Brands Hatch 6 Hours 1968

The Porsche 907 from Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann with the original starting number 37, which failed after a brake defect

Starting number 24; Factory - Lotus 47 by Jackie Oliver and John Miles . Rank 10 in the final classification and class win

The Ford F3L P68 made its racing debut at Brands Hatch

The 1968 Brands Hatch 6-hour race , also known as the BOAC International 500 World Championship Sports Car Race, Brands Hatch , took place on April 7th at Brands Hatch and was the third round of the sports car world championship of that year.

Before the race

At the 6-hour race at Brands Hatch was the duel between the works team of Porsche and the racing team of John Wyer its continuation. At the season opening race, the Daytona 24-hour race , Porsche won with five drivers who shared the cockpit of the winning car: Vic Elford , Jochen Neerpasch , Rolf Stommelen , Joseph Siffert and Hans Herrmann . Porsche also remained successful in the second race, the Sebring 12-hour race . Siffert and Herrmann won 2.2 in the Porsche 907 .

The race

Under the direction of Fritz Huschke von Hanstein , Porsche traveled to the racing event in Brands Hatch with four 907s, three emergency vehicles and one reserve vehicle. The driver pairings were Gerhard Mitter / Ludovico Scarfiotti , Vic Elford / Jochen Neerpasch and Jo Siffert / Hans Herrmann. Also Alfa Romeo announced on the factory team Autodelta three deployment and replacement cars in the P 2.0 class. The Alfa Romeo T33 / 2 were driven by Nanni Galli , Giancarlo Baghetti , Lucien Bianchi , Udo Schütz , Richard Attwood and Nino Vaccarella .

Five Ford GT40s competed, including the Gulf-JW Automotive Engineering car for Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman . Paul Hawkins and David Hobbs piloted the owned by Hawkins contained red painted GT40, built in 1967, with wider tires than the other models and a new cylinder head of Ford . The car of Mike Salmon and David Piper had a new 4.7-liter V8 engine from Ford with a Weslake cylinder heads. The Ford F3L P68 made its racing debut . Len Bailey developed the car for Alan Mann Racing . The flat car had very low air resistance and reached a top speed of 350 km / h during test drives. The partially supporting aluminum body was connected to a frame made of light metal sheets welded and riveted. The bow and stern hood could be folded up completely so that all the units were easily accessible. The curb weight of the car was about 670 kg. The brake discs with a diameter of 30 cm were placed on the side of the 15-inch rims and not in the wheel arches, so that the cooling air could be drawn in better. The V8 DFV engine from Cosworth from Formula 1 was used as the engine. Originally, Jim Clark provided as one of the drivers. However, Clark started a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring for his employer Lotus because his tire contract with Firestone made it necessary ( Graham Hill also had to cancel for this reason) and had an accident there on the day the race was in Brands Hatch was driven out with a Lotus 48 fatal. Alan Mann reported Bruce McLaren , Mike Spence , Jack Brabham and Denis Hulme . On the Friday before the race, Brabham had to cancel at short notice. This time a contract with a mineral oil company prevented it from being used. Jochen Rindt stepped in as a substitute . Hulme couldn't drive at all, as Mike Spence and Jochen Rindt's car had an engine failure in the first practice session and Spence then switched to Bruce McLaren, who should have been driven by Hulme.

In practice, Bruce McLaren surprised in the Ford with the second best lap time. The fastest was Jo Siffert in the Porsche, who needed 1: 34.600 minutes for his best lap, which corresponded to an average speed of 162.296 km / h. While Siffert had the best start in the Porsche from pole position , McLaren prevented an early start by depressing the clutch, which caused him to drop to fifth. McLaren quickly managed, however, to overtake the vehicles in front of him and catch up with Siffert. Using the higher top speed of the Ford, he also took the lead past Siffert when lapping slower vehicles. After an hour of racing, McLaren was leading by a narrow margin over the two Porsches from Siffert and Mitter. In lapping Joakim Bonnier in the Lola T70 Mk. 3 GT , the Porsche drivers overtook McLaren, who dropped to third place. Again McLaren managed to fight for the lead. After an hour and a half, McLaren handed the Ford over to Mike Spence, who rolled out a little later with a defect in the drive shaft.

New opponents of the Porsche arose in the GT40 from Ickx / Redman and Hawkins / Hobbs. The duel lasted until the end of the race and was partly decided by the faster work of the Wyer pit team and the failure of the Siffert / Herrmann Porsche due to a brake defect. At the finish, Jacky Ickx had a lead of 22 seconds over the best-placed Porsche, which was driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti.

