16 replies to this topic

[proviz]

In a couple of fairly recent books ("Brothers Rodriguez", "Porsche 917 - The Complete Photographic History") it has been claimed that within the 1970 International Championship for Makes a Drivers' Championship was won by Pedro Rodriguez-Leo Kinnunen or by Pedro alone. Where does such a notion come from?
I cannot recall ever reading in contemporary reports that there might have been a title for the drivers to win and neither does the 1970 FIA Yellow Book recognize such a championship.

[ff1600]

I looked through my 1970 Autocourse and did not see anything like that. Maybe I missed something but it seemed to mee everything was about the manufacturer. Drivers were second thought.

[RA Historian]

Sports car drivers' championship was not instituted until, when, 1981, as I recall?

Tom

[D-Type]

Is this simply a case of "IF there had been a drivers' championship using the same races and points as the one for makes then Pedro would have won it"

[raceannouncer2003]

Sports car drivers' championship was not instituted until, when, 1981, as I recall?

Tom

Yes, as I understand it, 1981 till 1992.

Vince H.

[proviz]

Agree with everything said above. But "Brothers Rodriguez" goes as far as to say "Hypothetically Kinnunen would not share Pedro's title, since championship rules stated that a driver completing less than a third of a race could not receive points"!
"...championship rules..."!??!!

Edited by proviz, 19 December 2009 - 10:33.

[longhorn]

I've never heard of it before. Certainly not mentioned by Wyer (Certain Sound), Horsman (Racing in the rain), DSJ (Sports Car Racing), Automobile Year 1971/2 or by Motor Sport magazines of the period. Jaliffe does indeed refer to it in Brothers Rodriguez, although it is written in a style commensurate with a national hysteria of the period and makes a number of hypothetical claims.

[RA Historian]

Philip, I do believe that your tag line nails it in this matter:

"History is often a mixture of imagination and grains of truth" - Enzo Ferrari

Tom

Edited by RA Historian, 19 December 2009 - 15:18.

[ff1600]

1970 and 1971 was a great years for Sports Car racing. Wish they were back. Untill the FIA decides to open the rules up and give up on F1 being the fastest racing car Sports Cars racing of the late 60s and early 70s will have to do read about in Autocourse.

[sherer]

1970 and 1971 was a great years for Sports Car racing. Wish they were back. Untill the FIA decides to open the rules up and give up on F1 being the fastest racing car Sports Cars racing of the late 60s and early 70s will have to do read about in Autocourse.

so wish I was around them to see this series when it was in it's glory.

I always felt if Porsche and Ferrari made a new 917 and 512 and added in a few other cars they could create a great series. Making the cars with modern tech should help update them a bit and they don't look dated anyway. Will have to keep dreaming about that one I guess

[longhorn]

It isn't just the cars, it's the drivers too. Even if a new series was launched, with cars to capture the imagination, as they did all those years ago, the name drivers won't be there because they're tied to the F1 brand, just as Mosely and Finklestein intended. The gentleman/professional series in the early to mid 1990's showed promise with road car derived machinery, until Mosely put a stop to it by allowing Porsche to run their GT1, which patently wasn't so derived.

Perhaps there is hope with a new regime at the FIA and an ageing Finklestein.

[sherer]

used to love the old BPR series in the early 90s saw some great racing there.

True any new series wouldn't have any F1 drivers but i'm sure you could still get a few star names from touring cars and sportscars there and if you built on that you could end up with a few F1 drivers near end of career taking a look at it.

Still it's all dream stuff and Porsche and Ferrari won't do it

[longhorn]

Still it's all dream stuff and Porsche and Ferrari won't do it

Well.... Ferrari might be tempted to run under the Maserati or even Alfa brands. Then Porsche might consider joining in. Ron Dennis might be tempted with the new McLaren, Dave Richards with a Prodrive Aston Martin..... It only requires a sensible set of regulations to gain support.

[sherer]

wonder if there is anyone at each marque I could e-mail.

I'm sure you could get 25+ car grids, have say 8 917s 8 512s, a few T70s plus the odd other marque. Not sure I would want a new McLaren in there but I know they have a few old ones not sure exact names MC12 maybe ? Plus Chevron etc you could maybe even get someone like Lola or Dallara to make all the cars

[juicy sushi]

It only requires a sensible set of regulations to gain support.

Between the ACO, Stephan Ratel and the FIA, that will never happen. Regulatory incompetence is a professional standard to which they aspire.

[David McKinney]

I'm sure you could get 25+ car grids, have say 8 917s 8 512s, a few T70s plus the odd other marque.

The sort of grids that we get at historic meetings, in other words (though not quite the same mix)

[sherer]

The sort of grids that we get at historic meetings, in other words (though not quite the same mix)

prob similar although ifwe are living in fantasy land we could have 10 of each plus a few others to make up the numbers.

You could even have support series of Porsche Supercup, Abarth 500, etc to promote their other cars