Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race in 1970

Wyer-Porsche 917K

Porsche-Salzburg-Porsche 917K

For the first time in the history of the World Sports Car Championship, a Lamborghini Miura was entered in a championship race. However, the vehicle did not take part in the race.

The fifth 1000 km race of Spa-Francorchamps , also Grand Prix de Spa (1000 kms de Francorchamps), Circuit National de Francorchamps , took place on May 17, 1970 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and was the sixth race of the sports cars World Championship this year.

Before the race

In 1966 , the first 1000 km race took place on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which was also part of the world championship for the first time that year . In 1970 the endurance race in the Ardennes was the sixth championship run of the year. The season started in early February with the Daytona 24-hour race . The winning streak of John Wyer's racing team , which was only interrupted by Ferrari's success in the 12-hour race in Sebring , began at Daytona International Speedway . The Porsche racing cars used by Wyer were victorious four times. In Daytona, Pedro Rodríguez , Leo Kinnunen and Brian Redman won in a Porsche 917K . Rodríguez and Kinnunen also won the races at Brands Hatch and Monza . The Targa Florio ended with the overall victory for Redman and Jo Siffert in the Porsche 908/03 .

The race

Six Porsche 917K competed in Spa, all of which were registered in the sports car class up to 5 liters. John Wyer came to the race with two 917K and the regular crews Pedro Rodríguez / Leo Kinnunen and Jo Siffert / Brian Redman. Two more 917K came from Austria . Louise Piëch , the sister of Ferry Porsche , registered two cars for Porsche Salzburg , which were driven by Vic Elford , Kurt Ahrens , Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann . Hans Laine and Gijs van Lennep drove a 917K for the first time in the race. So far, they had competed in the respective races for the Finnish Racing Team AAW in a Porsche 908/02. Helmut Kelleners and Jürgen Neuhaus drove the sixth 917K for the German Gesipa Racing Team .

The six Porsche 917s faced four Ferrari 512S . Scuderia Ferrari reported three vehicles for the drivers Jacky Ickx , John Surtees , Ignazio Giunti , Nino Vaccarella , Arturo Merzario and Peter Schetty . The Ecurie Francorchamps by Jacques Swaters received a newly built chassis which for Derek Bell and de Fierlant Hughes was employed.

Fast lap times were set with the 5-liter prototype during training. Since 1969 the Belgian Grand Prix of Formula 1 has not been held for security reasons in were the Belgian Grand Prix in 1968 lap times as a reference. Chris Amon had driven 3: 28.600 minutes in the Ferrari 312F1 during practice . The fastest lap in the race was John Surtees in the Honda RA301 with a time of 3: 30.500 minutes. On Friday, the first day of training, Jacky Ickx drove 3: 24.400 minutes in the Ferrari 512S and was thus four seconds faster than Chris Amon in the Formula 1 Ferrari. The Wyer-Porsche 917K had problems with the Firestone tires, which no longer remained stable on the rims at high speeds and thus lost air. After the tire problems had been fixed before Saturday practice, Pedro Rodríguez drove under 3 minutes 20 seconds. The pole position time of 3: 19.800 minutes corresponded to an average of 254.054 km / h. In the race, Rodríguez was 3 seconds faster and drove 3: 16.500 minutes with an average of 258.321 km / h. For comparison: At the Belgian Grand Prix in June , Jackie Stewart drove a pole position time of 3: 28.00 minutes in March 701 (average 244.038 km / h). However, the Formula 1 field was led through a chicane built before the race in the Malmedy section.

When the race started at 1 p.m. on Sunday, a thunderstorm broke out over the track. In contrast to the present, in 1970 the start-and-finish straight was after the La Source hairpin. The journey to the Eau Rouge was accordingly short. Nevertheless, the duel between the two top Wyer drivers Siffert and Rodríguez was about to escalate. Starting from the front row, the drivers drove side by side towards and into the curve in their Porsche 917s, until Rodríguez took off the accelerator at the last moment to avoid an accident after the two cars had touched. As early as the third lap, the leading cars began to overtake the slower GT cars . Siffert lost the lead to his teammate Rodríguez; Jacky Ickx in the fastest Ferrari also passed Siffert. In the following hour a three-way battle between the three Formula 1 drivers developed on the now dry track, which was spectacular for the spectators. Attentive marshals kept waving blue flags (indicating to the drivers that a faster vehicle is trying to overtake) ensured that the leading cars did not have any problems when lapping. The only one who was able to follow Siffert, Ickx and Rodríguez to some extent was Vic Elford in the Porsche-Salzburg-917K. The only car in the sports car field that started the race with rain tires was Peter Schetty's Ferrari 512S, which had to go to the pit to change tires after 30 minutes. After 14 laps, Siffert came to the pits as the leader for the first refueling stop, one lap later Rodríguez and Ickx stopped to refuel. Siffert had lost the most time at his stop and fell back to third place behind Rodríguez and Ickx.

