1967 South African Grand Prix

 1967 South African Grand Prix

Racing data
1st of 11 races of the 1967 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	I Grand Prix of South Africa
Date:	2nd January 1967
Place:	Midrand
Course:	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	327.52 km in 80 laps of 4.094 km
Weather:	hot
Spectator:	~ 90,000
Pole position
Driver:	Jack Brabham	Brabham
Time:	1: 28.3 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Denis Hulme	Brabham
Time:	1: 29.9 min
Podium
First:	Pedro Rodríguez	cooper
Second:	John Love	cooper
Third:	John Surtees	Honda

The 1967 South African Grand Prix took place on January 2 at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the first race of the 1967 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Pedro Rodríguez's first victory (picture from 1971)

Since the first world championship run of the 1967 season took place in Mexico on January 2, and thus only a few weeks after the finale of the 1966 season on October 23 of the previous year , most of the teams competed with the previous year's vehicles. The South African Grand Prix was held in Kyalami for the first time after the Grand Prix had been held at the Prince George Circuit in East London in previous years . Since this was viewed as too small, the race was not part of the 1966 automobile world championship and moved to Kyalami in 1967. The new route was at an altitude of over 1500 meters, the temperatures at this time of the year were very high. This meant problems with vaporizing fuel and overheating of the engines for the vehicles, which were already evident at the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix under similar conditions.

In the area of ​​driver contracts, however, there were some changes. John Surtees became the new sole works driver for Honda . Pedro Rodríguez took his place next to Jochen Rindt at Cooper .

Lotus brought Graham Hill back to the factory team. His place next to Jackie Stewart at BRM was occupied by Mike Spence , who in turn gave the young Brit Piers Courage the chance to make his debut in the automobile world championship by leaving the private team Reg Parnell .

Chris Amon and Lorenzo Bandini each signed a works driver contract with Scuderia Ferrari . However, the team decided against the trip to South Africa, as did Bruce McLaren with his team.

Four local guest starters enriched the field in privately used vehicles, which, however, largely no longer corresponded to the current state of technology. Among them was Luki Botha , who contested his only Grand Prix participation that weekend. A total of 18 pilots competed at the start of the season.

training

There were unofficial test drives in the days before training. Rodriguéz drove fast laps, but was slowed down after a short time by the evaporation of liquids. Surtees also drove his Honda for two days to adapt the car's settings to the new racetrack. The oil in his vehicle was probably the reason for serious damage to the engine. The replacement engine was also damaged internally, so Surtees did not attend the first training session. The time was used to build a functioning engine from the parts of the two units.

The training sessions took place from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Training days were Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The teams were allowed to use the track for test drives in the morning hours. Times were not measured here and marshals were not present. Ten vehicles took part in the training on Thursday. In addition to Surtees, Hill also stopped because of repairs to his car, other teams voluntarily decided not to participate, as two training sessions were considered sufficient.

The demanding track conditions showed up early on in various technical problems. Stewart was the first driver to do a few laps before he parked his car with badly broken tires. In addition, both of BRM's cars overheated, in response to which the vehicle noses were replaced to allow more air to reach the engine for cooling. Stewart tested several different tires before engine failure ended his training session. Cooper also had problems with overheating, this affected both cars. Rodriguéz was three seconds faster and set the first fastest time before his engine overheated and he parked the Cooper in the pits. At Dan Gurney , a blown stone got into the engine. Removal was not possible, so the engine was restarted and the stone was ground by the mechanical movements. Gurney then set lap times close to the best time.

