGAR - Both Brabhams were out of the competition when the belgian flag fell for L1, eventhough Brabham himself had managed to slipstream his car to a decent slot on the grid. HereHulme is going round La Source.

ESCAPING - and accelarting down past the pitsfor another lap. The ferrari is carrying #1because of Surtees' win last year

CLOSE UP - Young Jochen Rindt is doing well on Spa Francorchamps. Here seen in closecompany with Chris Amon in the Ferrari


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RESSOUCE - Amon at La Source. Note that hairpin bend is really a T-junction between tworoads

CHIEF - Colin Chapman is pointing something out for a marshall during practice. Clark is in thecar ready for another stint.

The Race

The Belgian GP over 28 laps started at 15.30, but before that the drivers were taken round in a parade of cars driven by RACB club members, andthen they did a reconnaissance lap in their racing cars before lining up on the grid. The front row was most impressive with Clark, Gurney and Hill inthat order, Lotus 49, Eagle-Weslake and Lotus 49, with a total of more than 1200 horsepower between the three of them and all capable of using itall. Neither Lotus was using the air deflectors on the front. A "dummy-grid" line-up was used for starting engines and Hill fumbled the starting of hisCosworth V8 and flattened the battery in the process so had to stay on the dummy-grid while the other 17 cars rolled down to the starting line andwere away, with Clark leading up the hill after the Eau Rouge, followed by Rindt, Stewart, Parkes, Amon, Surtees, Rodriguez and Gurney, the Eaglehesitating off the line.

The unhappy Hill free-wheeled into his pit where another battery was fitted and he joined the race when everyone else was down at Stavelot. Onthe fast and deceptive left hand bend at Blanchimont Parkes got into a slide and crashed badly, being thrown out onto the edge of the road as theFerrari turned over. The leaders charged down past the pits with Clark already well in the lead, followed by Stewart in an H16 BRM going really well,then came Amon, rather depressed at having seen his team-mate crash, Rindt, and Gurney making up for his bad start. On the way back fromStavelot on the opening lap the Honda broke its crankshaft and Surtees came free-wheeling into the pits, stopping briefly at the Ferrari pit to tellthem about Parkes. A lonely Graham Hill went by and then Irwin free-wheeled down the hill to the pits with a broken camshaft in his V8.

Clark set off with a second lap in 3:35.9 and just ran away from everyone, with Stewart struggling gamely to keep the Lotus in sight and Gurney inthird place. Then came Amon, Brabham, Rodriguez and Rindt in a struggling and rather unruly bunch, with the young New Zealand Ferrari driverbeing surrounded by the other three. Some way back Spence was keeping his H16 BRM ahead of Scarfiotti's Ferrari, but he, like Amon, was ratherput off by the sight of Parkes' crash. Hulme was having an unhappy time racing against Bonnier, and Siffert in Rob Walker's car, Anderson and Ligierwere bringing up the rear, apart from Hill who stopped at the pits on L2 and again on L3, to retire with an inoperative clutch and gearbox. By fivelaps there was the perfect exhibition of the present situation in Grand Prix racing and high-speed driving in its highest form, for Clark (Lotus),Stewart (BRM) and Gurney (Eagle) were way out ahead of everyone else, the rest appearing to be struggling along like a lot of beginners. Thissituation was a fine picture of the overall scene, of the combination of driver, car, engine, and team, the two missing drivers being Hill and Surteeswho were both in the pits.


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In a very efficient manner Parkes had been brought to the ambulance station behind the pits and on L8 a Ferrari mechanic held out a signal to Amonand Scarfiotti which read "PARK OK," for his injuries were restricted to a broken leg and a broken wrist. However, Amon was not OK for he wasbehind Rodriguez and the Cooper-Maserati was spraying oil all over the Ferrari, and he did not have the speed to get by. Clark was motoringrelentlessly on with a lap in 3:33.3 and by L10 he was 21 seconds ahead of Stewart, and at an average of over 234 kph that was a long distance.Gurney was closing on Stewart but not rapidly enough to be a danger and the three of them looked and sounded superb, V8 followed by H16 andV12, a veritable mechanical delight.

At the end of L12 Clark rounded the hairpin at La Source and then there was consternation as he headed for his pit, with the Cosworth enginerunning on seven cylinders. Stewart swept by into the lead, followed by the blue and silver Eagle-Weslake, but Gurney lifted off and dived into the pitarea. He shouted that the fuel pressure was low an roared away. At the Lotus pit it was found that a sparking plug had disintegrated, probablyhaving been over-tightened, but it was some time before Clark rejoined the race. After this panic the order was Stewart (BRM), Gurney (Eagle),Brabham, Rodriguez, Amon, Rindt, and Clark was now seventh but a long way back, leading Scarfiotti, Spence and Hulme, while Bonnier had retiredmuch to the relief of the number two Brabham driver; the remaining three, Siffert, Anderson and Ligier had all been lapped.

Gurney was 14 seconds behind Stewart at the end of L14, but did not seem to be gaining rapidly, and in third place was Rodriguez, but a long waybehind, and he was followed closely by Amon and Rindt, with Brabham well behind them, having been leading them on the previous lap. There wasobviously trouble brewing in the Brabham-Repco V8, but it was not alone for Clark returned to the pits as another sparking plug had failed, this timedue to a fault in its structure, and just afterwards Hulme stopped as the oil scavenging system on his Repco V8 engine was not functioning properlyand the base chamber was filling with oil. This was also Brabham's trouble and he had to give up on the next lap. Clark got going again but now hisclutch was not freeing properly and with baulking synchromesh in the ZF gearbox gearchanging was not easy. After struggling with the lever theoperating mechanism became deranged and he was left with movement in only one direction, which gave him third and fifth gears, but he carried onwith no hope of doing anything more spectacular than finishing.

Stewart was just about holding his own against Gurney's onslaught, the BRM H16 cylinder engine going well and at 17 laps he was still 12 secondsahead, but then he had trouble in the connection between the gear-lever in the cockpit and the selector mechanism in the gearbox at the back ofthe car. When he had the lever in the right place the mechanism at the back was out of step and in neutral the revs kept going to over 12.000 rpm!While Stewart was holding the lever with one hand and steering with the other, Gurney caught up 4 seconds a lap and on L21 they raced past thepits side-by-side, Gurney getting the lead up the hill to Burnenville.

At that moment Scarfiotti was in the pits with a broken hydraulic pipe on his rear brakes and a repair was being effected, and meanwhile Amon hadat last got ahead of the two Cooper-Maseratis and was pulling well away from them. Spence had not yet been lapped by the leaders, but Clark wasa lap behind and cruising round to finish. As Stewart's gear selection trouble got worse and worse, Gurney sailed on into a commanding lead, theEagle-Weslake V12 looking and sounding superb, the only fault being that oil was spraying out of the catch tank onto the exhaust pipes and makingominous looking blue smoke. This in itself was no worry, but the fact that there was that much oil in the catch-tank was disturbing.

With only four laps to go the Maserati engine in Rodriguez's Cooper blew up, which was no great surprise for the young Mexican had been having apretty spirited motor race, so this left Rindt in fourth place. On the penultimate lap Amon was signalled to switch on his reserve fuel pump, secure inthird place, but over a minute and a half behind the leader. Amid much rejoicing in he Eagle pit, and no doubt a lot of quiet satisfaction at WeslakeEngineering hack in Sussex, Dan Gurney won the Belgian Grand Prix at record speed and with a new lap record that he had set up during his chaseof Stewart. The BRM team were well satisfied with the performance of the H16 cylinder cars, both of them finishing and Stewart felt he could havekept Gurney at bay had his gearbox not gone wrong. Team Lotus were slightly chastened by their misfortunes, but the practice laps and the openinpart of the race convinced them that they had not got much to fear from any opposition.

STRUGGLE - The mighty Honda RA273 brokethe crankcase and sent Surtees to an earlyretirement.

DIVE BOMBER - Jackie Stewart in the BRM howling past the spectators after La Source. The diveonto Eau Rouge is scarring to some and exhillarating to others.


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COOPER DUO - Rindt is fearless at Spa. Heset at fast practice time and shot away fromthe grid as No. Two behind Clark. But herehe is chasing team-mate Rodriguez at LaSource. Rodriguez' Maserati engine blew uplater.

NO MISTAKE this time. Dan Gurney's Anglo-American Eagle-Weslake V12 scored its first GrandPrix victory at Spa, a circuit where its power and handling were a real advantage.

VICTOR - Finally Anglo American Racing accomplished a vicory in a Formula One WorldChampionship race. The new engine seems to combine in a perfect way with the high techchassis. Spa Franchorchamps is a truely splendid place to win a Grand prix, and now Dan Gurneyhas joined the list of great racing drivers who have worn the laurels in the Ardennes.

-

Result

P1 Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake

P2 Jackie Stewart BRM H16


P4 Jochen Rindt Cooper-MaseratiV12


P6 Jim Clark Lotus-Cosworth V8


Fastest Lap - D. Gurney 3:31.9

Championship Table After Spa





9 points - Dan Gurney


6 points - Jackie Stewart


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Fastest Lap - D. Gurney 3:31.96 points - Graham Hill




3 points - Jochen Rindt





Go to the next GP at Bugatti Le Mans 2nd july 1967


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French GP - July 2nd 1967

Le Mans Bugatti - 80 laps



PracticeIt was the Automobile Club of France who started Grand Prix racing in 1906 and set thestandard for this form of competition to be the pinnacle of driving and racing-car construction.The Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France has always been held in high esteem and hasprovided some memorable moments of Grand Prix history, though occasionally it has lapsedslightly, like all races with a long and varied history.

This year the Grand Prix de l'ACF not only lapsed, it stumbled and fell. Great friends with the ACof France are the members of the Automobile Club of the West, who own and run the Le Mans24-hour race, and last year they started a racing driving school on a 4,4-kilometre circuit theybuilt in the pits and car park area of the famous Circuit of the Sarthe and called it the BugattiCircuit, in memory of the famous car manufacturer.

This circuit uses the pits and start area of the 24-hour circuit, runs round the right-hand climb,under the Dunlop bridge and down to the Esses, whereupon, instead of heading off forTertre-Rouge it hairpins right into the vast car park, does two more hairpins joined by shortstraights, crosses over into another car park where it does an artificial ess-bend, and rejoins themain pit area with a very slow right-hander. The wellsurfaced road is lined with sand, likeeverything at Le Mans, and the corners are marked by old tyres sunk into the ground.

A driving school circuit maybe, but not a Grand Prix circuit by European standards, or even byBritish standards, yet the Le Mans club persuaded the ACF to hold their famous Grand Prix onthe Bugatti circuit, when Reims, Rouen and Clermont-Ferrand are available. Had the propositionbeen to hold it on the big circuit of the Sarthe, the famous 24-hour circuit, there would havebeen no objections, but before it took place the famous French Grand Prix was being dubbed"The Grand Prix of the Car Parks." As if in sympathy the entry dwindled before practice beganand nearly died before the race finished.

With Parkes still in hospital and Scarfiotti losing interest since seeing the Spa accident, the Ferrariteam was reduced to Amon, who had the two 1967 cars to choose from. Surtees was reducedto zero, his one Honda entry being forfeited due to lack of engines and a competitive car.Brabham and Hulme both had 1967 Brabhams with the latest Repco V8 engines, Clark and Hillhad the Lotus 49 cars of Team Lotus, Gurney had his titanium Eagle-Weslake V12 and enteredthe first of the V12 Eagles for McLaren to drive. Stewart and Spence were entered withH16-cylinder BRM cars, and Irwin had Parnell's V8-cylinder Tasman BRM. The Cooper team wereas at Spa, with Rindt in the 1967 car, and Rodriguez in a modified 1966 Cooper-Maserati V52.The privately-owned cars were those of Anderson (Brabham-Climax 4-cyl.), Ligier (Cooper-Maserati V12) and Siffert with Rob Walker's Cooper-Maserati V12.

When the vast pit, grandstand and paddock area was opened up for the Grand Prix "circus" toentrench and begin practice, it was rather like putting the whole mechanism of London Airportinto operation in order that someone could land a Piper Cub aircraft! The sun was unbelievablyhot and fuel Systems and cooling systems were suffering, as the circuit involved a series ofstops and starts, and no-one showed a great deal of enthusiasm for serious practising and thepublic did not even bother to come and watch.

The Team Lotus transporter was held up at the customs at Dieppe so Clark and Hill had towatch everyone else getting hot, and BRM were embarrassed for Chris Irwin was lapping fasterin the 2-litre V8 car than the two works drivers in the 3-litre cars. McLaren was being verycareful not to ruffle the Eagle on his first public outing with it, and the two Brabham drivers weremaking hay while the sun shone and Lotus were away. The second day of practice was notmuch more exciting, even though the Team Lotus cars arrived, and the most enthusiasticfollowers of Grand Prix racing found it hard to enthuse over the Bugatti circuit, especially as thecars passed the pits so slowly that team managers could almost talk to their drivers.

Those who were used to Le Mans cars passing the same pits in a crash of sound and fury at260-270 kph found the present situation, with Grand Prix cars accelerating past at 130-140 kphdreadfully dull; and it did not help matters that there was all the organisational flap, the police,the rules and regulations for the 270 kph passing. Some of the drivers and teams had beenthrough all this before, as a Formula Two race was held last year, but with this being the firstFormula One visit, and the last if justice prevails, there were no standards at which to aim.

Not unnaturally most people went faster on the second day of practice and it was amusing tosee that BRM had snatched the V8 Tasman car away from Tim Parnell and Irwin, to give it toStewart; and given them an H16-cylinder car in return. It was even more amusing whenStewart failed to equal the time set up by Irwin the day before, and Irwin improved on Stewart'stime with the 16-cylinder car. (What a lot of old proverbs spring to mind)

Just when nearly everybody had been brain-washed into accepting the 3-litre Cosworth engineas a Ford design it started misfiring in both cars, and it was Keith Duckworth, Colin Chapman andthe Team Lotus mechanics who were trying to sort out the trouble. It seemed pointless to askwhat the trouble was, for if they had known they would have cured it. It was either the injectionsystem or the ignition system or the fuel system, or a combination of all three, but whatever itwas it remained uncurable on Clark's engine and just as practice was finishing it cured itself onHill's engine, and with it singing merrily on all eight cylinders he recorded fastest practice lap withvery little effort. Brabham and Gurney had been dominating the practice times and Hill beat themboth before he was fully aware that the Lotus was running properly at last. Clark was fourth

NEW MOUNT - Bruce McLaren drove one ofGurney's Eagle-Weslake cars at Le Mans, andis seen leading Rindt, Hulme and Rodriguez inthe opening phase of the race.

MOMENT OF DOMINATION - The two Lotus49 cars began to dominate the French GrandPrix in a a most impressive manner, untilfinal-drive problems put them both out.

Bugatti Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_bugatti.html

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both before he was fully aware that the Lotus was running properly at last. Clark was fourthfastest with an engine that never did run correctly.

BROKEN - The lid off the ZF diff. of Clark'sLotus 49 shows the damaged teeth.

MICKEY MOUSE RACE TRACK - Jack Brabham, leaning heavily inwards, leads Gurney round partof the ess-bend at Blue Car Park section of the Bugatti circuit.

Starting grid

#7 Graham Hill (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1:36.2

#3 JackBrabham (Brabham-Repco V8) 1:36.3



#8 Bruce McLaren (Eagle-Weslake V12) 1:37.6




#15 Chris Irwin (BRM H16) 1:39.4





#17 Bob Anderson (Brabham-Climax 4-cyl) 1:44.9


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#16 Guy Ligier (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:45.2

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The Race

The pit area at Le Mans is very long indeed, providing, as it does, 24-hour facilities for 55 cars, so that 15 cars were rather lost and the 20.000people who turned up on race day looked very sparse in an area that normally accommodates 200.000 people. For some strange organisationalreason the start-line assembly area was at the lower end of the pits and the pits in use by the Grand Prix teams were at the upper end, and tomake life really difficult all the transporters had to be parked at the lower end of the paddock.

A warm-up lap was to be allowed and when the organisers requested that all the cars should be wheeled right down to the lower end before startingoff there was a near-riot and most drivers just got in and drove away. The "dummy grid" was formed up so far from the starting line that fewdrivers could see the starter waving them to move forward, and it was more by luck than judgement that the fifteen competitors were ready to gowhen the French flag fell.

Just before lunch there had been a heavy rain shower, but by 14.00 when the race over 80 laps began, all was dry and set fair, a haze keeping thereal power of the sun away. Hill led the pack away and was just ahead of Gurney, Brabham, Clark and Amon the first time round the car park! ThenBrabham got in front and meanwhile Clark was finding out about the circuit with 400 bhp available for the first time, having had the engine unitchanged overnight for one that really worked, the practice trouble being the fuel pump, which is part and parcel of the complete power unit. By L3he was third, by L4 he was second, and he took the lead on L5 and began to motor away from everyone except Hill who followed him through ashe went by and the Lotus 49s were first and second on L7 and proceeded to draw away from everyone else, running nose-to-tail, the way Fangioand Moss used to do in 1955 with the W196 Mercedes-Benz cars.

Brabham was holding third place and keeping ahead of Gurney, as practice indicated he would do, and they were followed by Amon and Hulme inclose company, as at Zandvoort, then Rindt, McLaren, Rodriguez, Stewart (in the 2- litre V8 BRM), Spence, Siffert, Anderson, Irwin and Ligier. Asthe two green and yellow Team Lotus cars pulled out a commanding lead they looked most impressive and sounded superb, and on L11 Hill went infront, but they remained nose-to-tail. Spence had already come to rest with a broken output shaft from the differential unit to the inboard universaljoint on one drive shaft, and Hulme had lost the wooden knob off his gear-lever and was changing gear with the metal rod of the lever. Rindt had awild spin in his works Cooper-Maserati which dropped him from seventh to 10th place, and McLaren's Weslake V12 engine did not seem to have thepower it started out with.

At the end of L14 Ford faces fell in the Lotus pit and the Lotus lads did not look happy, for Clark appeared on his own and No. 7 Lotus was coastingto a stop round the back of the pits. Most of the teeth on the ZF pinion and a lot on the crown-wheel had broken and there was no more final drive.Hulme had passed Amon, when he got used to changing gear with a threaded rod, and apart from Rindt, recovering ground after his spin, nobodylooked like catching or passing anyone. By L20, or quarter distance, Clark was well out of sight round the Dunlop Bridge bend before Brabham andGurney came into view, the gap between Clark and Gurney being 15 seconds. As Clark completed L23 there was consternation for he headed forthe pits to report a nasty noise in the ZF final drive unit. He was not wrong and this left Brabham with a precarious lead over Gurney, and Amon hadjust repassed Hulme, so the Ferrari was now third.

Anderson had stopped out on the circuit when a small part in his ignition distributor broke, and Ligier had spent some time in the pits having hisaccelerator control repaired. Hardly had we got over the loss of the second Lotus, than McLaren stopped to say that the Weslake engine was goingreally flat. It had been obvious for some time that he did not have 400 bhp as he could not out-accelerate the Cooper-Maseratis and it wasdiscovered that the tonguedrive to the ignition trigger disc was shearing, retarding the ignition, so the car was withdrawn. Although Gurney could notget by Brabham, even had there been room on this "Mickey Mouse" circuit, Brabham was not getting away, and there seemed to be a stale-mate.They were over half a minute ahead of Amon and Hulme, who were still racing each other, and on L30 Hulme got his Brabham-Repco V8 in front ofthe Ferrari. Rindt had rejoined his team-mate and they were urging each other on, leaving Stewart way behind, the 2-litre BRM about to be lappedby the leaders, Siffert and Irwin having already been lapped. On L34 a piston broke in Rindt's Maserati engine and there was a nasty mess inside,and he coasted to a stop, while on the previous lap Stewart was caught and passed by the leading two cars.

At L38 Gurney's Eagle suddenly lost a lot of ground and he went by pointing over his shoulder to the engine; on the next lap the engine wasmisfiring badly and even worse on L40, exactly half distance. Next time round he only just got to the beginning of the pit area, and there he retiredwith a broken union in the fuel system on the injection unit. A small pipe between the injector unit and the pressure release valve system hadfractured at the union itself and all the injection pressure was lost, there being no means of effecting a repair. This left Brabham in a comfortablelead over his team-mate, who was no longer being harried by the lone Ferrari, even though it was still there.

At L47 Rodriguez coasted into the pits with fuel in the cockpit from a broken pipe between the metering unit and the pressure gauge on theinstrument panel. Due to the uphill pit area the Cooper-Maserati stopped short of the pits and Cooper mechanics ran down to Rodriguez to find thetrouble. They undid the pipe from the metering unit and fitted a blank olive in the union, and Rodriguez was back in the race, the Maserati enginesounding as good as ever, but the stop dropped him down to last place, apart from Ligier who was way behind after two long pit stops.

