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by Unknown

  VIC ELFORD

  1966 - 1971

  Vic Elford’s record at the Nurburgring is quite remarkable, for he was a blinding success in sportscar races and a dismal failure in Grands Prix. Happily, his successes far outweigh the failures, making him a true Ringmeister, for between 1967 and 1971 he won the Marathon de la Route once; the 1000 Kms three times (and was third twice) and the 500 Kms twice. Only Rudolf Caracciola won more races at the Ring. The Marathon is an anomaly here, for strictly speaking it was a rally, rather than a race, having started life in the 1930s as the Liege-Rome-Liege. However, by the mid-sixties the average speeds were becoming too high for public roads, even in Europe, so in 1965 the event was switched to the Nurburgring where contestants were obliged to drive round the ganze Strecke - the full, 17.6mile/28.2 km circuit comprising both the Nord und Sudschleife - for 84 hours! Elford took part in this for the first time in 1966, when he was driving for Ford. Earlier in the year he had his first look at the Ring during a recce for the German Rally, which included a lap of the circuit. “My co-driver was John Davenport,” recalls Vic, “and our practice car died on us during the recce, so we rented a VW Beetle and drove to the Ring. We did one lap in the pouring rain and it was love at first sight for me and that fabulous track. I then left John in the comfort of the Sporthotel and set off, going round non-stop. If I remember rightly it cost six Deutschmarks a lap, but you got a discount for 10 at a time. I did 25 in the torrential rain, thinking, ‘How in the world can anyone remember their way around this place?’” A few months later Vic entered the Marathon de la Route, sharing an Alan Mann Ford Cortina with Jochen Neerpasch. Peter Browning explained the race within a rally in Autosport: ‘The event is a scratch race of 84 hours duration round the longer 17.5-mile Nurburgring circuit, one of the very rare occasions that the full circuit is used for motor racing. A maximum time limit is specified for each car and for each lap, this time being related to the car’s engine size and its seating capacity. An additional two minutes is allowed for a night-time lap, a further three minutes is allowed every 12 laps for refuelling, while on every 75th lap a further 10 minutes is allowed for servicing. The penalty for being late on any one lap is very severe - being one minute late brings a penalty of one lap.’ “We were only allowed two drivers,” says Vic, “and as the Ford would run for two-and-a-half hours on one tank of fuel it was clear that, over 84 hours, this was not long enough for the other driver to have a meal and get some sleep. Jochen and I eventually agreed to do seven-and-a-half hours at a time, which allowed us to have a shower, a meal and a good kip before the next stint.” The Marathon began at one o’clock on a Wednesday morning and it was the Equipe National Beige Ferrari GTB of Bianchi/de Keyn which led right through until the Friday evening, when de Keyn crashed heavily during a thunderstorm. Behind the Ferrari there was a prolonged battle between the Cortinas of Vic Elford and Jacky Ickx and the MGBs of Hedges /Vernaeve and Poole/ Enever. With the demise of the GTB the latter took the lead, but it, too, crashed soon afterwards, which put Elford into the lead. Vic’s 25 Beetle laps of the Ring were paying dividends, but sadly it all came to nought when the Ford’s head gasket blew after 72 hours. Vic joined Porsche for 1967. Fed up with a number of failures with Ford in 1966, he persuaded Team Manager Huschke von Hanstein to lend him a 911 for the Corsica Rally. He finished third. Porsche suddenly became interested in rallying and Elford became their driver for 1967. He and David Stone won their class in the Monte Carlo Rally and went on to win the Geneva, Stuttgart, Lyon Charbonnieres and Tulip rallies, all of which made Elford European GT Rally Champion for that year. But Vic had always wanted to be a racing driver and he made this clear to von Hanstein, who immediately obliged, despite the fact that Vic was making a late start at the age of 32. “Huschke was without doubt the most important person in my career,” says Vic, “and he really got me started in racing. He had the bright idea that I should begin with the Targa Florio, because it was run over a 44.7-mile/72 km lap, which made it close to being a rally.” Partnered by Jochen Neerpasch once