1964 USA Grand Prix

 1964 USA Grand Prix

Racing data
9th of 10 races of the 1964 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	VII United States Grand Prix
Date:	4th October 1964
Place:	Watkins Glen , USA
Course:	Watkins Glen International
Length:	407.11 km in 110 laps of 3.701 km
Weather:	sunny, dry, warm
Spectator:	~ 65000
Pole position
Driver:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Time:	1: 12.65 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jim Clark (Round 81)	Lotus Climax
Time:	1: 12.7 min
Podium
First:	Graham Hill	BRM
Second:	John Surtees	Ferrari
Third:	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-BRM

The 1964 US Grand Prix took place on October 4, 1964 at Watkins Glen International near Watkins Glen and was the ninth race of the 1964 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Ferrari competed as the North American Racing Team

Graham Hill won the United States Grand Prix for the second year in a row

Since some teams with customer vehicles had already ended the season prematurely, the field of drivers was filled with drivers who had not yet contested a season race. When Lotus was Walt Hansgen as a third driver in addition to the regular drivers Jim Clark and Mike Spence reported. For Hansgen it was the second and last race in the automobile world championship after the 1961 US Grand Prix . He and Spence drove the new Lotus 33 , while Clark continued to prefer the previous Lotus 25 . AJ Foyt was originally supposed to take part in the race as the third driver for BRM , but he withdrew the report. In Cooper Car Company returned Phil Hill back after the Italian Grand Prix in 1964 by John Love had been replaced. Phil Hill ended the season at Cooper and then retired from the World Automobile Championship. Ronnie Bucknum drove for Honda for the third time in 1964 . The team ended the season prematurely after the US Grand Prix. In the teams with customer vehicles, the Rob Walker Racing Team fielded three vehicles in a race for the first time, alongside Joakim Bonnier and Joseph Siffert , Hap Sharp drove a third Brabham .

Due to disputes between Enzo Ferrari and the Italian National Automobile Club, Ferrari was registered as the American North American Racing Team and the vehicles were painted in the national colors of the USA . For John Surtees were a Ferrari 158 , a Ferrari 1512 and Ferrari 156 reported; As usual, Surtees drove the Ferrari 158 in practice and in the race. His team-mate Lorenzo Bandini drove the Ferrari 1512. It was the vehicle's first race in the World Automobile Championship.

With Bruce McLaren , Innes Ireland , Clark and Graham Hill, four former winners took part in the race. With the designers, BRM and Cooper had previously been successful once and Lotus three times. In the drivers' standings, Graham Hill was in front of Clark, Surtees and Ginther. Only these four drivers had a theoretical chance of becoming world champions. In the constructors' championship, Ferrari was ahead of BRM and Lotus; in addition to these three constructors, Brabham also had theoretical chances for the title.

training

On the newly asphalted track, all drivers took to the track in the first training session. The best lap times from the previous year were achieved quickly thanks to the renewed track surface and the improved vehicles. Surtees was the fastest driver with a time of 1: 14.6 ahead of Graham Hill and Bandini. McLaren then set the fastest race lap, but was beaten again a short time later by Surtees. After that, most of the drivers didn't improve their times any further, with the exception of Clark, who set a new best time of 1: 13.2 minutes. McLaren's teammate Phil Hill had technical problems in the first practice session, as did Taylor, Amon, Hailwood and Bandini. The BRM were not competitive, they were on average more than a second short of the competition from Lotus, Cooper and Ferrari. Honda used the training to identify and eliminate remaining problems and Bucknum was in the middle after several minor improvements and work on the car.

The second training session took place on Saturday when the weather had improved compared to the previous day. The sun was shining, it was warmer and less windy than on Friday. The engine problems on Phil Hills Cooper were still not fixed, so that he could not improve his times in the second practice session. BRM had modified the cars of Graham Hill and Richie Ginther, which brought both drivers a time improvement of half a second. But Lotus also had faster lap times, Clark drove consistently under 1: 13.0 minutes and set a new best time of 1: 12.66 minutes, which Surtees just came close to. Behind were Gurney and Graham Hill. Bucknum meanwhile damaged the front of his Honda with a broken suspension. For him, the training was over because the necessary spare parts first had to be procured and delivered to the race track.

