Jochen Rindt - it's happened again.....!

For years I have said that the achievement of Jochen Rindt in winning a major international race as a virtual unknown could never be repeated. I was pretty clued up with most forms of racing back in the mid 1960's, but had to admit that when I arrived at the Palace that day, I had NEVER heard of the man. A few hours later I had certainly heard of him!

Forty years later, I am still extremely interested in most forms of road racing (I do not count NASCAR in that statement!) and I have a pretty good idea who are the front runners in most international racing series.

So, imagine my surprise last night when I watched the last few laps of a WORLD Touring Car Championship race in Mexico and saw it won by a gentleman whose name was totally new to me.

I am familiar with Garcia, Colciago, Thompson, Priaulx, Tarquini etc etc etc, but come on chaps, own up, how many of the rest of you have never heard of Peter Terting ?

Barry
Terting has done most of his racing in Germany, winning the VW Lupo Cup in 2002. In 2003 he had one or two DTM outings in the Abt Sportsline Audi-TT then disappeared from the horizon. Not sure what he did in 2004 ( ), but now he pops up again in the WTCC.
Rob

I believe he drove in the German Production Car Cup last year (for Ford?)

I think he also drove a private Ford Focus in the ETCC in 2004?


So it looks like a few of us have heard of him!

Did he also drove for for Seat Touring Car team?

I believe Terting did a full season of DTM with Abt in 2003 (apart from the Lausitz race where team mates Aiello and Abt wrecked their cars in practice shunts and took over the sister cars). He also did the non-championship race in Shanghai, again in a TT, in 2004.

Some of the ETCC races ran concurrently with the German Production Car Cup, or at least they ran these cars as a separate class within the same race.

Speaking of the WTCC race, does anyone know the history of that track at Puebla?

I have never heard of it before, and when the WTCC race was announced, I assumed it would be a street circuit, or a new track. So I was very surprised to see an oval with a road course. What has it been used for in the past? Have any serious oval series visited it?

The Autodrome Miguel E.Abed was 1420m, and was used to around 1995, the F3 lap record being held by Oswaldo Negri Jnr at 1m37.277. It was largely unused until the circuit was rebuilt for 2005 as a 3.127 km circuit, and it was used for the round of the World Touring Car Championship. The outer oval is 2.171 km long.

http://www.silhouet....cks/puebla.html

Originally posted by BRG
Speaking of the WTCC race, does anyone know the history of that track at Puebla?

I have never heard of it before, and when the WTCC race was announced, I assumed it would be a street circuit, or a new track. So I was very surprised to see an oval with a road course. What has it been used for in the past? Have any serious oval series visited it?

Has only been used for Mexican based series AFAIK. Biggest might have been the 'Formula de la Americas' for old Indy Lights cars. Its one of 20 Mexican circuits listed as in use in 'Touring Car World 2001'
edit;thanks Darren,circuit length quoted in 2001 was 3.238 km.
Back to original subject; no trace of Peter Terling in 2004 German Production Championship.
Apart from Rindt,the only other driver I recall appearing from nowhere to win such a high profile event was Giancarlo Baghetti,an unknown italian formula junior driver who won his first 3 F1 races then nothing else.

Thanks to Rob and Darren – I had naturally already referred to Darren’s site, which is my motorsport reference source of choice.

But this particular bit is not as helpful as usual. When was the track first built? Was it as an oval, with the Circuito Miguel E. Abed inside it - it looks like it from the map unless the oval was later built around it? What was the business plan for the oval – was it hoped to get CART, IRL or Nascar races there? Anyone know?

Originally posted by Barry Boor
[B]For years I have said that the achievement of Jochen Rindt in winning a major international race as a virtual unknown could never be repeated. I was pretty clued up with most forms of racing back in the mid 1960's, but had to admit that when I arrived at the Palace that day, I had NEVER heard of the man. A few hours later I had certainly heard of him!

I know what you mean Barry, but I guess it's just in the UK that he was unknown. A similar parallel is Dave Morgan's win at the opening 2-litre F2 race at Mallory in 1972. Well known over here, but there must have been some interesting headlines in the foreign press that week.