A preliminary decision was made in the 22nd lap when Rodríguez came to the pits for an unplanned stop. The right front tire had lost air and had to be changed. In the race to catch up, he drove the mentioned 3: 16.500 minutes for the fastest lap in the race. On lap 29, the leading cars came to the pits for the second refueling stop. At this point Ickx was leading Siffert by a margin of 13 seconds and handed the Ferrari over to John Surtees while refueling. Brian Redman stepped into the cockpit for Siffert. Although Surtees had a lead of 26 seconds over Brian Redman after the stops, he was pushed out of the front by him on lap 35. On the 37th lap, Rodríguez also passed Surtees and came to the pits a little later for the scheduled stop (the tank was also filled at the stop because of the puncture) to hand the Porsche over to Leo Kinnunen. The decision was made on lap 44 when Kinnunen rolled out at Stavelot with a gearbox damage to the Porsche. During his driving time, Surtees lost almost 3 minutes to Redman, which Jacky Ickx could not make up for in the last third of the race against Siffert, who won the race for the Wyer team and Porsche with a lead of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over the Ferrari drivers won.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	S 5.0	24	JW Automotive Engineering	Jo Siffert Brian Redman	Porsche 917K	71
2	S 5.0	20th	Spa Ferrari SEFAC	Jacky Ickx John Surtees	Ferrari 512S	71
3	S 5.0	28	Porsche Salzburg	Vic Elford Kurt Ahrens	Porsche 917K	70
4th	S 5.0	22nd	Spa Ferrari SEFAC	Ignazio Giunti Nino Vaccarella	Ferrari 512S	68
5	S 5.0	43	Racing Team AAW	Hans Laine Gijs van Lennep	Porsche 917K	68
6th	S 5.0	29	Porsche Salzburg	Richard Attwood Hans Herrmann	Porsche 917K	68
7th	S 5.0	21st	Spa Ferrari SEFAC	Peter Schetty Arturo Merzario	Ferrari 512S	66
8th	S 5.0	23	Ecurie Francorchamps	Derek Bell Hughes de Fierlant	Ferrari 512S	64
9	P 3.0	6th	Martini International Racing Team	Gérard Larrousse Rudi Lins	Porsche 908/02	64
10	S 5.0	33	Ecurie Bonnier	Jo Bonnier Reine Wisell	Lola T70 Mk.3B GT	63
11	P 3.0	5	Martini International Racing Team	Hans-Dieter Dechent Helmut Marko	Porsche 908/02	62
12	S 2.0	31	John L'Amie	John L'Amie Brian Nelson	Porsche 910	59
13	P 2.0	15th	Hans-Dieter Blatzheim	Hans-Dieter Blatzheim Ernst Kraus	Porsche 907	59
14th	S 2.0	32	Paul Vestey	Peter Sadler Paul Vestey	Porsche 910	56
15th	P 2.0	14th	Levi's International Racing Team	Yves Deprez Julien Vernaeve	Chevron B16	55
16	GT + 2.0	59	Bernard Chenevière	Bernard Chenevière Claude Haldi	Porsche 911S	55
17th	S 5.0	30th	Gesipa Racing Team	Helmut Kellener's Jürgen Neuhaus	Porsche 917K	54
18th	GT + 2.0	53	Auto Kremer	Erwin Kremer Karl von Wendt	Porsche 911S	54
19th	GT 2.0	55	Jean-Marie Jacquemin	Jean-Marie Jacquemin Bernard Palayer	Alpine A110	52
20th	GT 2.0	52	Jean-Pierre Gaban	G. van Butsel Robert Moerenhout	Porsche 911	52
21st	GT 2.0	52	Georges Duvigneaud	Georges Duvigneaud Camille Demoulin	Porsche 911S	50
22nd	P 3.0	37	Tony Goodwin	Tony Goodwin Peter Taggart	Chevron B6 / 8	48
Not classified
23	GT + 2.0	58	Wicky Racing Team	André Wicky Sylvain Garant	Porsche 911S	41
Disqualified
24	S 5.0	34	Devel Moteurs Morand	Gérard Pillon Louis Morand	Lola T70 Mk.3B GT	2
Failed
25th	S 5.0	25th	JW Automotive Engineering	Pedro Rodríguez Leo Kinnunen	Porsche 917K	44
26th	S 2.0	40	Worcestershire Racing Association	James Tangye Paul Ridgway	Chevron B8	40
27	P 2.0	10	Philips car radio racing	Guy Edwards Roger Enever	Astra RNR2	37
28	GT 2.0	51	Jean-Pierre Gaban	Jean-Pierre Gaban Willy Braillard	Porsche 911S	33
29	S 5.0	35	Racing Team VDS	Teddy Pilette Gustave Gosselin	Lola T70 Mk.3B GT	31
30th	S 2.0	39	Intertech Steering Wheels	Angus Clydesdale John Markey	Chevron B8	22nd
31	S 2.0	38	Martin Blackie	Martin Blackie Peter Humble	Chevron B8	18th
32	GT + 2.0	54	Jacques Rey	Jacques Rey Edgar Berney	Porsche 911S	12
33	P 2.0	12	Stanley Robinson	Stanley Robinson John Blanckley	Unipower GT	10
34	S 2.0	41	Worcestershire Racing Association	John Bamford Peter Creasey	Chevron B8	10
35	P 3.0	7th	Keith Grant	Keith Grant Gerry Marshall	Brabham BT8	4th
Not started
36	S 5.0	25T	JW Automotive Engineering	Jo Siffert Pedro Rodríguez Leo Kinnunen	Porsche 917K	1

