1970 1000 km of Nürburgring

The 1970 1000km of Nürburgring was an endurance race held at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Nürburg, West Germany on May 31, 1970. It was the seventh round of the 1970 World Sportscar Championship season.^[1]

The Nürburgring was bumpy and narrow until resurfaced and widened somewhat in late 1970 and early 1971 after Formula 1 had boycotted the Ring, moving the August 1970 German Grand Prix to the modern Hockenheimring which already was signed with Armco.

Earlier in 1970, the 1000 km race weekend was marred by the fatal accident of Finnish driver Hans Laine in a Porsche 908/02. While attempting to qualify for the race at the end of Saturday's qualifying session, Laine damaged one of the front sections of his car; and while he was on the Döttinger Höhe straight going at full speed over one of the humps near the Antonius Bridge, his 908/02 flew into the air, did a full backflip and landed back on the track and rolled a number of times. Although Laine was alive and conscious after the accident, fuel was leaking and Laine could not get out of the car. Track marshals were able to get to the wrecked Porsche, but then the car burst into flames. The marshals only had small extinguishers that was not enough to put out the inferno and Laine perished in the fire. He was 25, and was survived by his wife and 5-month year old daughter; he was one of 6 racers to die at the Nürburgring that year. Laine's co-driver, Dutchman Gijs van Lennep had a similar incident at the same place on the track, although he was able to avoid causing any damage to the car. The racing team Laine drove for withdrew another one of its entries, a Porsche 917K but a Porsche 911 driven by Finnish rally driver Pauli Tovionen and entered by Laine's team won the GT's with an engine larger than 2 liters class.^[2]

It was agreed upon by John Wyer and Porsche that both works teams would use the 908/03, the car type first used at the 1970 Targa Florio four weeks earlier, with the various 03 and 02 generation 908s finishing 1-2-4-5 plus a DNF of the additional Salzburg 908/03, with Ferrari 512S 3rd and 6th. Developed for the mountain roads of Sicily, the light and nimble 908/03 was also better suited to the much faster yet still twisty, bumpy and demanding Nürburgring than the big and powerful 917K. Unlike the 3:1 share at the Targa, two were run by John Wyer's team and two were run by Porsche Salzburg.

Ferrari in 1969 also had a 3 liter prototype, the Ferrari 312 P, but sold all chassis to NART and did not build new ones just for two races. They brought three open top versions of the 512S though, the Spyders, backed up by a closed Scuderia Filipinetti Berlinetta. Ferrari also brought F1 drivers that had already won the German Grand Prix, John Surtees in 1963 and 1964, and Jacky Ickx in 1969 (and again in 1972), but Ickx recently had injured his wrist. Ickx was considered to be the best Nürburgring driver in the world at that time, next to defending Formula One world champion Jackie Stewart, as the two split all German GP wins at the Ring among them from 1968 to 1973. Even with the experienced John Surtees who knew the long circuit well and had much success at the challenging mountain circuit in the past, things did not look good for Ferrari- as most of the works Porsche drivers- including Jo Siffert, Brian Redman, Hans Herrmann and Vic Elford were all known to be Nürburgring specialists and were very fast around this circuit, and elsewhere.

Anyway, Ickx was in the No. 56^[3] car, entered with Surtees and Peter Schetty. After the car had clocked a competitive 7:57.1, Schetty totalled it on the fast uphill section Kesselchen. Otherwise, qualifying was dominated by the works Porsches, the only cars running under 8 minutes and in the race. They took the first four positions on the grid with the 7:43.3 pole position time only a second slower than the front row times set by Ickx and Stewart for the 1969 German Grand Prix; pole position went to the Jo Siffert/Brian Redman car, closely followed by Pedro Rodriguez/Leo Kinnunen, and Vic Elford/Kurt Ahrens Jr. also in the 40s. Hans Herrmann/Richard Attwood were not as fast, followed by a works Alfa Romeo T33/3 of Rolf Stommelen/Piers Courage as the fifth 3-liter-prototype, at 8:00.5. Three other Alfas did not show up. The two remaining works Ferrari 512S Spyders followed, No. 57 Ignazio Giunti/Arturo Merzario and No. 55 John Surtees/Nino Vaccarella, close (8:01.7) and somewhat off pace (8:12.3). The private 512S and the private Gesipa 917K were 8th and 9th on the grid, 8:15.9 and 8:17.9. A fleet of private 908/02 followed.

