Formula Two Review

Starting with the fifth round of the European F2 Trophy for non-graded drivers on August 23rd, Formula Two cars once again went through a period of extended exercise. The first race of August/ September “series” took place at the superfast speedbowl around the Lago Pergusa in the heart of Sicily. Once again – despite annual howls from the drivers that never again will they return – a good class field of cars (including works entries from BMW and Tecno) was there in search of Trophy points.

An attempt had been made to modify the circuit in accordance with what the Sicilian organisers had decided were the drivers’ wishes: they had inserted a chicane with two right-angled bends of such acuteness that only one car at a time could pass through! Attempts were made both during practice and the race to disprove this dictum, inevitably culminating in wheel-to-wheel contact and flying glassfibre fragments.

The race was an exciting battle during both of its constituent heats between the Tecno of Clay Regazzoni and the very fast BMWs of Jo Siffert and Jacky lckx. Regazzoni won the first heat by 0.3 sec. from Siffert and managed to hang on to the Swiss BMW team-member in the second. Their credited second heat times were identical, so Regazzoni took an overall heat win with lckx third, only a further 0.3 sec. behind.

Siffert is a traditional Enna favourite (the circuit was the scene of a couple of victories for him over Jim Clark in the days of the 1-1/2-litre Formula One), but both Ickx and Regazzoni have expressed their distaste for this type of racing. It is nevertheless interesting that they are prepared to take part, and to race competitively, when required to by their teams. In winning the race, Regazzoni took the lead in the European F2 Trophy for non-graded drivers; although his Formula One performances with Ferrari have assured him of graded status for 1971, the Swiss values the Trophy and his win put him ahead of Derek Bell for the first time this year. Bell, who had burned his face the previous week during an unplanned Ferrari-burning stunt while making a motor racing film, only took two Trophy points, by coming seventh overall.

The following weekend offered a choice of Formula Two venues. A late addition to the calendar was a race in Sweden which attracted several good entries, including the Tecno. They had travelled all the way from Enna (the most southerly circuit used for F2) to the new Mantorp Park track, which is the most northerly on the F2 schedule. Again the race was run in heats: Regazzoni was delayed in the first by several incidents, including a puncture, but he won the second from his French team-mate Francois Cevert. On the combined results Cevert was declared the winner, beating the Brabham BT30s of Rolf Stommelen and Tim Schenken.

The alternative race took place at another recently built circuit, the very fast Salzburgring in Austria. In spite of criticisms against the guard rails which surround the Salzburgring (these make several of the corners almost completely “blind”), there was a fine entry which included three works BMWs and both of Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 69s.

Although the event overall was won by Ickx, the day will be remembered by the Austrian spectators as a triumph for Rindt. His engine was obviously sick on the warming up lap for the first heat and when a mixture of oil and water was found where it should not have been, the car was hurried away for a rapid engine change in readiness for the second heat.

Ickx’s BMW was fitted for the first time with a revised engine. In place of the staggered inlet/exhaust ports (which make the previous 4-valve engine look almost like a V8 from the outside), the new cylinder head has a conventional layout with all the fuel injection trumpets on one side and the exhaust pipes on the other. The camshaft profiles are recalculated to give more torque and mid-range power, but the reduced top end performance was no handicap to Ickx, who beat the Italian dare-devil driver Vittorio Brambilla into second place in the first heat, with Emerson Fittipaldi a close third.

Rindt’s car was ready for the second heat and the Austrian put on a display which left him thoroughly elated. Sadly, it was his last race. for Monza was only a week away. Battling closely with Ickx and dropping back several places after being baulked while third by a back marker, Rindt commanded the heat from start to finish, although he had no hope of a good overall result. Vittorio Brambilla (the younger brother of the former Ferrari driver), tcok second place overall, just ahead of Dieter Quester, BMW’s Austrian driver, while Fittipaldi was fourth ahead of Graham Hill, both with minor engine deficiencies.

Two weeks later, the F2 cars were back in Austria in force. This time they gathered at Tulln-Langenlebarn, the military airfield near Vienna where the sixth round of the Trophy was to be contested. Among the entries was John Coomb’s Brabham BT30 for Brabham himself, having his third F2 race of the season.

Again the race was in two heats. The first fell convincingly to Regazzoni, who beat Brabham in his very confident style, aided by the extremely powerful Tecno-modified Cosworth FVA engine. Tecno-built engines can be revved to 11,000 r.p.m. (1,000 r.p.m. higher than more normal FVAs), but the Italian team’s calculations misfired when a connecting rod found its way through the sump of Regazzoni’s engine while he was leading the second heat.

After a lot of shuffling involving Cevert’s similar Tecno, Ickx’s BMW (again with the “FVA-type” cylinder head) and Brabham, the Frenchman gave the Italian firm another heat win. But the overall result was to be disputed by Brabham’s BT30 (on Goodyear tyres and Ickx’s BMW (running as always on Dunlop). Brabham had got the measure of the German machine until – with one lap to go – Brabham’s engine went off song as an injection trumpet fell off. Ickx slipped through to seize a very narrow victory. Brabham hardly looked downcast, for he is not an emotional person, but he did admit that he would have been much happier (for the third time this year) if the race had been one lap shorter!-M. G. D.

Results:
Jochen Rindt Gedachtnis-Rennen – Formula Two