Buenos Aires 1000 km race in 1971

Racing debut for the Ferrari 312PB . Ignazio Giunti had a fatal accident with this racing car model in the race

The eighth 1000 km race of Buenos Aires , also Buenos Aires 1000 Kilometers, Autódromo Municipal de Buenos Aires - Circuit 15 , took place on January 19, 1971 at the Autódromo Municipal de Buenos Aires and was the first race of the Sports Car World Championship of this Year.

Before the race

1971 was the second year of cooperation between Porsche and John Wyer’s racing team , which, like the year before, fielded two Porsche 917s in the world championship. There were changes in the drivers. All of a sudden, Brian Redman , Jo Siffert's regular partner , resigned at the end of the 1970 season. Redman had wanted to give up dangerous racing and accepted the position of Volkswagen sales manager in South Africa . After only four months, irritated by the political situation in the country, he ended his engagement and returned to Great Britain and to racing. Derek Bell joined the team for Redman . The second exit concerned Leo Kinnunen . He had won four world championship races with partner Pedro Rodríguez in 1970 , but was considered a loner who did not speak English. The death of his close friend Hans Laine in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1970 hit him hard . For the team of the Finnish businessman Antti Aarnio-Wihuri , for whom Laine had also driven, he started in 1971 in the interseries . Rodríguez's new partner was Jackie Oliver , who had been driving for Wyer in the late 1960s.

In 1970 Hans-Dieter Dechent entered the world championship with two Porsche 908s. The racing team was financed by the Italian beverage company Martini & Rossi . He received logistical support from the Porsche racing department in Zuffenhausen . After the race team of Porsche Holding of Louise Piëch end of 1970, the race ceased operating, took Dechent 1971 all the material including two 917 and a lot of the technicians and mechanics for their own racing. The drivers were Vic Elford , Gérard Larrousse , Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep .

1971 was the last year for vehicles with a 5-liter engine, as new regulations came into force at the beginning of the 1972 season . Ferrari had developed a new racing car for this, the Ferrari 312PB . After extensive testing, the car, driven by Ignazio Giunti and Arturo Merzario , made its racing debut in Buenos Aires. In contrast to Ferrari, Autodelta came to Argentina with three 3-liter T33 / 3-71s . Among the works drivers Rolf Stommelen , Nanni Galli , de Andrea Adamich , Henri Pescarolo and Toine Hezemans came the Brazilian Lotus - Formula 1 -Pilot Emerson Fittipaldi to the team, which should make his World Cup debut. Fittipaldi had an accident in training with the number 12 car. He then drove the race as partner of Carlos Reutemann in a Porsche 917 owned by Àlex Soler-Roig . Matra Sports reported an MS660 for Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Jean-Pierre Jabouille .

The race and the fatal accident of Ignazio Giunti

The race was overshadowed by the fatal accident of Ferrari driver Ignazio Giunti. The 29-year-old Giunti had been a works driver for the Scuderia since 1970 . Together with Nino Vaccarella and Mario Andretti , he had on a Ferrari 512 , the 12-hour race at Sebring win and a fourth place in the Ferrari 312B at the Belgian Grand Prix debut in F1. In training, Giunti achieved the second best time in the 312PB and started next to the fastest in training, Pedro Rodríguez, in the Prosche 917 from the front row. During the first hour of the race, a three-way battle developed between the two Porsche 917s from Rodríguez and Vic Elford and the Ferrari from Giunti. When both Porsches had to go to the pits to refuel, Giunti took the lead.

On the way to the pits to refuel and change drivers, Jean-Pierre Beltoise's Matra MS660 ran out of fuel on lap 36. In the Horquilla , the last bend before the start-and-finish straight, the Matra stopped on the right-hand side of the road. The pit area was only separated from the road by a white line on the floor and 200 meters away from the stationary Matra. However, the entrance was on the other side of the street. Animated by the short distance, Beltoise began to push the cart. He also had to overcome a few meters in altitude. The regulations forbade pushing a car on the road. The marshals waved yellow flags, but did not prevent Beltoise from doing what he did. Giunti had driven past the pushing Beltoise twice when the tragic accident occurred on the third pass. Beltoise had begun to push the car across the lane and was standing on the right side of the Matra when Mike Parkes pulled up in the Scuderia Filipinetti's Ferrari 512M and Giunti in the 312PB. Giunti had tried for almost a lap to lap Parkes, which was in tenth place. Parkes took off the gas to drive past the Matra on the left. Giunti pulled to the right to overtake Parkes, overlooking Matra standing in the middle of the lane. The Ferrari hit the Matra on the right side with full force. The car was ripped open and went up in flames. Although rescue workers were quickly at the scene of the accident - team-mate Arturo Merzario also ran to the burning wreck with helmet and gloves (he had been waiting for his mission) to save his team-mate - Giunti had no chance of survival. He was taken to a hospital with severe burns he died two hours after his arrival. The race was canceled and restarted after the clean-up work. Siffert and Bell won in the Porsche 917.

