by Unknown
JACKIE STEWART
1965 – 1973
‘The Grand Prix world has accepted the fact that this year has seen the introduction of what would appear to be a phenomenon! in its midst. I refer to the advent of 26 year-old Jackie Stewart in the BRM Grand Prix team, and his performances to date.’ That was the introduction to a lengthy dissertation by Denis Jenkinson on Stewart’s extraordinary skills, which appeared in Motor Sport after the 1965 German GP. At the Nurburgring, Jenks noted, ‘His practice times made most people look like amateurs, and it was his first drive on the Nurburgring with a Grand Prix car... There is no doubt about the fact that he is a “natural” high¬speed driver, born with all the faculties required of an outstanding driver. Like Fangio, Moss and Clark, he is obviously blessed with good judgement, sharp reflexes, outstanding eyesight and sense of balance, all to a higher degree of perfection than our previous top-line “standard drivers”. Jackie’s practice times at the Ring set the GP circus on its collective ear, as Peter Gamier explained in Autocar: ‘Highlight of the practicing periods was without doubt Jackie Stewart’s performance with his BRM. It must be recalled that he has had no Formula 1 experience whatever on this extremely tricky circuit that most drivers reckon to learn properly after two or three races - and not before. His sole experience had been four practice laps in Col. Ronnie Hoare’s Maranello Concessionaires 4.4-litre Ferrari for the 1000 Kms race in May - since the car had retired when Graham Hill was driving, before Stewart had had a turn. ‘In the BRM he first did three flying laps, getting down to 8 mins 35.6 secs. He then went out again for a couple of flying laps, and finished up with 8 mins 30.6 sees - 8.2 secs under the existing lap record. In the afternoon, when Clark was busy putting up his pole position lap time, Stewart’s BRM suffered ignition troubles at Brunnchen and spent from 5.10 to 5.40 pm waiting. On the Saturday, when the circuit was damp after a night’s rain, he got down to 8 mins 26.1 secs. As someone said, “When he gets to know the circuit, about halfway through the race, it should get interesting.’” Indeed! Unfortunately, Jackie never got that far. His German Grand Prix began in style and at the end of the opening lap he was in third place, right behind Jimmy Clark (Lotus) and Graham Hill (BRM). But then, “On the second lap I went a tiny bit wide after Brunnchen, where they had cut a drainage ditch at 90 degrees to the circuit. I ran over it, bent a wishbone and that was the end of my race.” As Peter Gamier explained, Jackie never got to drive in the 1000 Kms earlier that year, but he set tongues wagging in practice because, “I qualified the Maranello Concessionaires 3.3-litre P2 Ferrari well and it was my time that was used.” And a remarkable time it was, too - 8 mins 58.8 sees well under Surtees’ existing lap record and just 5.7 sees more than his best practice time in the works, 4-litre P2. Unfortunately, Jackie was no great fan of sportscar racing and he never went back to the Ring for the 1000 Kms. Those four laps were not quite the only ones he had ever done at the Ring, however. Before official practice began Jackie did several tours in a hire car, and even that was not his first look at the circuit. “I did my very first laps in a Jaguar 3.8 saloon in 1961, before I ever began racing. I had been to the shooting World Championship in Oslo and then my friend, Allan Jones, and I drove through Norway, Sweden, Denmark and into Germany on our way to Switzerland for the European Championships in Bern. We stopped off at the Ring and found Taffy von Trips and the Ferrari team there, testing an F1 car. Once the track was opened to the public I paid my Deutschmarks and we did two or three laps in the Jaguar.” Every little helps, but success at the Ring was to be denied Jackie Stewart for a couple of years after his GP debut in 1965. The 3-litre Formula came into force in ‘66 and BRM had an H-16 engine in the works, but it was still not race-ready by the time of the German GP, so the team was using a 2-litre version of its trusty V8. By contrast, Ferrari were using 3-litre engines, as were Brabham (Repco V8) and Cooper (Maserati) and Dan Gurney had a 2.7litre Climax unit in his Eagle. So the BRMs (and the Lotuses) were at a distinct disadvantage with their 2-litre bangers, but you would not have known it from the starting grid. On pole position was Jim Clark in the Lotus, alongside Surtees (3-litre Cooper-Maserati), Stewart (BRM) and Scarfiotti (2.4-litre V6 Ferrari). But the 2-litre cars flattered in practice, only to deceive in the race, which was dominated by the 3-litre machines of Jack Brabham, John Surtees and Jochen Rindt (Cooper). Stewart finished fifth, almost two minutes behind his team-mate, Graham Hill. Who was no longer his team-mate in 1967, having moved back to Lotus, so Jackie was now team leader at BRM. Not that it did him much good at the Nurburgring, despite the fact that the cars were now powered by the H16 engine. Once again, Jackie was third fastest in practice, behind Jim Clark (Lotus) and Denny Hulme (Brabham) and just ahead of Dan Gurney (Eagle). In the race, he never got higher than third and was forced out on the fifth lap with a broken crown wheel and pinion. Jackie left BRM to join his friend, Ken Tyrrell, for 1968. After running an F2 team with Matra in 1966 and ‘67, Ken decided to move up to Formula One in 1968, using the new 3-litre Ford-Cosworth engine. Racing under the banner of Equipe Matra International, his new team received the backing of Dunlop tyres and Elf fuel and Jackie happily joined forces with the man who had given him his big break in F3 in 1964. The new venture got off to a promising start when Jackie qualified the Matra-Ford third for the first GP of the year, in South Africa, only to be forced out with a broken con-rod half¬way through the race. Then, at the beginning of May, Stewart crashed Tyrrell’s F2 Matra at Jarama and suffered a broken scaphoid in his right wrist. As a result, he had to miss the Spanish and Monaco GPs, but he bravely came back at Spa, despite the fact that his wrist was by no means healed. “I was in plaster for 20 weeks,” he recalls, “but I found a man in Geneva who made artificial limbs and he produced a lace-up cast in very firm plastic. So I would remove the plaster on the Thursday night before practice and drive with the plastic cast.” Despite this painful disadvantage, Jackie drove brilliantly at Spa and led the Belgian GP for some laps until, infuriatingly, the Matra ran out of fuel. He eventually finished fourth. He then scored his first Fl win for Ken Tyrrell with a superb wet-weather drive in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort. Using Dunlop’s demon new rain tyres, which had a deep centre channel cut in them, he romped home some 90 secs ahead of Jean-Pierre Beltoise in the works, V12 Matra. The demon Dunlops failed to work on the wet surface at Rouen, however, where Jackie finished third in the French GP. In the British, at Brands Hatch, it was his wrist which caused the problem. ‘I had more pain in that race than in any other I have ever taken part in... I thought of stopping many times, but I also knew that the World Championship was involved, there were points to be won and that was a colossal incentive. I drove with one hand for certainly half and probably two-thirds of that race and finished sixth - all that effort for one point.’ If the wrist had caused him so much trouble at Brands Hatch, how could it possibly survive the next race - the German GP at the Nurburgring? It was the weather that made all the difference. No one could remember conditions ever being as bad as they were over the weekend of August 2, 3 and 4, 1968 and they played right into the none too certain hands of Jackie Stewart, who produced the drive of his life. ‘The 1968 German Grand Prix, run on the demanding Nurburgring in continuous rain and fog, will go down in history as one of the truly great races;’ wrote Innes Ireland in Autocar, ‘and historians will talk of Stewart’s victory in the same terms that they used to describe Rosemeyer’s on the same circuit in 1936.’ Had it been a dry race, Ireland would never have been able to write those words, for Stewart’s drive at Brands Hatch had taken so much out of him that he was not at all sure that he would be able to take part in the German GP. ‘I decided to at least go to the Nurburgring and see what the prospects were. Ken was now getting enthusiastic about the Championship, he felt there was a chance.’ (At this point, after seven races, Graham Hill (Lotus) led the title chase with 24 points, followed by Jacky Ickx (Ferrari) with 20 and Stewart (Matra) with 17). The Friday morning practice session was damp and misty, but Jacky Ickx blasted his