Clark took pole position for the fourth time of the season after starting the race from first place at the British Grand Prix . Surtees finished second ahead of Gurney and Graham Hill, McLaren qualified fifth. There were five different designers on the first five starting positions. With Spence, Brabham and Bandini, the respective teammates of the first three followed on the starting grid. Bonnier was the best driver with a customer vehicle in ninth place, Ireland was tenth.

run

The weather continued to improve on race Sunday, it was sunny and very warm. Before the race, Honda and Cooper held another practice session to test their overnight repaired vehicles. However, this did not affect the starting line-up, as the lap times did not count. After an introductory lap, the cars lined up behind the start in the starting order and then rolled forward before the race was released by waving the flag. Surtees and Spence won the start, leading from Clark, Graham Hill and Brabham. Behind them Ireland, Gurney, McLaren and Bonnier fought in midfield. There were no changes in position at the front in the opening laps, with Gurney moving up to fifth after overtaking Ireland and Brabham. Ireland was eliminated at the time due to a broken gear lever. The repairs to Phil Hill's vehicle had no effect; the Grand Prix was over for him on lap four. The cause was a damage in the electrical system, Phil Hill tried several times to restart his Cooper, but it did not succeed.

On the fifth lap, Graham Hill overtook Spence and was second. Clark then overtook both Spence and Graham Hill and in turn took second place. He closed the gap to the leader Surtees in the next six laps and overtook him on lap 13. Behind Gurney Spence overtook and caught up with Graham Hill. Meanwhile, Brabham fell out with engine failure. Clark extended his lead over the competition in the following rounds. Surtees, Graham Hill and Gurney stayed close together, battling for second place. Spence drove behind at a greater distance. In midfield, McLaren and Sharp came to the pits for repairs. McLaren continued the race after a short time, but retired on lap 27 with engine failure. The work on Sharps Brabham took longer, he later finished the race, but was not classified because he was too late. Amon and Bucknum also gave up the race with engine damage, with Bonnier the reason for failure was a broken axle.

Up to lap 40, Clark increased his lead over Surtees continuously, until he fell back due to problems with fuel injection. Surtees, Graham Hill and Gurney passed him four laps later, after which Clark pitted. Surtees took the lead, but was overtaken one lap later by Graham Hill, who fended off further attacks by his opponents. Clark continued the race and returned to the pits six laps later because the problem with his Lotus had not been resolved. Colin Chapman , Lotus Team Principal, decided in this situation that Clark and Spence should swap vehicles. According to the regulations, this was still allowed, but there were no more World Championship points after a driver change during the race. Since Clark could not score any more points in this race with his Lotus, he was supposed to push the other title contenders out of the front positions in Spence's vehicle so that they received fewer points for the drivers' championship. Spence was in fourth place at this point and Clark had a good chance of catching up with the top. However, the plan did not work, both Spence and Clark were eliminated later in the race. Clark was ranked seventh. This was the last driver change within a race in the history of the automobile world championship.

On lap 58 Bandini parked his Ferrari with engine failure, Gurney also retired on lap 69. When Clark and Hailwood had also finished their race with technical defects, only seven drivers remained on the track. Graham Hill lapped teammate Ginther for the second time, who was holding Surtees for a lap, giving Graham Hill a lead that grew as Surtees spun while lapping another car.

Graham Hill won the US Grand Prix for the second year in a row, half a minute ahead of Surtees. It was his second win of the season after winning the season opener, the Monaco Grand Prix . Siffert finished third and reached the podium for the first time, one lap behind. It was not until the Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1968 that he was again among the top three. Ginther reached the finish in fourth place, three laps behind, ahead of Hansgen and Taylor. For Hansgen it was the only point placement of his career in the automobile world championship, for Taylor the last. BRP received the last point as a designer, since after the end of the season the withdrawal from the automobile world championship followed.