After the start Rodriguez went ahead and Siffert, the pole sitter, was also overtaken by Giunti's powerful Ferrari on the back straight. This allowed Rodriguez to get a good lead as Siffert could not pass in the tight sections and even waved his fist at Giunti which could not complete the 3rd lap due to fuel injection problems. Thus neither Merzario nor Ickx could take over.

Siffert was fast at the Ring and eroded Rodriguez's lead by about 1.5 seconds per lap. At lap 8 Siffert went ahead, but Rodriguez answered back with a best lap (new prototype record 7:50.4 174.758 kph). Anyway, Siffert managed to gain about 8 seconds on Rodriguez, before the pit stops which, on this long track, had to be made in the same lap. Rodriguez handed off his car to Kinnunen and Siffert to Redman; but the Siffert-Redman car did not restart, was delayed and went back to second place. Redman went after Kinnunen and in two laps was poised to overtake him; under pressure Kinnunen, who had been affected by his friend Hans Laine's death the day before, crashed his 908/03 after going over a jump at the 14 kilometer mark (near the Karrusell), flipping in the air and Redman went right underneath his crashing teammate. This put the Siffert/Redman car into the lead, but by the end of the 22nd lap, Redman brought his 908/03 in due to faltering oil pressure. The engine then failed due to lack of oil, and the Elford/Ahrens 908/03 took the lead, ran without a hitch and went on to win the race; followed by the other Salzburg 908/03 with soon to be Le Mans winners Herrmann/Attwood, and one lap behind, the remaining works Ferrari of Surtees/Vaccarella which had problems with steering. Another lap down was the Filipinetti 512S on 4th, followed by no less than five older private Porsches, among them two Martini 908/02s and the 907 that won the P 2.0 class. The one competitive works Alfa Romeo of Rolf Stommelen/Piers Courage went out after 11 laps with a broken shock absorber. The lone 917K did not last long, either.

With this victory at their home event, Porsche claimed the World Sportscar Championship over Ferrari, having won 6 events to the Sebring win of Ferrari, with the final three WSC races also to be won by Porsche. After the eight car assault on Le Mans failed, Ferrari re-focussed on F1, with chances to win both titles until the end. The Scuderia also developed a modified 512M similar to the 917K, but did not make another factory effort in 1971 with the big sportscars. Instead, they introduced the 312PB prototype that would be raced in WSC until 1973.

This would be the last ever major international race on the original Nürburgring with no safety features on it. For the next year's race, the Nordschleife was rebuilt, which included making the surface smoother and lining the circuit with Armco and adding run-off areas wherever possible. The 1970 German Grand Prix was originally supposed to be at the Nürburgring that year, but with Laine's accident being the third racing fatality at the Ring in 1970, and the deaths of 2 Formula One drivers until early June, the Formula One circus moved temporarily to Hockenheim, which prompted the Ring to be rebuilt over the winter. 3 more drivers and a motorcyclist were to die at the Ring that year, bringing the total death tally for the circuit in 1970 up to a very dubious seven in one year.

• Pole position: #24 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Porsche 908/03 (Jo Siffert/Brian Redman) - 7:43.3 (110.334 mph/177.566 km/h)
• Fastest lap: #25 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Porsche 908/03 (Pedro Rodriguez)- 7:50.4 (108.590 mph/174.758 km/h)
• Time taken for winning car to cover scheduled distance: 6 hours, 5 minutes and 21.2 seconds
• Average Speed: 165.003 km/h (102.528 mph)
• Weather conditions: Cloudy, overcast