While all this was happening Amon came to a stop out on the circuit when his accelerator control broke, down by the foot pedal, so this left the twoBrabham-Repco V8s in complete command of the race, with Stewart third, even though he was in danger of being lapped for the second time. Bythree-quarter distance, or 60 laps, the very healthy Brabham-Repco V8s were cruising round, followed by Stewart in the V8 BRM and Irwin in theH16 BRM, for he had just passed Siffert's Cooper-Maserati which had started to run badly as the battery was failing and the fuel pressure at theinjection pump was falling. Rodriguez was four laps behind Brabham and actually lapping faster than the leader, and last, but still running, was Ligier,so we had seven survivors.

Things stayed this way until L69 when Irwin appeared with smoke pouring out of the back of the H16 BRM, from an oil leak dropping onto anexhaust pipe. As the end of the race was in sight he was told to keep going and he nursed the car along until the last lap, when the engine was outof oil, and as it started to rattle, he switched off and stopped just half a lap from the chequered flag. As Brabham had finished the 80 laps Irwin wasclassified, but his stop meant that the limping Siffert was able to retake fourth place. Everyone seemed relieved that the whole farce of a Grand Prixon a driving school circuit was over, and the only happy people were the Brabham team, but they would rather have won a better race.


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CONFUSED - Stewart never seems to be certain about the most suitable car for a race and atthe French G.P. he started practice with an H16-cylinder B.R.M. but quickly changed to a TasmanV8.

RUGGED - Hulme did most of the race at Le Mans changing gear with the metal rod of thegearbox of his Brabham-Repco V8, having lost the wooden knob.

SAND TRAP - Jochen Rindt goes off in the Cooper-Maserati


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PRECISION - Denny Hulme negotiates one off the many hairpins

Racordement - Siffert enters the shortened main straight where it was impossible to gain enoughspeed to impress the spectators, who have grown accustomed to the monster speeds of the24-hours prototypes and GT-racers

Clockwise from above - Chris Amon adjust hismirror; not faired-in on this car. Rindt in goodform. Brabham in a high speed drift in the BT24

Result



P3 Jackie Stewart BRM V8

P4 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati V12

P5 Chris Irwin BRM H16



Fastest Lap - G. Hill: 1:36.7

Championship Table After Le Mans













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3 points - Jo Siffert


2 points - Chris Irwin




Go to the next GP at Silvertone 15th july 1967


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British GP - July 15th 1967

Silverstone - 80 laps



PracticeThe choice of the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) fell on Silverstone this year, so with the help ofthe BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club) and most of the country's motor clubs the British GrandPrix was held on the wide open spaces of the airfield circuit. Entry was by invitation and all thebig teams were represented along with more than the usual number of private owners, somenewcomers being given a chance to try their hang at Grand Prix racing.

Brabham and Hulme were driving the two latest Brabham BT24 cars, as raced at the French GPexcept that the instrument panel layout was altered, to bring the instruments nearer the steeringwheel. The reason for this was to gain a few extra inches of space for a larger scuttle tank asthere was a possibility that the 80-lap race would cut things a bit fine on the existing tankcapacity. Stewart was entered to drive the latest, slightly lighter and slimmer BRM H16-cylindercar, Spence with one of the earlier ones and Irwin with the other early car. The first two driverswere entered by the Owen Organisation, and the third by Parnell, who also entered Courage todrive his 2-litre V8 Tasman BRM.

As it turned out during practice there was a lot of shuffling of cars and drivers among this quartetand the moves are indicated in the table of practice times. Clark and Hill had the two Lotus 49cars of Team Lotus, 49/2 and 49/1, respectively, and since their last appearance the gearboxeshad been considerably strengthened, as described in "Continental Notes" in this issue. BothCosworth V8 engines had also been fitted with yet another system of linkage for thethrottle-slide controls, in the search for better control of the 410 bhp and both cars had a newmethod of clutch operation, with the hydraulic operating cylinder on the right of the crown-wheelcasing and acting on an exposed push-rod running forwards.

Surtees was alone with a Honda V12, outwardly unchanged from its last appearance at Spa butwith a new and improved engine, and Amon was alone with the 1967 Ferrari V12, number0003, as it was at the French GP. Gurney and McLaren were entered by Anglo American Racerswith the two cars used at Le Mans, plastic pipes to the metering unit being an obviousmodification. Gurney had the latest car, number 104, but the titanium front suspensionrocker-arms were replaced by standard steel ones, not through any failure, but as anexperiment in the search for improved rigidity; McLaren had the earlier car, number 102.

Cooper were out in force with a full team of three cars, Rindt with a brand-new car, with the36-valve V12 engine tried out at Monaco at the beginning of the season, Rodriguez with the1966 car he normally drives and Alan Rees being given a try-out in the modified 1966 chassiswith the inboard rear brakes, the car that is normally kept as a spare. The remainder of theentry were private owners, Siffert having the Walker/Durlacher Cooper-Maserati V12 as usual,though it was fitted with an old borrowed engine as their own was awaiting an overhaul,Anderson having his Brabham-Climax 4-cylinder as lack of money prevents him acquiring a V8engine.

Bonnier had his red and white Cooper-Maserati V12, and Hobbs was entered by Bernard WhiteRacing to drive White's 2-litre BRM V8. A new entry was that of Ligier with the 1966Brabham-Repco V8 with which Hulme had won the Monaco GP earlier this season. The reasonfor Ligier having this very race-worthy motor car was quite simple; his money was the shapethat Jack Brabham likes!

To complete the entry there was the Swiss driver Silvio Moser with the Cooper-ATS V8 built byAlf Francis for Fritz Baumann, a Swiss garage owner. It comprises the front half of the Cooperbuilt to take the abortive Climax-16 cylinder, and a Francis rear end. Darlington made an entrywith a 1966 McLaren, but it did not materialise.

MODIFIED - The cast-iron side plates on theZF differential housing sandwich the new topcover plate with long through bolts. On theback of the gearbox is the legaliser.

BRAND NEW - The latest Cooper-MaseratiV12 was ready for final practice and Rindt isseen about to step into it.

FOCUSSED - The B.R.M. team were outpromptly for the morning practice, the three16-cylinder cars making a fine sound as theycirculated.

Silverstone Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_silverstone.html

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V8 CHASE - Brabham goes past Hill in the all-new Lotus late in the race. Back at the pits nobodyis aware of Hill's suspension failure.

CONTEMPT - Colin Chapman has a veryscientific approach to GP racing, aswitnessed at practice. And the Lotus 49 is asplendid machine.

PLAN - When Hill and Clarke go for a practicestint they don't just fool around trying to getthe odd good lap, they drive a pre-definednumber of laps and return to the pits.

HANDYMAN - Joseph Siffert helps themechanics shimming his back wheels on theCooper-Maserati.

DETERMINATION - The proud Japanese fromTokyo are still waiting for succes; and tryinghard.

Practice time consisted of two separate sessions on the Thursday before race day, and one on Friday, but a lot of teams had already been havingprivate sessions on the Silverstone track so they should have been more than ready. The existing lap record was over a year old, standing toBrabham with the first of his Repco V8-engined cars at 1:29.8 set up in May 1966 so when practice began it was felt that any works driver should beable to improve on this and it was confidently expected that some might get as low as 1:25.0.

The BRM team were out promptly for the morning practice, the three 16-cylinder cars making a fine sound as they circulated, but Stewart was notconvinced about the handling of the new car, and it was speculation as to whose old-type 16-cylinder car he would snatch away. Rindt was having tospectate as Cooper mechanics were still working flat out to complete the new car and it was hoped it would arrive in time for the afternoon practice.Brabham and Hulme were in fine form, as they usually are, and were setting the pace, the only driver to look like getting near them being Clark withthe Lotus 49.

However, the Lotus was misfiring badly and Chapman and Duckworth were completely baffled, for the engine had been perfect on the test bed. Theywere so preoccupied with this problem that there was no time to adjust either chassis to the circuit conditions and, all told, the Team Lotus effortswere a bit abortive, except that in spite of all the troubles Clark got round in 1:27.8 which compared favourably with Brabham's time of 1:26.6, theAustralian's improvement of over three seconds over his 1966 time being very impressive. McLaren was not too happy with the Eagle-Weslake asthe differential unit was not right; the unit was stripped down behind the pits to be modified. Like the Cosworth engine the Honda engine soundedterrible, never really running cleanly on all its cylinders, so taken all round it was surprising that the ten fastest were all below the old lap record, andBrabham spoilt his showing by breaking down at the end of practice when the fuel pump gave out.

This first practice had been from 11.30 to 13.00 and the second session was from 16.50 to 17.50 p.m., the odd time being caused by the tight timeschedule of the organisation in order to fit in numerous supporting events. For the afternoon practice Stewart changed cars with Spence, about whichSpence was not too impressed for he had not done many laps before a front suspension mounting collapsed as he was braking for Copse Corner andhe steered the sagging car on to the grass and ended his practice there. McLaren spent most of the time waiting for the modifications to hisdifferential unit to be completed and for everything to be reassembled, and just managed one lap as practice ended. Gurney was going well, but notas well as he hoped, and was not too satisfied with the Eagle's brakes.

The Cooper team had given up hope of completing the new car before the Friday practice, so sent the first of the 1967 cars, the lighter chassis withHewland gearbox, in order that Rindt could make some laps, but it only had an old V12 engine installed. Team Lotus were making a slightimprovement to Clark's car, but the engine still popped and banged and never ran properly on all eight cylinders; even so Clark made fastest time in1:26.5, just beating Brabham's morning time. The Honda was still sounding awful most of the time, though occasionally it would go by the pitssounding marvellous, firing smoothly on all twelve cylinders, but this would not last for long. Amon with the lone Ferrari was being very consistentand looking nice, but was simply not fast enough, though the car gave the impression of great strength and staying power. One hour was really tooshort for any serious improvements to be made so that the overall picture was much the same, with a fast pace generally speaking, but not as fastas expected.

The weather had been splendid for the Thursday practice, but Friday morning was dull and overcast with a suggestion of rain. Overnight Duckworthhad solved the problem of the eratic mixture on the Cosworth engines. There was a minute bleed hole in the by-pass system of the fuel injection thatwas passing too much fuel and by blocking it off all the misfiring was cured. The blocking was done by the simple expedient of tapering an ordinary pindown to the diameter of this tiny hole and tapping it in until the hole was blocked off. With the possibility of rain in the offing all the serious contendersfor the front of the grid were out immediately practice began at 11.00. Rindt was driving the new Cooper with 36-valve Maserati engine and seemedvery pleased with it, Stewart was back in the slim BRM, the front suspension repaired, and everyone seemed set for a last bid to get in the first four,to form the front row of the grid. Clark went out and did one of those impressive demonstrations of virtuosity combined with Chapman race-craft,that keeps these two ahead of most of their competitors. The Cosworth V8 was now really firing on all eight cylinders and Clark did his first lap at1:26.6, virtually where he had left off the previous afternoon, and followed it with 1:26.4, then 1:25.7 and then got slightly baulked by a slower carand did 1:26.1 so he stopped at the pits, to find a smiling Chapman who said "That's got the engine going properly, now we'll try and make the carhandle properly."

At this early stage there was no one else anywhere near this time, 1:27.0 being the general order of the day. Clark's car was taken round to theback of the pits and all sorts of adjustments were made to the suspension geometry and this allowed some time for sorting out the second car forthe team's "new boy" Graham Hill. While all this was happening Stewart came in with the front wheels of the new BRM leaning inwards at a very oddangle and the car was put away, the front suspension structure having collapsed. Racing numbers were changed around and Stewart took the16-cylinder car that Irwin had been driving, while Irwin took the V8-engined car from Courage, who became a spectator.


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16-cylinder car that Irwin had been driving, while Irwin took the V8-engined car from Courage, who became a spectator.

The impending rain did not materialise so everyone who could go fast was doing so, Brabham, Hulme, Gurney and Amon being the outstanding ones,though Hill was beginning to get the second Lotus 49 to his liking. After the adjustments to 49/2 Clark went out again, not to flog round and round inthe hope of getting a good lap time at some lucky point, but with a pre-planned number of laps, which the whole of Team Lotus have become usedto. Before the suspension adjustments he had got down to 1:25.7 and he started off at 1:27.0 to get the feel of the car and track, and his next lapwas 1:25.6, then he had to pass some slower cars and did 1:26.4, but followed with 1:25.5 and 1:25.3 and then came in well satisfied. Chapmanwas equally satisfied with his number one driver and felt that they were beginning to make progress with the Lotus 49.

The two Brabham drivers and Gurney were very close to one another and battling for second fastest time, while now and then the Honda wasshowing signs of going properly, but it was never really competitive in spite of the ability of Surtees. The lone Ferrari was still sounding strong andreliable and Amon was improving though he was doing a great number of laps. Clark's fastest lap of 1:25.3 was an average speed of 198.8 kph andthe pattern was that anyone who could not lap at least at 193 kph was not in the running, Rindt just getting the new Cooper-Maserati V12 into thisselect company with 1:27.4 (194.4 kph).

Towards the end of practice Hill was beginning to get his Lotus 49 going like Clark's and he got his time down to 1:26.0 on two consecutive laps, along way off Clark's performance by Grand Prix standards, but nevertheless second fastest overall. He was not too happy with the feel of the car, itbeing a bit "twitchy", so he settled for 1:26.0 and returned to the pits, but as he was in the pits approach-road a rear radius arm mounting gaveway, which had the effect of making the car turn sharp right. It struck the bank and demolished the front of the car, the right front wheel andsuspension being ripped off, as was the radiator, while the chassis was badly torn where the front wheel unit had pulled off. This accident splintered awooden advertising sign and made a mess on the track so practice was postponed for ten minutes while the bits were swept up.

Clark was out at the time and as he came in he ran over some of the wreckage and a piece of hardboard with nails in it stuck in his front offside tyreand punctured it ! This was the end of Team Lotus activity for the day; they went away to think and work. However, in the remaining half-hour noone beat their times so Clark and Hill were first and second on the grid, with the two hard-working Brabham team drivers alongside them. All TeamLotus wanted was another car, but another one did not exist, although 49/3 and 49/4 were under construction back at Norwich, so the wrecked carwas taken back to base and the most fantastic job of construction began.

Starting grid













#15 Chris Irwin (BRM V8) 1:29.6

#20 David Hobbs (BRM V8) 1:30.1

#14 Alan Rees (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:30.3

DNS Piers Courage (BRM V8) 1:30.4


#19 Bob Anderson (Brabham-Climax 4-cyl) 1:30.7


#22 Silvio Moser (Cooper-ATS V8) 1:32.9


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#22 Silvio Moser (Cooper-ATS V8) 1:32.9

#22 Guy Ligier (Brabham-Repco V8) 1:34.8

-

GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES - Jim Clark sitting in the tight cockpit of Lotus 49/1, rollingup through the grid to the front row. In the background Bob Anderson's Brabham-Climax BT11

THE START - The two green-and-yellow cars of Team Lotus shoot away, leaving no doubt thatthey are the most potent GP-cars ever seen. Amon in the sole Scuderia Ferrari car overtakesthe two Brahams as does Gurney, but Brabham regains third place on the opening lap. Hulmefalls back to 7th behind Stewart who has a tremendous start.


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The race

All 21 drivers who practised were accepted for the start, there being no question of qualifying, but the grid was reduced to 20 as there was no spareBRM for Courage, as Stewart was sticking to 8302, the car that Irwin had started practice with, Spence was back in 8303, the latest 16-cylinder carwas abandoned, and Irwin had the only V8 BRM owned by the factory. Team Lotus had not been the only team with a lot of work to do, for at theend of the afternoon on Friday there was a short un-timed practice session for those who wanted it, McLaren had been giving his Eagle-Weslake alast run when a connecting-rod broke! There was an all-night work-session to get the spare engine installed.

At Norwich the Lotus mechanics were at work building a new car; all that was in existence when they arrived was a bare chassis monocoque withthe brake pipes fitted. As this was to have been 49/3, a much modified car that would, in effect, be a Mark II version of the Lotus 49, nothing fittedanything and lots of parts had to be made. In addition the rear radius arm mounting failure had been traced to a faulty weld and was not a designfailure, so the mountings on 49/1, and the car being built, were all strengthened with gusset plates. On race day 120.000 people turned up to seethe race, and a large proportion seemed to be in the paddock so the arrival of the Lotus transporter with Clark's strengthened car and Hill'sbrand-new car, built from parts of the crashed car and new parts, was rather fraught with difficulty. Chapman summed up this remarkableachievement of providing Hill with a car for the race by saying: "Sixteen of us did three weeks' work overnight" and racing mechanics do not getpaid overtime.

The Grand Prix of Great Britain was due to start at 15.00 and during the morning while the crowds poured in there were supporting races and aparade of old cars and old drivers, some combinations of car and driver being very authentic such as Chiron in a Bugatti, Duncan Hamilton in aD-type Jaguar, Tony Brooks in a Vanwall, Baron de Graffenried in Maserati, Fangio in a W196 Mercedes-Benz and Moss in a 300SLR Mille Miglia-typeMercedes-Benz with the writer of this report as his passenger, as he was during the winning drive in 1955. Before the Grand Prix began thecompetitors were allowed some warm-up laps and as fuel consumption was critical with some cars there was a lot of "topping up" beforeassembling on the grid and the assembly of the cars on the "dummy grid" was a bit chaotic, Hill's car being over-filled and spilling petrol into thecockpit, McLaren tightening an oil union under the Weslake engine, and Gurney trying to change a wheel, but being prevented by officials.

By 15.04 all was more or less under control and the 20 cars moved forward onto the proper starting grid to get away in the most wonderful roar ofsound and clouds of rubber smoke, as everyone unleashed their power and sought to gain grip. The two green and yellow Lotus 49 cars shot awayfrom the pack side-by-side, surely convincing the most sceptical onlooker that they are the most potent Grand Prix cars we have ever seen. Clarkwas leading comfortably at the end of the first lap, followed by his team-mate, with Brabham, Amon, Gurney, Stewart, Hulme and the rest in hotpursuit, all except Bonnier who failed to complete the opening lap. Hill was having to get used to an untried car and in consequence, Brabham, whowas in terrific form, got by into second place on the second lap. As they all went by Spence came into the pits with a merry little bonfire burning justbehind his head The ignition wiring and transistor box were alight from electrical heat, but the flames were quickly extinguished and mechanicsstarted to fit a new unit.

Clark was steadily pulling away from everyone but behind him there was a fierce battle raging between Brabham, Hill, Amon, Gurney and Hulme,there being hardly any distance between all five of them. Stewart had failed to keep up with this bunch and was closely followed by Rodriguez,Surtees and McLaren. After only six laps Clark had a measurable lead while the others were as close as ever, though Hulme was obviously notcontent to be at the back and on L7 he passed Gurney and on L9 he passed Amon. The pits were still busy, for Rindt could see oil smoke in hismirrors and stopped to find out why; it was oil from the catch-tank dropping on the exhaust pipes so he was sent away, but he returned againbefore he was convinced and started racing, by which time he was well behind everyone. As Hulme had passed Amon on L9, Hill had passedBrabham and at L10 Clark led his team-mate by the length of the pit area, but Brabham, Hulme, Amon and Gurney were right behind the secondLotus. There was already a long gap before Rodriguez appeared, followed by McLaren, Stewart and Surtees, then came Irwin all on his own, withHobbs, Rees, Ligier, Anderson, and Moser bringing up the rear and on this lap Siffert retired the Walker Cooper-Maserati with engine trouble.

Spence rejoined the race at this point and Rindt was going well, but both were a long way behind. It was obvious that Hill had got the feel of hisuntried Lotus 49 for he now began to pull away from the two Brabhams and close the gap on Clark, who was cruising round in the lead. The circuitwas very oily and slippery and though Hulme made a new lap record on L3 at 1:27.0, the pace was now down to 1:30 by the leader. Hill continuedto close up on Clark, while Brabham still led Hulme and Amon led Gurney, no one else really being in the race, though McLaren had got the secondEagle-Weslake in front of the Cooper-Maserati of Rodriguez but on L13 there was an ominous cloud of smoke from the Weslake engine and at theend of the L14 McLaren pulled into the pits to retire with a broken connecting-rod.

Clark had lapped Moser on L12 and on L14 Anderson was caught by the leading Lotus, while the next lap saw Ligier a lap behind. Hulme was notcontent to follow his team leader, so he went by on L14, into third place, and Hill was closing rapidly on Clark. At L20, which was quarter-distance;Clark and Hill were one behind the other and well ahead of Hulme, while Brabham was closely followed by Amon and Gurney, while Stewart retiredat the pits with transmission trouble, leaving Rodriguez on his own in seventh place, followed by the Honda and Irwin still on the same lap as theLotus cars, Hobbs and Rees having been lapped. The Team Lotus cars were now putting on something of a demonstration, being so comfortablyahead of any opposition that there was no need to try too hard. Hulme was well away from the trio following him, they being in the same order, ofBrabham, Amon and Gurney, though the Eagle was showing signs of not keeping up. The new Cooper-Maserati had been going well, lapping atspeeds that were competitive, but now the engine made a nasty noise and Rindt switched it off and parked the car on the grass at Copse Corner.

