Watkins Glen 6 Hours 1974

Route profile 1974

The 1974 Watkins Glen 6 Hours , also Glen Five Star, Six Hours, Can-Am, Formula 5000, Trans-Am, VW Gold Cup (Six Hours of Endurance and The Glen Trans-Am), Watkins Glen , took place on July 13th in Watkins Glen and was the seventh round of the Sports Car World Championship of that year.

The race

At the 6-hour race at Watkins Glen, a development continued that had been evident since the 5-liter prototypes were banned from racing at the end of the 1971 season : too few starters in the large, 3-liter sports car class. Since Gulf Research did not report the Gulf GR7 for budget reasons and the Porsche works team came to North America with just one Porsche Carrera RSR , only the works cars from Alfa Romeo and Matra were again victorious in addition to the Porsche .

With Arturo Merzario , Mario Andretti and Rolf Stommelen, only three drivers were nominated for the two Alfa Romeo T33 / TT / 12 registered by Autodelta . One day after the 6-hour race, the Watkins Glen 1-hour race , the third race of the 1974 Can Am season, took place on the track . The training for this race took place after the units of the world championship participants. On Friday afternoon, Rolf Stommelen tested Goodyear tires instead of the Firestones used by Alfa Romeo during Can-Am training . He had a serious accident after a puncture. The T33 / TT / 12 with the starting number 70 was so badly damaged that the car had to be withdrawn. After other teams had incidents with Goodyear tires, they were not used at either event. Jackie Oliver won the Can-Am race in the Shadow DN4, ahead of his teammate George Follmer and Scooter Patrick in the McLaren M20 .

The standard crews Jean-Pierre Jarier / Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo / Gérard Larrousse entered the race for Matra . Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep drove the works Porsche . Because the two Matra started from the front row did not classify themselves correctly, the race management did not give a green start flag at the start. Larrousse, Jarier and the Alfa drivers thought they were in the race and drove two laps around the course at full speed. After they had caught up with all the other starters who were slowly driving around the course after the lack of starting clearance after the second lap, the race was canceled. At the restart everything ran smoothly and both Matra led Merzario in the Alfa Romeo. After half an hour of racing, the three leaders had lapped the rest of the field at least once. There was little tension at the top. Already at the first pit stop, Merzario and Andretti's Alfa Romeo lost several minutes because the engine could not be started for a long time. The car was later disqualified for unauthorized assistance (it was pushed on the track). The decision between the Matra was made due to a gearbox failure on the Matra-Simca MS670C from Larrousse and Pescarolo. At the finish line, the victorious Jarier and Beltoise had a nine-lap lead over Müller and van Lennep's Porsche.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	S 3.0	1	Equipe Matra	Jean-Pierre Jarier Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra-Simca MS670C	193
2	S 3.0	9	Martini Racing Porsche System	Herbert Müller Gijs van Lennep	Porsche Carrera RSR Turbo	184
3		59	Brumos Porsche-Audi Corp.	Peter Gregg Hurley Haywood	Porsche Carrera RSR	176
4th		74	Heimrath Turbo Inc.	Ludwig Heimrath senior Jim Cook	Porsche Carrera RSR	172
5		88	Mo Carter Firestone Performance Center	Tony DeLorenzo Maurice Carter	Chevrolet Camaro	168
6th		65	Jacques Bienvenue	Jacques Bienvenue Marc Dancose	Porsche Carrera RSR	164
7th		36	Miller Brothers Racing Enterprises	Paul Miller Kenper Miller	Chevrolet Camaro	160
8th	GT	34	Ted Trudon Porsche Audi Inc.	Sam Posey David Hobbs Elliot Forbes-Robinson	Porsche Carrera RSR	160
9		46	Craig Carter Racing	Craig Carter David Laughlin	Chevrolet Camaro	150
10	GT	5	Toad Hall Motor Racing	Michael Keyser Milt Minter	Porsche Carrera RSR	149
11		91	Roger Pierce Racing	Roger Pierce Doug Mills	Chevrolet Corvette	145
12		61	Feinstein Racing Enterprises	Michael Oleyar Sam Feinstein	Chevrolet Corvette	141
13	GT	43	International Performance Center Inc.	John O'Steen John Graves Dave Helmick	Porsche Carrera RSR	126
Not classified
14th	S 2.0	99	Professional Racing Associates	Bob Fisher Michel Dupont	Chevron B23	74
Disqualified
15th	S 3.0	60	Autodelta	Arturo Merzario Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo T33 / TT / 12	171
Failed
16		95	Bob Hagestad	Skip Barber Bob Hagestad	Porsche Carrera RSR	129
17th	S 3.0	2	Equipe Matra	Henri Pescarolo Gérard Larrousse	Matra-Simca MS670C	117
18th		24	Quick Team Libra	John Buffum George Follmer Brett Lunger	BMW 3.0 CSL	114
19th	GT	55	North American Racing Team	Mike Hiss Alain Cudini	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4	83
20th		87	Rynone Industries	Thomas Rynone Michael Wiernicki Neil Wiernicki	Chevrolet Corvette	67
21st	GT	57	FJ Maka Racing	Bob Grossman Gregg Young Teodoro Zeccoli	De Tomaso Pantera	50
22nd		3	Harry Theodoracopulos	Harry Theodoracopulos Horst Kaul	Ford Capri RS 2600	40
23	GT	92	Oest-Tillson Racing	Dieter Oest Mike Tillson Lou Higgins	Porsche Carrera RSR	39
24		82	Francisco Mir Racing Team	Nestor Garcia-Veiga Mark Waco Angel Monguzzi	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4	25th
25th		110	Bolus & Snopes Ltd.	Bob Mitchell Tom Nehl	Chevrolet Camaro	17th
26th	S 3.0	16	Aase Brothers	Dennis Aase Scooter Patrick	Porsche 908/02	8th
27		25th	Bobcar	Bert Everett John Morton	Alfa Romeo Montreal	6th
28		13	Warren Agor Racing Enterprises	Warren Agor Paul Noter	Chevrolet Camaro	4th
29		13	Davidson Racing	Alex Davidson Gary Witzenburg	Chevrolet Corvette	3
Not started
30th		14th	Holbert's Porsche-Audi	Al Holbert Elliot Forbes-Robinson	Porsche Carrera RSR	1
31	GT	35	Louis McAlpine	Louis McAlpine Tom Bagley	Datsun 510	2
32		39	Gerre Payvis	Gerre Payvis	Ford Mustang	3
33		42	Quick Team Libra	George Follmer Brett Lunger	BMW 3.0 CSL	4th
34	GT	44	International Performance Center Inc.	Jim Briody	Lotus Europe	5
35		64	C. Weaver Chevrolet	Bob Baechle	Chevrolet Corvette	6th
36	S 3.0	70	Autodelta	Rolf Stommelen Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo T33 / TT / 12	7th
37		86	Promotional Advertising Corp.	Hugh Kleinpeter Ron Goldleaf	De Tomaso Pantera	8th