¹ training car

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
37	P 3.0	1	Matra	Henri Pescarolo Johnny Servoz-Gavin	Matra-Simca MS660
38	P 3.0	2	Matra	Jean-Pierre Beltoise François Cevert	Matra-Simca MS660
39	P 3.0	3	Autodelta SpA	Piers Courage Andrea de Adamich	Alfa Romeo T33 / 3
40	P 3.0	4th	Autodelta SpA	Rolf Stommelen Nanni Galli	Alfa Romeo T33 / 3
41	P 2.0	8th	Chevron Cars	John Hine Ian Skailes	Chevron B16
42	P 2.0	11	William Tuckett	Peter Sadler William Tuckett	Gropa CMC
43	S 5.0	26th	Zitro Racing Team	Dominique Martin Pierre Maublanc	Porsche 917K
44	S 5.0	27	David Piper	David Piper Tony Adamowicz	Porsche 917K
45	S 5.0	36		Jacques Thenaers William Scheeren	Lamborghini Miura
46	S 2.0	39	Edward Negus	Brian Joscelyne Edward Negus	Chevron B8
47	S 5.0	42	Michel Martin	Clive Baker Willie Green	Ford GT40
48	GT 2.0	59	Ecurie Biennoise	Gustav Schlup	Porsche 914/6

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
P 3.0	Gérard Larrousse	Rudi Lins	Porsche 908/02	Rank 9
P 2.0	Hans-Dieter Blatzheim	Ernst Kraus	Porsche 907	Rank 13
S 5.0	Jo Siffert	Brian Redman	Porsche 917K	Overall victory
S 2.0	John L'Amie	Brian Nelson	Porsche 910	Rank 12
GT + 2.0	Bernard Chenevière	Claude Haldi	Porsche 911S	Rank 16
GT 2.0	Jean-Marie Jacquemin	Bernard Palayer	Alpine A110	Rank 19

Racing data

• Registered: 48
• Started: 35
• Valued: 22
• Race classes: 6
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: thunderstorms at the beginning, then warm and dry
• Route length: 14.100 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 4: 09: 47.800 hours
• Overall laps of the winning team: 71
• Total distance of the winning team: 1001.100 km
• Winner's average: 240.460 km / h
• Pole position: Pedro Rodríguez - Porsche 917K (# 25) - 3: 19.800 = 254.054 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Pedro Rodríguez - Porsche 917K (# 25) - 3: 16.500 = 258.321 km / h
• Racing series: Round 6 of the 1970 Sports Car World Championship

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

• Report at Motorsport Magazin
• Results

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Start of the race in 1970, second picture from above
2. ↑ Jo Siffert (start number 24 and Pedro Rodríguez (start number 25) side by side through the Eau Rouge, Fig. 1)
3. ↑ Fig. 2 ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Siffert before Rodríguez at the exit

Predecessor race Targa Florio 1970

Sports car world championship

Successor race 1000 km race on the Nürburgring 1970