more he finished third in both the Targa Florio and the Nurburgring 1000 kms, driving the 2-litre, 6-cylinder Porsche 910. They were lucky to finish the latter event, being slowed dramatically in the last few laps by a broken valve, which initially let their team-mates Paul Hawkins/Gerhard Koch into third spot. But then the leading 8-cylinder Porsche of Gerhard Mitter/Lucien Bianchi came to a halt on the last lap, so Vic and Jochen regained their third place. In August it was back to the Ring for the Marathon de la Route. This time Vic was driving a Porsche 911. The three works entries had lightweight bodies and used the Sportmatic automatic transmission for the first time. “That year we were allowed three drivers per car,” recalls Vic, “so Jochen and I were joined by Hans Herrmann. “We stuck to our seven-and-ahalf-hour stints, but the other two said, ‘OK, Vic - you are the rally driver, you can drive at night when it’s foggy and wet and we’ll do the rest.’ The race started at midnight and I did four consecutive seven-and-a-half-hour nights around the whole of the Nurburgring. On the Saturday morning I had to leave before the race was over and fly back to England for the Brands Hatch International Meeting.” Elford led the Marathon from the start at midnight on the Tuesday and after six hours the Porsche had a lead of a complete lap over its two team-mates. By Thursday morning the 911s of Elford/Neerpasch /Herrmann and Koch/Schuller/ Hunter were 10 laps ahead of the two works MiniCoopers of Baker/Enever/Poole and Hedges/Fall/ Vernaeve, the third works Porsche having crashed earlier on. ‘As the sun went down on Thursday evening it looked as though it could be a foggy night,’ wrote Peter Browning in Autosport, ‘and sure enough, by midnight visibility was down to 10 yards in places. Conditions were so bad that on one occasion the course car left the pits to investigate an accident, lost its way, collided with the wall in front of the grandstand and finally disappeared up one of the service roads!’ Jochen Neerpasch and Hans Herrmann knew what they were doing when they delegated the night driving to Elford. “My rally experience really paid dividends on long and difficult circuits. I had learned the Targa Florio by practicing as if I were on a Special Stage in a rally, recording pace notes in my head as I went along. Then in the race I recalled the pace notes. I did the same thing at the Ring.” Thanks to all his seven-and-a-half-hour stints in this and the previous Marathon, Vic now knew the Ring rather well, but that couldn’t prevent him from losing the lead at around 9 am on the Friday, when a cracked front disc had to be changed, dropping the Porsche to third. However, the other Porsche which moved into first place was soon in the pits itself, undergoing a complete engine change (!) and the Elford /Neerpasch /Herrmann 911 went back into the lead later in the day. Despite having to make frequent stops for oil, due to a fractured pipe in the pressurised oil system, Jochen Neerpasch took the chequered flag at mid-day on the Saturday, the car having covered 323 laps, a total of 5652 miles in the 84 hours at an average speed of just over 67 mph. The year 1968 turned out to be a pretty good one for Vic, too. He began by winning the Monte Carlo Rally (the last Englishman to do so) in a Porsche 911. A week later he joined forces with Jochen Neerpasch, Rolf Stommelen, Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann to win the Daytona 24 Hours in a 907/8, Porsche’s first victory in a 24-hour race. He and Neerpasch were then second at Sebring, behind team-mates Hans Herrmann and Jo Siffert; he was third in the BOAC Six Hours, again with Neerpasch and then scored a sensational victory in the Targa Florio, sharing a 907 with Umberto Maglioli. However, sharing is hardly the right word, as Vic drove for seven of the 10 laps of the 44.7mile/72 km circuit. On the opening lap a rear wheel came loose twice and Vic lost valuable time tightening it up so he could get back to the pits. There the problem was rectified but when he rejoined the race he was no fewer than 18 minutes behind the leader. Nothing daunted and relishing the challenge of the Targa circuit, he took almost a minute off the lap record with a sensational third lap in 36 mins 02.3 secs. By the time he handed over to Maglioli the Porsche was back up to seventh place. Maglioli did his stuff, the leaders faltered and wh
