Sports car world championship 1968
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The 1968 World Sports Car Championship was the 16th season of this championship. It began on February 4 and ended on September 29, 1968.
championship
In 1968, a new set of regulations came into force in the world championship, which caused serious changes in the engine displacement of the racing cars. The main content was to reduce the displacement of the prototypes to a maximum of 3 liters. The upper limit for sports cars was 5 liters. During the 1967 World Cup , there had been more and more discussions among CSI officials about the top speed of the most powerful sports car prototypes. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans , Bruce McLaren drove an average of 236.082 km / h in practice in the Ford GT40 Mk.IV. In the race, Denis Hulme and Mario Andretti were one kilometer per hour faster in their MK.IV. The winner section of Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt was 218.038 km / h. 1968 allowed the Mk.IV that a 7-liter Ford - V engine had, are no longer used. The Chaparral 2F and the Lola T70 with their 7-liter Chevrolet engines were also affected by the change announced at very short notice . However, the new regulations hit Scuderia Ferrari particularly hard . The 330P4 had 4.4-liter V12 engines, but were homologated as prototypes and not as sports cars. The reigning world champion in 1968 was thus without a car.
The overall winner in the championship, now known as the Brands World Championship, was not determined until the last event, the Le Mans 24-hour race . The 24-hour race in western France was moved from June to September due to the student unrest in May . With the victory of Lucien Bianchi and Pedro Rodríguez which drew Ford representative team of John Wyer with the works team of Porsche alike. The championship was decided by the deleted results, as only the best five results counted. While only six of the 51 points achieved at Ford were deleted, Porsche lost 25 of 67.5 points and thus the title in the last race, as the second place of Rico Steinemann and Dieter Spoerry in the Porsche 907 L was eliminated from the championship standings .
Racing calendar
| No. | date | Race name / circuit |
team | Overall winner | vehicle | championship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | February 3-4 |
 Daytona 24 Hours( Daytona International Speedway ) |
 Porsche Works Team
|
 Jo Siffert Hans Herrmann Vic Elford Jochen Neerpasch Rolf Stommelen 
|
Porsche 907 LH 2.2 | All |
| 2 | March 23 |
Sebring 12-hour race ( Sebring International Raceway ) |
Porsche Automobile Co.
|
Jo Siffert Hans Herrmann
|
Porsche 907 2.2 | All |
| 3 | 7th of April |
Brands Hatch 6 Hours ( Brands Hatch ) |
JW Automotive Engineering
|
 Jacky Ickx Brian Redman
|
Ford GT40 | All |
| 4th | April 25 |
 Monza 1000 km race( Autodromo Nazionale Monza ) |
JW Automotive Engineering
|
 Paul Hawkins David Hobbs
|
Ford GT40 | All |
| 5 | 5th of May |
Targa Florio ( Piccolo circuito delle Madonie ) |
Porsche System Engineering
|
Umberto Maglioli Vic Elford
|
Porsche 907 2.2 | All |
| 6th | May 19th |
1000 km race on the Nürburgring ( Nürburgring ) |
Porsche
|
Jo Siffert Vic Elford
|
Porsche 908 | All |
| 7th | May 26 |
Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race ( Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps ) |
JW Automotive Engineering
|
Jacky Ickx Brian Redman
|
Ford GT40 | All |
| 8th | July 14th |
6 Hours of Watkins Glen ( Watkins Glen International ) |
JW Automotive Engineering
|
Jacky Ickx Lucien Bianchi
|
Ford GT40 | All |
| 9 | August 24th |
 500 km race from Zeltweg( Zeltweg Airport ) |
Porsche System Engineering Ltd
|
Jo Siffert
|
Porsche 908 | All |
| 10 | September 28-29 |
 24 Hours of Le Mans( Circuit des 24 Heures ) |
John Wyer Automotive Engineering
|
 Pedro Rodríguez Lucien Bianchi
|
Ford GT40 Mk.I | All |
Mastery of the constructors
Brands World Championship
| position | constructor | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
ford
|
9 | 9 | (4) | 9 | 9 | (2) | 9 | 45 | |||
| 2 |
Porsche
|
9 | 9 | 6th | (6) | 9 | 9 | (6) | (3) | (4.5) | (6) | 42 |
| 3 |
Alfa Romeo
|
3 | 6th | 2 | 1.5 | 3 | 15.5 | |||||
| 4 = |
Chevrolet
|
4th | 4th | |||||||||
| 4 = |
Howmet
|
4th | 4th | |||||||||
| 4 = |
Alpine
|
4th | 4th | |||||||||
| 7th |
Ferrari
|
2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 8th |
Lola
|
1 | 1 |
International Cup for GT vehicles
| position | constructor | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Porsche
|
(6) | (6) | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | (9) | 45 | ||
| 2 |
Chevrolet
|
9 | 9 | 6th | 24 | |||||||
| 3 |
MG
|
1 | 2 | 6th | 9 | |||||||
| 4th |
Lancia
|
4th | 4th | |||||||||
| 5 |
Fiat
|
1 | 1 |
literature
- Alain Bienvenu: Endurance. 50 ans d'histoire. Volume 1: 1953-1963. Éditions ETAI, Boulogne-Billancourt 2004, ISBN 2-7268-9327-9 .
- 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 .
