Tag Archives: Stommelen

Anny-Charlotte Ralph And Bob – Porsche 935 K3/80 #009 00030

It is quite perverse to try and write a comprehensive story about today’s featured Porsche 935 chassis #009 00030 which took part in 6 Daytona and 4 Le Mans 24 hour races, winning the former with Bob Garretson, Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman at the wheel in 1981 and hitting headlines around the world when Rolf Stommelen, Dick Barbour and a certain Paul Newman drove the car to a second place finish at Le Mans in 1979 in a single blog, so I will focus on some of the cars highlights, owners and star drivers for now.

Porsche 935 K3/80, Verney, Kent-Cooke, Garretson, Le Mans

Rolf, Dick and Paul proved their result at Le Mans was no fluke when they finished second on the cars second appearance in the ’79 Watkins Glen 6 Hour race.

French driver Anny-Charlotte Verney shared #009 00030 for the first timeApple, on it’s final appearance carrying customer Porsche 935/77A bodywork, with Bob Garretson and Skeeter McKitterick for a 9th place finish in the 1980 Daytona 24 hour race.

At the Sebring 12 Hour race #009 00030 was fitted with Kremer Brothers K3 bodywork which carried sponsorship from Apple Computer and was driven to a 7th place finish by Bob, Bobby Rahal and Canadian Kees Nierop.

At Le Mans in 1980 Bob and Bobby were joined by Australian Alan Moffat to qualify 14th on the grid but piston failure led to the cars only Le Mans retirement after it had completed 134 laps.

After winning the Daytona 24 hours in 1981 the same winning Bob, Bobby and Brian trio finished 17th from 4th on the grid in the 1981 Sebring 12 Hours.

Part owner Bob Garrettson, with Ralph Kent-Wood, stepped back from the driving seat to allow Bobby and Brian to share the wheel to finish 3rd and 4th at Riverside and Laguna Seca.

The #009 00030 was then shipped to Le Mans where owners Bob and Ralph teamed up with British Petrolium (BP) sponsored Anny-Charlotte Verney to set a qualifying time of 3 min 55.150, good enough for 33rd spot on the grid.

Anny-Charlotte sharing the car for the second time with Bob and Ralph drove the car, seen above 23 hours into the race, to 6th place finish.

The car remained competitive for the remainder of the 1981 IMSA season which included a 3rd place finish with Bob, Rick Mears and Johnny Rutherford in the 1981 Watkins Glen 6 hour race.

In 1982 Bob was joined at the wheel of #009 00030 by Columbian Mauricio DeNarvaez and Jeff Wood at Daytona where they finished 3rd in the season opening 24 hours race.

Bob teamed up with Anny-Charlotte for a third time in #009 00030 for the 1982 Le Mans 24 Hours and they were joined by Ray Ratcliff for the cars final Le Mans start, from 43rd on the grid they salvaged an 11th place finish.

Wayne Baker bought #009 00030 for the 1983 season and converted it from twin turbo 935 spec to single turbo 934 spec and ran it with a loose interpretation of 934 bodywork at Daytona where he drove the car with Bob and Jim Mullen to a 9th place finish and in the 1983 Sebring 12 hours where Kees replace Bob and with Wayne and Jim scored the cars second and final outright victory.

At the end of 1983 #009 00030 was returned to full twin turbo 935 K3 spec and on it’s fifth appearance in the Daytona 24 hours was driven by Wayne, Jim and Tom Blackaller to a 5th place finish from 12th on the grid, from the same position on the grid at Sebring the same trio finished a season high 4th.

#009 00030’s final appearance in the Daytona 24 hours was in 1985 when Jack Newsum, Chip Mead and Ren Tilton joined Wayne for a 9th place finish from 28th on the grid.

Midway through 1985 Chester Vincentz bought the car and converted it back to single turbo 934 spec and ran it IMSA GTO events with a 934 type body in 1985 and a hybrid 935 body in 1986 and ’87 as a 930 S.