The accident had consequences for Beltoise. He was fined by FISA for causing the accident and lost his driver's license for half a year.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	Driver / passenger	vehicle	Round
1	S.	39	JW Automotive	Jo Siffert Derek Bell	Porsche 917K	165
2	S.	32	JW Automotive	Pedro Rodríguez Jackie Oliver	Porsche 917K	164
3	P 3.0	14th	Autodelta SpA	Rolf Stommelen Nanni Galli	Alfa Romeo T33 / 3-71	163
4th	P 3.0	16	Autodelta SpA	Andrea de Adamich Henri Pescarolo	Alfa Romeo T33 / 3-71	161
5	S.	20th	Escuderia Montjuich	José Juncadella Carlos Pairetti	Ferrari 512S	155
6th	S.	18th	Ecurie Francorchamps	Hughes de Fierlant Gustave Gosselin	Ferrari 512S	153
7th	S.	8th	Scuderia Filipinetti	Mike Parkes Jo Bonnier	Ferrari 512M	150
8th	S.	22nd	North American Racing Team	Sam Posey Nestor Garcia-Veiga Luis Di Palma	Ferrari 512S Spyder	148
9	P 3.0	2	Ecurie Evergreen	Chris Craft Trevor Taylor	McLaren M8C	146
10	S.	34	Zitro Racing	Dominique Martin Pablo Bréa	Porsche 917K	145
11	P 2.0	6th	Ecurie Evergreen	David Weir Jorge Omar Del Rio	Lola T210	143
12	P 2.0	10	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ronnie Peterson Jorge Cupeiro	Lola T212	130
13	P 2.0	46	Scuderia Bonnier	Daniël Rouveyran Carlos Ruesch	Lola T210	129
Disqualified
14th	S.	38	Martini International Racing Team	Vic Elford Gérard Larrousse	Porsche 917K	65
Failed
15th	S.	48	Team Auto Usdau	Reinhold Joest Angel Monguzzi	Porsche 917K	85
16	P 3.0	40	Auto Usdau	Eduardo José Copello Hans-Dieter Weigel	Porsche 908/02	54
17th	S.	28	Escuderia Nacional CS	Emerson Fittipaldi Carlos Reutemann	Porsche 917K	43
18th	P 3.0	24	Spa Ferrari SEFAC	Ignazio Giunti Arturo Merzario	Ferrari 312PB	38
19th	P 3.0	26th	Matra Sports	Jean-Pierre Beltoise Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Matra-Simca MS660	36
20th	P 2.0	4th	Ecurie Evergreen	Nasif Estéfano Alain de Cadenet	Lola T210	27
21st	S.	44	Eduardo Pino	Eduardo Pino Jorge Ternengo	Bauer	8th
22nd	S.	36	Martini International Racing Team	Helmut Marko Gijs van Lennep	Porsche 917K	2
Not started
23	P 3.0	12	Autodelta SpA	Emerson Fittipaldi Toine Hezemans	Alfa Romeo T33 / 3-71	1
24	P 2.0	42	Oreste Berta	Luis Di Palma Carlos Marincovich	Berta LR	2

¹ accident during training ² engine damage during training

Only in the entry list

No further reports are known for this race.

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
P 3.0	Rolf Stommelen	Nanni Galli	Alfa Romeo T33 / 3-71	Rank 3
P 2.0	David Weir	Jorge Omar Del Rio	Lola T210	Rank 11
S.	Jo Siffert	Derek Bell	Porsche 917K	Overall victory

Racing data

• Registered: 24
• Started: 22
• Rated: 13
• Race classes: 3
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: cold and dry
• Route length: 6.122 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 5:25: 25.940 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 165
• Total distance of the winning team: 1010.081 km
• Winner's average: 186.229 km / h
• Pole position: Pedro Rodríguez - Porsche 917K (# 32) - 1: 52.700 = 195.547 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Chris Craft - McLaren M8C (# 2) - 1: 50.230
• Racing series: 1st round of the 1971 World Sports Car Championship
• Racing series: 1st round of the Spanish Circuit Championship in 1971

literature

• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .

Web links

• Race report at Motorsport Magazine
• Race results

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ignazio Giunti at Motorsport Memorial
2. ↑ About Giunti and the accident (Italian)
3. ↑ Note: There are disturbing images of the accident that also show Giunti's lifeless body in the burned-out wreck. (Their presentation is expressly waived here.)

Previous race 1000 km race from Zeltweg 1970

Sports car world championship

Successor to the 24-hour race of Daytona 1971