en Elford took over for the final three laps he was in fourth place, behind two works Alfa Romeos and the Herrmann/Neerpasch Porsche. Vic banged in two laps within two seconds of each other (over 44 miles!) and took the lead on lap 9, winning the race by almost two minutes. Porsche were so grateful and impressed that they included his photo in their victory advertisements, the only time a driver was ever accorded this honour. As a result of this truly sensational drive Vic was paired with Jo Siffert for the Nurburgring 1000 Kms. They made a formidable partnership, but it must be said that they did not face formidable opposition, as Patrick McNally noted in Autosport: ‘No doubt nervous that their entry would be as disappointing as that at the Monza 1000 Kms, Herr Grossman of the ADAC accepted over 120 cars for the Nurburgring race, round six of the FIA Championship. Unfortunately the quality wasn’t up to the quantity and the most charitable observers said that the 1968 edition of this famous German classic was little more than an overgrown British club meeting. As one driver commented, he knew there was a chicane at the end of the straight, but no one mentioned the mobile ones all the way round the circuit.’ Porsche entered four cars, two new 3-litre 908s and a couple of 2.2-litre 907s, with Elford and Siffert paired in one of the former. The main op208 position came from the intriguing Alan Mann entry of two sleek Ford F3Ls, (powered by the 3-litre Ford-Cosworth engine) and two of John Wyer’s Ford GT40s. Sadly, Chris Irwin crashed one of the F3Ls during practice, suffering serious head injuries as a result. Hans Herrmann put his 907 on pole, but the 908 of Elford and Siffert spent so much time in the pits with fuel injection problems that they could only make 27th position in the Le Mans start. However, Jo made up for this with a scintillating opening lap which saw him in third place as they went past the pits. He covered his second lap in 8 mins 35.2 secs and took the lead. After 11 laps he handed over to Vic and the Porsche dropped to fourth place for a few tours, until the other cars had made their pit stops and Elford regained the lead. Driving superbly, he was 17.6 sees ahead of team-mate Rolf Stommelen in the 907 after 16 laps and at half-distance he had extended this to just under 50 seconds. He and Siffert now had the race in the bag and completed the 44 laps in 6 hrs 34 mins 06.3 secs, a new record. A couple of weeks later, Elford went to Silverstone to try a BRM for Tim Parnell, who was running the team. That done, he bumped into John Cooper, who invited him to have a go in one of his Cooper-BRMs. Vic did about 20 laps and was promptly offered a drive in the forthcoming French GP at Rouen. Due to a variety of problems in practice he was last on the grid, but by the end of a very wet race he was in fourth place, which was not a bad start to a Grand Prix career. John Cooper signed him up for the rest of the season and after retiring in the British GP he went to his beloved Nurburgring for the German. The organisers distinguished themselves by giving entries to the German drivers Kurt Ahrens and Hubert Hahne, which meant that Elford, Jack Oliver, Piers Courage and Silvio Moser all had to compete for the three remaining places on the grid, despite the fact that they had already won points in the Championship. The weather was foul all weekend. On the Friday morning Vic’s Cooper team-mate, Lucien Bianchi, tried his car with an aerofoil mounted on the chassis. After spinning his foil-less car in the South Turn, Elford had one fitted and found an immediate improvement. He put in a lap of 9 mins 53.0 sees, which surprised many people, although by now Vic was thoroughly at home on the Ring, wet or dry. Bianchi was not so happy, his best time being 10’ 46.6”, which put him on the last row of the grid. It was Jacky Ickx who put his knowledge of the Ring to the best use, finding a slight hole in the weather and recording a stunning 9’ 04.0” to gain pole position in his Ferrari. At the end of the session Elford came into the pits with his wheels locked up and a fire in the engine compartment, caused by the mount for the aerofoil having knocked off a breather pipe for the fuel tank, allowing fuel to spray onto the exhausts. When the wet and foggy practice sessions were all done, Vic was in fifth place on the grid, although the appalling weather meant that the drivers might as well have drawn lots for positions, as in the early days of the Ring. The weather was just as appalling on race day and