On L26 Hill went by Clark and took the lead and the Lotus number one driver dropped back a bit but kept station, there being no point in running tooclose, and by L30 Clark was three seconds behind Hill, but most of this was due to Hill having lapped the Honda on L29 at a convenient spot andClark having to wait for a further opportunity. Gurney's Eagle was in trouble with a slipping clutch and was losing contact with Amon's Ferrari, so thisleft Brabham and Amon in close company. The Brabham-Repco V8 was vibrating badly and this had broken the rear-view mirrors, so Brabham couldconveniently avoid seeing Amon so close behind! Gurney's trouble was getting worse and after L34 he retired at the pits, with clutch slip that couldnot be cured. This left only six cars on the same lap, the two Lotuses way out on their own, Hulme in third place, followed closely by Brabham and


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not be cured. This left only six cars on the same lap, the two Lotuses way out on their own, Hulme in third place, followed closely by Brabham andAmon, with Rodriguez a long way back in sixth place, but going well.

At half-distance the whole race had settled down, which was made obvious by the personal "chit-chat" between the commentators on the publicaddress system, for up to this point they had been too busy reporting the happenings to indulge in chatter. The situation remained unchanged for 10laps, with Hill and Clark in complete command of the race, then an appreciable gap before Hulme came by, but he had Brabham and Amon rightbehind him. Amon was trying hard to get by but Brabham was making sure that that did not happen and he was doing a fine job of protectingHulme from any attacks from the Ferrari. Amon was having a bad time, with stones and dust being thrown up from the Brabham rear wheels asthey "carelessly" cut corners, to say nothing of a fair amount of oil being sprayed over the front of the Ferrari from the Repco engine.

Brabham was pulling some really crafty moves when lapping slower cars, such as when he "elbowed" his way past Surtees going in to Copse andAmon was baulked by the Honda. Through all this Amon was learning fast and seeing that a good Grand Prix driver is not exactly a friendly fellowwhen someone is in his way. Rodriguez was lapped by the leaders on L47 and apart from Surtees all the tail-enders had been lapped twice. On L55observers at Beckett's corner reported that Hill's Lotus had stopped with collapsed suspension and there was consternation in the Lotus pit in case itwas a repeat of the practice trouble. Clark came round on his own while Hill drove slowly along to the pits, the left rear wheel leaning in drunkenly.The large Allen screw which locates the inner end of the top transverse link had fallen out. Chapman spotted what had happened immediately and inabout 60 seconds another bolt was screwed in and Hill was back in the race, but he had lost two laps while motoring slowly along, and he was nowseventh, but going strongly once more.

Clark cruised relentlessly on in the lead, with Hulme now second, a comfortable distance ahead of Brabham, who still had Amon in his wake, andoccasionally alongside, for the young New Zealander was beginning to have a go at getting by, but this was no easy task for Brabham never helpsanyone to beat him. Just ten laps after he rejoined the race Hill was passing the pits when there was a loud "plop" from the engine and he switchedoff and pulled onto the grass, on the outside of Copse Corner, walking back to the pits to report a broken engine. The Brabham/Amon deadlockwas continuing and they lapped the Honda for the second time, while Clark was lapping Ligier for the third time, and at L71 Rodriguez lapped theHonda, the Japanese machine was running so badly and was also handling badly with a faulty self-locking differential.

Amon was keeping the pressure on Brabham in a magnificent drive, but the wily Australian was not going to let him get by. As they started L76Amon made a do-or-die effort going into the fast Woodcote Corner and it came off. As the two cars came out of the corner they wereside-by-side, with Amon on the inside, and his efforts through the corner gave him that little edge on Brabham as they accelerated past the pits.Almost in front of the Ferrari pit Amon was in front and as he led Brabham round Copse Corner for the first time since the start of the race therewas a burst of cheering from the Ferrari pit staff. The end of the race was in sight and there was no hope of Amon catching Hulme in spite of whatthe excitable commentators said, for Brabham had done his protection job well.

Clark led Hulme home by some 13 seconds, which does not sound much but it was a comfortable win for Clark and the Lotus 49. The whole ofTeam Lotus were almost too overcome to rejoice; they didn't know whether they wanted to cry or just lie down and go to sleep - it would havebeen a gloriously comfortable sleep, for there is nothing so satisfying as seeing your car win a race, and it had been a most convincing victory. OnlyHulme, Amon and Brabham were on the same lap, but Rodriguez had driven very well to finish fifth in the old Cooper-Maserati, only one lap behind.Irwin and Hobbs had driven very smoothly and consistently in cars that had little hope of keeping up and Rees was satisfied at finishing in his firstGrand Prix race.

DOMINATION - Hill and Clark lead the BritishGrand Prix in an impressive way. The leadingcar, driven by Hill was built overnight afterthe practice crash.BEHIND THE LEADERS - A terrific battle went on behind the leading team Lotus cars with Hulme

being given excellent cover by Brabham, as they race down Hangar Straight followed by Amon(Ferrari) and Gurney (Eagle).

HILL'S SET-BACK - On L55 observers atBeckett's corner reported that Hill's Lotus


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Beckett's corner reported that Hill's Lotushad stopped with collapsed suspension. Thelarge Allen screw which locates the inner endof the top transverse link had fallen out.

HOME SOIL - John Surtees gave a good showing for the fellow countrymen. The japanesemachine behaved resonably well

PADDOCK - Hulme's car

PADDOCK - Brabham gets himself ready for apractice stint

POINTS - When the dust settled and the race was over, Surtees and the Honda guys earnedthemselves four points for the championship records.

NOSE JOB - Rindt at speed in the new lighterCooper T86

CHAT - Amon and Rodriguez are comparingcars in the paddock

PREPARATION - The Mechanics tend to the two green-and -gold cars of Brabham and Hulmebetween the BRM and Brabham trucks


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FRENCH WINNER - Ligier has bought Hulme's winner from Monaco. He is now the third entrant ina Repco-powered Brabham-chassis

Result








Fastest Lap - Denny Hulme, 1:27.0

Championship Table After Silverstone


















Go to the next GP at Nürburgring 6th august 1967


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West German GP - August 6th 1967

Nürburgring - 15 laps



PracticeDuring the three weeks since the last Grand Prix most of the teams had been very busy, either stocking up with cars and engines, or carrying outtest programmes at Goodwood, Silverstone, Zandvoort or the Nurburgring itself, and most teams arrived in good time for the first practice, onFriday morning. Brabham and Hulme had the two 1967 cars, BT24-1 and BT24-2, while Brabham also had his old 1965 car as a stand-by.

Team Lotus also had three cars, Clark with 49/2 that he has been driving since Zandvoort, and Hill with 49/1, the car that crashed in practice atSilverstone, it now being all straightened out and new. Knowing the ravages that the Nurburgring can inflict on a team the Lotus boys had 49/3 as astand-by. Since the large Allen screw on the rear suspension on Hill's car came undone (or was not done up properly) at Silverstone, as illustrated inlast month's MOTOR SPORT, these vital bolts have been replaced by a fixed stud with a self-locking nut holding the top link in place, there being alock-nut on the stud itself and this is now wired for safety. Another change was the removal of all the ignition accessories, and their mounting plate,from the top of the gearbox to a new position in the vee of the engine, between the rear four air intakes.

Cooper bad their new very low and flat car, with the new 36-valve Maserati engine and Hewland gearbox, for Rindt to drive, the first one of the 1967cars as a spare and Rodriguez retained his 1966 car, though it was now fitted with a Hewland gearbox in place of the ZF gearbox, so that all theworks Coopers now use the latest Hewland gearbox. Surtees had the earlier of his two Hondas, with the latest improved engine, the only noticeableoutward change being a new and less complicated exhaust system.

Amon had two Ferraris to choose from, the latest and lighter car, 0005, which was fitted with a new gearbox and the latest version of the provenV12-cylinder engine. While not giving any more power than previously the new engine is lighter and the new gearbox follows the pattern of that fittedto the Formula Two car, with the selector rod on top of the box and running forwards through the vee of the engine to a rocking lever behind thedriving seat, this lever being controlled by a right-hand lever in the cockpit. The spare car was 0003, unchanged from previous races, using the earliertype gearbox, with the selector rod running along the right side and through the chassis sponson.

Gurney and McLaren had the Eagle-Weslake V12 cars, number 104 for the former and 102 for the latter, the engine in 104 being a new one butfitted with the earlier type of fuel injection, where the injector nozzles are above the throttle slides. This system gives a better spread of power, atthe expense of a little loss at the top end, compared with the system used on 102 where the injectors are below the throttle slides and squirtupwards.

The BRM team were asked by the AvD, who organise the race, to bring 3-litre cars or not bother to come, so they turned out in force with fourH16-cylinder cars. Stewart had the latest car, 1151, lighter and slimmer than the others, with an earlier car 8302 as a spare. Spence had an earliercar, 8303, as did Irwin, 8301, the last being entered by Tim Parnell.

The Rob Walker Cooper-Maserati had had its engine rebuilt as best as possible in view of the lack of new parts at Maserati and Siffert was to drive itas usual. Bonnier was there with his Cooper-Maserati and Ligier's money obviously suited Brabham as the Frenchman had the ex-works car he racedat Silverstone, now painted blue. To give a bit of national encouragement the BMW factory were allowed to run one of their Formula Two Lolachassis fitted with a 2-litre 16-valve engine and driven by Hahne. In view of the length of the Nurburgring the AvD invited a handful of Formula Twocars and drivers to take part in a separate race, run concurrently with the Grand Prix. This entry comprised eight cars with 16- valve Cosworth FVAengines and one with BMW engine, the eight being two Brabhams, Mitter's own car and Rees in a Winkelmann car, two Matras, Schlesser with hisFord-France car and Ickx with a Tyrrell car, two Protos cars, Ahrens and Hart driving, a single Lola entered by David Bridges for Redman to drive, asingle works Lotus 48 for Oliver, entered by Lotus Components, and the remaining car was the Team Surtees works Lola with BMW engine, whichHobbs was to drive.



Drivers who had been to the ADAC 1.000-kilometre race earlier in the year know about the new bends introduced into the Tiergarten section of thecircuit, on the approach to the Start and Finish area, in order to reduce the speed of the cars through the pit area. In view of the effect these bendsare referred to now as the Bremskurve and ten seconds additional time is generally accepted as the handicap, so that with fastest time last yearstanding to Clark in practice, with 8:16.5, it was felt that 8:25 would be a good bogey time, until it was recalled that he had recorded this time in anold 2-litre Climax V8 engine car and there has been a lot of technical progress since then.

Nürburgring Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_nurburg.html

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Practice started on Friday morning and there was a depressing air of unreadiness and it seemed as if everyone was going to be content to go roundand round the short "pits circuit" which comprises the pit straight, the South Curve, the straight behind the pits, through a gate in the fence and downthe pits straight again. This short circuit is useful for it means that a driver can make sure that his car is running properly before setting off for a lap onthe full circuit and in addition it means that he does not have to do a whole lap before passing the time-keepers, which would he the case if he wentstraight off from the pits and round the full circuit.

McLaren was delayed in the paddock as his fuel-injection metering unit was not working properly, and Graham Hill was busy adjusting his Lotus to hisliking and "sticking pieces of bungy all over the place " to quote Chapman; in consequence neither driver put in a full lap. The others eventually set offon the full circuit but times were dreadfully slow and no-one seemed very well prepared, even the Honda which had been at the circuit all week.Some idea of how unprepared the Grand Prix teams seemed to be was indicated by Ickx doing 8:27.5, which was the fastest time for a long while,and this in a Formula Two car.

Eventually some semblance of order began to appear and Hulme did 8:25.4 and Surtees improved on this with 8:25.0 but none of the practice wasvery inspiring and a lot of drivers were finding their cars air-borne for longer than was comfortable, either because the suspension adjustments werewrong, the cars were going faster than last year, or they had just forgotten that the Nurburgring is not a flat aerodrome circuit!

The Lotus 49 of Clark was having an unusual trouble for the brakes did not feel right and the trouble was traced to them being too efficient. Becauseof the excellent cooling afforded by the ventilated discs and the fact that the discs were out in the air-stream, they were not reaching the bestworking temperature and the pads were glazing the discs. During the lunch break Clark's car was fitted with thin solid brake discs in place of the thickventilated ones, and harder pads were used, while Hill's car kept the ventilated discs and used softer pad material. During the afternoon practice laptimes improved considerably as teams became more organised, but once again Ickx had everyone on their toes for he did 8:14.0 in the little MatraFormula Two car and this stayed as fastest lap for a long while.

The Lotus comparative brake tests came to naught as Hill's car only did half a lap before the gearbox seized up through lack of oil and 49/3 had tobe brought up from the paddock and got ready for him to try again. Clark was improving his lap times, but the car was far from right and it was leftto Hulme to do something about the cheeky young Ickx and his Formula Two car, but even so Hulme only improved on the Matra time by half asecond. Spence was in trouble with a broken gearbox shaft, the Honda broke its engine output shaft and Brabham had a hair-raising moment when abolt broke on the left rear suspension. He had just taken a particularly nasty section on full throttle for the first time when the rear suspensioncollapsed, the wheel twisted round sideways and the end of the anti-roll bar punctured the tyre, letting the car slide along on three wheels and thechassis frame. Brabham stepped out shaken but unhurt and the car was not too badly damaged.

Nobody among the Formula Two runners could approach the time of Ickx, who had been using his knowledge of the Nurburgring and his courage toembarrass most of the Formula One entry and it was obvious that the combination of the small, light and manageable Matra chassis with 200 ofCosworth's horsepower was an ideal combination for the circuit, so that a lot of corners could be taken on full throttle whereas more powerful carswere having to be driven on part throttle with more caution. Added to this the Tyrrell Matra was well prepared and running right whereas most of theFormula One cars were not running properly or were not handling properly, but progress was being made, though time was running out for there onlyremained the Saturday morning practice session.

Saturday proved to be as bad as Friday for the Grand Prix entrants and it looked as though the Nurburgring was going to win the overall battle.Brabham was out in his older car as the new one was still being prepared, Rodriguez was about to have a go in the latest Cooper when the clutchoperation played up, Spence had the belt break driving the left-hand metering unit on his BRM and Team Lotus were still trying to make Clark's car goproperly and stop properly. Hill set off in the spare car with a warning that the brakes were different and experimental and in no time at all wasreported to have crashed heavily on the descent to Breidscheid. He had misjudged his braking for a fast corner and had a spectacular crash, doingextensive damage to the Lotus 49/3 but escaping injury thanks to the strength of the monocoque structure. He got back to the pits and was not atall popular.

Nobody was making any real progress as regards lap times, though McLaren managed to equal Gurney's best lap and Stewart put in a good one withthe newest of the BRMs, so fastest lap still stood to Hulme with 8:13.5, and Ickx was still next with 8:14.0. With only thirty minutes of practice leftTeam Lotus reckoned they had got Clark's car as near right as they could and it was worth him having a go for fastest lap. His first flying lap was8:08.0 and his second was 8:04.1 and at that he stopped, to say that the Lotus was still not very good, but it gave everyone a sense of proportionat last.

With practising about to finish it was realised that Hill had only done four laps instead of the required minimum five laps and with one Lotus 49 lyingwrecked in the bushes, another in pieces in the paddock, there was only one thing to do and that was to let him do one careful lap in Clark's car.There was a great sigh of relief when Hill completed his one lap and thus qualified for the start. Meanwhile others were in trouble, for Rindt hadstopped out on the circuit when the flywheel of the spare Cooper-Maserati had come apart, smashing the crankcase, destroying the starter andcutting a great gash in the chassis. He had only completed four laps, but as he could not be found anywhere, having abandoned his damaged car, hewas officially posted as a non-starter. Spence had run into more mechanical trouble, this time with a broken crown-wheel and pinion and Amon hadstopped out on the circuit with a faulty fuel pump on the newer Ferrari; Spence's numbers were put on to the spare BRM and he was able to continuepractice.

Trouble and ravaging by the Nurburgring was not confined to the works teams for Ligier had only done two slow laps on Friday as his Repco V8would not run properly. After a lot of time had been wasted it was discovered that his mechanic had set the ignition timing to the wrong mark on theflywheel; no-one had told them when they bought the car that there were two timing marks on the flywheel and that one was no longer valid!Practice finished at 13.00 and the afternoon was taken up by the Formula Vee circus and some national touring car races so that Ferrari, Cooper andLotus could not retrieve their abandoned cars unti after 18.00, a gross piece of mismanagement on the part of the Automobile Club vonDeutschland, which caused a lot of shouting and yelling in various languages. This delay meant a lot of non-stop work to get the cars ready for therace. When it was realised officially that Rindt had not done his qualifying laps the rule was waived and he was re-instated on the starting grid. As theFormula Two cars were having a race of their own they were to have a starting grid of their own, behind the Grand Prix cars. They were to be oneshort as Redman had been forced to return home for domestic reasons, and a replacement driver could not be found for the maroon Lola.

Starting grid


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Starting grid

Formula one:














#17 Hubert Hahne (Lola-BMW) 8:32.8




Formula two:

#29 Jacky Ickx (Matra-Cosworth FVA) 8:14.0

#24 Jackie Oliver (Lotus-Coswoth FVA) 8:34.9

#22 Alan Rees (Brabham- osworth FVA) 8:39.8

#23 Jo Schlesser (Matra-Cosworth FVA) 8:40.6

#27 David Hobbs (Lola-BMW) 8:46.2

#26 Kurt Ahrens (Protos-Cosworth FVA) 8:47.8

#20 Gerhard Mitter (Brabham-Coswoth FVA) 8:52.6

#25 Brian Hart (Protos-Cosworth FVA) 8:59.7

-


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The raceThe 15-lap Grand Prix was due to start at 14.00 on Sunday and in bright sunshine the carscame up through the tunnel from the paddock and were allowed a few minutes' warming-uptime around the short "pit circuit".

Brabham's BT24 car was all screwed together again, and the wear and tear on the chassisframe had been patched up. Hulme was all set to go, with second place on the grid, Clarkwas in 49/2 still with the thin unventilated discs as they had proved to be better, Hill wasback in 49/1, the gearbox having the very latest magnesium side-plates replacing thetemporary cast-iron ones, Rindt was in the lightweight Cooper with 36-valve Maserati engineand running on the fabricated alloy disc wheels, while Rodriguez was in his usual 1966 car,with Cooper disc front wheels and McLaren cast-magnesium rear wheels.

The Honda was as used in practice and Amon was in the lightened Ferrari V12, with the newgearbox, the Zirconium alloy engine and a total in weight saving of more than 130 lb. Gurneyand McLaren were in the Eagles as practised and Stewart was in the latest BRM 115, Spencein 8302 and Irwin in 8301, all with 16- cylinder engines.

The front row of the grid was outstanding for it comprised four cars, all very different inconception, Lotus 49, Brabham-Repco, BRM H16 and Eagle-Weslake, illustrating that there islittle sign of any team getting a monopoly, which must provide spectator appeal and satisfyorganisers. The seventeen Grand Prix cars and the eight Formula Two cars were lined up on a"dummy grid" and then moved forward for the starting signal. When the German flag fellClark and Hulme accelerated away wheel to wheel for the first few yards and then the 400bhp of the Cosworth engine took hold and Clark was away into the lead.

As the field streamed down to the South Curve poor Graham Hill was elbowed on to thegrass by lesser drivers who were with him on the back of the grid and with wheels on thegrass it was not surprising that he locked a brake and spun. By sheer luck he did not collidewith anyone and carried on right at the back now. It was Clark who led away from the SouthCurve, with Hulme, McLaren and Gurney in hot pursuit and with a standing lap in 8:22.5 hecompleted the first lap with a 1.5 second lead over Hulme, Gurney, Brabham, McLaren,Surtees, Stewart and Amon.

Needless to say Ickx was leading the Formula Two section and was already ahead of Hahne,Siffert, Bonnier, Hill, Ligier and Irwin who were in bigger engined cars. Even on this opening laptrouble began and Mitter retired while Hobbs stopped at the pits with a misfiring BMW engine,but there was also trouble at the front of the race for unbeknown to him Clark had apuncture in his right rear tyre and it was slowly losing pressure. What he did know was thatthe Lotus felt unstable on the corners and he was having his work cut-out to keep it goingwhere he wanted it to go. Thinking that it might be caused by having a full load of petrol andnew tyres, a condition he had been unable to practise with, he tempered his pace to stay justahead of Hulme and Gurney, making no attempt to drive on the limit and out-pace them,which is why the second lap was completed with the Lotus, the Brabham and the Eaglenose-to-tail, but the three of them well ahead of the rest of the runners.