¹ Holbert left the event because his wife was having a child. ² not started ³ not started ⁴ gearbox damage ⁵ not started ⁶ not started ⁷ accident by Stommelen in Can-Am training ⁸ not started

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
38	GT	4th	Applejack Racing	Bill Webbe Freddy Kottulinsky	Porsche Carrera RSR
39	GT	6th	Toad Hall Motor Racing	Vic Elford Ennio Bonomelli Michael Keyser Milt Minter Stephen Behr	Porsche Carrera RSR
40	GT	7th	Bob Harmon Racing	Bob Harmon	Porsche Carrera RSR
41	S 2.0	10	Eduardo de Seville	Eduardo de Sevilla Guillermo Echeverria	Lotus Europe
42	S 3.0	26th	Hector Rebaque	Fred van Beuren Guillermo Rojas	Porsche Carrera RSR
43	GT	54	North American Racing Team	Johnny Rutherford Mike Hiss Alain Cudini	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4
44	GT	58	Shook-Buehler Racing	Martin Shook	Chevrolet Camaro
45	GT	67	Boulevard Import	Tony Rolfe Fred Miller	Datsun 240Z
46	GT	72	Peter Papke	Peter Papke John Thomas Jim Cook	Porsche Carrera RSR
47	GT	77	Schumacher / Lowther	Bill Schumacher Ed Lowther	Chevrolet Corvette
48	GT	81	Far West Racing	Elliot Forbes-Robinson Gray Egerton	Porsche Carrera RSR

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
S 3.0	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Jean-Pierre Beltoise		Matra-Simca MS670C	Overall victory
S 2.0	no participant in the finish
GT	Sam Posey	David Hobbs	Elliot Forbes-Robinson	Porsche Carrera RSR	Rank 8

Racing data

• Registered: 48
• Started: 29
• Rated: 13
• Race classes: 3
• Spectators: 73,500
• Race day weather: hot and dry
• Route length: 5.435 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 6:01:33,800 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 193
• Total distance of the winning team: 1048.906 km
• Winner's average: 174.062 km / h
• Pole position: Gérard Larrousse - Matra-Simca MS670C (# 2) - 1: 43.698 = 188.675 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Jean-Pierre Beltoise - Matra-Simca MS670C (# 1) - 1: 44.050 = 188.126 km / h
• Racing series: Round 7 of the 1974 World Sports Car 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

• Results
• Report at Motorsport Magazine

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Watkins Glen 1-hour race 1974

Previous race 1000 km race from Zeltweg 1974

Sports car world championship

Successor 1000 km race at Le Castellet 1974