Vic, who actually enjoyed the rain, had high hopes of repeating his Rouen success. However, “I made a lousy start and on the very first lap I was trying to get past Jack Brabham. He was being his nice, polite self and slamming the door in my face and I crashed at Schwalbenschwanz. I spent the rest of the afternoon being entertained in the rain by a large German family, watching the race and eating like a madman!” All fine and dandy, but Vic was good in the rain and he knew and excelled at the Ring: an opportunity to shine in a Grand Prix car on that most demanding of circuits had been lost. He was retained by Porsche for sportscar racing in 1969 and, partnered by Kurt Ahrens, finished third in a Porsche 1,2,3,4,5 at the Nurburgring. During practice first Jo Siffert and then Vic flew off the road just before the Karussell, writing off a 908 each. Team Manager Rico Steinemann ‘looked a trifle upset,’ reported Patrick McNally, ‘but the supply of reserve machinery seemed virtually inexhaustable.’ For reasons best known to itself, Porsche management insisted on using both Firestone and Dunlop tyres, most of the team drivers preferring the former. The cars of Jo Siffert/Brian Redman and Hans Herrmann/Rolf Stommelen were fitted with Firestone and the other four with Dunlop. The race was run in the dry and Vic found himself at a distinct disadvantage on the British rubber and could do nothing about team-mate Stommelen. Until it began to rain, and then he was able to close up and eventually pass Rolf into fourth place. There was a tremendous battle for the lead between Jo Siffert in the 908 and Chris Amon in the sole Ferrari 312P and although they swapped lap records in the first session, it was still the Porsche in the lead when Siffert handed over to Redman and Amon gave the Ferrari to Pedro Rodriguez. To everyone’s surprise, Brian drove away from Pedro and although Amon later made up some of the deficit, he was eventually forced out with no electrics. Siffert and Redman won in record time, with Herrmann /Stommelen second and Elford/ Ahrens third. Unable to obtain sufficient sponsorship, Cooper Cars had retired from Grand Prix racing at the end of the 1968 season, so Vic was without an Fl drive for ‘69. However, Cooper held a ‘fire sale’ early in the year and Colin Crabbe of Antique Automobiles bought a Cooper-Maserati which he invited Vic to drive at Monaco, where he finished seventh. Impressed with Vic’s performance, but not with that of the car, Crabbe bought a McLaren M7B from the works and Elford raced that throughout the season. After finishing fifth in the French GP and sixth in the British, Vic went to the Nurburgring with high hopes. They were even higher after practice for, as Patrick McNally reported in Autosport: “The real surprise came from Vic Elford, who took the Crabbe McLaren round in 7 mins 54.8 secs, a stupendous performance which would have had him on the second row but for Denny Hulme’s lastminute success. Colin Crabbe was absolutely delighted; apparently Vic was getting 300 rpm more on the straight with the 4-into-1 exhaust they had just fitted and Vic was feeling on top form.’ Sadly, as in 1968, Vic’s German Grand Prix was to end on lap 1, but this time he was the victim of someone else’s accident. That someone was Mario Andretti who, on his first visit to the Ring, had stunned everyone by recording 8 mins 15.4 secs on only his second flying lap in the Lotus 63. And that was in the final practice session, as the engine had broken before he could do any laps earlier. This lack of practice was to be Mario’s undoing in the race, as Patrick McNally recorded: ‘Andretti made a terrific start in the 4wd Lotus, tearing up behind the McLarens, with Elford hard on his heels... Then Andretti, who was driving with enormous verve for one who has never raced at the Ring before and was still holding Elford at bay, went wide coming out of the sweep after Wippermann and hit a bump; the Lotus bottomed and he left the road, ripping off both left-hand wheels and suspension on a stout wooden post but coming to rest completely unharmed. However, the front wheel flew back onto the circuit with a lot of debris and poor Vic Elford, who was of course right behind, struck the errant wheel. This launched the Antique Automobiles McLaren into the air, off the circuit and down the embankment on the rightha