McLaren had got past Brabham into fourth place and both Stewart and Amon had overtakenthe Honda, while young Ickx was catching the Japanese machine, having overtaken Rindt,Spence and Rodriguez. The pits were still busy for Siffert stopped with a sticking throttlepedal and a split water pipe, and Irwin came into the pits with a punctured left rear tyre onthe Parnell BRM 16-cylinder car. Another wheel was fitted and he was back in the race, butthere had been a moment of panic when he pressed the starter button and nothinghappened, the exposed Bendix having stuck. A mechanic gave it a shrewd blow with the jackhandle which freed it and the engine burst into life.

Meanwhile Clark was still leading, but the Lotus was getting more and more difficult and heknew that something was wrong so that although he kept ahead of Hulme and Gurney hefinished lap three practically out of the cockpit trying to see what was wrong with the rightrear corner of the Lotus. The big fat Firestone tyre looked alright because the pressure wasleaking out slowly and it was retaining its shape, but it was soft in comparison with the leftrear tyre, which made the car very unstable, especially on left-hand corners. This enforcedslowing of the pace of the leaders allowed Ickx to record a fastest lap in 8:21.8, and on thefourth lap Clark could no longer cope with the peculiar handling of the Lotus and had to easeright off and let Hulme and Gurney go by, whereupon Gurney took his opportunity and got byHulme and into the lead.

This was not the only trouble in the race, for Spence had pulled into the pits at the end of lapthree with a broken crown-wheel and pinion in his BRM and the car was pushed to thedead-car park at the end of the pits, and Hobbs was back again with an unhappy BMWengine, while Schlesser stopped before the climb up to the Karussel with the centre torn outof his clutch. From the cheers that sounded when Gurney took the lead with the Eagle, therewere a lot of Americans among the spectators, but cheers turned to groans when it wasannounced that McLaren had stopped out on the circuit with the second Eagle amid a densecloud of smoke and oil. The car had been grounding badly and had rubbed away the oilscavenge pipe under the sump.

While Gurney led Hulme to complete the fourth lap, Clark drove slowly along wondering whatcould have gone wrong with the Lotus and most of the other competitors overtook him. Ashe rounded the Karussel be saw that his right front wheel was leaning in at a strange angle so

DRAG RACE - Lotus, Brabham, BRM and Eagleon the front row; a fine show of powerful racingcars. Clark out-accelerates Hulme to theSudkehre with his overwhelming 410 bhpCosworth engine.

PUNCTURE - As Hill is left long behind after aslide on the grass at Sudkehre, Clark leadsHulme and Gurney for the first few laps.

BLOCKAGE - Amon tried in vain to get hisFerrari past the Brabham-Repco of "Black Jack",but there was never sufficient speed or space.

JUMPIN' JACK - Oliver lands the F2 Lotus-FVAon the right front wheel at the Quiddelbachjump: In his first attendance in a WorldChampionship Grand Prix - if only on the F2 gridhe puts on a remarkeble show, as does JackyIckx in the Matra F2


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he rounded the Karussel be saw that his right front wheel was leaning in at a strange angle sohe limped back to the pits. At the end of only four laps the order was Gurney (Eagle), Hulme(Brabham), Brabham (Brabham), Stewart (BRM), Ickx (Matra F2) the inconsiderate youngFormula Two driver showing no respect for his elders and betters, passing Amon andSurtees, driving 3-litre Ferrari and 3-litre Honda, respect ively. Perhaps Ickx only considersthem elders!

Eventually Clark arrived at the pits with his right front wheel leaning inwards and it was seenthat the inner portion of the suspension rocker arm was badly bent, as though the coilspring/shock-absorber unit had been bottoming before the full wheel travel had beenabsorbed and the shock forces had buckled the rocker arm. The car was wheeled away tothe paddock where Keith Duckworth sniffed around it and found the right rear tyre with onlyto 0.7 bar pressure in it, and the Firestone chaps found a hole in the cover caused by a sharpobject picked up off the track.

Having got the lead Gurney opened up and set a new lap record in 8:18.2 and by the end oflap five he had pulled out an eight second lead over Hulme's Brabham-Repco V8. It seemednow that the Nurburgring was going to relent and let the race take shape, for no-one visitedthe pits as the fifth lap was completed, the order behind Gurney and Hulme being Stewart,Brabham, Ickx, Amon, Surtees, Rodriguez, Hahne, Hill, Oliver, Rees, Ligier, Hart, Irwin andHobbs, but Rindt was missing, his steering rack and pinion having come adrift. The carnagecontinued on L6 for Stewart had his crown-wheel and pinion break and Hill and Rodriguezwere both long overdue.

Hill had been having a miserable time since his opening lap spin and had not been making anyreal impression on any of the other cars. As he was taking the very fast downhill left-handsweep after the Flugplatz the Lotus had become very wayward at the front and had verynearly gone off the road. Hill slowed right down and saw that the right front wheel waswobbling badly, so he toured along for the rest of the lap and came into the pits. The troublewas that the wheel nut had come loose (or had not been tightened properly to begin with?),so after mechanics had tightened it and checked the other front one, a not-very-confidentGraham Hill rejoined the race. Rodriguez arrived at the pits with his right rear wheel leaningdrunkenly as a suspension ball joint had broken on the threaded neck. No other damage hadbeen done so another one was fitted and the Mexican was able to continue.

Gurney was in fine form out in front of the race, increasing his lead over Hulme to 15seconds, and it was not that Hulme was relaxing, for the Eagle completed L6 in 8:15.1,another lap record. This did convince Hulme that he was not going to keep up with Gurney,so he now eased back a bit as Brabham was in third place but a long way behind. However,Brabham was being embarrassed by Ickx, who was right on his tail and looking completelyconfident, in fourth place overall. The rest of the field were spread out and going at variousdegrees of slowness, while the works BMW entry broke the front suspension of its Lolachassis.

Graham Hill thought all his troubles must be over, but he was wrong, for on L8 theAllenscrew that holds the top left suspension structure to the left cylinder head of theCosworth engine, came unscrewed and the whole thing collapsed, unlike at Silverstone wherejust the transverse link came adrift. This should not be taken as a condemnation of the useof Allen screws, but the difficulty of locking these round headed screws, or guaranteeing thatan overworked mechanic has tightened it up properly. The unhappy Hill got the car back tothe pits and it was quietly taken away, Team Lotus wondering if they should have changedtheir name to Team Shambles, as was suggested some years ago.

HOODED - Brian Hart negotiates thePflanzgarten section in the special designProtos-Cosworth Formula 2 racer.

AGILITY - Excess power did not make anysense at the 'Ring. Hulme stormed the twistyhills with the agile and robust Brabham-Repcoand won in style.

FLYING SCOTCHMAN - Jackie Stewart wasgoing well for a third place when histransmission broke on L6.

NEW GEARBOX - Amon is sent out for anothertest-lap on the threacherous Eifel mountaincircuit

ROUNDABOUT - Graham Hill rattles his wayaround the Karussell bend

For a change the Anglo-American Racers were having things going their way, and the President of the Corporation was doing a fine job, lapping withease and consistency, with Hulme dropping further back all the time, the gap being 42 seconds at L10. Amon had decided that he had been behindthe Matra Formula Two car long enough, and as the Ferrari was going better with less fuel load and part-worn tyres, he got it in between Brabhamand Ickx and began to press the wily old Australian, as he had done at Silverstone.

Irwin came into the pits with a broken clutch and parts were taken off Spence's abandoned car to effect a repair. While this was going on somepetrol was put in the tanks as the consumption was a bit heavy, and Tim Parnell was fined 200 deutschmarks for infringement of rules. A new rulingforbidding refuelling during a race has crept into one or two Grand Prix races recently without anyone being told very clearly. The race situationremained unchanged on L11, with Gurney now 46 seconds ahead and relatively coasting along to victory, having convinced Hulme that theBrabham-Repco V8 was no match for the Eagle-Weslake V12.

A long way back came Brabham, Amon and Ickx in close company, followed by Surtees in a very poor sixth place, the Honda giving a very bad


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A long way back came Brabham, Amon and Ickx in close company, followed by Surtees in a very poor sixth place, the Honda giving a very badexhibition and behind came Oliver (Lotus F2), Bonnier and Rees (Brabham F2), the remainder having been lapped by Gurney. On L12 Ickx was nolonger behind the Ferrari for the right front lower ball-joint had broken on the threaded shank and let the suspension collapse, though the car couldstill be driven back to the pits, where it was retired, much to the relief of a number of Grand Prix drivers.

It seemed that nothing could stop Gurney from victory for the Weslake engine was running beautifully, the Eagle was handling well and there was noneed to strain anything or for the driver to try too hard, but two-thirds of the way round L13 the wicked Gods of the Nurburgring struck again and auniversal joint on a drive shaft broke, the flailing broken shaft cutting through an oil pipe. A miserable and unhappy Gurney coasted the Eagle in tothe side of the track, just before the climb up to the Karussel, not far from where Schlesser had stopped earlier, and sat and watched Hulme driveon to victory, stamina and sheer reliability reaping its reward.

For the remaining laps Amon tried desperately to get by Brabham, whose car always seemed to be filling all the available road and to get wider thecloser the Ferrari got to the back tyres. Had Amon known the fuss that team-manager Franco Lini was having in the pits, crying out for revenge andcursing the whole Brabham Racing Organisation, and imploring the organisers to disqualify Brabham for being beastly and not letting Amon go by, hewould have been greatly encouraged. The Brabham pit personnel just grinned and said "It's motor racing mate, an' our bloke's in front." Not onlywas their "bloke" in front of the Ferrari, but their other "bloke" was way out in front of the race and heading for his second Grand Prix victory thisseason. Even the most anti-Brabham racegoer (and there are those who are for and those who are against all the various teams) had to admitthat the Australians build rugged and reliable cars, even if they are not very sophisticated, and the rugged and reliable driving ability of Hulme andBrabham makes up for a big lack of horsepower.

There was nothing that Amon could do but finish third, half a second behind Brabham, who grinned happily to see his team-mate getting thewinner's laurels, while Surtees finished a very unworthy fourth in the rough-sounding Honda that seems to go from bad to worse. The retirementsof all the factory cars allowed Bonnier and Ligier to figure in the results and improve their status. It had been a punishing race with the Nurburgringcoming out on top in many cases, though a lot of the breakages should never have happened, but most people seem unable to weigh up the realchallenge that the Eifel circuit puts out.

MYSTERY - Clark never figured out why his Lotus handled so badly on the opening laps. The rightrear of the Lotus was slowly deflating due to a puncture, though outwardly it looks all right. Hestopped in the pits due to a collapsed front suspension, and it was later discovered that the rearwheel was almost flat.

FUEL SYSTEM FAULT - The Swiss Joseph Siffert in the Walker/Durlacher Copper-Maserati didn'tdo well. He was quickly overtaken by the young Ickx and eventually retired two laps down on


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do well. He was quickly overtaken by the young Ickx and eventually retired two laps down onthe next-to-last lap with a fuel system fault.

KANGEROO - The Kiwi driver Denis Hulme doing a typical Australian act

JUMPING JIM FLASH - Clark going over Quiddelbacher Höhe on his way to the fastSchwedenkreuz section where he is overtaken

BALANCE - The weight distribution of the Cooper-Maserati isn't as bad as the shape issuggesting. Here Rodrigues is landing after Quiddelbacher Höhe


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FLAT OUT - The Döttinger Höhe stretch lets the cars reach their maximum velocities. Near theend there is an uphill lefthander under the Antonius Buche bridge. Here Rodriguez has slowedslightly down to negotiate the bend.

LAP RECORD - Dan Gurney led the race and looked as a confident winner. On his way he brokethe lap record and set a new one at an amazing 8:15. Unfortunately it didn't last. here he isseen on the down-hill section from Kallenhard to Breidscheid

BUMPY - Hill in the Karussell where every joint in the car is thoroughly tested


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BMW VERSUS MASERATI - An unfair match. Both drivers two laps down; Hobbs due to F2-paceand Rodriguez due to a suspension failure that was fixed by handy mechanics mid-race.

PFLANZGARTEN - The North Loop of the Nürburgring is all about car control. Lots of jumps andblind corners.

Results





P5 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati V12

P6 Guy Ligier Brabham-Repco V8


Fastest Lap - Dan Gurney 8:15.1

Championship Table After Nürburgring














2 points - Jo Bonnier




1 point - Guy Ligier



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Go to the next GP at Mosport 27th august 1967


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Canadian GP - August 27th 1967

Mosport Park - 90 laps



PracticeAs part of the celebrations for the Canadian Centennial Year, the FIA sanctioned a Formula One race to take place on the 3,96 km Mosport circuitjust outside Toronto. The Canadian Grand Prix looks as if for the time being it may be just a "one-off" race for it is not included in next year'scalendar. Sandwiched as it was between the German and Italian classics, this race created travel problems and threw the expense of transporting theGrand Prix circus firmly on to the shoulders of the Canadian Racing Drivers' Association and the Imperial Tobacco Company. Eighteen cars wereentered.

Brabhams had BT24/1 and 2 for Brabham and Hulme, neither car being any different from the recent victory at the Nurburgring.

Team Lotus brought their three 49s, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Since the retirements in Germany certain minor modifications had been made. Extra filterswere included in the fuel system to cut down the misfiring due to dirty fuel. The front suspension rocker arms are now made from heavier gaugemetal and, other than the modifications to the rear top link mounting point described last month, an Allen screw has been threaded into the bracketto stop the main bolt loosening. Clark was using his usual car, 49/2, while Hill had the choice of 49/1 or 49/3; whichever he did not want would beused by Eppie Wietzes, a local driver who knows the circuit well but who had not handled anything more powerful than a GT40.

Two works Coopers were to be driven by Rindt and Attwood, who was standing in for this race in place of Rodriguez who is still i hospital after hisEnna Formula 2 crash. The new lightweight car had been left at home being prepared for Monza, so Rindt used Rodriguez's car F1-6-66, whileAttwood used the aluminium car F1-1-67 that Rindt has used this year.

BRM had three works H16 cars for Stewart, Spence and Irwin, the last named being entered and looked after by Parnell. Stewart was using theslimmer, lighter car 1151, while Spence had 8302, which he used at the Nurburgring. Irwin had 8303 which had been the spare in Germany. For achange, there were only Goodyear tyres in the BRM pit so there would be none of the new game of "musical tyres".

The Eagle team was back to one car for Gurney. This was the Monaco aluminium chassis 103, with all the titanium bits from the magnesium chassis104, which is having an overhaul for the end-of-season races, The engine (5805) was the one used at Nurburgring and the spare (5804) wasMcLaren's German race engine. Since Gurney's trouble in Germany new stronger drive-shafts had been fitted.

Ferrari had only one car for Amon. This was the same as he raced last; No. 0005 and still with the three-valve light alloy engine, which has broughtthe weight down to a claimed 525 kg.

Last of the factory cars, and a brand new car at that, was the new F1 McLaren. This new chassis is a stronger version of the well-tested F2 cars andhas installed the first of the new V12 BRM engines. This 60 deg. unit is giving 360 bhp at 10.000 revs. The two camshafts per bank of cylinders arechain driven from the front and operate two valves per cylinder. Lucas transistorized ignition is used, also Lucas fuel injection, the injectors squirting"upstream" from just below the throttle slides. The metering unit is belt-driven at the front of the right-hand cam drive, while on the left-hand bank isthe distributor. The engine has no place at the moment for a mechanical fuel pump drive so McLaren has fitted one to the back of the Hewlandgearbox; as this pump will not work on the start line with the clutch depressed, there is an electric pump mounted on the side of the gearbox, tocover initial starting and waiting at the start line. The whole car, finished in McLaren red, is neat and compact, the engine not taking up much space.

The rest of the field consisted of private owners. Bonnier had his Cooper there, as did Rob Walker for Siffert. David Hobbs was driving BernardWhite's BRM V8, which should have been a V12 but for a slight mix-up. Then came the locals. Al Pease had bought Gurney's 2.7-litre Eagle-ClimaxNo. 101 and was having his first outing. Mike Fisher had bought Lotus 33 R11 which was used by Hill in Monaco this year, and he had with it a1.9-litre BRM engine. He was another club driver who had never driven this type of car before, or run in a race of this type. Last came Tom Jones, analmost unknown driver who had bought a Cooper F2 chassis (F2-2-66) into which had been fitted a Climax 2-litre V8 engine. So with this varied fieldpractice got under way.

PROVEN MACHINE - Graham Hill guns the Lotus 49 for another lap during practice in the fairwether at Mosport. Both Firestone and Goodyear tires were tested by team Lotus Saturday.

FRAGILE - The radius arms of the Lotus foldedup when Clark slid slowly off the road inunofficial practice.

Mosport Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_mosport.html

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With unofficial practice on Thursday afternoon, Friday and Saturday morning, and official timed practice on Friday and Saturday afternoon, everyonehad plenty of time to learn and set up the cars properly. The cars were all in a long tent where all the work was done, making the "Grand Prix Circus"live up to its name. On Thursday ten cars went out to familiarise themselves with the course and see if they could get near Gurney's record in theLola T70 of 1:23.1 (171,466 kph) or the fast practice lap by Hall's Chaparral of 1:22.9. Gurney, Clark and Amon were the fastest, with the Eagledoing a 1:23.6 and Clark and Amon not quite breaking 1:24. Clark was using the oldest Lotus and the one that Wietzes was expected to use.

As he went into the first corner past the pits, the tail swung wide and he spun in the middle of the road at about 190 kph. Just as the car wasstopping it ran backwards up the grass bank. Clark fished around for a gear and looked as if he was going on; then be cut the engine and climbed outfor, although there had been no hard jolt, the right-hand rear radius arms were both buckled, the top one slightly, and the lower one bent at rightangles, with the rose joint snapped at the wheel. As the lower radius arm had given way the overload on the monocoque mounting had been enoughto ripple the skin of the monocoque. This brought an end to the unofficial practice, and Lotus mechanics started work to repair the damage beforethe next morning.

Unofficial Friday practice was used by most cars to complete mixture and suspension settings. The official afternoon session started with Rindt goingout first and returning to the pits a lap later with fuel pouring from the righthand pontoon. The starter ring had shattered again and the pieces hadflown off like shells. One piece had entered the pontoon, gone through the fuel bag and out of the side, leaving a hole that could easily have beenmade by a small shell.

Clark was lapping consistently under 1:24 and as Firestone had not got the exact mix, tread or profile that he required, Goodyear tyres were fitted,and in this first timed session Clark set the fastest lap of 1:22.9 while tyre testing. In the other Lotus, Hill was not very happy, partly because he hada touch of 'flu, but also because the car was not set up quite to his liking.

The BRMs were having all sorts of problems. The engine in Stewart's ear was not running cleanly, nor was it opening up coming out of corners. Goinginto corners the car was juddering badly under braking and, judging from the number of times the suspension settings were changed, it was difficultto set up the car for this tricky circuit. Amon was not going as well as he did in the unofficial practice the day before and although he did a lot of laps,changing suspension settings after each outing, he was unable to get the Ferrari under 1:24. Also in trouble was Gurney, for the Weslake engine hadgone very flat and he did not get below 1:25. The McLaren-BRM was having mixture problems and McLaren thought his oil temperature was runningtoo high. However, after doing only 13 laps he was down to 1:24 and felt there was a lot more to come. Hulme's Brabham was going well and hewas second fastest with a time of 1:23.6. Brabham's car, however, was not going properly and was smoking quite a lot.

On Saturday morning there was an unofficial practice again and another American entry turned up. He was Tom Jones of Ohio and his car was aCooper-Climax V8. This was only the second time he had ever driven a rear-engined car, the first being at the Watkins Glen meeting a week earlier.Hulme was soon being given times of under 1:24, and so he packed up until the afternoon session. Brabham was not going very well and the oilsmoke got worse and worse, until he came in with oil all over the back of the car and the catch tank full. As either a piston or ring had broken it wasdecided to change the engine, which gave just three hours to do this before official practice.

Wietzes was out acclimatizing himself and lapping very slowly in Lotus 49/1. Stewart was still not happy and the engine was not right, so the mixturecams were changed, but it still would not pull cleanly. The other two BRMs now seemed to be running as well as they were going to. Ferrari fittedFirestone tyres with a lower profile which altered the gear ratio so the gearbox was changed, and then Amon had difficulty selecting 3rd gear. Alsohaving gear trouble was Rindt, who with his new engine in was finding the gearbox very stiff.

Graham Hill went out for some laps on Goodyears and expressed enthusiasm for them, saying they had more latitude and did not give the feeling ofdriving on a knife edge. However, Firestones had the right tyres by now and when the official practic started both Lotuses were on Firestones. BothLotuses were going perfectly by now and Clark did 1:22.4, with Hill only three-tenths behind. As the Lotus drivers were the only ones under 1:23 itlooked as though the Canadian GP could be a walk-over.