V12 Ferrari round in a remarkable 9 mins 04.0 secs, 1965 Germany GP, Nurburgring. Freiherr von Diergardt tries to brief a disinterested bunch of drivers, who are not listening to a word he is saying (Dan Gurney, Jackie Stewart, Chris Amon, Denny Hulme, Mike Spence, Frank Gardner, Jochen Rindt, Paul Hawkins) which was 10 seconds faster than the next man, his team-mate Chris Amon. Stewart did not do a single full lap, contenting himself with several tours of the pit straight and return loop. After lunch the rain was falling heavily from clouds seemingly at ground level and eventually the afternoon session was cancelled, everyone telling themselves that Saturday could only be better. It was worse. Practice should have begun at 1245 pm, but finally got under way in thick fog at 3-40. And it was Stewart who made fastest time of the day, in 10’ 04.0”, with Jackie Ickx just 4 secs slower. A further practice session was scheduled for Sunday morning at 10 am, but that was delayed for 25 minutes, as the conditions were still appalling. Stewart was all for staying in the hotel. ‘There was torrential rain and fog and I didn’t think it was worth going out, as by then I knew the Ring well. But Ken made the decision for me, saying it was important to see where the pools of water were. It was the right decision because there were a hell of a lot of rivers across the track, but they kept changing because the rain was so heavy and the drains were getting blocked.” Jackie rewarded Tyrrell’s forethought with a stunning lap in 9’ 54.2”, the only driver to get under 10 minutes. Even so, he was on the third row of the grid. Scuderia Ferrari did not appear, as they were already one-two. ‘Undeterred by the atrocious weather, the crowds still flocked to the circuit, their enthusiasm apparently undampened.’ wrote Patrick McNally in Autosport. ‘Because of the morning practice the start was delayed for 45 mins; despite reports that the weather was lifting there was no sign of a break, and the starting area was still covered by a white and very wet blanket of mist and rain. There was hardly a spectator to be seen, for they were all hidden under an undulating mass of multicoloured umbrellas. ‘When the flag finally dropped and the cars roared towards the South Curve, sending up great white plumes of spray, poleman Jacky Ickx was a trifle heavy on the throttle and provoked too much wheelspin and it was Graham Hill’s Lotus, coming through from the second row which took the initiative. Chris Amon’s Ferrari and Jackie Stewart’s Matra were close behind the Lotus as all three tore into the North Turn, while behind them Dan Gurney, Jochen Rindt and Jacky Ickx were dicing furiously. Stewart was determined to get the lead and as they went into Adenau Crossing he had passed Amon’s Ferrari and was right on Hill’s tail. By Schwalbenschwanz the young Scot had taken the lead, and as they roared past the pits at the end of their first lap the Tyrrell Matra-Ford was already 8 secs ahead.’ Chris Amon later recalled that pass to Alan Henry: ‘Stewart disappeared, of course, and everybody hailed it is a the driving feat of the century although I don’t believe he went any quicker than Graham or I, comparatively, it was just that he had those vastly superior tyres. I remember going down the hill to Adenau on the opening lap with Graham leading and me second - Stewart just drove round the inside of me as though the track was dry. I couldn’t believe it... he had so much more grip than our Firestones.’ Maybe so, but Stewart made the most of what the Dunlops gave him and that was the race, really, all done and dusted. The tyres which had served him so well at Zandvoort now did their stuff just as brilliantly at the Ring and helped him drive through the storm to victory. After three laps he was 37 sees ahead of Graham Hill, who had Amon just three seconds behind him. Two laps later and Stewart had increased his lead by another 30 secs and by half-distance (the race had now been reduced from 15 laps to 14) he was 90 seconds in front of Hill and Amon, who were running nose to tail. On lap eight Jackie set ftd with a time of 9 mins 36.0 secs, ‘a time that used to be very respectable in bright sunshine,’ noted Denis Jenkinson, ‘and he had done it mostly in rain and cloud!’ With 11 laps gone he was more than two minutes ahead of Hill and Anion. But then Amon spun off in the North Turn and Hill came out in sympathy, spinning the Lotus to a halt in the esses after Hohe Acht. Unlike Amon, he managed to get the car going again and, fighting off the attention of Jochen Rindt’s Brabham, held his second place to the end. But that spin had dropped him more than four minutes behind Stewart, who was out of his car, chatting with Ken Tyrrell and Dick Jeffrey of Dunlop for a couple of minutes before the sound of Hill’s Lotus could be heard approaching through the fog. It was a truly astounding victory, but it would never have happened in good weather. “Had it been dry I probably would not have been able to do the whole race,” says Sir Jackie, “because the gforces would have been greater with more steering effort required. When it is wet it is an easier drive physically, but more tiring mentally. The Matra had a right-hand gearchange and it was my right wrist that was broken, so I had to use the left arm a lot more than I did usually. That was my finest drive at the Ring and my finest ever, because of the margin of victory - more than four minutes.” Denis Jenkinson seemed to agree: ‘Caracciola may have been the Regenmeister, Rosemeyer the Nebelmeister and Fangio the Ringmeister, but Stewart surely topped the lot.’ He did indeed and he was the new King of the Nurburgring. Somehow he averaged 86.9 mph for the 14 laps in those appalling conditions and a good indication of how bad they were is the fact that the year before, in the dry, Denny Hulme’s winning average in the Brabham-Repco was 101.4 mph. That same year, Dan Gurney had set a new lap record with his Eagle Weslake in 8 mind 15.1 sees, a speed of 103.172 mph. In April, 1969, Stewart demolished that, setting a time of 8’ 05.3” in the Eifel GP, driving an F2 Matra! This was the first occasion since World War Two that the Eifel race had been run on the Nordschleife and Jackie made the most of his knowledge of the long circuit. His main opposition came from the Lotuses of Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt, the BMWs of Jo Siffert, Gerhard Mitter and Hubert Hahne, the Matras of Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Johnny Servoz-Gavin and the Dino Ferraris of Derek Bell, Clay Regazzoni and Emilio Brambilla. Practice was held on the Friday and Saturday, with only the latter to count, and although no official times were given on the Friday, it was clear that Jochen Rindt was the fastest, beating Gurney’s record time with just under 8 mins 14 sees. It rained on the Saturday and Jo Siffert won pole position with 9’ 03.8”, followed by Stewart (9’ 07.8”) and Hill (9’ 16.5”). This pleased the locals, who numbered more than 250,000 and were all hoping to see a BMW victory, but Jackie had other ideas. In fine weather, Graham Hill made the best start for the 10-lap race, but by the time the cars reached the North Turn Stewart was in the lead and at the end of the lap he was four seconds ahead of Rindt and Hill. After three laps Jackie’s lead was 12 sees and he had set a new lap record. Two years earlier he had reckoned that the Matra was good for a time of 8 mins 07.0 sees, or thereabouts and on lap two he began his assault on Gurney’s record with 8’ 09.6”. By half-distance Hill and Rindt were both out with broken front wishbones and Stewart had set record laps four times in a row. He was now 50 sees ahead of Siffert, who was followed at a distance by Beltoise, Hahne, Servoz-Gavin and Bell. Jackie sailed home to win by 76 sees from Siffert in the BMW and set a new outright lap record with a stunning 8’ 05.3” (169.4 kph/105.25 mph). This made Dan Gurney’s record with the 3-litre EagleWeslake look pretty sick, even more so when you consider that Jackie was driving a three-year-old, 1,600 cc F2 car! To mark this victory he was given a Nurburgring winner’s ring, which he never received for winning the German Grand Prix. Three months later, in practice for the German GP, Stewart became the first to break the eight-minute barrier by recording a time of 7 mins 55.6 sees in the Matra-Cosworth during the Friday morning practice session. The only other driver to get under eight minutes was Jochen Rindt, in the Lotus 49B. He did 7’ 58.0” in the morning and knocked four seconds off that in the afternoon. But Jackie went faster, too, recording 7’ 51.7”, only to be blown away by Jacky Ickx, who stunned everyone by lapping his Brabham-Cosworth in 7’ 44.2”. The next day, Stewart equalled this time, only for Ickx to knock another tenth off it, gaining pole position at an average speed
