![]() ![]() Six Germans, three English (Vic Elford, Ricahrd Attwood, and I) and one Swiss (Jo Siffert). In the early races, Porsche ran five cars, with ten drivers. In 1969, when I drove 908s for the Porsche factory team, it was the first time, because of the change in engine size regulations, that Porsche had a chance to win the manufacturers’ championship, which they did. In 1972, it won every race except Le Mans, where Ferrari didn’t go because of concerns about the reliability of the three litre F1-based engine. Although leading races and setting fastest laps, it didn’t win until November when Clay Regazzoni and I won the Kyalami Nine Hour race. In 1971 Ferrari concentrated on the 312PB deserting the 512, which was in its last year of eligibility. So we had none of the chaotic pit stops that Ferrari was well known for. ![]() As it happened, the team manager, Peter Schetty, was Swiss and an excellent former driver in his own right. I’m sure Mario would agree that it was the superb reliability of our car that allowed me to win the F5000 Championships!Īlthough I’d driven one Formula 2 race for Ferrari in 1968, it was 1972 with the 312PB before I had a regular drive. Although, Mario’s Vels Parnelli team took away my chief mechanic, Jim Chapman, at the end of the 1973 season, and we had a superb crew, led from the front by Jim Hall. We raced hard and clean for those two years and never touched wheels or had a bad word. I have to say, that Mario was my toughest competitor during 1974-75, before he went Formula One. Mario Andretti, the Unser brothers, Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford and others. When USAC joined with the SCCA in 1974, a sudden influx of excellent USAC drivers appeared in F5000. Especially driving the Carl Haas/Jim Hall Lola T330/332 F5000s. However, although I was lucky enough to enjoy a good deal of success in endurance racing, I enjoyed the accuracy and vision more in single-seaters. In long-distance racing I was lucky to drive with two of the best drivers in the world, Jacky Ickx in the GT40 and Ferrari 312PB and Jo Siffert in Porsche 908s and 917s. So, the short answer is I continued racing because at last I’d found something I could do reasonably well and at the same time, earn a living! By 1968 I was driving a Ford GT40 for John Wyer Gulf, with Jacky Ickx, and a Cooper F1 car. I thought I’d better get off the road before I killed myself, or worse, someone else! I turned professional in 1967 when a friend, David Bridges, offered me $60 a week, guaranteed for a year, with a car and a mechanic. I fitted the Morris with a Shorrock super-charger, harder brake linings, anti-roll bar front and rear, and an anti-tramp bracket at the back – but no seat belts or roll-cage of course! We manufactured them in Burnley, Lancashire and I delivered them in my Morris 1000 “Woody” all over the north of England and the southern part of Scotland, driving like a madman. I bought his business, which made mop-heads, the things you clean the floor with, for $1,000, from my mother. ![]() I was asked to leave school at 16 – “we can’t teach you anything,” they said – in 1958 and then when I was 21 my maternal grand-father died. ![]()
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