Amon, with the right ratios, got down to 1:23.3, but Gurney broke the belt which drives the metering unit and as this was the second to go in only afew hours and the engine was not pulling well, it was decided to change it and fit 5804. Stewart's BRM was still not going well and it was still misfiring.After practice a loose wire was found in the electrical system, and it was hoped that fixing this would cure the trouble. McLaren, although still notsatisfied, was going quicker and got a time of sixth fastest on this first outing.

Brabham came out to run in his new engine, only half an hour late, which was a good effort on the part of his mechanics, who, without any liftinggear, did the change in 3½ hours. Just at the end of practice oil again poured from Brabham's car but this was only due to a faulty bell-housing whichwas soon put right. Siffert had been improving his time slowly when the starter ring on his car suddenly shattered, slicing through the casing andcutting the starter off. The four American drivers running in their first GP fared better than some expected, so far as they kept out of the way. Nonewere able to better 1:30, not even Wietzes in the Lotus-Ford. Jones' time of 1:57.9 was considered too slow by the organisers and he was notallowed to start.

Starting grid


#4 Graham Hill (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1: 22.7




#19 Bruce McLaren (Mclaren-BRM V12) 1:23.5



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#12 David Hobbs (BRM V8 2-litre) 1:26.2


#8 Richard Attwood (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:27.1


#11 Al Pease (Eagle-Climax 2.7 litre) 1:30.1

#5 Eppie Wietzes (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1:30.8

#6 Mike Fisher (BRM V8 2-litre) 1:31.9

-

EXCITEMENT - Seconds before the start everybody's attention is on the grid

ROARING OFF - In the wake of Clarke's Lotus everybody was left in a frightening water spary.Hill, Hulme, Amon and Gurney propels their cars into the haze

The Race

On race day the fine warm weather of previous days changed, as forecast, to low cloud withoccasional drizzle. Overnight both competitive Lotuses were found to have fuel leaks but thiswas remedied before it was too late.

Rob Walker's Cooper-Maserati which the night before had looked a certain non-starter now hada chance of starting, in that parts of the starter-ring had been recovered and, with the bits fromRindt's engine, a complete circle had been welded up and, by growing weld and filing it into teeth,they hoped the car would start just twice, once to try and once on the line. Unfortunately forSiffert, when they tried the first time the welded teeth chewed up and the strain on the freshlydrilled bolt holes for the starter caused this to be torn off.


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Gurney had the spare engine fitted and thought it might be a bit faster. McLaren had found anelectrical fault which could have been causing the trouble that he had thought was mixture.Overnight he had decided not to fit an alternator as the battery should be ample to last the race,and this saved just over 2 kg in weight, plus the odd hp needed to drive it.

After two warming-up races the cars were wheeled out and the drivers went round in aprocession of dignitaries. The drizzle which had stopped early in the morning now returned andas the cars came round for their warming-up lap the track was about as treacherous as it couldbe. Amon spun on this warming-up lap when doing about 80 kph, on what would normally be a170-plus curve.

The flag fell a few minutes late and what must have been one of the slowest first laps ever tookplace, with the drivers driving as if on ice. Clark took the lead and must have been the onlydriver to see anything on that first lap. Behind him came Hulme, then Hill, Stewart, Brabham,McLaren, Gurney, Spence, Irwin, Rindt, Hobbs, Bonnier, Attwood, Wietzes, Fisher and, last,Amon, who spun again on the opening lap and was getting no adhesion at all.

Pease could not get his Eagle-Climax started on the dummy grid and was wheeled to the pits fora new battery. The rain was getting heavier and on the second lap the Goodyear-shod carsbegan to feel the advantages of their intermediate tyres over the Firestone dry-weather tyres.Clark was still leading but using an awful lot of road, and Hulme was trying to finds way throughthe pall of spray. Hill retained third place but Brabham and McLaren had both passed Stewart.Spence got by Gurney and the American was having a lot of trouble trying to feed limited powerto the wheels.

Hobbs got by Rindt, the Cooper being very untractable under the conditions, so much so thatafter only four laps Rindt came into the pits to have the rear roll-bar disconnected, but on tryingto re-start, the engine refused to respond and, after running the battery flat, the car waswheeled away, retiring with wet electrics, for when it was dried out in the tent it burst into lifeimmediately.

On L3 McLaren found that his car was perfect for the conditions and he passed Brabham on theoutside of one corner, travelling a good 15 kph faster, only to lose it on the next right-hander,and before be could get off the sandy bank, most of the field had gone by, so at the end of L3he had dropped to twelfth place. Hulme made a big effort on L4 and broke through Clark's spraycloud and began pulling away from the Lotus. Brabham was similarly placed behind Hill and on L8he got by and began closing on Clark.

McLaren got back into his stride again and began carving his way through the field, still 12th onL4; he went by Bonnier and Hobbs on L5, Gurney next lap, Irwin on L7, Stewart and Spence onL8, and down the straight he could then see the spray of Hill's Lotus. It took three laps to catchHill and on L32 he was in fourth place. Two laps later the tractable V12 BRM engine bad takenhim by Brabham and was rapidly closing the gap on Clark.

Whilst this excitement was going on at the front of the field, Pease had got started and wasrunning last, many laps behind. Amon began to regain his confidence and got by the Americantail-enders to pull up to 12th place by L12. Bonnier got by Hobbs on L11, putting himself into10th place. On L12 the BRMs were lying in numerical order, Stewart, Spence, Irwin, 6th, 7th and8th positions, which they held until Stewart got by Hill, and Gurney overtook Irwin. The raineased and stopped after half an hour, and his lap times began to improve, but before the trackdried out McLaren got by Clark and began to close on Hulme.

Irwin spun on L18 and came into the pits with the throttle slides on one side filled with sand andmud, and he was retired. Pease spun off and spent many laps trying to restart; when eventuallythe engine dried out enough to start he was even more laps behind. Stewart, once he hadpassed Hill, took heart and caught and passed Brabham, and the two of them then closed rightup on to Clark.

UNCOMFORTABLE - Amon didn't at all like theweather conditions. He spun on the warm-uplap and again on the opening lap. But as thewater spray diminished he regained confidence.

NEWCOMER - The first outing of the newMcLaren racer showed fine racing by the owner.Here he has overtaken Hulme the eventualwinner. McLaren could have won if it wasn't forhis omission of the alternator to save weight!

CAUTIOUS - Both Clark and Hill led away fromBrabham-Repcos in first and third positionrespectively. But as the drivers got familiar withthe wet track, both Lotuses were left in thewake of the more tractable Brabhams. GrahamHill, who took the chequered flag for the firsttime in the Lotus-Cosworth, found it quite ahandful under the wet, slippery conditions.

CORK IN THE BOTTLE - Hobbs in front of Hulmeand Clark in the Moss bend before the return-straight to the pits.

The track was now drying quickly and on about L25 the turning point came when all the power could be put on to the road. Clark, with Stewart andBrabham just behind, now began to gain on McLaren and on L27 they were just behind him, the four cars covered by one second and all lying 25seconds behind Hulme. Next lap Clark was back into second place and he began to give the crowd a demonstration of driving at ten-tenths as heset off after the Brabham. On L32 the gap was down to 24 seconds. Two laps later it had closed to 21 seconds. McLaren tried to bang on butnothing could keep up with Clark as the track dried right out.

Hulme had lapped Gurney just before it dried out, but the American unlapped himself and the two cars kept together for some time; in fact, untilHulme saw how the gap was closing when the pit signalled him to speed up. He passed Gurney and then, with the tail hanging well out, tried to stayahead of Clark but, with Clark in the mood he was, nothing could hold him and on L58 he shot by on the straight into the lead.

On L58, which was to end the dry period, for fine rain began again, Brabham was third, having passed McLaren, now fourth. Ten laps previouslyMcLaren's engine was beginning to misfire due to a flattening battery and no alternator to recharge it. Fifth came Gurney, a lap behind, then Stewartand Hill, Spence, Amon, Hobbs, Bonnier, Attwood, Weitzes, Fisher and, many laps down, Pease completed the field.

The rain now began to fall harder than ever and conditions reached their worst. Hobbs came to the pits on L60 and collected clean goggles. On L64Stewart came in with grass and sand stuck in the intakes and rear suspension. After a quick clean-out he was sent off but next lap he was in againas the throttle linkage was jamming; after some more cleaning and another spring added, he was sent off again, but at the end of that lap he camein and climbed out, and the car was pushed away.


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in and climbed out, and the car was pushed away.

While Stewart was in and out of the pits, drama took place in the lead. The Brabhams had not caught up with Clark in this second storm and itlooked as if the now lighter Lotus could retain first place. Hulme signalled that he was coming in for goggles and pulled into the pits next lap. At thesame time Clark's engine cut dead at the hairpin and Brabham suddenly found himself in first place. The Brabham pit was all excitement; Hulmewent out with goggles and came in next lap for a dome-type visor.

The Lotus pit were still wondering what was wrong with Clark when Wietzes stopped on the outside of the pit wall with a dead engine. Mechanicspushed him to the end of the pits and when the electrics were dried out the engine started again, but only until they became wet again. For beingpushed Weitzes was disqualified. After some 10 laps Clark re-appeared by the pits and next lap he came in with a dead engine which had cut on thestraight when water again shorted out the ignition.

This ended the drama. Gurney made two pit stops for goggles and mixture adjustment to give better performance at low revs, and the 'Old Man',plodded on to win by 1 minute 1.9 seconds from his team-mate, who was in the only other car on the same lap. One lap behind was Gurney, thenHill another lap down. Spence and Amon completed 87 laps and McLaren 86 laps.

The McLaren-BRM could have won the Canadian Grand Prix when the second lot of rain started, but the battery ran right down and another had tobe fitted, which lost a lot of time. Had an alternator been fitted the result may have been quite different. Clark did the fastest lap while catchingHulme with a time of 1:23.1 (171.82 kph), which equals Gurney's time in the Lola T70. The most uncomfortable race to date this year and one inwhich the drivers really earned their money.

WINNER - Brabham takes the flag

SLIPPERY - A fighting Dan Gurney followed byHobbs in the Climax-Brab.

LAPPED - Everybody got lapped by the winning Brabhams, but Gurney managed to finish thirdwith the potent Eagle-Weslake. Here seen before the dive to the Moss hairpin.

BRABHAM - In the esses at the start-finish line

HULME - A soaked Denny Hulme brakes for another turn

FISHER - In the 2-litre V8 BRM


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CLARK - Jimmy Clark in the same spot braking the Lotus 49 on the slippery tarmac

DETERMINATION - Bonnier is still fighting in theCooper-Maserati

COMPLEX ENGINE - Tony Rudd and the R&D people at BRM have evolved the P115 for Stewartto use. The orange-dressed mechanics are tending to the green machines in a big tent.

SATISFACTION - The Eagle-people arecontemplating the succesful machine

OLD AND NEW - Spence runs the older P83 as does Irwin in the Parnell-entered car. The P115 isslimmer and lighter.


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NEW CAR - Bruce McLaren showed up with the new car. After driving with Eagle he is now seenin the modified F2-chassis with the new BRM V12 that the Owen Organisation is expected to usefrom 1968. McLaren could have won the maiden race if it wasn't for a wrong setup of theelectrical system.

PITLANE - During the second spell of rainMcLaren is forced to pit in for a fresh battery

GURNEY - The american gentleman on opposite lock through the esses

WHEN WET - Gurney leads Hobbs and an untractable Rindt in the Cooper-Maserati


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LIGHT EDITION - The Ferrari 312 has come a long way from the original model of last year,which was indirectly part in Surtees leaving the scuderia

LOCAL MAN - Two Team Lotus mechanics are man-handling Epie Wietzes car into the paddock.The car is a third entry from Lotus, supposed to act as en extra car or let a local man run in theinternational races.

Result



P3 Dan Gurney Eagle Weslake V12

P4 Graham Hill Lotus-Cosworth V8




Fastest Lap - J. Clark 1:23.1

Championship Table After Mosport













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Go to the next GP at Monza 10th september 1967


9 of 9 16/03/2011 9:45 AM

Italian GP - September 10th 1967

Autodromo di Monza - 68 laps



PracticeAs the Italian GP was to wind up the Championship races in Europe there was something of a do-or-die atmosphere about the paddock as theteams began to assemble at Monza prior to the first practice period on Friday afternoon. Ferrari, Cooper- Maserati and AAR Eagle had already beengoing round in private test sessions, the Maranello team trying out a brand new car and the other two trying out new drivers.

Invariably everyone does their best to get new cars ready for Monza, for it is such a fine opportunity to find out if the car will go without too manyside issues coming in, for Monza calls for speed and stamina from the engine and not too much skill from the driver, though lapping at over 230 kphis by no means easy, even if the car is fast; it is not like Nurburgring where a brilliant driver can make up for a slow car.

Enzo Ferrari entered only one car, which seemed unbelievable, in his own Grand Prix, but he firmly maintains that Italy has no more "professional"drivers since the death of Bandini, so Amon was the sole supporter of the Maranello fortunes. They made sure he had the best possible equipmentfor a brand new car was ready for him, with his Nurburgring car, 0005, as a spare. The new car, 0007, was similar in chassis layout, being a mixtureof monocoque and tubular structure, and suspension followed the usual pattern though it was lighter and neater. The important part was the brandnew engine, still a 3-litre V12-cylinder, but with an entirely new cylinder-head layout, with four valves per cylinder, and this was coupled to the latestgearbox, of the type that appeared at Nurburgring. Last year's winning driver, Scarfiotti, was no longer in a Ferrari as "Zio Enzo" had decided thatScarfiotti was a good hill-climb driver, but not "professional Grand Prix driver" and that it was a wasted effort to provide a car for someone whocould not win!

Scarfiotti was keen enough to drive in the Italian GP, so Dan Gurney took him into the Anglo-American Racers Eagle team as his number two.Gurney had the latest and lightest Eagle, number 104, and Scarfiotti had number 103, both with V12 Weslake engines giving well over 400 bhp.Gurney's car had new rear hub carriers fabricated from sheet steel, which were as strong and as light as the normal cast-alloy ones, so the nextstep will be to fabricate titanium ones. Numerous other small parts on Gurney's car had been improved, either in lightening or strengthening, suchitems as better Rose joints on the wishbones for example.

SECOND OUTING - McLaren Racing had the succesful car from Mosport. But this time it wasfitted with an alternator in order to awoid the embarassing and crucial ekstra pit-stop fromCanada

Monza Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_monza.html

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SLENDER AND LOW - There is no doubt about Rindt being No. One driver with Coppers whileRodriguez is still in hospital following his accident in a F2 car. The New design has the upratedMaserati engine supplied from nearby Modena and a flat nose cowling and a built-in air spoiler.

The Cooper team had been in Modena where Maserati had been doing a lot of development work on the 36-valve V12-cylinder engine, altering thecombustion chamber considerably, and the two 1967 works cars were both fitted with these latest engines. The low and flat one, that Rindt was todrive, F1-2-67 had an extended nose cowling with an air spoiler on the front that practically scraped the ground, and F1-1-67, the lightest andlatest of the old pattern Coopers was being driven by Ickx, as Pedro Rodriguez was still out of action following his Enna crash. Both cars were usingHewland gearboxes, and had the rear brakes inboard of the hub carriers.

Brabham came in a very experimental mood, having bodywork completely enclosing the rear of the car, not to make it look neat and tidy as Ithought, but in an attempt to reduce air drag! He also bad an experimental cockpit top similar to Frank Costin's Protos design seen at the Ringearlier this year, where the Perspex windscreen practically covers the driver's bead and he has a slot to look through. As usual Brabham had BT24-1and Hulme had BT24-2, while there was a new chassis, BT24-3, as a spare, their Repco V8 engines carrying a justifiable reputation for remarkablereliability.

Team Lotus were out in full strength with three cars, 49/2 for Clark, 49/3 for Hill and 49/1 for Baghetti, the last being a good "local-politics" move.All three Lotus 49 cars were using solid disc brakes, the heavily ventilated ones having proved too effective, as was discovered at Nurburgring, andthey all had 400-bhp Cosworth V8 engines labelled Ford.

The BRM team brought their four H16-cylinder cars, one of which came direct from a demonstration visit to Czechoslovakia, where it had beenflying the Owen Organisation flag in conjunction with some good engineering trading between the BRM parent company and the Czechs. The latestand lightest car, number 1151, was for Stewart and the three earlier cars, 8301, 8302 and 8303, were being shared between Spence and Irwin, thelatter running under the Parnell banner. Whichever of the three earlier cars was not in use was acting as a spare for Stewart.

The Surtees Honda team were proudly showing a brand new car, built in six weeks at the Team Surtees factory in Slough, which as using the latestV12 engine and a new gearbox in an entirely new chassis that showed a lot of Eric Broadley influence, especially around the suspension. As it hadonly run a few laps at Goodwood before leaving for Monza, not too much was expected of it, and Surtees had the earlier car which normally acts asa spare as a stand-by.

Bruce McLaren Racing had their new car, which had made such a successful debut in Canada, with its V12-cylinder BRM engine, but after the flatbattery debacle they had replaced the alternator charging system. The entry list was completed by Ligier with his ex-works Brabham-Repco V8,Bonnier with his Cooper-Maserati, Siffert with the Walker-Durlacher Cooper-Maserati and de Adamich with Ligier's old Cooper-Maserati.

HONDOLA - Honda had Eric Broadley of Lola Cars sketch out the new attempt at making theV12 a winner. The car was finished at the new Team Surtees factory in the UK. The suspensionhas been altered and apart from the obvious change of shape the engine has been uprated andhas a new dramatic exhaust.

There always seems to be ample time for practice at Monza, with three hours on Friday afternoon and another three hours on Saturday, and aftera preliminary run round in the first hour by most drivers a lot of time was spent making alterations to this and that, and mid-afternoon was veryquiet. It was also very hot, so there was a general air of waiting until the sun started to go down, as practice lasted until 18.30.


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quiet. It was also very hot, so there was a general air of waiting until the sun started to go down, as practice lasted until 18.30.

However, not everyone was waiting for Hulme had started out at a good pace, with laps below the old race record lap time of 1:32.4, but not asfast as Parkes' (Ferrari) best practice time of last year of 1:31.3, and then came to a stop with a head-gasket broken, so his practice ended andthe engine was taken to bits. Clark had set off in Lotus 49/2 only to find the gearbox ratios not to his liking, so while it was changed for another onehe went out in Baghetti's car, but the driving position was all wrong and he could not see over the windscreen properly, so he did not put in any veryfast laps, although he was well below any previous best time and was approaching 1:30.

The new Ferrari was having glassfibre "collector boxes" fitted to the air intakes, so Amon went out in the earlier car and Surtees had done only afew laps in the new Honda when the front anti-roll bar mountings began to fail, so he transferred to the old car. Brabham tried his car with the tailfairing, but not the "bubble-top" cockpit, and found that the gearbox was overheating, so it was discarded. McLaren had been having trouble gettinghis BRM engine to start, and when he finally got going it was breathing crankcase fumes in a rather unhealthy fashion. Stewart was trying the latestBRM 16-cylinder and also one of the early ones, and Scarfiotti was doing an enormous number of laps in his Eagle until it came in with steamcoming from the overflow and showed signs of a cylinder liner sealing-ring having failed.

When the new Ferrari was complete Amon took it out and was soon showing the potential of this new engine, with laps under 1:30, and set thepace with 1:29.4. Clark's car was now fitted with another gearbox and he quickly went out and did 1:28.5, just to stop any complacency spreadingin the Ferrari pits, but even at that he had not extended the Lotus fully, especially on braking, so it was clear that when things started to get seriousall the works cars would have to be below 1:30 if they were to be in the hunt, and pole position on the grid was going to be under 1:28, and evenas low as 1:27.0. These sort of lap times were representing an average speed of over 235 kph, so that at those sort of speeds every tenth of asecond was going to count for a great distance between two cars.

Brabham tried his "bubble top" cockpit cover and found he was 4 seconds slower per lap because he could not see clearly enough under the treesaround the Lesmo corners. Any extra speed it gave him on the straights was cancelled out by the slower cornering, so it was soon discarded. Withthe car in its normal form he did some crafty slip-streaming behind Amon in the new Ferrari and got himself a lap in 1:29.3, a long way off Clark'stime, but second fastest none the less.

Gurney was out with them and going well, as was Graham Hill, and by the end of the afternoon five cars were below 1:30, six below Parkes' fastestpractice lap of last year, and eleven were below the official lap record, which were encouraging results for a year of work and progress. Of these theengines of the Ferrari, Lotus, Cooper and McLaren were new since last year, and the Weslake engine was exactly 12 months from when it firstappeared in public. Practice finished with the Eagle team starting on a major engine-changing session, Hulme's engine being repaired and Stewart'sBRM having a better engine installed.

