Racing Years

[Corner5]

I watched this program last night on Public TV-

Racing Years -it chronicles a specific year every week with lots of film footage and a summary of every race.

http://www.mptv.org/schedule/a-z/program/?id=15880406

I give it ★★★★★

[gerhard911]

Thanks for the heads up :thumbup: but unfortunately not being shown on any of the public TV outlets in SE O-HI-O :(

Would appreciate it if you could post up who produced this series (usually credited at the end of the broadcast) ?

[Gnam]

Made on the bottom of the world. :thumbup:

http://www.wwent.net/ourprogrammes/preview.asp?v=upimecad

Looks like its (26) 30 minute episodes covering 1950-1975.
http://www.wwent.net/documents/TheRacingYears1-26Synopses.pdf

[gerhard911]

Thanks for the links ! :)

[Indy]

I registered on their site, but I can't seem to get through to their actual episode.

[Corner5]

I registered on their site, but I can't seem to get through to their actual episode.

I can view it here-

http://www.wwent.net/ourprogrammes/preview.asp?v=upimecad

[Corner5]

Last night they covered 1961. It was the year of the accident at

F1 Grand Prix at Monza that killed Wolfgang Von Trips and 14 spectators.

I found this, but *****fair warning it is VERY graphic*****

w0-9Mls-5E0

They did not stop the race and Phil Hill went on to win, not knowing
that his friend was dead. Hill was a pallbearer at Vontrips' funeral.

:(

[BarillaGirl]

Last night they covered 1961. :(

I happened to see this show was on last night, and recorded it to the DVR, then watched it live anyway. Somehow I had the presence of mind to say out loud that I recalled that something awful had happened to Von Trips. I don't remember how I even knew that (must have found it by accident on the Internet some time ago, but I don't remember why), and I certainly didn't remember this was the year of his fatal crash. It was shocking to see the funeral footage.

Maybe the common knowledge of the vulnerability of the old cars is what kept them from rubbin' and kept them racing?

[pchall]

I was really young when I became fascinated with racing. It was hard to follow motorsports back then and often it involved going to the library after school and checking every newspaper in the rack searching for news and results. There were too many times when I then had to ride my bike home after discovering that someone had died the previous weekend.

If any of you ever find a copy of The Cruel Sport at a library or at a used book store, get it and read it. It details with poignant words and sad photographs one grand prix weekend.

Daley, Robert, 1930-
The cruel sport. Text and photos by Robert Daley.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall [1963]
1 v. (unpaged) : illus. ; 32 cm.

[Corner5]

1969 and these short-lived high-winged cars-

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x207/Starcowboy/race%20trib/Spain/69esp11z20Courage20Brabham20BT26.jpg

Mario Andretti gets into F1.

[Corner5]

1970, F1 loses 3 - Bruce McLaren, Piers Courage and Jochen Rindt- the champion.

Emerson Fitipaldi wins his first race.


On this day 40 years go Jochen Rindt lost his life in an accident during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The Austrian driver went into the race with a 20-point lead in the world championship. As none of his rivals were able to exceed his total of 45 points by the end of the season, he became the sport’s first and only posthumous champion.

The 1970 season was a bleak chapter in the history of Formula 1. June saw the death of McLaren team founder Bruce McLaren while testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood.

Later that same month Piers Courage perished when his De Tomaso, run by Frank Williams, crashed and caught fire during the Dutch Grand Prix.

After the death of Courage the drivers became especially vocal in their criticism of the safety standards at some tracks – particularly the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Although Stewart has rightly been lauded for his tireless efforts to improve safety, Rindt was heavily involved in the effort to cancel that year’s race at the Nürburgring. The race was moved to the Hockenheimring while efforts were made to improve safety facilities at the other track.

Driving for Lotus, Rindt had already won a memorable race at Monaco early in the year, chasing down Jack Brabham and passing the Australian who went off at the final corner on the final lap.

Rindt claimed that win in a 49C, then took a quartet of wins in Colin Chapman’s revolutionary new 72C. The first was a joyless win at Zanvoort in the aftermath of Courage’s death, then three more at Clermont-Ferrand, Silverstone and Hockenheim.

That year’s Italian Grand Prix was the penultimate F1 race held on the chicane-less version of the track. It had only five corners worthy of the name – the fast Curva Grande sending the cars up to Lesmos one and two, then a long left at Ascari leading on to Parabolica.

These were the early days of wings in Formula 1 and teams often removed them at Monza to ensure maximum straight-line speed. Rindt was running his 72 in such a configuration when he crashed at Parabolica.

Denny Hulme, who was following close behind Rindt at the time, saw the car swerve right, then left – an investigation later showed a brake shaft had failed. The Lotus 72 ploughed into a barrier which gave way, driving the car partially underneath the barrier, violently tearing its nose off. Rindt had left the crotch straps in his harness undone, as was his habit, and slid down into the cockpit on impact, suffering terrible neck injuries.

The Lotus team left the track immediately and stayed away from the next race at Mont-Termblant in Canada too. They returned for the following Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

There Emerson Fittipaldi, driving in only his fourth Grand Prix, won the race. In doing so he prevented Ferrari’s Jacky Ickx from being able to score enough points to overhaul Rindt in the championship – not that Ickx wanted to take the crown from a dead man.

Rindt’s championship trophy was presented to his widow, Nina.