Originally posted by Barry Boor
For years I have said that the achievement of Jochen Rindt in winning a major international race as a virtual unknown could never be repeated. I was pretty clued up with most forms of racing back in the mid 1960's, but had to admit that when I arrived at the Palace that day, I had NEVER heard of the man. A few hours later I had certainly heard of him!

Forty years later, I am still extremely interested in most forms of road racing (I do not count NASCAR in that statement!) and I have a pretty good idea who are the front runners in most international racing series.

So, imagine my surprise last night when I watched the last few laps of a WORLD Touring Car Championship race in Mexico and saw it won by a gentleman whose name was totally new to me.

I am familiar with Garcia, Colciago, Thompson, Priaulx, Tarquini etc etc etc, but come on chaps, own up, how many of the rest of you have never heard of Peter Terting ?

I hadn't heard of Terting until the Silverstone WTCC round last month - can't say he impressed me much then so I was surprised to see him winning in Mexico! He was about the only driver in the series that I didn't know anything about...

Prior to that the last who the hell was HE? came from the ETCC - Augusto Farfus was news to me when he had that brilliant but controversial start to the season.....

Farfus of course came out of F3. He was his year’s new Senna (failed) but unusually he jumped into tin-tops instead of persevering with the single-seater route that probably would have ended in the IRL.

A lot of guys graduate into WTCC from purely national series, so they can have good credentials and experience without being much known outside their home country. How many people outside the UK know much about Robert Huff in Chevrolet’s team? Or who outside Germany knew of Frank Diefenbaker when he appeared for SEAT in the ETCC? Yet both were as quick or quicker than their better known teammates.

Peter Terting:
http://www.speedspor...l=t&driver=2409
From http://www.fiawtcc.com/ (click on “Driver fact files” and then on “Peter Terting (GER)” (driver # 10) :
1995 winner of the South Bavarian Karting Championship
1996 11th in the South German Pop-Junior Karting Championship
1997 4th in the South German Pop-Junior Karting Championship
1998 winner of the South German Pop-Junior Karting Championship
1999 winner of the South German Pop-Junior Karting Championship
2000 5th in the German BMW ADAC Formula Junior Cup, 1 race win
2002 winner of the German ADAC Volkswagen Lupo Cup, 3 race wins
2003 15th in the German DTM (Audi TT-R), best result 8th
2004 2nd in the German SEAT León Supercopa, 4 race wins
Details from 2004 season

Frank Diefenbacher:
http://www.speedspor...l=d&driver=1390
Frontrunner in German Formula 3 in 2001 and 2002

Augusto Farfus jr.:
http://www.speedspor...l=f&driver=1492
No Formula 3, but Formula Renault (European champion in 2001) and Formula 3000 (Italy-based European champion in 2003)

Originally posted by BRG
Thanks to Rob and Darren – I had naturally already referred to Darren’s site, which is my motorsport reference source of choice.

But this particular bit is not as helpful as usual. When was the track first built? Was it as an oval, with the Circuito Miguel E. Abed inside it - it looks like it from the map unless the oval was later built around it? What was the business plan for the oval – was it hoped to get CART, IRL or Nascar races there? Anyone know?

More info from 'A Guide to Motorsport Circuits of the World by Tony Sakkis'(1993).
The track was built in 1985 by Promotodo and later sold to the Abed brothers.It has one of the best surfaces of all Mexican racetracks. It was not only resurfced recently,but was altered a bit.Oval was used for final round of 1990 championship after road circuit broke up.

Originally posted by ReWind

Augusto Farfus jr.:
http://www.speedspor...l=f&driver=1492
No Formula 3, but Formula Renault (European champion in 2001) and Formula 3000 (Italy-based European champion in 2003)

I admit to paying little attention to Euro F3000 -- I always regarded it as little more than a clubbie series for drivers who were too old to go anywhere in F3 and didn't have the budget to do "proper" F3000. Sort of like the old British F3000 series in fact...

(Mind you, we got one of our tintop stars from there, good old Yvan Muller...;))

We have a new stamp in Austria

It should have happened again...but...

I cannot be the only one to find this suspicious, surely? Independent embarrasses the works teams so they nobble him on tendentious grounds? The likes of Farfus can nerf everyone off and merely get fined...

It's ridiculous. The guys in front of him involved themselves in a multiple carambolage. How was he supposed to avoid 'gaining an advantage'? Joining in the melee?