Amon had caused a flutter in the Ferrari pit as the new engine suddenly stopped as he was passing the pits, but it was nothing more serious than ashortage of petrol, Baghetti did not get a chance to drive the spare Lotus 49, Siffert's Cooper-Maserati had not arrived as the engine had broken acamshaft while on the test-bed the day before, and de Adamich decided he did not want to drive Ligier's Cooper-Maserati after all. The signs werethat there was going to be some fast motoring during the second practice afternoon, when everyone got really worked up and began using eachother's slip-stream. Although the three training cars were in use, no lap times were given for them.

Next day Gurney had a new engine in his Eagle and his old one had been put into Scarfiotti's car, Hulme's engine was complete again, and Stewarthad a better engine in his BRM. The new Honda had been strengthened, Siffert's Cooper-Maserati had arrived, and Baghetti was ready to have adrive in Lotus 49/1. The weather did not look too promising so those who were ready at 15.30 started lapping pretty quickly from the word go andBrabham did some more slip-streaming and got in a lap at an incredible 1:28.8. Stewart's new engine was going really well and got him into theunder 1:30 group, and Hulme was there as well.

Qualifying time was 15% of the fastest time and Siffert soon managed this, which was very fortunate as it turned out later, and Baghetti found thepowerful Lotus 49 quite a handful, but managed all right. McLaren joined the elite by reason of some slip-streaming and Clark was preparing to trysome Goodyear tyres, as he did not like the way the Firestone tyres seemed reluctant to slide, although they were holding the road well. Practicehad only been going for a little over 30 minutes when the first spots of rain fell, and with the exception of Brabham and Scarfiotti everyone rushedfor shelter. It was just as well for the storm clouds got thicker and then the sky opened and the rain was bouncing two inches off the ground, andhailstones began to fall. Torrential rain fell for nearly an hour, and even when it had stopped and people ventured out again the track was too wetfor any more record lap times and all the battling for grid positions was over.

The session was extended for 30 minutes, until 19.00, but it was no use, and no-one could approach 1:30, for under the trees at Lesmo it was stilldamp and slippery. Clark did some comparative rests with Goodyear and Firestone tyres, but they were not really conclusive as road conditionswere changing all the time, but at least it kept the tyre people on their toes. As practice was ending Baghetti ran out of petrol in Lotus 49/1, whichmeant a long wait for him until he was collected, but this satisfied Team Lotus that the fuel system was working properly and picking up the lastgallon from the tanks, so that they were able to do an accurate consumption check.

Also as practice ended the new Cooper-Maserati that Rindt was driving broke a drive-shaft universal and the wayward shaft smashed a rear brakeand hub carrier, which meant some late night work for the mechanics. The rain had made rather a nonsense of the starting grid, for Gurney, Amonand Hill had a lot more to come, and Brabham and cLaren were on the front row with lap times they could not repeat without a slip-streaming"tow" from a faster car. However, it did mean that there were five different makes of car on the first two rows, having little in common except the3-litres capacity of the engine. The Cosworth engine has eight cylinders, four valves per cylinder, centre inlets and side exhausts; the Repco haseight cylinders, two valves per cylinder, single ohc, vertical inlets and centre exhausts; the BRM has 12 cylinders, two valves per cylinder, verticalinlets and side exhausts; the Ferrari has 12 cylinders, four valves per cylinder, side inlets and centre exhausts; and the Weslake has 12 cylinders,four valves per cylinder, centre inlets and side exhausts; all of which shows a healthy competition among engine designers, and in the third row wasan H16-cylinder BRM.

Starting grid




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#10 Ludovico Scarfiotti (Eagle-Weslake V12) 1:30.80




#26 Jo Bonnier (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:32.50

#32 Jacky Ickx (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:33.00


#24 Giancarlo Baghetti (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1:35.20


-

ROARING ENGINES - The entrants are forming the "dummy grid" with McLaren (front row),Hulme (2nd row) and Surtees (3rd row) still missing.

The race

Sunday was warm and dry, with a haze keeping the full power of the sun away, and there was little space to spare in any of the grandstands and


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Sunday was warm and dry, with a haze keeping the full power of the sun away, and there was little space to spare in any of the grandstands andeveryone prepared for a fast and furious race, but no-one even contemplated that it would turn out the way it did. The race length was 68 laps ofthe Monza road-circuit, and as the eighteen cars lined up on the "dummy grid" some hundred yards before the starting line there was a tension inthe air that said "this is going to be a fantastic start", with Amon, Gurney, Hulme, Stewart, Hill and Surtees all feeling they should have been on thefront row alongside Clark, while Brabham and McLaren were smiling quietly to themselves, at having out-smarted the others.

With three minutes to go there was a panic in the Cooper team when Rindt's battery failed to start the engine and mechanics flashed about theplace and installed a new one with 30 seconds to spare. The starter prepared to climb on to his rostrum with the Italian flag and back on the"dummy grid" the drivers were given a 30 seconds sign. The normal procedure is that with 10 or 15 seconds to go an official gives a signal to thedriver on pole position to lead the field slowly forward to the proper grid, the cars in the front row keeping station and controlling things. The wholefield pauses on the grid proper, the flag is raised for five seconds and the start is given.

Something went wrong somewhere. At 25 seconds no signal had been given, there had been no drivers' briefing to say that anything out of theordinary would happen, and many of the drivers began to wonder if the "dummy grid" start was being used. As the 30 seconds were finished anofficial raised and lowered, very gently, a green flag, meaning "move forward for the start", the starter unfurled the Italian flag and Clark began tolet in his clutch, but he was conscious that all around him engine revs were up at peak, ready for a racing start. As the green flag came downBrabham left the "dummy grid " with smoking rear tyres, hotly pursued by McLaren and Gurney and the rest, depending on their reflexes and wherethey had been looking.

Clark was still watching the starter and was half-way to the starting line before he joined the uncontrollable rush, by which time Brabham was wellbeyond the starting line, still with spinning tyres and looking to right and left to see where everyone else was. Gurney swerved round the outside ofMcLaren and Amon nearly hit the back of Clark's Lotus, and in the confusion put the clutch out and the Ferrari engine revs went sky high and theremust have been a bending of valves. The starter clearly did not believe all this and feebly raised and lowered the Italian flag as the cars on the middleof the grid went by. Whether the organisers wanted it or not the race was on, and Brabham was off like a jack-rabbit. He was leading at Lesmo, butround the back of the circuit Gurney went by into the lead, and Hill and Clark were hard behind them, while poor Amon found his engine would notgo above 9.400 rpm, whereas it should have gone to 10.800 rpm.

As the "naughty boys" screamed past at 240 kph at the end of the opening lap, in the order Gurney (Eagle), Brabham (Brabham), Hill (Lotus), Clark(Lotus), McLaren (McLaren), Stewart (BRM), Hulme (Brabham) and Amon (Ferrari), the officials of the meeting still had their mouths open instartled surprise. On the next lap Clark went by Brabham and Hill into second place, and Hill followed him through and took third place. On L3 Clarkshot by Gurney, and as he came up the straight from the Curva Parabolica he swerved the Lotus from right to left to stop Gurney getting in hisslip-stream. However the Weslake engine seemed capable of holding the Cosworth engine, the gap being the same on L4, but Hulme was now rightbehind Brabham, in fifth place, and had dropped Stewart and the others behind.

At the end of L5 Clark's Lotus appeared on its own, then came Hill, Hulme, Brabham, Stewart, McLaren, Amon, Surtees, Scarfiotti, Rindt, Baghettiand the others, Bonnier and Ligier bringing up the rear, but then Gurney's Eagle was seen coasting into the pits leaving a trail of oil from under theengine. It had broken a connecting rod bolt and the car was wheeled away. While the oil was being mopped up the Eagle team suffered anotherblow for Scarfiotti came coasting in with a dead engine, the scavenge pump housing having broken and damaged the timing gear badly.

CLOSE FORMATION - Having passed the early starter, Brabham, and left Gurney behind, retiredin the pits, the two Lotus 49s of Clarke and Hill pulled away. But soon both were overtaken bythe clever Hulme, who was able to increase his pace as the Team Lotus cars ran into handlingtroubles.

At L6 Clark had a full second lead over Hill, but Hulme was gaining on the second Lotus, getting alittle way away from Brabham in the process. Then came Stewart, but one lap later he drew intothe pits, so that now there were two distinct groups; Clark, Hill, Hulme and Brabham out ahead,and then McLaren, Amon, Surtees and Rindt. Although things looked straight forward enough allwas not well, for Clark's car was handling in an odd fashion and he was easing his pace very slightlyto that of the other three, and in the second group Amon's engine was still "off colour", and wasobviously going to stay that way; the new Honda was going well down the straights and could getaway from the Ferrari, but in the corners the fuel-injection was getting in a muddle and theacceleration was being affected, and Rindt had crumpled the nose "spoiler" under braking and wasnow plagued by "under-steer" at the wrong moments.


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Stewart lost a whole lap at the pits, having stopped to see if he had damaged his left rear Goodyearafter sliding the tail too far at Lesmo and hitting the guard-rail. It was marked but undamaged so herushed back into the race. With one thing and another the pace was not as fast as it might havebeen, but it was fast all the same, the race average being just over 225 kph.

Hulme had really got the bit between his teeth and passed Hill on lap 9, and the troubled Clark onL10, but on the next lap Clark was back in front again, but something was obviously wrongsomewhere. On L12 he had a shrewd idea what it was, and was hanging out of the cockpit lookingat his right rear tyre, and sure enough it was going flat, so it was no surprise when Hulme, Brabhamand Hill appeared on their own on L13, and Clark was seen going into the pits.

Some twelve seconds behind this group Surtees was keeping the Honda ahead of Amon's newFerrari, the McLaren-BRM V12, and Rindt's latest Cooper-Maserati, but he was not having an easytime, and frequently the Ferrari was alongside the Japanese machine, much to the delight of thecrowd, and occasionally in front, which sent them into near pandemonium, even though the twocars were only battling for fourth place.

Clark was in the pits for a very short time, while the rear wheel and tyre were changed, and heaccelerated up the pit road really hard, as the leading trio went by at full speed, now one whole lapand a few hundred yards ahead of him, the two Brabhams leading Hill's Lotus. The battlingfoursome for fourth place were barely in sight as Clark rejoined the race, so for anyone who hadnot been paying attention the race pattern would have looked unchanged, but in actual fact Clarkwas now in 15th position, a lap and a bit behind the leaders, nearly a lap behind the second group,half a lap behind Baghetti, Siffert, Irwin and Spence, and almost in sight of Ickx, Bonnier and Ligier,the last two about to be lapped by the leaders.

As the leading trio went by the tail-enders on L16, Brabham nipped into the lead, but on the nextlap Hulme was back in front again and the lap after that as Ickx was lapped Hill took the lead. Withonly 20 laps gone there had been five different leaders, and even now nothing was settled. Irwinretired the Parnell-entered BRM 8301, when the drive to a metering unit broke, and it was reportedto the BRM pit that Stewart had thrown a piece of tread off a rear tyre, so he was flagged in. Itturned out to be a false report and he was quickly away, still in last place due to his earlier stop.

LESMOS - Clark drifting through the Lesmobends on his storming ride around theMonza circuit. The testing done during theprevious days had him choose the tyres withmore sliding potential.

CURVA GRANDE - Hill is in front of theBrabham-repco duo on L17 after havingtrailed them and seeing the lead shiftbetween them over the past two laps.

INJECTION TROUBLE - Surtees kept pacewith and diced Amon in the damaged Ferrari.

The leaders were lapping at around 1:30, but Clark was going much quicker and gaining on them rapidly, already being up to 11th place, after passingBonnier, Ligier and Ickx and having Irwin retire. At L21 he was right behind the leading trio, at L22 he was between Hulme and Brabham, and at L24he was past Hulme and Hill, but unfortunately this let Hulme get into his slip-stream and the crafty New Zealander also went past Hill and back intothe lead of the race. Brabham was having difficulty staying with them now, for his throttles had stuck wide open momentarily and the engineover-revved and lost its fine edge.

On L26 Clark set a new lap record, having a clear track ahead of him, going round in 1:28.5, whereas up to this point Hulme had held the fastest lapwith 1:28.9, which he had done on L5, just as Gurney spread oil everywhere, which had slowed the pace. Clark began to pull away rapidly fromHulme and Hill, and caught Spence and Siffert, moving up two more places as he went past them. On L28 Hill retook the lead from Hulme, assomething was going wrong with the Repco engine, and on L30 Hulme was slowing visibly and drew into the pits on the next lap with an overheatedengine and most of the water gone, a head gasket having broken. This left Hill on his own, almost in the tail of Clark's slip-stream, and more than 10Seconds in front of Brabbam, who was now noticing a drop in power due to the inadvertent over revving.

Clark was about to overtake Baghetti in the third Lotus, and when he did, on L33, he was in seventh place, with Hulme retiring. At half-distance, or34 laps, the three Lotus 49s were in correct number order as they passed the pits, Clark 20, Hill 22, and Baghetti 24, the only thing wrong being thatthey were not 1-2-3 in the race. Hill was leading Brabham by 17 seconds, and nearly a minute behind came the foursome still in a tight bunch, withSurtees leading by inches.

Clark was encouraging Hill to great things, and "towing" him along two seconds a lap faster than Brabham was going, while Baghetti was also beinginspired and he kept the two Lotus champions in sight for quite a time. The battle for third place was as fierce as ever, with the Honda and the Ferrariside-by-side, and the McLaren and Cooper-Maserati side-by-side right behind them. Clark drove on and on as hard as the Lotus would go, with Hillfollowing and benefiting from the slip-stream of the team-leader's Lotus, and the gap between them and Brabham continued to open out at twoseconds per lap.


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BE CAREFUL - Brabham signals to Clark, whom he has just overtaken on the inside of theParabolica , that one of the Lotus' rear tyres has a puncture.

INTACT TREADS - After having been called to the pits, after a false observation of a torn tread,Stewart in car #34 never posed any threat and later retired with a blown engine.

At the back of the field Stewart had not been making much progress, though he was lapping as fast as Brabham, and had caught and passed Ickx,in the older of the Cooper-Maseratis, but on his 46th lap Stewart's car gave a great "poof" of oil and smoke on out of the back of the engine, andthat was that. As if in sympathy the next lap, McLaren's V12 BRM engine broke two connecting rods and he stopped at the Lesmo end of the circuit,and on the following lap Amon drew into the Ferrari pit with a defective nearside rear suspension, but nothing could be seen wrong so he rejoinedthe race, having lost exactly a lap.

The battling foursome for third place had suddenly all fallen apart, and Surtees was left on his own, for though Rindt was keeping up with the Hondahe could not challenge it. At L50 Clark was still "towing" Hill and the gap between them and Brabham was now 55 seconds, with Surtees in thirdplace, some 15 seconds behind Brabham, and being no longer troubled by Amon's Ferrari he set about closing the gap. On L51 Siffert wasaccelerating through the second bend of the Lesmo when the left rear tyre of his Cooper-Maserati suddenly went flat and this spun him into theguard-rail and broke the wheel and crumpled all the exhaust pipes. He had just lapped Ickx in the second works Cooper-Maserati and the two carsmissed each other by inches. Baghetti's Cosworth V8 went "pop" and stopped, with a broken camshaft, and he coasted into the pits to retire alsoat L51, and this gave Team Lotus and Keith Duckworth their first fears as to whether the other two engines would keep going.

Clark was showing no signs of easing up and on L53 he had Rindt's Cooper-Maserati in his sights, going past it on L54 and into fourth place, with theHonda and the Brabbam coming into view. All that Graham Hill had to do was to follow in Clark's wake, having nearly a lap lead over Brabham andSurtees, for after Clark had overtaken Rindt, Hill lapped the Cooper-Maserati. He had a comfortable and unassailable lead, though it was ratherover-shadowed by the second, third and fourth cars, which were just in front of him on the road. Slowly but surtely the Honda was catching theBrabham, and very rapidly Clark's Lotus was catching both of them.

Amon had another stop to see if the left rear shock-absorber could be made to work, and this dropped him to the end of the depleted field behindIckx. On L59 everything seemed to happen, for Clark had his sights on the Honda, but behind him poor Graham Hill's engine had gone bang in a bigway, and it was Brabham who led, though he had to complete one more lap before he actually passed the stricken Lotus which bad coasted intothe pits. The Cosworth V8 was well and truly wrecked and it was hardly worth trying to see what had broken, but Clark kept the Team Lotus flagflying by going past the Honda into second place as if the Japanese car was stopping, but Surtees used the Lotus slipstream to pull him along evencloser to Brabham, whom Clark was about to devour.

All this had been very confusing for the positions on the road were Brabham, Surtees, Clark, Hill at the time Lotus 49/3 blew up, with Hill leading therace by nearly a complete lap over the other three, so that they had to run the whole of their 59th lap before they took the lead, during which timeHill was in the pits, having not quite completed his 59th lap. Brabham was just leading at the end of L60, but Clark was closing on him rapidly, andas they disappeared towards the Curva Grande the Clark/Lotus fans (and there were a lot of us) stood up and cheered when the Lotus went byinto the lead, having made up a whole lap on the Brabham.

To lose the lead through a puncture, stop and change the wheel, and then to fight back into thelead, admittedly with the help of the misfortune of his team-mate, was the sort of thing thatputs Clark into the Nuvolari, Fangio, Moss category of really great drivers. But it was not yetover, and with two broken Cosworth V8 engines in the pits Team Lotus had their fingerscrossed. With Brabham in sight Surtees was doing all he knew with the Honda, and it was goodto see him really working again and fighting every inch of the way; for so many races now hehas had to drag along disconsolately with a bad chassis that did not do justice to his ability. After60 laps the three leading cars were nose-to-tail for though the Lotus had rushed by into thelead, Brabham had put his car smartly into the slip-stream and been sucked along.

By L65 Clark had managed to shake off Brabham and this gave Surtees his chance and heforced his way by into second place, and as the three ears ended their 65th lap the electric


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forced his way by into second place, and as the three ears ended their 65th lap the electricscoreboard indicated that 3.2 seconds covered the distance between the first and third cars. Atthe end of the next lap it was 3.3 seconds, and it looked as though stale-mate had beenreached, with the advantage to Clark, but as they started the last lap the overall gap was only1.8 seconds and Clark's Lotus was in obvious trouble.

The three cars went into the 265 kph Curva Grande one behind the other and suddenly Clark'sengine cut out, which caused the car to twitch sideways. This made Surtees and Brabham do aquick dodge round the Lotus, demonstrating why Grand Prix stars are supermen, for mostdrivers would have had an accident at that speed, and the commentator at Lesmo nearly hid anapoplectic fit as Surtees went by in the lead, with half a lap to go. The Lotus fuel supply had driedup and poor Clark's Lotus was hiccoughing along now in third place, while the two most ruggedand unforgiving drivers in Grand Prix racing were one behind the other-down the back straight atover 290 kph, heading for the last corner of this momentous race.

Surtees was leading but knew that Brabham might be able to out brake him into the Parabolicaright-hand corner and his first instinct was to keep to the right and hug the inside of the bend sothat Brabham would have to go round the outside, and he would not have sufficient surplus ofpower to do that. But even better was the fact that across the corner was a trail of cement dustput down to soak up the oil that Hill had dropped. Any line through the corner had to cross thisdust, and if you crossed it with the brakes still on, or with too much speed you would be certainto slide out wide into the gravel.

Surtees kept well over to the left as he came down the straight, so that Brabham had only twochoices, either to follow the Honda through the corner with little hope of out accelerating it tothe finish,- or to go by on the right under braking and hope to take the lead and hold it as theywent into the corner.

Luck was on the side of Suttees, for Brabham took the second choice and went by on the rightas they both stood on their brake pedals, and sure enough he hit the cement dust going a littletoo fast and the car slid to the -outside of the bend, by which time Surtees had pulled the Hondaacross behind the Brabham, dived to the inside and was leading as they entered the finalstraight, but Brabham was right behind him and as they raced for the finish the Australian pulledout of the Honda slip stream and got almost alongside as Surtees got the chequered flag ofvictory. Phew!

The crowd went wild and swarmed on to the track as Clark coasted over the line in third place,his fuel tanks appearing to be empty. Rindt was fourth, Spence fifth, Ickx sixth and Amonseventh. While one section of the milling throng overwhelmed Clark another section nearly toreSurtees to pieces in their enthusiasm, for he is still the idol of the Italian sporting world, even ifhe does drive a Japanese car.