of 110.562 mph. Before practice, Jackie found time to introduce Mario Andretti to the Nurburgring when, fresh from his superb victory in the Indianapolis 500, Mario arrived at the circuit to drive one of Colin Chapman’s Lotus 63 four-wheel-drive cars. Jackie volunteered to show him the ropes, as Dan Gurney had done for him in 1965, in order to refresh his memory after those four practice laps for the 1000 Kms. “It was pretty scary,” recalls Sir Jackie, “and in 1969 it was my turn to take Mario Andretti, pointing out the roadside references, or the advertising signs where you aim the car. “I used to try and take Ken Tyrrell for a few laps, just to let him see how he was spending his money, but around Adenau Bridge he usually wanted to get out. That circuit really is a different world from the passenger’s seat, it can scare the living daylights out of you.” Far from scaring Mario, the ride with Jackie seemed to inspire him, for on his second flying lap in the Lotus he recorded a remarkable 8 mins 15 sees, only to be sidelined with a blown engine before he could go any further. Like his fellow American, Dan Gurney, Andretti clearly had all the hallmarks of a Ringmeister, but was never able to fulfill his promise. Jackie Ickx, on the other hand, was about to do just that. He was not noted for his good starts, but this time he got it right, only for several others to do it better and at the end of the opening lap it was Stewart in the lead by six seconds, from Jo Siffert in Rob Walker’s Lotus 49B, Jochen Rindt in the works Lotus and then Ickx in the Brabham. On the second lap Ickx passed both Lotuses and went after Stewart, finally taking the lead after six electrifying laps of cut and thrust motor racing. Jackie held station behind the Brabham for the next two laps, but the Tyrrell’s gearbox was now playing tricks. ‘At first I thought it was me, I thought I had not been putting the gears into mesh properly and they were jumping out, so I became more deliberate when I changed gear. But once or twice they refused to engage and I had to miss them occasionally.’ Unfortunately for Jackie (not to mention the spectators, who had been relishing the Ickx/Stewart duel) that was the end of his challenge. He had to settle for second place and hope that the gearbox would last until the end. It did, but Ickx won the German GP for Brabham by almost a minute from Stewart after a masterly drive. Nevertheless, Stewart went on to win his first World Championship, scoring 63 points to the 37 of Ickx. It would be two years before Grand Prix cars would be seen at the Ring again because in 1970 the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, led by Jackie Stewart, boycotted the circuit, claiming that it was no longer safe for the very fast GP cars of the day (See Der Nurburg Ring - A History) Over the winter of 1970 an enormous amount of work was carried out and, as a result, the GPDA agreed to return there for the German GP in 1971. By now Jackie Stewart was not just driving for Tyrrell, he was driving a Tyrrell. This came about after Ken terminated his relationship with Matra at the end of 1969 and raced March-Cosworths in 1970. Meanwhile, in great secrecy, Derek Gardner was beavering away, designing an Fl car for Ken and the Cosworth-powered Tyrrell 001 made its first appearance in the Oulton Park Gold Cup and its Grand Prix debut in Canada. It did not win a race that year, but by the time the team arrived at the Ring in 1971 Jackie and the Tyrrell had virtually wrapped up his second World Championship, with 42 points to the 19 of Jacky Ickx. This was thanks to four wins and a second place in the first half of the season. Jackie found the new Nurburgring to be “a big improvement. It was wider, with barriers, it was fine.” Denis Jenkinson also approved. ‘There was no doubt in my mind that the return of the German Grand Prix to the Nurburgring after its brief removal to the Hockenheim Motordrom was popular, for the movement and race-fever was already evident when I arrived at the circuit the day before practice began. By the time race day arrived the Eifel mountains were like a human ant-hill, and though no official figures were given for the attendance the scene was reminiscent of the early post-war years and I have not seen crowds like it for ten or more years... ‘Everyone who had not taken part in the ADAC 1000 Kms last May was keen to find out about the cleaned-up Nurburgring. Although the widening, smoothing-out and resurfacing met with Stewart’s approval, it was soon evident that the Nurburgring was still one of the best challenges to Grand Prix car designers and drivers, for speeds were higher everywhere and road-holding and suspension as well as bravery and skill were at a premium... ‘For some unaccountable reason that no-one would admit to, this year’s race was reduced to 12 laps, a mere 274 kilometres. (We must forget the “bad old days” of Ascari and Fangio