At the end of the first practice session, Jack Brabham set the fastest lap. His team-mate Denis Hulme was two seconds slower. The Brabham team was the only one that didn't have any problems with the vehicles overheating. Brabham then decided not to take part in Friday practice, but his team-mate Hulme drove many laps and was the fastest driver with times under 1:29 minutes. Only Love was just as fast, all the other drivers had problems with the heat. The air temperatures for the second training session rose to over 30 degrees, that of the track to over 60. Rodriguéz had to change the gearbox, Stewart's engine was still not ready, so he drove in his teammate Spence's car. Rindt, Clark, Surtees and Hill had more problems with the high temperatures, as did some of the drivers with private cars. Honda then requested unofficial test drives for Saturday morning, which was then approved for seven in the morning. In cooler temperatures, Surtees then drove times under 1:30 minutes, these did not count for the starting grid.

The temperatures rose again for the third training session. The night before, Lotus had moved the water pipes of their vehicles to the outside in order to achieve more cooling. Hill did only a few laps again, spinning on the track due to a problem with the accelerator pedal, losing fuel and later having technical problems with the engine. At Cooper, an additional cooling effect was achieved through a different mounting of the fuel pump. This was no longer mounted directly on the engine, but on a ring at the rear of the car. For the team, this resulted in a significant improvement in vehicle performance. Stewart's car wasn't repaired until the end of practice, after which he drove a few fast laps. Surtees posted good lap times as well and was unsatisfied with his Honda due to persistent overheating problems.

The two Brabham works drivers dominated the training. The result was the pole position for the team founder and reigning world champion Brabham with his teammate Hulme next to him on the front row. Clark and Rodríguez followed in front of the private driver Love, who was already causing a stir in training, and John Surtees. The BRM works drivers reached starting positions in the back field. This was the only time in the 1967 season that Brabham finished first and second on the grid. They only succeeded in doing this again at the 1969 Mexican Grand Prix . For Jack Brabham and his team it was the second start from first place in the South African Grand Prix. In 1969 this was achieved a third time.

run

Hulme initially took the lead in front of Brabham and Surtees. In the fourth lap, Brabham was overtaken by Surtees and Rindt after a spin caused by their own mistake. The Austrian spun on an oil stain shortly afterwards and was overtaken by Stewart. Hill dropped out on the same lap due to an accident.

Brabham, meanwhile, was steadily catching up with the leaders. On lap 21 he overtook second-placed Surtees, three laps later Rindt also succeeded, who, however, retired a further 15 laps later due to an engine failure. Meanwhile Surtees had fallen behind John Love and Dan Gurney .

Brabham also got technical problems and had to give up his second place to Love. Gurney was third for a short time before he also dropped out for technical reasons.

In the course of the race, Hulme had gained a comfortable lead of more than a minute when his brakes weakened on lap 61. He fell back, whereupon the private driver John Love took over the leadership of the Grand Prix. Rodríguez was able to follow him and saw a chance for victory. However, this only came about when Love had to pit to refuel with seven laps to go.

Rodríguez secured his first Grand Prix victory around 26 seconds ahead of the impressive John Love, who scored his first and only podium finish in a Grand Prix. John Surtees reached the podium in third in front of Denis Hulme, who was able to secure fourth place despite his defect.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Brabham Racing Organization	1	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT20	Repco 740 3.0 V8	G
	2	Denis Hulme
Cooper Car Company	3	Jochen Rindt	Cooper T81	Maserati 9 / F1 3.0 V12	F.
	4th	Pedro Rodríguez
Owen Racing Organization	5	Jackie Stewart	BRM P83	BRM P75 3.0 H16	G
	6th	Mike Spence
Team Lotus	7th	Jim Clark	Lotus 43		F.
	8th	Graham Hill
Anglo American Racers	9	Dan Gurney	Eagle T1F	Climax FPF 2.8 L4	G
Honda Racing	11	John Surtees	Honda RA273	Honda RA273E 3.0 V12	F.
Rob Walker Racing	12	Jo Siffert	Cooper T81	Maserati 9 / F1 3.0 V12	F.
DW Racing Enterprises	14th	Bob Anderson	Brabham BT11	Climax FPF 2.8 L4	F.
Joakim Bonnier Racing Team	15th	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper T81	Maserati 9 / F1 3.0 V12	F.
Reg Parnell Racing	16	Piers Courage	Lotus 25	BRM P56 2.0 V8	F.
John Love	17th	John Love	Cooper T79	Climax FPF 2.8 L4	F.
Sam Tingle	18th	Sam Tingle	LDS Mk3		F.
Scuderia Scribante	19th	Dave Charlton	Brabham BT11		?
Luki Botha	20th	Luki Botha			?

