The Golden Book

It is an unfortunate thing that most people have very short memories so that it is most important “what you have done” than “how you did it”. We all remember outstanding performances during the 1967 racing season, such as Clark’s meteoric drive at Monza, when he made up a whole lap after a pit stop and regained the lead only to drop to third place in the last half a lap due to fuel feed trouble. Or Gurney’s complete domination of the Nurburgring in the German G.P. when his Eagle-Weslake V12 was going splendidly, only to be forced out with a broken drive-shaft with victory in sight. In ten years time we shall probably have forgotten these incidents, remembering only that the results tables in 1967 showed Clark 3rd in the Italian G.P. and Gurney holding the lap record for the Nurburgring but not figuring in the results.

In the overall picture of motor racing, whether we like it or not, the yearly results recorded by a driver or a make of car are what really matter in the long run, the victories or fastest laps, not the near misses. Official results are tangible things that we can write down in a book and some people keep a complete record of race results since the early days and the drivers who figure prominently in the “Golden Book” are usually considered to be the most successful, especially after a passage of ten, twenty, or thirty years.

Elsewhere in this issue of Motor Sport the results of the international races of 1967 are tabulated, space precluding the coverage of National or Club racing, and it pays to spend a little time browsing through them, to see which drivers have got their names securely in the “Golden Book” of results. In Grand Prix racing Clark has a very impressive list as have Hulme and Brabham.

Jim Clark
1st Dutch G.P.
1st British G.P.
1st United States G.P.
1st Mexican G.P.
1st Madrid G.P.
3rd Italian G.P.
6th Belgian G.P.

Denis Hulme
1st Monaco G.P.
1st German G.P.
2nd Spring Cup
2nd French G.P.
2nd British G.P.
2nd Canadian G.P.
3rd Dutch G.P.
3rd United States G.P.
3rd Mexican G.P.

John Surtees
1st Italian G.P.
3rd Spring Cup
3rd South African G.P.

Jack Brabham
1st Spring Cup—Oulton Park
1st French G.P.
1st Canadian G.P.
1st Gold Cup—Oulton Park
2nd Daily Express Trophy
2nd Dutch G.P.
2nd German G.P.
2nd Italian G.P.
2nd Mexican G.P.
3rd Madrid G.P.

Dan Gurney
1st Race of Champions
1st Belgian G.P.
3rd Canadian G.P.

In ten years time we shall no doubt look back and say that the giants of Grand Prix racing in 1967 were Clark, Brabham, Gurney and Surtees and a study of the “Golden Book” will reveal that other names to be reckoned with in 1967 were Pedro Rodriguez, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Chris Amon; yet if we look through the 1967 “Golden Book” and compare it with bound volumes of certain motor journals or daily newspapers we shall find that the results do not match up to the writings. We find that Hulme is acclaimed World Champion Grand Prix driver, Graham Hill was going to be the great hope of the Team Lotus, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, the Austrian driver Rindt was the mainstay of the Cooper team and Amon was a new boy who was going to lift Ferrari back on the winner’s rostrum.

In the Cooper team Rindt was the “blue-eyed boy” by popular acclaim, yet the “Golden Book” shows that he scored only 4th in the Belgian G.P. and 4th in the Italian G.P. His team-mate Pedro Rodriguez from Mexico got scant mention during the year, yet his score reads 1st South African G.P., 5th Monaco G.P., 5th British G.P., 6th French G.P., 6th Mexican G.P. In ten years time we shall no doubt assume that Rodriguez was the Cooper-Maserati team leader in 1967, for he certainly has a better overall result, and the “Golden Book” only allows for results. In the B.R.M. team there was a similar situation with Stewart and Mike Spence and the results read, Stewart, 2nd Belgian G.P., 3rd French G.P.; Spence, 5th Belgian G.P., 5th Canadian G.P., 5th Italian G.P., 5th Mexican G.P., 6th Monaco G.P. Neither team driver was able to achieve a win for B.R.M., but Spence was clearly more capable in looking after the machinery and at least got some results for the team, even if they were not very impressive. In the Ferrari team Amon did a similar satisfactory job of work throughout the season, scoring 3rd Monaco G.P., 3rd Belgian G.P., 3rd British G.P., 3rd German G.P., 4th Dutch G.P., 6th Canadian G.P., again no victories, but a lot of entries in the “Golden Book” for Ferrari.

When we look through the results of the long distance classic races there are equally interesting things to see, but with no marked superiority of one driver over the others. The Porsche team can look back with satisfaction on the efforts of their two new drivers Hans Herrmann and Joseph Siffert, for driving together they achieved 4th Daytona 24 hrs., 4th Sebring 12hrs., 5th Monza 1000kms., 2nd Spa 1000 kms., 6th Targa Florio, 5th Le Mans, a record that any long distance driver can be satisfied with, but added to this Herrmann scored 3rd Reims 12 hrs. with Buchet, 4th B.O.A.C. 500 with Neerpasch, and 3rd Paris 1000 kms. with Schutz, while Siffert scored 2nd Reims 12 hrs. with Piper, 3rd B.O.A.C. 500 with McLaren, and 5th Paris 1000 kms. with Piper. Now I know a lot of drivers who do not consider either Herrmann or Siffert to be serious opposition as drivers, yet they have failed to score anything like as many results as these two men. When we turn back the pages of the 1967 “Golden Book” the names of Herrmann and Siffert are indelibly inscribed and you cannot argue against results. Another pair of drivers who have inscribed their names for all time are Parkes and Scarfiotti, for their record as a team reads 2nd Daytona 12 hrs., 3rd Monza 1000 kms., 5th Spa 1000 kms, 2nd Le Mans. The two Swiss drivers Gianrico Steinemann and Dieter Spoerry campaigned an ex-works Porsche 906 in most of the classics as a private entry and scored 5th Daytona 24 hrs., 6th Sebring 12 hrs. and 4th Reims 12 hrs., and received a special Swiss award for their efforts. There are a lot of drivers who can lap faster than these two, but the Swiss lads got the results and their names are in the “Golden Book,” the faster short-circuit “scratchers” are not, and they finished full-blooded long-distance races, not 5 or 10 lap dices round Brands Hatch.

As I said at the start, the “Golden Book” records only “what you have done,” not “how you did it,” so if you want to achieve everlasting fame you must get results and if you are in a team it is results that satisfy the management, not excuses.—D. S. J.