Daytona 24-Hours
PORSCHE VICTORY.—On the first lap of the Daytona 24-Hours, the two JW Automotive Porsche 917s sweep off the banking (left) with Andretti’s Ferrari 512S only inches behind. Siffert’s car (leading) lost a lot of time in the pits, leaving an unchallenged win to Kinnunen and Rodriguez (right) with the first victory for the new Gulf/Porsche alliance.
PEDRO RODRIGUEZ made a spectacular return to the JW Automotive team at Daytona, ably supported by the young Finnish driver Leo Kinnunen. Rodriguez’ last major win was at Le Mans with a JW Ford GT40 in 1968, while Kinnunen won the Nordic Cup series of sports-car races in 1969: his previous racing experience is limited mainly to Formula Three.
LAPPING one of the many slower cars on the road section of the Daytona course is the fourth-placed Ferrari 312P shared by American Sam Posey and British Ferrari Development Engineer Mike Parkes. Note the “blister” in the Ferrari’s roof to make space for the lanky Englishman, who is making a return to racing following his serious accident in the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix.
GURNEY MEETS FORGHIERI.—Dan Gurney, a member of the Ferrari Grand Prix team in 1959 and 1960, was back at the wheel of a Ferrari sports car just for Daytona. Analysing the performance of the car with him here is Designer Mauro Forghieri.
PRIVATE OWNER.—Having satisfied the CSI that 25 of the new Ferrari 512S models had in fact been built, deliveries from Maranello to private owners are well in hand. This car, entered by Scuderia Picchio Rosso, is actually owned by its driver, Corrado Manfredini, and co-driven by Gian Piero Moretti.
THE BEST FERRARI was the works-entered 512P of Andretti and Merzario, later to be co-driven by Formula One team leader Jackie lckx. Andretti is seen waiting to take over from lckx during a pit stop. The car finished third after being delayed with, among other things, a broken rear chassis member.
GENERAL SCENE in the Daytona pits: the car in the foreground is one of the several Chevrolet Camaros, while in the background is the Piper/Adamowicz Ferrari 312P.
PORSCHE TALK.—Current Porsche Team Manager Rico Steinemann is seen discussing prospects with Huschke von Hanstein, himself Porsche’s Team Manager for many years.
JACK BRABHAM turned up at Daytona to share the old Matra 630/650 with young Francois Cevert, brother-in-law of Jean-Pierre Beltoise. They finished 10th in this car, which late in 1969 had won the Montlhery 1,000-km. race in the hands of Beltoise and Pescarolo.
MONTE CARLO RALLY
BJORN WALDEGARD, Lars Helmer and their factory Porsche have become almost synonymous with success. Twice they have won the Monte Carlo Rally, giving Porsche its third successive victory, but on this occasion they almost didn’t make it after choosing the wrong tyres on one test and collecting a puncture on another.
AN INCREDIBLE little car was the 1,296-c.c. Alpine-Renault driven by Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Claude Roure. It stayed right up with the three Porsches and split them in the final classification, finishing third. For various reasons, all three 1.6-litre Alpines retired. This picture was taken on the Col de Couillole, one of the very few parts of the route covered by snow.
THE TIGHT ROAD SECTIONS of the Monte’s last night, that of the “Mountain Circuit”, mean that servicing and the all-important tyre changing have to be carried out with all possible speed. Here, at the town of St. Sauveur, the Lancias of Ballestrieri/Audetto and Barbasio/Mannucci receive attention from the mechanics. They were the only ones to complete the whole route, three others blowing their engines and one rolling.
HIGHEST PLACED TOURING CAR was the Ford Escort Twin-Cam driven by Roger Clark and Jim Porter, one of four prepared at Boreham. They finished fifth in the general classification, no mean achievement considering that they were only beaten by Group 4 cars. The trailing vapour is not from the exhaust, but is a mixture of snow dust and wood smoke from the bonfires of spectators.
ARCTIC RALLY
ARCTIC WINNERS.—The Finnish duo of Hannu Mikkola/Risto Suonio slide their Boreham-prepared Ford Escort T-C to victory during the 5th Tunturiralli-Arctic Rally.
SECOND TO MIKKOLA’S Escort T-C throughout the Arctic Rally was the Renault R8 Gordini of Jorma Lusenius/Seppo Halme which registered some quick times on the early stages only to succumb to the more powerful British Ford.
TASMAN SERIES
LATEST LOLA.—Seen driving his new Lola T190 Chevrolet in the Tasman series is wealthy Swede Ulf Norinder, who had a full season of British Formula 5000 in 1969.
FIRST FERRARI VICTORY of 1970 went to Graeme Lawrence, the New Zealander, who vanquished the more powerful American-engined machinery around the tight Levin track with his privately owned 2 1/2 litre V6 Dino.
DESPONDENT.—Former Ferrari Formula Two driver Derek Bell had high hopes for this ex-works Brabham-Ford owned by Midlands car collector Tom Wheatcroft. He withdrew when the team’s second engine blew while Chris Amon was testing the car.
INVERCARGILL WINNER Graham McRae, another New Zealander, took his most important victory at Invercargill, last of the New Zealand rounds in the Tasman series. He was briefly seen in Europe last year with a Formula Two Brabham.