On the October 4th 1987Chester drove #009 00030 to a 12th place finish from 12th on the grid on the cars 72nd and final known in period appearance.

Thanks for joining me on this Anny-Charlotte, Bob and Ralph edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when Ferrari Friday will be making a month long return. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Spare Smallman Embassy – Lola T370 #HU3

At the end of his relatively unsuccessful, season high 9th place finish in Belgium, 1973 season at the wheel of his privately entered Embassy Shadow DN1, Graham Hill hooked up with Lola, who’s car he had driven to win the 1966 Indy 500, for a two car attack on the 1974 World Drivers Championship.

Lola T370, Haynes International Motor Museum

Embassy sponsored the building of the Lola T370 which was designed by Andy Smallman. Unlike Lola T330 and T332 Formula A/5000 cars with rear mounted side radiators the T370 had the radiators mounted directly behind the front wheels, as would appear on Lola 1975 T400 Formula A/5000 car.

The most remarkable thing about the T370 when it first appeared was the outsize tall airbox which gave the car the appearance of a sail boat, much larger than the one seen in today’s photo as can be seen in this link.

Graham’s efforts with the T370 were rewarded by a 6th place finish in the Swedish Grand Prix, but apart from that the over weight if reliable T370 was not particularly competitive as drivers of the second car; Guy Edwards, Rolf Stommelen, Peter Gethin and Vern Schuppan found out.

Guy Edwards scored a best 7th behind his team mate in the 1974 Swedish Grand Prix and German Rolf Stommelen repeated the feat in the 1975 South African Grand Prix.

Today’s featured chassis HU3, seen at the Haynes International Motor Museum, first appeared as a spare car at the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix a role it remained in for 11 of the 14 events to which it was taken.

The car was first raced by Peter Gethin in the 1974 British Grand Prix where he qualified 21st on the grid but retired with a puncture. Rolf Stommelen then drove the car in the 1975 Argentine and Brazilian Grand Prix where he started 19th and 23rd on the grid respectively and finished 13th and 14th respectively.

HU3’s final appearance was again with Rolf at the wheel during practice for the 1975 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The T370 was superseded by a single T371 chassis in 1975 but as it dawned on Graham it was time to retire he decided to follow the lead of 3 time World Champion Jack Brabham and 2 time race winner Bruce McLaren to become a Formula One constructor.

Thanks for joining me on this “Spare Smallman Embassy” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Maserati Monday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Murray’s Triangular Monocoque – Brabham Cosworth BT42 #BT42/6

After winning three World Drivers Championships two with Cooper in 1959 and 1960 and one with his own Brabham Team in 1966 Jack Brabham decided he was going to sell up and retire at the end of 1969. He got as far as selling the team to his partner the Australian designer/engineer Ron Tauranac in 1969 but after Jochen Rindt elected to stay with the Lotus team for 1970 Jack Brabham drove for the team in 1970 before hanging up his helmet with his team placed 4th in the constructors championship.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The following season Ron ran the Brabham team with Graham Hill and Tim Schenken scoring a non championship race win with Graham Hill and a few points in the championship. Ron decided that he needed a business partner to continue and ended up selling the team to a former racer sometime team owner and driver manager called Bernie Ecclestone. It soon become clear that both Ecclestone and Tauranac liked things done their was and so Ron left early in 1972.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For the 1972 season Graham Hill was still the number one driver with Argentinian Carlos Reutemann and Wilson Fittipaldi, brother of 1972 World Champion Emerson, driving second and third string entries.For the second year running Brabham finished 9th in the constructors championship last of the point’s scorers.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For 1973 South African Gordon Murray was given the responsibility of coming up with the Brabham team’s new challenger and he came up with the Brabham BT42 built around a monocoque that unusually, for the time, featured a triangular cross section as seen seen in these photographs.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Carlos Reutemann and and Wilson Fittipaldi were the teams front line drivers being joined on occasion by Andrea de Adamich until he broke his legs in an accident on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, Andrea was replaced by Rolf Stommelen and then John Watson in the final Grand Prix of the season at Watkins Glen.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Reutemann managed six points paying finishes with the best being two thirds in the 1973 French and US Grand Prix while Andrea, in an older 1972 Brabham BT37, and Wilson added another 6 points between them all of which moved Brabham back up to 4th in the World Constructors championship.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