In the drivers' standings, Graham Hill was five points ahead of Surtees and nine points ahead of Clark with the win before the season finale. He and Surtees had the chance to win the title on their own for the last race of the season, Clark only had theoretical chances of becoming world champion. In the constructors' championship, Ferrari was one point ahead of BRM and nine points ahead of Lotus. All three teams were able to win the title, Ferrari and BRM on their own.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	01	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	02		Lotus 33
	02	Mike Spence	Lotus 33
	01		Lotus 25
	17th	Walt Hansgen	Lotus 33
Owen Racing Organization	03	Graham Hill	BRM P261	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	04th	Richie Ginther
Brabham Racing Organization	05	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT11	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	06th	Dan Gurney	Brabham BT7
North American Racing Team	07th	John Surtees	Ferrari 158	Ferrari 1.5 V8	D.
			Ferrari 156	Ferrari 1.5 V6
	08th		Ferrari 1512	Ferrari 1.5 B12
	08th	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari 1512	Ferrari 1.5 B12
Cooper Car Company	09	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T73	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	10	Phil Hill
British Racing Partnership	11	Innes Ireland	BRP Mk2	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	12	Trevor Taylor
Reg Parnell Racing	14th	Mike Hailwood	Lotus 25	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	15th	Chris Amon
Rob Walker Racing Team	16	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham BT7	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	22nd	Joseph Siffert	Brabham BT11	BRM 1.5 V8
	23	Hap Sharp
Honda R&D Co.	25th	Ronnie Bucknum	Honda RA271	Honda 1.5 V12	D.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Jim Clark drove both cars in practice sessions and started the race with the number 1 Lotus 25. On lap 49, he and Mike Spence changed cars.
2. ↑ ^{a b} John Surtees drove the Ferrari 158 and the Ferrari 156 with the number 7 in the training sessions and the Ferrari 158 in the race.
3. ↑ ^{a b} The Ferrari 1512 was registered for both drivers, Lorenzo Bandini drove it in the practice sessions and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	1: 12.65	183.39 km / h	01
02	John Surtees	Ferrari	1: 12.78	183.07 km / h	02
03	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	1: 12.90	182.77 km / h	03
04th	Graham Hill	BRM	1: 12.92	182.72 km / h	04th
05	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	1: 13.10	182.27 km / h	05
06th	Mike Spence	Lotus Climax	1: 13.33	181.69 km / h	06th
07th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	1: 13.63	180.95 km / h	07th
08th	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	1: 13.83	180.46 km / h	08th
09	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	1: 14.07	179.88 km / h	09
10	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	1: 14.35	179.20 km / h	10
11	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	1: 14.43	179.01 km / h	11
12	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-BRM	1: 14.65	178.48 km / h	12
13	Richie Ginther	BRM	1: 14.67	178.43 km / h	13
14th	Ronnie Bucknum	Honda	1: 14.90	177.89 km / h	14th
15th	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	1: 15.30	176.94 km / h	15th
16	Mike Hailwood	Lotus BRM	1: 15.65	176.12 km / h	16
17th	Walt Hansgen	Lotus Climax	1: 15.90	175.54 km / h	17th
18th	Hap Sharp	Brabham-BRM	1: 18.23	170.31 km / h	18th
19th	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	1: 19.63	167.32 km / h	19th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Graham Hill	BRM	110	0	2: 16: 38.0	04th	1: 13.4
02	John Surtees	Ferrari	110	0	+ 30.5	02	1: 13.3
03	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-BRM	109	0	+ 1 lap	12	1: 14.5
04th	Richie Ginther	BRM	107	0	+ 3 rounds	13	1: 15.4
05	Walt Hansgen	Lotus Climax	107	0	+ 3 rounds	17th	1: 15.3
06th	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	106	0	+ 4 rounds	15th	1: 16.3
07th	Mike Spence Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	102	1	+ 8 rounds	06th	1: 14.1
08th	Mike Hailwood	Lotus BRM	101	0	+ 9 rounds	16	1: 14.6
-	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	69	0	DNF	03	1: 13.5	oil pressure
-	Hap Sharp	Brabham-BRM	65	1	NC	18th	1: 18.7	unclassified
-	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	58	0	DNF	08th	1: 14.8	Engine failure
-	Jim Clark Mike Spence	Lotus Climax	54	2	DNF	01	1: 12.7	injection
-	Ronnie Bucknum	Honda	50	0	DNF	14th	1: 15.5	Engine damage / head gasket
-	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	47	0	DNF	11	1: 14.5	Engine failure
-	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	37	0	DNF	09	1: 15.0	Wheel axle
-	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	27	1	DNF	05	1: 13.8	Engine failure
-	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	14th	0	DNF	07th	1: 14.1	Engine failure
-	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	04th	0	DNF	19th	1: 17.9	ignition
-	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	02	0	DNF	10	1: 18.1	transmission

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the six best results from ten races counted. In the constructors' championship, only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Graham Hill BRM 39 (41) 02  John Surtees Scuderia Ferrari 34 03  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 30th 04th  Richie Ginther BRM 23 05  Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 19th 06th  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 13 07th  Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 11 08th  Peter Arundell Lotus Climax 11 09  Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 10 10  Jo Siffert Brabham-BRM 7th 11  Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 5

Item driver constructor Points 12  Tony Maggs BRM 4th 13  Innes Ireland BRP-BRM 4th 14th  Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax / Brabham-Climax 3 15th  Chris Amon Lotus BRM 2 16  Maurice Trintignant BRM 2 17th  Walt Hansgen Lotus Climax 2 18th  Phil Hill Cooper-Climax 1 19th  Trevor Taylor BRP-BRM 1 20th  Mike Hailwood Lotus BRM 1 21st  Mike Spence Lotus Climax 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 43 02  BRM 42 (51) 03  Lotus Climax 36 (37) 04th  Brabham-Climax 21st 05  Cooper-Climax 16 06th  Brabham-BRM 7th 07th  BRP-BRM 5 08th  Lotus BRM 3

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: United States GP, 1964 at grandprix.com
• Hill extends lead with Glen victory at en.espn.co.uk
• Grand Prix of United States at motorsportmagazine.com