When the tumult and the shouting died down, which was nearly two hours later, the Lotusmechanics filled the tanks on Clark's car and found that there still had been 11 liters left in them,so he had not run out of petrol due to a miscalculation as was supposed, but the pumps hadfailed to pick up the last liters, even though they were working all right. On Baghetti's car inpractice the fuel system had worked down to the last pint of petrol, on Clark's car with anidentical fuel system the pumps had dried up with 11 liters still in the tanks. The perversity ofthings mechanical.

POWER SURGE - With eight laps to go Surteeshas been helped by Clarke's slip-stream to getin contact with P2 Brabham. And at minus threelaps he passes the Aussie using the extra gruntof the V12 Honda to a maximum

FINAL DRAFT - After having cleverly out-drivenBrabham in the last right-hand Parabolica turnSurtees sprints for the finish-line. Brabhamslip-streams and manages to get his frontwheels at a level with the rear wheels of thewhite Honda, but Surtees is the winner.

SURPRISE - before the race nobody expectedHonda to win.

HOODED - Jack Brabham tries the all-coveringcanopy with no success


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DRAMA - "The closest run thing you ever saw". Both John Surtees And Jack Brabham are leaningforward in the cockpits trying to squeeze every available horsepower out of their engines.

HOLY SMOKE - Hulmes Repco engine isoverheated

UNNOTICED - Before the race Surtees didn't getas much attention as the green cars

BALANCE - Denny Hulme in a beautiful four-wheel drift in the nimble Brabham-Repco BT24. Thephotograph must have been taken from high above the Parabolica 180-degree bend. A lot ofspectators climbed into the advertisment signs to get a perfect view of the race.

ITALIAN - Baghetti in the Lesmos driving thenumber three Lotus 49

REGULAR - Following his outstanding performance at the Nürburgring in a Formula two car,Jacky Ickx was entered as a proper works-driver in a Cooper-Maserati


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ICKX - The Cooper-Maserati at full throttle through the cement dust clouds out of Parabolica

GURNEY - The low-weight Eagle perfomed well at Monza for a few laps, and retired with an oilleak

ENZO'S FAVORITE - The only man capable of driving the Ferrari is Chris Amon, according to theCommendatore


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PRACTICE - Amon leaving the pit-lane during practice. His engine was badly damaged during thefrantic scenes of the start

MORAL WINNER - A truely astonishing performance not seen since the days of Nuvolari, Fangioor Moss. Clark went from P1 into the pits for a new rear tyre, back into the race one lap down,ragained the lead and ran out of fuel with half a lap to go.

AMERICAN BRM - Bruce McLaren is an ingenious man. The coming together of his Eagle-likechassis and the new BRM V12 seems to work fine


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MCLAREN - New Zealander in Italian racing colours at Monza

Result




P4 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati V12


P6 Jacky Ickx Cooper-Maserati V12



Championship Table After Monza



















1 point - Jacky Ickx


Go to the next GP at Watkins Glen 1st october 1967


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United States GP - October 1st 1967

Watkins Glen - 108 laps



PracticeFor the seventh time the Grand Prix of the United States was run on the 3.7-kilometre Watkins Glen circuit. With no starting money but a prizemoney pool of over 103.000 dollars, paying 20.000 dollars first place and 2.800 dollars last place, all expenses for the round trip from Europe beingpaid by the organisers, this year's race had a first-class field.

The Brabham Racing Organisation had their usual cars for Brabham and Hulme, nothing more than race preparation having been done since they leftItaly. John Surtees had the Honda with which he won in Italy. Both front cantilever wishbones were much stronger after the buckling whichhappened in practice at Monza. The engine had been back to Japan to see if the injection unit could be sorted out to give better carburation onpick-up out of corners.

Coopers had the two 1967 cars for Rindt and Ickx. The older of the two cars was fitted with a 36-valve Maserati engine, while the other car had the36-valve engine but now fitted with 36 plugs. On the normal 24-plug engine the plugs are in pairs on the outside of the vee and on the 36-plugengine an extra plug for each cylinder is on the inside of the vee. The extra distributor is on the enlarged metering unit plate at the back of theengine and is driven from the camshaft by the same toothed belt that drives the metering unit. The explanation for the extra plug is that the pistonswere only firing on one side. A successful engine designer who was looking at the engine commented that if you need more than one plug percylinder there is something very wrong with the design. The fuel pumps on both cars have been moved into the airstream on the front of the engineand are driven by the same belt that drives the front right distributor.

UNITED STATES - At the south-shore of Lake Seneca near Syracuse in New York state lies thesplendid sprint circuit Watkins Glen.

Team Lotus had their three Lotus-Cosworths for Clark, Hill and the Mexican driver, Moisés Solana. Except for bringing Clark's car's suspensionmounting points back into line with the other two cars, nothing had been done to the chassis. On the engine side all three had been damaged atMonza and they were all rebuilt.

There were the H16 BRMs for Stewart, Spence and Irwin. The last named, although being worked on and run with the two works cars, was officiallyentered by Parnell Racing. For Stewart there was the lighter 1151 car, while the other two were 8302 and 8303, all using normal H16 engines.

Ferrari brought two cars for Amon, both with the latest 48-valve engines and the latest chassis, 0007, was numbered as the race car, with an oldchassis, 003, for the spare. This 003 chassis was fitted with 0005 number for carnet purposes and was used as the training car.

The Anglo-American Racers team were originally to enter two cars but after the damage to both engines in the opening laps at Monza it wasdecided to enter only Gurney in the lighter 104 chassis. The only major difference on the Eagle was a new ZF-type differential. McLaren had hisMcLaren-BRM V12, the engine all welded up and rebuilt, and the McLaren team were very confident the car would go well. The whole team werevery happy and buoyant, no doubt the three CanAm victories and the large prize money connected with this making some small contribution to theteam atmosphere.

Siffert was driving the Walker/Durlacher Cooper-Maserati, while Bonnier had his own Cooper-Maserati. Ligier was driving his ex- Hulme Brabham-Repco, while the final car was for Beltoise, a Matra-Cosworth FVA Formula Two. This car was weighted with lead and had extra large fuel tanks, andwas invited to get the American public used to a new name which should be here next year with a Formula One car.

Practice was on Friday and Saturday afternoons for four hours each day. The times from theprevious year, which were the target for this year, were Surtees' fastest race lap of 1:09.67(191,27 kph) and Brabham's practice lap of 1:08.42 (194,84 kph).

Watkins Glen Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_watglen.html

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At this time of the year in upper New York State the weather can be warm summer or distinctlywinter, and this year practice started under the winter heading. A front stationary over the wholearea closed airports with low cloud, mist and rain. This caused some of the last-minute arrivalsfrom Europe to get stranded in New York City for the night and make long, roundabout journeysto the Glen. At 14.00 as practice started the weather was still bad and visibility ranged fromtwenty meters to 500 meters as the low cloud swirled over and poured off the hill on which thecircuit is situated and into the valley and over Lake Seneca.

McLaren and Amon were the first out and they felt their way round very slowly. Ligier, Bonnier,Siffert, Clark and Surtees all went out in the first hour and for some time Bonnier was quickestas he roared through the swirling mist, but Surtees completed the first hour with a time of 1:22.During the second hour the rain stopped but the mist persisted and both Brabhams and theGurney stayed well away.

Ickx came out with the older Cooper, while the other with the 36-plug engine was found to havea bad water leak at the front of the engine just behind the bulkhead. This entailed half removingthe engine to get at the leak and kept the car away from practice. BRMs also kept away whilethe weather was at its worst and came out as conditions improved during the third hour.Brabham appeared as conditions improved but on his first lap a valve broke and damaged theengine, so the car was wheeled away to have the spare, an "old banger", fitted until the enginein transit from London arrived in the early hours of race day.

Rindt, unable to drive his own car, put his number on Ickx's car and did a few laps' practice,getting down to just under 1:10 before a rod broke, giving the Cooper mechanics another22-hour engine change. Clark was trying both his own car and the one Solana was to use. In thelatter he first got under 1:10 as it felt better on the drying track than his own car. However,before the day was finished Clark was the only driver to get down into the 1:06 bracket and Hillwas the only driver to get down into the 1:07 bracket, proving once again the performance ofthe Lotus-Cosworth.

Siffert stopped with suspected transmission troubles but these proved to be only an unbalancedwheel. Solana didn't get a drive on the first day, as is becoming the custom for the third Lotusdriver. The Honda, which finished up with a time of 1:08.65, was misfiring badly and came on to12 cylinders only for short bursts. When the Japanese mechanics got the car back to thetechnical centre they stripped the complicated fuel injection system, cleaned it and reroutedsome of the pipes.

Saturday was fine with a few threatening clouds which never materialised. All except Lotus andMatra were out when practice started at mid-day. BRM had some ultra wide wheels to take aGoodyear GT tyre with little tread on the 12 inches of width that came in contact with the road.These particular tyres are being used on the winning McLarens in the Group 7 racing and have2-inch spacers in the mould to get the extra width. This causes two small shoulders round thecentre of the tyre which need scrubbing off before the best adhesion is obtained. After severallaps Stewart changed the fronts back to conventional tyres, then he changed the rears, anddecided he preferred the handling of the normal tyres.

Rindt had out the 36-plug Cooper but was not very happy as the brakes were playing up and hedid not like this at all, so after some time bleeding and adjusting he handed the new car over toIckx and went out in the older car, which he threw around with his usual verve.

Gurney was not very happy with his engine and when he was on the back straight the whole ofthe engine tightened up when the scavenge pump broke. McLaren was not having a very happyday as the new limited slip differential was playing up. On one part of the circuit there are aseries of bumps which make the rear wheels lift and as they do the differential momentarilyfreewheels, which, with the engine near peak revs, could be disastrous.

After spending a lot of time in the garage McLaren rushed out in the last few minutes of practiceand was unable to lift off quickly enough to get the revs down when it bounced without beingcured. Although nothing came through the side of the engine, 12.000+ revs did not do it anygood.

Clark led the burst of speed in the last half of practice by going out and getting a time of1:06.07, the first lap at over 200 kph and one full second faster than his nearest rival. Then withtanks full he put in a time for himself of 1:06.09. Solana was allowed out in the third Lotus nowthat Clark would not need it, and to every-one's surprise, including his own, he got down to1:07.88, seventh fastest overall in only nine laps of practice, which either says a lot for hisimprovement since last year or that the Lotus is an easier car to drive than it looks.

MORE COMPLICATED - But also less efficient.The new Maserati engine has 36 spark plugs.Two of the distributors are at the front of theengine and the third is at the rear.

OPENED UP - The bottom of the BRM V12engine was opened for the first time forinspection after McLaren had over-revved ipractice. The water pipe in the lower channelunder the monocoque is the one that wasdamaged by a kerb an eventually put McLarenout of the race.

LISTENERS - As air from a compression bottle isput into the cylinders of the BRM V12 enginewith the valves closed, the McLaren mechanicslisten for leaks at the inlet and exhaust portsafter the engine had been over-revved

Brabham, Amon and Gurney, before his engine broke, all got under 1:07. Then Hill went out for his final few laps and thoroughly shook everyone bygetting down to Clark's time, then getting a bit faster and finally clipping a half-second off the best time to give himself pole position and the 1.000


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getting down to Clark's time, then getting a bit faster and finally clipping a half-second off the best time to give himself pole position and the 1.000dollar prize with a time of 1:05.48 (203,501 kph).

This concluded practice and four teams were working hard at their engines Gurney and McLaren to see what damage had been done; Brabhamremoving the old engine and hoping the other would arrive in time; Surtees had a metering unit break in the last run and this could have been thetrouble all along, so the mechanics were to attempt to take off the metering unit from the spare engine and fit it.

While this work was getting under way the largest crowd of campers ever to congregate at Watkins Glen started to barbecue their evening mealsand the police were forced to close the gates as there was no more room to pitch tents

-

Starting grid


#5 Jim Clark (Lotus-CosworthV8) 1:06.07





#18 Moisés Solana (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1:07.88









#21 Jacky Ickx (Cooper-Maserati V12) 1:09.94


#22 Jean Pierre Beltoise (Matra-Cosworth FVA) 1:12.05

-


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ALMOST THERE - Lined up in pairs the drivers are ready for the green flag.

The race

Race morning was fine and a huge crowd and long traffic jams began to develop. The Brabham engine had arrived and was fitted, Gurney hadreplaced the scavenge pump, Honda had managed to fit the injection unit from one engine to the other, and McLaren found the engine to berunnable but changed the differential unit. These four cars went out and used a portion of the track to see how the engines were running.

After the usual preliminaries the cars all did a warming-up lap and then they assembled on the dummy grid for the 108 lap race. At 14.00 preciselythe flag dropped and the Lotuses of Hill and Clark shot into the lead. As they completed the first lap Hill led from Clark and Gurney. Then, still veryclose, Brabham, Amon, Hulme, McLaren, Stewart, Siffert, Rindt, Surtees, Solana, Spence, Irwin, Ickx, Bonnier, with Ligier and Beltoise bringing upthe rear.

On the next lap Hill was firmly in first place but Gurney had got by Clark and was going very well. On the second lap it was a repeat of the first,except that Surtees passed Rindt to gain one place. L3 brought the first pit stop when Ickx pulled in with steam pouring from the breather, but afterlosing almost a lap the young Belgian was on his way. Solana completed his third lap and then vanished for some 40 laps. The Lotus-Cosworth hadstopped on the circuit with a dead engine. Two mechanics went out to the car and prodded at the electrics until it suddenly burst into life. WhenSolana reappeared on the lap chart the race was almost half run and Chapman pulled him in as he would have been disqualified for receivingattention outside the pit area.

The leaders were pressing on at a hot pace. As Gurney overtaken Clark on L2 he began topush Hill. Amon was fifth once more, just behind Brabham. Hulme challenged the Ferrari andwas soon by into fifth place; then next lap he was ahead of Brabham. It took Hulme threelaps to establish his lead over Brabham and not before losing the place for one more lap.

Then Amon got into his stride and found that with his extra horse-power he could get by upthe hill. So on the L10 Amon passed Brabham and fixed his sights on Hulme. Gurney's secondplace did not last long for on L8 Clark got by and then the two Lotus 49s were running inclose company, with the rest hanging on.

Surtees, whose 11th place on the grid was due to poor carburation, found things runningmuch better. He moved forward lap by lap until by L10 he was right on Brabham's tail. On thenext lap he was past into sixth place, which he held for only two laps before the enginestarted to cause trouble. A 45-second pit stop made no difference and two laps later he againstopped at the pits, where it was discovered that a non-return valve was not working as ithad a piece of rubber stuck under the valve. The rubber had obviously broken away from theinside of the fuel bags, and when removed Surtees rejoined some laps down and startedcharging through the field.

McLaren's was one of the cars passed by Surtees and it was obvious that the BRM was not infull tune, but he was not going to lose much. Unfortunately McLaren slid on oil just by the pitsand ran over a low curb. The curb was not low enough, however, and caught the water pipewhich runs under the length of the car, and McLaren subsequently lost four places.

Three laps later, with no water left, McLaren retired, leaving 16 cars. Amon went on pushingLEADERS - Graham Hill (Lotus-Cosworth) led theopening laps at Watkins Glen from Dan Gurney(Eagle-Weslake), Jim Clark (Lotus-Cosworth)


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Three laps later, with no water left, McLaren retired, leaving 16 cars. Amon went on pushingHulme until on L16 he was up into fourth place behind Gurney. Gurney now seemed to behaving difficulties for he was unable to stop Amon passing him on L21, and after completing24 laps he came into the pits where it was found that the pin which holds the lower wishboneto the upright had broken and this had been causing bad bump steering.

Hulme had lost 500 revs and for many laps he had difficulty trying to hold his lap times. Thesituation at L18 had been Hill and Clark nose to tail, then a one-second gap to Gurney andAmon, 4.5 seconds behind the leader came Hulme who was 2 seconds ahead of Brabham.Then there came a big gap of 20 seconds to a trio of Siffert, Stewart and Rindt, with Spencefive more seconds down and Irwin and Bonnier about to be lapped. All the rest were morethan a lap down.

Stewart's BRM was beginning to lose its brakes and for some time it had been smoking badly.On L25 he came into the pits with grass and small bushes up the radiator inlet and stuck inthe suspension, results of running off at the end of the straight and almost reaching the trees.After a quick clean-out and a look at the brakes Stewart was out again, one from last.

Amon had now closed on the two Lotus-Cosworths and the trio were running in a tight bunchuntil they lapped Bonnier, who, after the two Lotuses had passed, chopped back, very nearlyputting Amon on the grass. This let the Lotuses open up a four-second gap which the Ferraridriver was never able to get back.

Ickx was still plodding on in last place, blowing steam most of the time, and after a lot of pitstops he finally retired with burnt pistons. Earlier Rindt had gone out with the same trouble.Spence had his BRM up to eighth place at one time but it was never over-quick and whenRindt retired from seventh place, Spence stepped into this place. Then two laps later a rodbroke in the H16 engine and he too retired.

Next to retire, with identical trouble, was Irwin in another H16 BRM. He cut his engine andcoasted on to the grass when he heard a very expensive noise from the back. Ligier, who hadbeen in the tail of the field from the start, retired on L44 with a broken camshaft.

Things began to settle down now. Clark passed Hill as the clutch began to play up on the thenleading Lotus; Amon, who was still trying desperately to catch the Lotuses, was being baulkedby Surtees who was four laps down but was once again going well and had passed Amon.Some laps later, the Honda's engine began to miss when an exhaust pipe fractured,overheating the metering unit, and Amon was away again on his own.

At last he began to make an impression on Hill who was dropping hack from Clark. On L65Amon came round the sharp corner by the pits and found Hill trying to get into gear, and asthe Ferrari swept by the Lotus driver found a cog and went off in pursuit.

In fifth place Brabham was losing ground and having cornering difficulties, so eventually hecame into the pit to see what was wrong. The left rear tyre had a slow puncture and whenthis was changed the front left was also changed as this was badly worn due to having theextra load thrown on to it.

As Brabham regained the field so Stewart retired with a broken metering belt after havingagain almost reached the woods at the end of the long straight. Bonnier made a pit stopwhen he found the Cooper-Maserati handling badly, and it was found that the wheel centrewas breaking up. As this was changed Beltoise went by, so when Bonnier rejoined the race hewas in last position.

Hill managed to get the hang of his trouble and caught and passed Amon who, unbeknown tohis team, was watching the oil pressure needle getting lower and lower each lap. On L84 Hillagain got stuck out of gear and the Ferrari again went by while Hill was struggling to get itengaged. This time he was so far behind it looked as if he would have to be satisfied with thirdplace.

Surtees made two pit stops to have water poured over the metering unit to cool this off. Onthe second occasion there was not enough power in the battery to re-start as the alternatorhad not been functioning properly. This looked like the last incident in a fairly exciting race butit was not. Amon, 24 seconds behind Clark, suddenly went missing. Two cars going by thepits gave Ferrari thumbs-up signs but it was only after the race that they knew Amon hadblown up the engine through lack of oil just 12 laps from the end.

Now it was one healthy Lotus 49 followed by one sick Lotus 49 in first and second places.The last laps ticked by, then halfway round L106, the top link of the right-hand rearsuspension of Clark's car broke at the inner weld and the wheel fell in at an extreme angle.Fortunately the next corner was a right-hander and going round it Clark looked back toexamine the damage. By driving slowly round left-handers, he reached the pits whereChapman and his team were anxiously looking at their watches. When the pits and the crowdsaw what was wrong it became obvious that the first position was vulnerable.

(Eagle-Weslake), Jim Clark (Lotus-Cosworth)and Jack Brabham (Repco-Brabham). Thelightbox on a tripod in the background is part ofthe new electronic timing gear in use this year.

STRUGGLING - Gurney and Hulme were bothStruggling to keep their times up. Gurney's carwas suffering from bump steer due to a brokenlower link pin while Hulme lost 500 revs., whichonly came back during the dying stages of therace.

FERRARI SANDWICH - Chris Amon (Ferrari) issandwiched between Brabham and Hulme. Thisis a position Amon suffered several times thisyear, but the Brabhams could not hold the extrapower of the Ferrari this time.

BREAKAGE - Jim Clark won the US Grand Prixwith one rear wheel leaning in at a crazy angle.

DETERMINATION - Although gurney was able toshoot past Clark on the opening lap he fell abckdue to mechanical failure. And Even Hill who ledconfidently from pole position had to let go lateron in the race.


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Hill's sick Lotus was 45 seconds behind when Clark began those last two slow laps. He almost halved the gap in one lap and when Clark reached thechequered flag the two Lotuses were only six seconds apart. So Lotus got their "one-two" win which would have gone to Amon if he had kept goingfor he would have had only 24 seconds to make up.

Hulme was third one lap down, with Siffert fourth two laps down. Then four laps behind the winner was Brabham and the only other two runningwere Bonnier and Beltoise running in that order (Bonnier passed the Frenchman two laps from the end) seven laps down. The huge crowd burstover the fences before the cars were in the pits, as in fact certain spectators had dodged the "law" to get to the edge of the track to photographduring the race. This danger to ordinary members of the public is very real when they don't realise the dangers, and it is hoped that some of theconsiderable profits made at the meeting will go back in the form of fences and banks.