when they raced for 22 laps of the Nurburgring to find out who was going to win the German GP, for I am told that is not positive thinking). ‘With two years’ advance in power and roadholding, to say nothing of the two years’ advance in glory, the estimate of laps at 7 mins 20 secs was reasonable enough, especially taking into account the widening, smoothing and resurfacing of the circuit, and in the first session Stewart took his Tyrrell 003 round in 7 mins 21.9 secs, to set a new standard. There was no practical reason why Stewart should be so much faster than everyone else, except that he was working hard for the people who pay him, as he always does, and the Tyrrell team are on such a winning streak at the moment that their air of efficiency and quiet calm is psychologically demoralising everyone into a state of depression that seems to make them stop trying. ‘In the late afternoon Stewart went out in the old Tyrrell only to have the engine break. He returned on the pillion of a motorcycle and promptly went out in the 1971 car and set fastest time of the day with 7 mins 19.0 secs, which demoralised everyone even more.’ Not quite everyone, for next day Jacky Ickx, his great adversary of 1969, took his Ferrari 312B round in 7’ 19.2”, which put him on the front row of the two-by-two grid with Stewart. This, of course, pleased the spectators no end, for there was the very real prospect of another great battle between the two Ringmeisters. Sadly, it was not to be. Ickx took an immediate lead off the line, but Stewart out-braked him into the North Turn and at the end of the first lap it was the Tyrrell which fled past the pits first, with a lead of three seconds over the Ferraris of Ickx and Clay Regazzoni. And on that standing lap Stewart set a new record, with a time of 7’ 37.7”, reducing that to 7’ 29.9” the next time round. And, to the dismay of the spectators, that is where the race ended, for Jacky Ickx crashed at Wippermann on the second lap and Stewart had an untroubled run to the chequered flag. At one point he stretched his lead over the second man - team-mate Francois Cevert - to 40 secs, but he eased up as Cevert speeded up in his battle with Clay Regazzoni. Cevert set fastest lap of the race in the process with 7 mins 20.1 secs and Stewart came home the comfortable winner, 30 secs ahead of the Frenchman in the second Tyrrell one-two of the season. It was Jackie’s 17th victory in a Grande Epreuve, putting him one ahead of Stirling Moss, but still some way behind Clark and Fangio. It had been the shortest German GP on record, occupying just 1 hour 29 mins and 15.7 secs of Mr Stewart’s time. As Denis Jenkinson noted: ‘It had been a short and sweet German Grand Prix run in perfect conditions and everyone seemed well satisfied to see it back on the circuit where it rightfully belongs, for the Nurburgring is still the Nurburgring and one of the finest Grand Prix circuits ever built.’ For 1972 Tyrrell produced a new car, 005, but Jackie bent it during practice for the British GP and so drove 003 in the German. During the Friday morning practice he broke team-mate Francois Cevert’s lap record with a time of 7 mins 17.2 secs, only to see Jacky Ickx (Ferrari 312B) knock seven seconds off that in the afternoon, when Stewart himself got down to 7’ 16.4”. The next day Jackie banged in a flyer at 7’ 08.7”, only for Ickx to steal pole position with 7’ 07.0”. The Ringmeisters were at it again and a fine race (over 14 laps once more) was in prospect. It turned out to be a fine race for Monsieur Ickx, but not for Mr Stewart. The Ferrari driver romped away with it, leading from start to finish. Stewart lay fifth right behind Clay Regazzoni, Ickx’s team-mate, for the first 10 laps, moving up to fourth with the retirement of Ronnie Peterson (March) and then third when Fittipaldi’s JPS-Lotus blew up. His race-long battle with Regazzoni ended in tears on the last lap, as Patrick McNally recounted in Autosport: ‘Only two lap