Although the news of the death overthrow Jim Clark in the paddock and the pit lane was known already in the afternoon, drove factory - Lotus 47 of Jackie Oliver and John Miles on. The team achieved tenth place overall and victory in the sports car class up to 2 liters.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	S 5.0	4th	JW Automotive Engineering	Jacky Ickx Brian Redman	Ford GT40	218
2	P 3.0	38	Porsche System Engineering	Gerhard Mitter Ludovico Scarfiotti	Porsche 907 2.2	218
3	P 3.0	36	Porsche System Engineering	Vic Elford Jochen Neerpasch	Porsche 907 2.2	216
4th	S 5.0	5	Paul Hawkins	Paul Hawkins David Hobbs	Ford GT40	210
5	S 5.0	9	David Piper	Pedro Rodríguez Roy Pierpoint	Ferrari 250LM	209
6th	S 5.0	2	Ecurie Bonnier	Jo Bonnier Sten Axelsson	Lola T70 Mk.3 GT	207
7th	P 2.0	45	Squadra Tartaruga	Rico Steinemann Dieter Spoerry	Porsche 910	207
8th	P 2.0	47	Chevron Cars	Brian Classic Digby Martland	Chevron B8	206
9	P 2.0	53	Valvoline Racing Team	Rudi Lin's Karl Foitek	Porsche 910	206
10	S 2.0	24	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	Jackie Oliver John Miles	Lotus 47	202
11	S 5.0	6th	Strathaven Ltd.	Mike Salmon David Piper	Ford GT40	200
12	S 2.0	21st	William Bradley	Eric Liddell William Bradley	Porsche 906	200
13	P 2.0	41	Fawdington & Ramsay	Andrew Hedges Julian Sutton	Lotus 47	200
14th	P 2.0	44	Autodelta SpA	Nanni Galli Giancarlo Baghetti	Alfa Romeo T33 / 2	198
15th	S 5.0	10	Paul Vestey	Roy Pike Paul Vestey	Ferrari 250LM	196
16	S 2.0	28	Mefco Racing Opposite Lock Club	Martin Hone John Harris John Hine	Porsche 906	195
17th	P 2.0	50	Chevron Cars	John Lepp John Bridges	Chevron B8	188
18th	S 5.0	3	Jackie Epstein	Jackie Epstein Edward Nelson	Lola T70 Mk.3 GT	183
19th	S 2.0	22nd	Mike de Udy	Mario Cabral Jacques Duval	Porsche 906	183
20th	P 2.0	42	Autodelta SpA	Richard Attwood Nino Vaccarella	Alfa Romeo T33 / 2	169
21st	S 2.0	23	Autodelta SpA	Chris Ashmore Jeff Edmonds	Porsche 906	154
22nd	S 2.0	29	Jeremy Delmar-Morgan	Jeremy Delmar-Morgan Mike Walton	Porsche 906	151
Disqualified
23	P 2.0	48	AG Dean Racing	Tony Dean Mike Beckwith	Ferrari Dino 206S	127
Failed
24	P 2.0	43	Autodelta SpA	Lucien Bianchi Udo Schütz	Alfa Romeo T33 / 2	125
25th	P 3.0	37	Porsche System Engineering	Jo Siffert Hans Herrmann	Porsche 907 2.2	106
26th	S 5.0	8th	Terry Drury	Terry Drury Keith Holland	Ford GT40	91
27	P 2.0	46	Ben Pon	Gijs van Lennep Ben Pon	Porsche 910	91
28	S 5.0	1	Sid Taylor Racing Steering Wheel Club	Dave Charlton Craig Fisher	Lola T70 Mk.3 GT	69
29	P 3.0	34	Alan Mann Racing	Bruce McLaren Mike Spence	Ford F3L P68	66
30th	S 2.0	27	Julian Hasler	Peter Jackson Geoff Oliver	Lotus 47	42
31	S 2.0	25th	Team elite	Trevor Taylor Mike Budge	Lotus 47	35
32	P 2.0	49	Nomad Cars	Tony Lanfranchi Mark Konig	Nomad Mk.1	22nd
33	S 5.0	7th	David Prophet Racing	David Prophet Richard Bond	Ford GT40	19th
34	P 3.0	35	Howmet Corporation	Dick Thompson Hugh Dibley	Howmet TX Continental	7th
35	S 2.0	26th	Chris Barber	John Hine Mike Crabtree	Lotus 47	1
Not started
36	S 5.0	12	Peter Clarke	Peter Clarke Vic Walker	Ferrari 250LM	1
37	P 3.0	33	Alan Mann team	Jochen Rindt Mike Spence	Ford F3L P68	2
38	P 3.0	T	EPorsche System Engineering	Jochen Neerpasch	Porsche 907	3
39	P 2.0	T	Autodelta SpA		Alfa Romeo T33 / 2	4th

¹ not started ² engine failure during training ³ engine failure during training ⁴ replacement 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
40	P 3.0	31	Alain de Cadenet	Tommy Weber Alain de Cadenet	Scodec diva Martin Valkyrie
41	P 3.0	32	Derek Bennett	John Woolfe Derek Bennett	Chevron B12
42	P 3.0	39	Racing Preparations	John Markey	Chevron B8
43	P 2.0	51	Christopher St. Quintin	Mac Daghorn Christopher St. Quintin	Abarth 1600 OT
44	P 2.0	52	Northumbria Racing	John Blades Neil Corner	Chevron B6

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
P 3.0	Gerhard Mitter	Ludovico Scarfiotti	Porsche 907 2.2	Rank 2
P 2.0	Rico Steinemann	Dieter Spoerry	Porsche 910	Rank 7
S 5.0	Jacky Ickx	Brian Redman	Ford GT40	Overall victory
S 2.0	Jackie Oliver	John Miles	Lotus 47	Rank 10

Racing data

• Registered: 44
• Started: 35
• Valued: 22
• Race classes: 4
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: warm and dry
• Route length: 4.265 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 6:01:13,000 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 218
• Total distance of the winning team: 929.718 km
• Winner's average: 154.431 km / h
• Pole position: Jo Siffert - Porsche 907 2.2 (# 37) - 1: 34.600 = 162.296 km / h
• Fastest race lap: unknown
• Racing series: 3rd round of the 1968 World Sports Car Championship
• Racing series: 1st round of the British Sports Car Championship in 1968

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

• Results
• Race report

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the Ford F3L P68

Previous race, the Sebring 12-hour race, 1968

Sports car world championship

Successor to the 1000 km race of Monza in 1968