nd side of the road. The car turned over, trapping Vic inside with his arm twisted behind him. The marshals took their time to come to his aid and Mario had to supervise the rescue operation. Vic’s injuries were fortunately not severe, but he had broken his arm in three places and severely torn his shoulder; the McLaren was completely wrecked, with the radiator up into the cockpit and the whole car crushed terribly.’ And that was Vic’s racing over for the rest of the season. He was fully mended in time for 1970 and finished second with Denny Hulme in the BOAC 1000 Kms at Brands Hatch and third in the Spa 1000 Kms with Kurt Ahrens, each time in a Porsche 917. Come the Nurburgring 1000 Kms, however, and these big bangers were abandoned, as Denis Jenkinson explained in Motor Sport: ‘Porsche did the sort of technical manoeuvre that Mercedes-Benz used to do, which completely demoralised any opposition. They had a private test-day and ran the normal 5-litre 917 coupes and the Targa Florio 3-litre 908/3 “spyders” and were soon satisfied that the Targa Florio cars were the best bet. While the 917 could be driven adequately fast round the circuit, it required a lot of physical effort and the general opinion was that two really fast laps would be enough, whereas the 908/3 “spyders” could be driven hard indefinitely. In addition there was the bonus of better fuel consumption from the 3-litre engine, which would cut out one pitstop compared with the 917. The Zuffenhausen racing department being in top gear for “horses for courses” produced four Targa Florio models, two for the JW Gulf team and two for Porsche Salzburg, and before practice they made it known to everyone that the improved fuel consumption was going to be a vital factor, apart from the lower fatigue factor for the drivers.’ The Salzburg cars were in the hands of Elford/Ahrens and Herrmann/Attwood, but it was the two JW Porsches which were fastest in practice. Jo Siffert broke Jacky Ickx’s F1 lap record of the previous year by half a second, with 7 mins 43.3 sees and Pedro Rodriguez recorded 7’ 44.2”. Vic was next with 7’ 48.2” despite the fact that his 908 was only getting 8,000 rpm in fourth gear on the straight. The engine was changed overnight, but the weather was worse on Saturday and Vic was unable to improve on his time. From the start the two JW Porsches leapt into the lead and Rodriguez and Siffert headed the two 512S Ferraris of Ignazio Giunti and John Surtees, who were followed by the Salzburg Porsche of Elford and the works Alfa Romeo T33/3 of Rolf Stommelen/Piers Courage. Giunti’s Ferrari was the first car to fall out, coming to a halt with fuel metering problems. Then Surtees stopped at his pit with a broken steering wheel and Elford’s third place was secure. Siffert was having a fine old time in pursuit of his team-mate Rodriguez and finally got by on lap eight. Three laps later both the JW cars came in to refuel, with Siffert 11 seconds ahead of Rodriguez. Elford also stopped 45 seconds later and, knowing that their second car was still a couple of minutes away, the Salzburg team used both their hoses to refuel Vic’s car, whereas the JW boys could only use one per car. This allowed Kurt Ahrens to depart at the same time as Kinnunen in the Rodriguez Porsche, while Brian Redman’s departure in the Siffert 908 was delayed by a reluctant starter motor. So Ahrens now led the race from Kinnunen, who was very close behind, but the Porsche became airborne just after Kesselschen and crashed heavily. He was unhurt, but the JW 908 was out. Meanwhile, Brian Redman set about catching Ahrens, which he did quickly, completing the 13th lap in the lead. By half-distance he was more than a minute ahead, but disaster struck the JW team for the second time when he handed the car back to Siffert. After taking on fuel and a large quantity of oil the 908 refused to start. It was more than 10 minutes before Seppi got under way, by which time Ahrens had swapped with Elford, who was now well in the lead by over a lap. Siffert only got as far as Hocheichen before the Porsche’s engine seized and the JW team’s hopes were dashed. So the Salzburg cars came home first and second, Elford and Ahrens setting a new race record at 165.0 kph/102.5 mph. Third was the John Surtees/Nino Vaccarella Ferrari 512S, a lap behind. As the Nurburgring management failed to meet the safety demands of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association the German GP was moved to Hockenheim, but Vic was back at the Ring early in September for the 500 Kms sportscar race, which was the penultimate round of the FIA 2-litre Championship. The