s from the end it was clear that Ickx had this race in the bag, the question was could Stewart manage to oust Regazzoni from second place and thus earn those so valuable championship points? The Scotsman was 1 sec behind at this stage, but as they went into their last lap the cars were running virtually nose to tail. Regazzoni arrived a fraction too fast at Hatzenbach and slid wide, Stewart seized the opportunity and tried to slip through, the two cars arriving side by side at the next corner according to an eye-witness, with Stewart trying to go round on the outside. Regazzoni’s left rear wheel touched Stewart’s right rear and Stewart found himself spinning right round and smashing into the Armco on the outside of the corner, damaging the front suspension. Stewart is sufficiently experienced to know Regazzoni would be difficult to pass and this was far from the ideal place. No doubt the story you read in the Daily Express on Monday sounded like a different incident altogether. Stewart escaped unhurt and the car was not badly damaged, but gone was the chance of earning the championship points he so desperately needs if he is to catch up with Emerson Fittipaldi. Afterwards Stewart also complained that Regazzoni was weaving down the straight not letting him by - but the Swiss’s reply was simply that he was trying to break the Tyrrell’s tow. Jack Brabham was an ace at this manoeuvre for it does make passing difficult!’ And so to Jackie’s grand finale at the Nurburgring, the German Grand Prix of 1973. By this time he had won four GPs for Tyrrell and was leading Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus) in the World Championship by 51 points to 41. He was also thinking seriously about retiring from the sport at the end of the season. Surprisingly, no one managed to better Jacky Ickx’s 1972 pole position time in practice, Stewart being the closest to it with 7 mins 07.8 sees, which was just that 0.8 secs slower. Ronnie Peterson (Lotus) was half-a-second behind Jackie, with Francois Cevert (Tyrrell) and Ickx (McLaren) making up the second row with 7’ 09.3” and 7’ 09.7” respectively. Ickx had come to a parting of the ways with Scuderia Ferrari, which was having a terrible GP season, and joined McLaren for just this one race. ‘Sixth Rhapsody in Blue - another Tyrrell 1-2’ was the headline in Autosport’s report by Pete Lyons, who summed up the race in one sentence: ‘Elf Team Tyrrell quite simply ran away with this 11th round of the season, Ken’s twin Elves making the 199-mile motor race round the swoops and plunges of the fearsome Eifel circuit look like a relaxed ramble in the woods.’ Ronnie Peterson made the best start, but Stewart overtook him before the South Turn and boxed him in, allowing Cevert to take the lead until Flugplatz, when Jackie assumed his rightful place and held it until the end. Peterson’s race lasted only until Breidscheid, where electrical problems brought the Lotus to a halt. After the first lap the two Tyrrells were six seconds ahead of Ickx and the first three positions remained unchanged throughout the race. Cevert made fastest lap in 7’ 19.1” on the third tour and was now some seven seconds behind his team leader and more than 11 seconds ahead of Ickx, who had Carlos Reutemann (Brabham-Ford) right on his tail. On the eighth lap Reutemann’s engine gave up and Carlos Pace (Surtees-Ford) now moved into a splendid fourth spot. ‘In the last couple of laps Stewart’s clockwork progress picked up a little speed,’ wrote Pete Lyons, ‘as if just to keep Cevert on his toes and show him a thing or two (and inevitably one wonders if Jackie isn’t thinking this’ll be his last race at the Ring and he wanted to enjoy it).’ It was and he did, allowing Cevert to get within 1.6 secs of him at the flag and winning his third German Grand Prix to consolidate his position as King of the Nurburgring. It was his 26th victory in a Grande Epreuve, putting him ahead of Jim Clark (25) and Juan Manuel Fangio (24). It was also his last, and although he went on to win his third World Championship that was completely overshadowed by the death of his friend and team-mate, Francois Cevert, at Watkins Glen in October. With four victories, two pole positions and two fastest laps in the years 1965-1973 Jackie Stewart established himself as a Ringmeister supreme, but he cheerfully admits that his supremacy took a knock on the odd occasion. One such was the European Touring Car Championship race in July, 1973. “I shared a Ford Capri with Emerson Fittipaldi and we were in the team with Jochen Mass/Dieter Glemser and John Fitzpatrick/Gérard Larrousse. I found the Capri was very difficult to drive and I was only fourth fastest in practice with 8 mins 27.5 secs. That was 9 secs quicker than Emerson - and 3 secs slower than Mass! We were on Goodyears and he was on Dunlops and I thought the difference must be due to the tyres because, after all, I knew the Ring pretty well etc, etc. So I insisted on trying our car on Dunlops and I was still 3 secs slower than Mass! He was quicker than me in the Capri and I couldn’t do anything about it!”