The United States Grand Prix was as well run as ever and it could be said that Chapman and Duckworth had designed their cars to win a 108-laprace for they certainly wouldn't have won if the race had been 120 laps. Luck or brilliant designing?

SAVED - Irwin coasted his H16 BRM onto thegrass after he heard a "very expensive noise"from his engine. Here Bonnier is about to belapped by Jim Clark as they pass the strandedcar.

FINISHER - Although four laps down at the endBonnier finished in the points. Siffert in theDurlacher-prepared Cooper-Maserati managedto fall only two laps behind the winner.

MAIN CONTENDERS - If Amon had been able to keep the oil pressure in his high-power 48 valveengine he would surely have won the race. Clark fractured the rear suspension and lost 40seconds over the last two laps, and Hill was easily left behind struggling with his gear linkage.Note the spectators, who have crossed the flimsy fences in order to get good photoopportunities.

BETTER - Surtees retired with engine trouble butis running as a solid fifth in the WorldChampionship table. This time the fuel meteringunit ran hot and the battery was flattened

Result


P2 Graham Hill Lotus-Cosworth V8


P4 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati V12



Championship Table After Watkins Glen







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Fastest Lap - Graham Hill 1:06.00








3 points - Joseph Siffert









Go to the last GP in Mexico City 22nd october 1967


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Mexican GP - October 22nd 1967

Mexico City Raceway - 68 laps



PracticeTwenty entries were invited for this year's Mexican Grand Prix, which took place at the same time as the Mini-Olympics. Of the 20, 19 were all readyfor the first four-hour practice session on Friday afternoon, the one missing car being the Cooper down to be driven by Rindt. This was withdrawndue to a haggle over starting money which the Austrian driver demanded but no-one thought worth paying.

BRM had the three cars that they used at Watkins Glen. The two engines which broke rods had been back to England for a rebuild and the one inStewart's car was changed as a precaution. The new works V12 which was expected to run in Mexico for the first time had teething troubles whentested recently at Goodwood and failed to materialise.

Lotus had three cars for Clark, Hill and Solana, and again there was little change. One engine had been sent home for an overhaul, and on Hill's carthe USA race clutch problem had been diagnosed as a bent withdrawal bracket which reduced the length of operating arm travel. Mechanics hadstrengthened the small sub-frame on to which the rear suspension is attached, but Chapman brought over two sets of much more stronglyconstructed frames for Clark and Hill.

One of the problems at the altitude of Mexico City is that fuel vaporises at a lower temperature and therefore causes vapour locks. Cosworth had asimple fuel cooling system by-passing the surplus fuel from the metering unit back to the pick-up tank via the inlet manifold. and is the coolest part ofthe car. This cooling system has been on the car since it appeared in Holland but this is the first time it has been of real value.

Ferrari had the same two cars for Amon and Jonathan Williams, who was being given his firstFormula One drive, after the team's fairly successful Group 7 run in the CanAm race atLaguna Seca. Both F1 engines had been back to Modena for an overhaul and team managerFranco Lini was frantically trying to extract them from the customs on the night beforepractice.

Both Brabhams were unaltered, one engine being out from England, the other having had arebuild by the mechanics on the spot. Coopers had only one car, this being the older 1967chassis used by Rindt at Watkins Glen. The engines had been back to Modena and Maseratirecommended using the 36-plug, 36-valve version, so the mechanics had to find homes forall the coils etc. on the older chassis. Rodriguez was hobbling round on a stick, his face morepinched than usual, but he felt that when sitting in the cockpit he would be able to cope.

Dan Gurney had his Eagle 104 with new rear uprights to stop the repetition of the trouble atWatkins Glen. One engine was sent home for overhaul and another returned, indicating thatthere are now three serviceable Gurney-Weslake V12s. Each time the team has reached thissituation one or more engines are disintegrated in a big way.

The Honda V12 was unaltered as far as the chassis was concerned, it being the same as atMonza, but the engine had several modifications to try to overcome the poor fuel injection. Anew metering unit had been fitted and the fuel system overhauled to include extra filters.

McLaren's car was unaltered and the BRM V12 engine, when it arrived back at Bourne, wasfound to have only a slightly bent valve. Beltoise had the F2 Matra which he ran in the USGrand Prix. This was unaltered and was hoped to be more competitive as the altitude wouldhave less effect on a 4-cylinder engine than the multi-cylinder units.

The last four entries were the private owners: Siffert, in the Walker/-Durlacher Cooper-Maserati which went exceptionally well in the US Grand Prix; Bonnier in his own Cooper-Maserati, now beginning to look rather tatty; Ligier in his Brabham-Repco fitted with his spareengine (the other being badly damaged at Watkins Glen); and last was Mike Fisher, whodrove the ex-Graham Hill Lotus 33-BRM V8 at Mosport in the Canadian Grand Prix, and witha club event since, was driving this car for the third time.

Practice started 20 minutes late. Fisher was late getting started as some gearbox parts onlyarrived as practice began. Solana's Lotus was found to have bearing trouble in its CosworthV8 engine and so mechanics started fitting the spare engine as practice began, while Ferrarihad prepared Amon's car but still had two hours' work to do on Williams' car.

STRENGTHENED - On Solana's Lotus-CosworthV8 a bar was linked across the back to spreadthe load taken by the top link mounting points.

FUNNY - This drastic operation was carried outby Ligier's mechanics after he had run out offuel. This caused much mirth among the F1mechanics from other teams.

First away were McLaren, Brabham, Hulme, Gurney, Clark and Surtees. After a few laps they were all in with mixture or overheating problems.Amon complained about something breaking at the back end, but nothing was at first visible and it took some time to discover a fault in thegearbox, which was then changed. Clark's Lotus was the first car to show its pace and he was very quickly down to 1:51, with Brabham a secondbehind. This was well inside last year's record by Ginther in the Honda of 1:53.75 (158.24 kph).

Practice had only been going about an hour when the annual dog stories started. Spence said two were rushing around on the other side of the

Mexico City Formula 1 - 1967 http://www.intothered.dk/1967season/67season_mexico.html

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Practice had only been going about an hour when the annual dog stories started. Spence said two were rushing around on the other side of thecircuit and, even while he was talking, one appeared on the track in front of the pits, which had Beltoise avoiding on to the grass. Most of the driverswere complaining about the slipperiness of the circuit, which was not so much due to an oiling in the opening laps, but to a film of dust due to lack ofuse.

Solana was given the chance of practising in Clark's car and the team pulled him in after only a few laps when his time was down to 1:52.86. Whenthe second Ferrari was ready it had Amon's number put on and Williams didn't get a chance to practise as it was taking a long time to get Amon'scar repaired. Surtees was a lot happier with the Honda engine, but it was boiling hard, so a larger radiator was fitted. McLaren was having very fewproblems, for the mixture cam fitted back at Bourne was right.

However, Gurney was not getting the right mixture for a long time and then he found that for no apparent reason the car was oversteering verybadly and he likes a car that understeers slightly. Many laps were put in trying to sort out this problem with tyre pressures and suspension anglesbeing altered, so he never had a real "go". Hulme closed up on Clark's time, which was now down to 1:50, and as the temperature was droppingtowards 17.00, so the times were decreasing.

Spence had a connecting-rod break on his BRM and the team's only spare engine had to be fitted. This meant that Stewart had to be careful if hewanted to start and the whole team relaxed. Brabham came by the pits and his engine blew up in a cloud of smoke, so when the car was pushed inwork began on fitting a new engine. Clark bettered his time, coming down to 1:49.80, and almost immediately Hulme clipped off 0.01 second. Itwas now that Clark stated that in the last minutes he would drop the times into the 1:48 bracket, and 10 min. from the end of practice he did justthat, with a time of 1:48.97. Hulme and Clark were the only two under 1:50 on this first day, although Gurney, Hill and Brabham were not far off.

Second practice was much cooler, with haze keeping the temperature down. Williams and Rodriguez were off immediately the track was open. Aftera few laps Williams came slowly into the pits with the glass-fibre nose of his car damaged. He had been concentrating on where the track wentinstead of the handling of the Ferrari and had hit a marker tyre. Overnight there had been a stir around in Team Lotus for Clark's usual car, 49/2,was numbered for Solana and Clark was driving the first car, 49/1 with the new engine. Hill's 49/3 was smoking badly and an oil pipe was found tobe fractured.

Brabham had fitted larger extractors behind the radiator and one BRM had its nose cut back to the radiator. Amon had stopped without fuel at thehairpin and when the car was got back to the pits it was discovered that fuel was escaping from the fuel pump, and another was fitted. In the firsttwo hours only Clark managed to get under 1:50 and it became obvious that most teams were waiting for the last and cooler hours. Surtees wastrying very hard. His engine was on all 12 cylinders down the straight but the pick-up from the corners was still suspect and was losing him at leasta second a lap.

Brabham and Hulme both did a few laps but nothing serious until the last hour; then they both got down into the 1:49 time, with Brabham slightlythe faster. Clark went out to put in some fast ones and got down to 1:47.56 (167.44 kph) with a bad pick-up out of the hairpin, so his next lapshould have been quicker but he passed Hulme near the pits and lifted off before doing a predicted 1:46 to stop pulling the Brabham higher up thestarting grid.

As Clark sat on the pit counter in the last 10 minutes Hill, Gurney and Amon went out. Hill was unable to get within one second of Clark's time;Gurney gave up, unable to break the 1:48 time, while Amon's last lap was given by the team at 1:47.9 - in fact it was four-hundredths of a secondthe wrong side of 1:48. Rodriguez complained of clutch trouble at the end of practice but nothing could be found wrong and it was then announcedthe pain in his leg was stopping him depressing the clutch fully after some time.

Ligier's engine had cut suddenly on the far side of the circuit and he coasted in with what he diagnosed as bearing trouble. The engine was removed,laid on its side and the sump removed. Then one of the bearings was taken out and seemed in perfect condition. The engine was turned and foundto be quite loose. The mystery was solved when it was found that the tank was empty, and because the engine blew up at Watkins Glen, Ligierassumed the same thing had happened. Most of the other mechanics came and had a look as Ligier's two mechanics refitted the engine and acertain amount of laughter was forthcoming.

With the end of practice race preparation began. On Clark's 49/1 Lotus the monocoque was found to be cracked, again at the right-hand lowerradius arm mounting point. This part of the monocoque on this car had been repaired when buckled at Mosport in practice, earlier by Hill in testing,and earliest of all on the first day at Snetterton when Mike Costin gave the brand new car full acceleration from the hairpin and pushed both lowerradius arms somewhere into the monocoque

Starting grid


#9 Chris Amon (Ferrari V12) 1: 48.04







#18 Moisés Solana (Lotus-Cosworth V8) 1:50.52




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#22 Jean Pierre Beltoise (Matra-Cosworth F2) 1:53.08


#12 John Williams (Ferrari V12) 1:54.80


#10 Mike Fisher (Lotus-BRM V8) 1:57.41


-

OPENING LAP - Full power braking for the Hairpin. Brabham, Clark and Amon follows Hill downthe short straight. Amon not able to cut inside Hill.

The race

Race day was clear and had all the symptoms of developing into a very hot day, which in fact it did. This added to a last-minute frenzy to cut morelouvres and extractors in bodywork and enlarge radiator openings. Brabham went one stage further and two hours before the start his mechanicswere shaping a new water pipe which they fitted along the outside of the cockpit.

On the back of Solana's Lotus the mechanics had fixed a rod across the back joining the top link mounting points to spread the load. There werethree preliminary saloon car races which added a further film of oil to what was there already. The big crowd got through the fences all round thecircuit and sat on or in front of the safety bank, while 800 soldiers sent to control them merely joined them.

After being presented to the Governor the drivers went on their warming-up lap. Going very slowly was Fisher's Lotus-BRM which earlier had brokenthe diaphragm in the metering unit and in fitting a new one had disrupted the opening which meant they could only get 4.000 revs. As there was nochance of repairing the unit in time for the start, the car was wheeled off the dummy grid and retired.

At 14.30 the revs rose and with a double wave the flag was dropped. The double wavecaused Clark to hesitate a moment so his engine did not pick up and Gurney, right behind,ran the nose of his Eagle over the Lotus exhaust pipe, bending this, puncturing his ownradiator and damaging the glass-fibre nose. With an almost stalled engine, Gurney threw upan arm and the field swept by him.

Amon led until nearly the end of the straight when Hill went by him into the first corner. Asthe cars completed the first lap, Hill was leading from Amon, Clark, Brabham, Solana,McLaren, Surtees, Hulme, Siffert, Rodriguez, Spence, Williams, Stewart, Bonnier, Beltoise,Irwin, Ligier and, some way behind pouring water on to the track, came Gurney. Clark'shesitant start did not keep him back for long and on L2 he was in second place and on thenext lap he was ahead of Hill, a position he held until the end.

While passing Hill, Clark's clutch operation stopped working and for the whole race at recordspeeds he drove without it. The only place that it was noticeable was the approach to thecorner at the end of the main straight. Here his line was quite different to practice and he did

INITIAL PURSUIT - Leaving the left hand side ofthe grid with a clear trck ahead as Clark hadblocked the right-hand side, Amon shot away inthe lead, but was quickly overtaken by Hill .


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corner at the end of the main straight. Here his line was quite different to practice and he didnot change down at all until he was right round the corner.

On the second lap Surtees and Hulme passed McLaren and it was obvious Hulme was notdriving in his usual forceful way and was keeping well out of trouble, for he only had to finishone or two places behind Brabham to be sure of his World Championship. Down at the backof the field Irwin passed Beltoise and Gurney was close behind Ligier, but his car was stillpouring water. Next lap the Eagle was in 17th place but not for long, for on L4 all the waterhad gone and the engine began to overheat. Ligier was having handling trouble and the linkfrom the rear roll-bar to the wishbone was hanging loose, making the car unstable on somecorners.

On the fifth lap Spence passed Rodriguez and Beltoise got ahead of Irwin, whose BRM wassmoking badly from an oil leak. On the same lap both Irwin and Beltoise went by Bonnierwhich put him back into last-but-one place. On L6 Clark was seven seconds ahead of Hill,who, in turn, was two seconds clear of Amon and Brabham, Solana, Hulme and Surtees. Thelatter two switched places on this lap and were close together 15 seconds behind the leader.

Solana's fifth place was an extremely competent effort for a driver who only runs in FormulaOne once or twice a year. McLaren was eighth, 25 seconds down, then Rodriguez 31seconds down. Next, and close together, were Spence and Siffert, 33 seconds behind, withWilliams and Stewart 8 seconds behind them. Ten seconds further down was Beltoise, who inone lap had pulled 3 seconds away from Irwin.

On L7 Stewart managed to pass Williams and for five laps the order remained constant. With12 laps gone Hulme cautiously slipped by Solana putting himself about 6 seconds behindBrabham, a position he was quite happy with.

On the next lap Solana failed to appear. The pin which connects the lower link to the left frontupright had broken on braking for a left-hand corner and in turning the whole thing broke thetop of the upright. Fortunately, in a left-hand bend all the weight was on the right-handwheels so he was able to stop on the grass without doing any further damage, nor scoopingup those spectators sitting in front of the safety banks.

Three laps after Solana had gone Williams and Beltoise passed Stewart, who came into thepits running on only 14 plugs and without the use of his rev-counter which had broken. Whilehe was in the pits Hill went missing and Amon was now in second place. After most of thefield had gone by the Lotus crept into the pit area with a dead engine. When the mechanicshad pushed the car to its pit they discovered that the left-hand drive shaft had broken at theyoke at the wheel and in flailing around had carried away the damper-spring unit. Hill was notlooking very happy but he would not have lasted much longer for when the car was beingdrained of liquids for the air freighting to England it was found that there was barely anywater left.

By L20, Clark was 21.5 seconds ahead of Amon and 29.5 seconds ahead of Brabham.Hulme was 43.5 seconds behind the leader with Surtees 51 seconds down and McLaren 63seconds down. Stewart, in last place, retired when his engine began to vibrate as it has donebefore, just as a connecting rod is about to break. Also it was found that the monocoquewas cracking at the bulkhead.

The race settled down now until the halfway stage when Irwin retired with no oil left. Clarkwas now 34 seconds clear of Amon and 47.5 seconds ahead of Brabham. Hulme haddropped back to 72 seconds behind, while Surtees was 80 seconds Down. Next, and aboutto be lapped, came McLaren. The only close racing which was now taking place had juststarted between Williams and Beltoise in 10th and 11th places. These two were evenlymatched and swapped places right to the end. Williams, with the much greater power of theFerrari, would pass on the straight only to lose what he gained on the corners and braking.

For a further 10 laps things remained constant. Surtees was having some differential troublewhich made the car weave on the straights. Then McLaren, who was in sixth place one lapdown, came into the pits with oil pressure trouble. On right-hand corners there was nopressure showing although he had plenty of oil in the tank. The fuel and oil pressure pipeswere switched and he went out for another lap, but the same trouble was still there. Aftersome minutes of fiddling, he again went out for another lap, then on L45 he retired with astuck pressure relief valve somewhere inside.

Spence, in the remaining lone BRM, caught and passed Rodriguez, who was tiring and whovery nearly killed two young spectators who decided to tun across the track to some friendson the other side. As the race settled into the final stages Clark set a new lap record on L52of 1:48.13 (166.47 kph).

On L58 Siffert went by the pits very slowly, his engine sounding terrible. One of the smallplastic oil pipes between the vee had collapsed with the resultant cutting off of oil to the camsand one of these seized, which meant he did not complete the lap. Hulme was lapped byClark on L62 and on the next lap Amon failed to appear. The second place Ferrari had run outof fuel at the hairpin. Amon climbed out and took off his helmet - a very unhappy youngman.

The leaders swept by him and then he suddenly heard his ticking fuel pumps slow as theyfound some more fuel. The engine started and he headed for the finish line. Several times theengine cut and then re-started and, as he reached the line, Clark went by to take thechequered flag. On the lap chart Amon appeared as fifth, two laps down. Brabham camesecond, the only car to remain on the same lap as the winner and one minute 26 secondsbehind.

One lap down were Hulme, who with this result clinched the 1967 Drivers' Championship, andSurtees. On the same lap as most people had thought Amon was, came Spence, Rodriguez,

the lead, but was quickly overtaken by Hill .

RACE LINE - Amon slips trough the esses rightafter the big bend following the Hi-speedstraight.

NO CLUTCH - Clark drove the whole racewithout using the clutch. From L3 until thechequered flag fell he led the competition atrecord speed nonetheless

EASY NOW - Hulme kept clear of trouble inorder to win the world championship. Here hebrakes for the hairpin in front of Surtees(Honda).

BENT BEAK - Dan Gurney rammed Clarks Lotus49 right when the race was flagged on. Thenose cone was bent and the radiator wasinstantly punctured, letting him only run for fivelaps before retiring with and over-heatedengine.

CUT-BACK NOSE - Mike Spence negotiates thevery slow hairpin in the BRM. To allow more airthrough the radiator the nose cone has beencut back in level with the frame.


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Surtees. On the same lap as most people had thought Amon was, came Spence, Rodriguez,Beltoise and Williams. The F2 Matra driver had out-driven Williams on the last lap to cross theline just ahead. The only other finishers were Bonnier and Ligier who were four laps down.

The official results took a long time to prepare for, according to the regulations, the last lapof any car must be within twice the time of the winner's fastest lap and Amon's last lap hadbeen more than this, so, after much deliberation, the stewards disallowed the Ferrari's lastlap, which put it three laps behind and between Bonnier and Williams in ninth place. Clark onceagain proved what a great driver he is and what a lucky decision it was to drive 49/1 insteadof his usual car, 49/2, which would have broken down on him.

cut back in level with the frame.

OVERCOME - Surtees in front of Hulme whocould celebrate his title after crossing the finishline.

FOCUSING - Dreiving Mexico City Raceway is a lot like driving in a maze. Always focusing on thenext sweeping bend without hitting the obstacles.

PREVIEW - From 1968 Matra will join the F1 circus. Beltoise ended just outside the points on P7.Here he turns into the hairpin in front of Irwin who retired his BRM on L33 with oil-trouble.


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NEW LINE - Clark seen entering the hi-speed bend after the main straight. After loosing theability to clutch at gear-changing, he kept the Lotus in top gear all the way trough the bend,forcing him to use another line than during practice.

SUCCESFUL TEAM - The Brabham cars of Black Jack's team finished the season as number oneand two driver. Hulme drove a steady race to finish with a safe margin to secure his WorldChampionship

Result









Championship Table After Mexico City


*) 46 points - Jack Brabham











3 points - Joseph Siffert



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1967 f1 season review

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