distance of 500 kms meant 22 laps of the Nordschleife, or a proper Grand Prix of pre-war days. All the participants seemed to revel in this and few, if any, had a co-driver. Vic Elford was having his second outing in a works Chevron and hoping for better luck than in his first, which resulted in a crash at Enna. The 1.8-litre B16 was completely rebuilt for the Ring and Vic was fifth fastest in the first practice with 8 mins 40.1 secs, reducing this by 0.05 secs the next day. Fastest by far was Brian Redman in the brand new 2-litre Chevron Spyder, who shattered everyone with a time of 8 mins 14.1 secs, which would have put him on the front row of the grid for the 1968 German Grand Prix. Redman’s main rivals in the Prototype class were the Lola T210 of Chris Craft and the works Abarths of Arturo Merzario, Kurt Ahrens and Leo Kinnunen, while Elford’s principal opposition in the Group 5 entry came from the two Fiat Abarth 2000S cars of Ed Swart and Sergio Morando. Redman led from the start and proceeded to build up a handy lead over Craft, Ahrens, Merzario and Elford, the last three battling all round the circuit. However, by lap seven Vic had overtaken Merzario and he moved briefly into third when Ahrens made an early stop for fuel. Most of the leaders left their refuelling to the half-way stage and Vic made a very quick stop then, which enabled him to rejoin the race ahead of Craft, but only briefly. After 13 laps Brian Redman was cruising home with a lead of 2 mins 19 secs, only to have his Chevron catch fire when a fuel line fell off in the Karussell. The car burst into flames and fortunately marshals were on hand to extinguish the blaze quickly. Redman was unhurt, but his race was over. Craft, Merzario and Elford were now nose to tail with eight laps still to go. Craft managed to get away from the other two and after 17 laps was some 30 seconds ahead of Elford, who, not for the first time, had passed Merzario in the twisty bits. Then in a short space of time both Ahrens and Craft suffered blown engines, leaving Vic in command of the race. The Ringmeister pulled away from Merzario and completed the 22 laps some 63 seconds ahead of the Abarth to win at an average speed of 159.5 kph/99.11 mph. “That was my best drive at the Ring,” he says. “I had a tremendous battle with those two Abarths. They could get past me down the straight, but I was faster on the rest of the circuit. The Ring was my favourite track and I used to love the descent to Adenau Bridge, when I literally had the nose of the car in the hedge. You had to know every inch of what was coming for 100 yards up the road. If not, you either went slowly, or you crashed, because you couldn’t see round the corners. The other place where that applied was Schwalbenschwanz, where we were going flat out over the many tiny, tiny brows going left and right, so every time you came over a crest the car had to be properly positioned for the next little bend. All that changed in 1971, after they cut down so many trees and hedges and made it easier to see where you were going.” Indeed, but when the teams began practice for the 1971 1000 Kms, many drivers complained that so many landmarks had been removed that they were having to learn the circuit all over again. Porsche were represented by the Martini team of Vic Elford/Gerard Larrousse and Helmut Marko/ Gijs van Lennep and the two JW cars of Jo Siffert / Derek Bell and Pedro Rodriguez/Jackie Oliver, the former’s 908s running on Goodyear tyres, the latter’s on Firestones. That the race was going to be no cake-walk for the Porsches became evident very early on in practice when Jacky Ickx got going in the new Ferrari 312P. Ickx claimed pole position with a time of 7 mins 36.1 secs, a full nine seconds faster than any other car. And second fastest was not a Porsche, but the works Alfa Romeo driven by Rolf Stommelen, who beat all the 908s with 7’ 45.1”. Elford was third with 7’ 46.9”, but had an alarming moment in Friday’s practice when a bolt fell out of the rear suspension and punctured a tyre, bad enough in itself, but not nice at all when it happens on the very fast bit after Flugplatz. When the race began Jacky Ickx just waved goodbye to the rest and after five laps had a 40 second lead over the Alfa of Rolf Stommelen, who was busy