This particular chassis is the sixth and final Brabham BT42 built it first appeared in the 1973 Austrian Grand Prix as a replacement for the chassis damaged in the accident at the 1973 British GP. Rolf Stommelen drove the car three times qualifying a best 12th in Italy and finishing a best 12th in Italy and Canada. John Watson qualified the car 24th for the US Grand Prix but the engine did not go the race distance.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Bernie Ecclestone sold chassis #BT42/6 and BT42/5 to Martino Finotto for the 1974 season, Finotto a seasoned sports car racer realised he was out of his depth in Formula One and so arranged for fellow sportscar racers Swiss Silvio Moser, 1973 and ’74 Le Mans winner Gérard Larrousse, Austrian Helmut Koenigg and Italian Carlo Facetti to drive the cars in several European Grand Prix.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In the end only Gérard Larrousse made a start in the car, having qualified 28th for the 1974 Belgian Grand Prix he retired with tyre issues. When Gérard unsuccessfully tried to qualify the car at the 1974 French Grand Prix it carried a particularly hideous airbox as can be seen in this linked image.

Thanks for joining me on this “Murray’s Triangular Monocoque” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Niki’s Ford – Ford Capri RS 3100

With apologies to my Rowdy friends who will have read much of this before, I hope you will agree that there is good reason for reposting this blog today. The Ford Capri RS 3100 was the final 1974 racing evolution of the Mk1 Ford Capri that was launched in 1969. It is thought that four RS3100’s were built by the Ford Competitions department in Cologne, Germany.

Ford Capri RS3100, Goodwood FoS

The racing debut of the RS3100 appears to have been by the Harry Theodoracopoulos team in the the 1974 Atlanta Six Hours where Harry and team mate Horst Kwech qualified 32nd but are not recorded as finishing the race.

A week later Ford’s Cologne factory team entered two RS3100’s at the Nurburgring Eifelrennen in Germany, where one time German NASCAR racer, ‘dega 1971, Rolf Stommelen & Toine Hezemans scored a one, two in the German Touring car championship.

Ford Capri RS3100, Goodwood FoS

Power comes from a 440 hp Cosworth developed GAA quad cam 24 valve V6 motor, a similar type was also used in European Formula 5000 races with some success. To improve engine bat aerodynamics and weight distribution the radiators were mounted ahead of the rear wheels.

Despite it’s high state of tune the RS3100 was generally outclassed by the BMW CSL ‘Batmobiles’ much as it’s predecessors the Capri RS 2600 and Capri RS had been in 1973.

Ford Capri RS3100, Goodwood FoS

This vehicle appear’s painted up at Goodwood as the #3 Niki Lauda used at the two Norisring races on the 15th of September 1974 where he finished 6th and 20th.

Toine Hezemans was Lauda’s team mate that day in the #4 entry who in a symmetrical reversal of fortunes came in 16th in the first race and 2nd in the second race.

Ford Capri RS3100, Goodwood FoS

Not sure how Niki Lauda who was in the first year of a Ferrari contract was allowed to race for the work’s Ford team given that just a decade earlier Enzo Ferrari and Ford had spectacularly fallen out over a deal in which Ferrari was supposed to sell out to Ford. These days it is extremely rare for a contracted Formula One driver to be allowed to race in any other category.

Ford Capri RS3100, Goodwood FoS

The RS 3100 differed visibly from it smaller engined Capri RS 2600 and Capri RS brethren with the addition of this large Gurney flap on the back.

I hope you will join me in wishing one of my all time hero’s Niki Lauda a very Happy Birthday.

Thanks for joining me on the Birthday Boy edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow don’t forget to come back now !

Share