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	1: 28.3	166.913 km / h	01
02	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	1: 28.9	165.786 km / h	02
03	Jim Clark	Lotus BRM	1: 29.0	165.600 km / h	03
04th	Pedro Rodríguez	Cooper Maserati	1: 29.1	165.414 km / h	04th
05	John Love	Cooper-Climax	1: 29.5	164.675 km / h	05
06th	John Surtees	Honda	1: 29.6	164.491 km / h	06th
07th	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	1: 30.2	163.397 km / h	07th
08th	Dave Charlton	Brabham-Climax	1: 30.2	163.397 km / h	08th
09	Jackie Stewart	BRM	1: 30.3	163.216 km / h	09
10	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	1: 30.6	162.675 km / h	10
11	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	1: 30.7	162.496 km / h	11
12	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper Maserati	1: 31.8	160.549 km / h	12
13	Mike Spence	BRM	1: 32.1	160.026 km / h	13
14th	Sam Tingle	LDS-Climax	1: 32.4	159.506 km / h	14th
15th	Graham Hill	Lotus BRM	1: 32.6	159.162 km / h	15th
16	Jo Siffert	Cooper Maserati	1: 32.8	158.819 km / h	16
17th	Luki Botha	Brabham-Climax	1: 33.1	158.307 km / h	17th
18th	Piers Courage	Lotus BRM	1: 33.8	157.126 km / h	18th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Pedro Rodríguez	Cooper Maserati	80	0	2: 05: 45.9	04th	1: 32.0
02	John Love	Cooper-Climax	80	1	+ 26.4	05	1: 30.3
03	John Surtees	Honda	79	1	+ 1 lap	06th	1: 30.2
04th	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	78	2	+ 2 rounds	02	1: 29.9
05	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	78	1	+ 2 rounds	10	1: 31.5
06th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	76	1	+ 4 rounds	01	1: 30.4
-	Dave Charlton	Brabham-Climax	63	1	NC	08th	1: 32.6	Unrated
-	Luki Botha	Brabham-Climax	60	0	NC	17th	1: 36.5	Unrated
-	Sam Tingle	LDS-Climax	56	0	DNF	14th	1: 32.9	accident
-	Piers Courage	Lotus BRM	51	0	DNF	18th	1: 34.8	defective fuel supply
-	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	44	0	DNF	11	1: 30.5	Suspension damage
-	Jo Siffert	Cooper Maserati	41	0	DNF	16	1: 31.8	Engine failure
-	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	38	0	DNF	07th	1: 31.6	Engine failure
-	Mike Spence	BRM	31	0	DNF	13	1: 32.8	defective oil pump
-	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper Maserati	30th	0	DNF	12	1: 33.5	Engine failure
-	Jim Clark	Lotus BRM	22nd	1	DNF	03	1: 32.2	Engine failure
-	Graham Hill	Lotus BRM	06th	0	DNF	15th	1: 32.9	accident
-	Jackie Stewart	BRM	02	0	DNF	09	1: 33.7	Engine failure

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Pedro Rodríguez cooper 9 02  John Love cooper 6th 03  John Surtees Honda 4th

Item driver constructor Points 04th  Denis Hulme Brabham 3 05  Bob Anderson Brabham 2 06th  Jack Brabham Brabham 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  cooper 9 02  Honda 4th 03  Brabham 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "1967 South African Grand Prix race report: Heartbreak for Love" (motorsportmagazine.com on June 3, 2020)
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on September 10, 2011)
3. ^ "World Championship stands" ( Memento from March 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on September 10, 2011)

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website