fighting off the attentions of the Porsches of Elford and Siffert. However, next time round and the Ferrari made for its pit, where copious amounts of water were poured into it, allowing Stommelen, Elford and Siffert to battle for the lead. But the Porsches were not problem-free. Jo Siffert was a few lengths ahead of Vic when the JW car suffered a broken sub-frame and for a moment it looked as though both might be in for a visit to the woods. Happily, Jo kept the car on the road and Vic managed to avoid it. The bad news for Porsche was that Siffert retired his car in the pits, but Elford got by Stommelen and when Vic made his first pit stop his 908 was in the lead. Not for long, however, as Ickx was going great guns in the Ferrari and rapidly making up for lost time, so much so that he was back in the lead by lap 13. It was too good to last, though, as the 312P was still losing water and getting hotter and hotter. Regazzoni took over on lap 15, but just before half-distance the car was out, with serious engine maladies. Gerard Larrousse was now in the lead, being chased hard by Siffert, whom JW’s Team Manager David Yorke had put into the Rodriguez car. Then Vic took over the Martini 908, with a lead of 22 secs over Rodriguez. He held Pedro at bay with no problem, even less so when the Mexican’s car began handling very badly, the result of another chassis failure. Elford gave the Martini 908 to Larousse for the final stint and the Frenchman brought it home almost two minutes ahead of the Rodriguez/ Siffert car, Jackie Oliver not having driven at all. And it was a third 1000 Kms victory for King of the Nurburgring, Vic Elford. Who made a brief return to Grand Prix racing a couple of months later, but it was in the saddest of circumstances: Pedro Rodriguez had been killed in a no-account sportscar race a few weeks before and BRM’s Louis Stanley invited Elford to take his place in the German GP. There was to be no happy revival of Elford’s GP fortunes, however. His BRM P160 was troublesome all through practice and he could only qualify on row nine of the two-by-two grid, 3.3 sees slower than team-mate Howden Ganley and almost 18 secs behind the BRM team leader, Jo Siffert. Thanks to numerous retirements Vic got as high as eighth place before the BRM’s engine stopped as he was on the return run behind the pits. He obtained a new coil, fitted it and rejoined the race, to finish 11th after a frus- trating drive. He was by no means unhappy when BRM did not ask him to stay for the remainder of the season and that was the last Grand Prix drive of his career. But his success at the Nurburgring had not ended. In September he was back for the 500 Kms race, this time driving a Lola T212 for Scuderia Filipinetti. As in the previous year, Brian Redman was there too, with a new Chevron B19 entered by himself; Chris Craft was back with a works B19 and there were Abarths for Arturo Merzario and Dieter Quester. The changes to the circuit meant that Redman’s 1970 fastest lap of 8 mins 12.0 sees would not last long and it was Elford who demolished it on the Friday with 7’ 58.6”, no one else getting below 8 minutes. It was different the next day, however, and Redman struck back, beating Vic’s time by almost four seconds, as did Merzario. Vic set out to regain pole position, only to hear discouraging noises from the Ford FVC engine, so he pulled into the pits, his practice over. All was well for the race, however, and from the start Vic was contesting the lead with Merzario, Gijs van Lennep (Lola) and Toine Hezemans (Chevron), Redman having made a bad start. This went on for six laps, until van Lennep and Elford managed to break away from the next two. On lap eight Vic took the lead and Redman was missing, his engine having blown up on the 3 km straight. Elford made his pitstop on lap 11, allowing Hezemans to take the lead until he, too pitted and Vic went back to the head of the field. On that same lap Arturo Merzario stopped out on the circuit with a broken gearbox on the Abarth and four laps later the sister car of Dieter Quester was also out, and for the same reason. Which left Elford with a commanding lead over Gijs van Lennep, but then he, too, fell by the wayside with lack of drive to the rear wheels. Vic cruised home to win the 500 Kms for the second year running, more than two minutes ahead of Chris Craft in the Chevron. And that was Vic Elford’s final race at the Nurburgring. In six years he notched up an unprecedented six wins, four of them in two years, establishing himself as a true Ringmeister and second only behind Rudolf Caracciola in the Nurburgring All-time Winners List. And it all began with a mind-blowing lap in a Volkswagen Beetle.