7 replies to this topic

[dmj]

A driver that made me confused so many times... Not so great in F1 (but not too bad either...) and probably one of all-time greats in sportcars. Even there, he is usually ranked much lower than drivers who had a lot less wins. Why he was so overshadowed from Ickx? Was he so much slower? What are your thoughts of him? Is he a sort of unloved because of that tragic day in Zolder (although no one ever really blamed him for GV's death)? Many questions, I know... But I would like to know why he mantained so low profile among racing fans despite all these wins...

[FEV]

I agree with you I always found strange he did not seem to be recognised for his true qualities, particularly in Endurance where he was brillant. Even in Germany I believe he was far behind Stück, Ludwig, Winkelhock, Bellof and others in terms of popularity ? His love of France allowed me to have a chat with him once at Monaco. A really nice guy it seemed to me. Too nice ?

[David M. Kane]

Exactly, he was too nice. I had the pleasure of meeting him twice. Once at
Watkins Glen during his first F1 season. He was very quiet, very polite
and very unassuming. He seemed to lack that greedy its all about me kind of
attitude that most of the others had.

The second time I met him was at the first Detroit GP several years later.
This was just two weeks after the Zolder crash and he was still quiet upset
particularly by the comments made to the press by Lauda. I told him he should go to Lauda and tell him that in the future if he had a problem
to come see him first rather than bleeding in the press. He couldn't imagine standing up for himself like that to Lauda. That is the impression
I walked away with that night.

But what would I know?

[DOHC]

I only saw Mass a few times in F1 GP races, and it seems to me that it was not the right place for him. He never made much of an impression there. With sports cars it was different, though, but I never saw him on track in a sports car.

[bergwerk]

The early years:

Jochen Maas was working as a technician at an Alfa Romeo shop and racing customer cars when he was given his first opportunity to drive Ford Cologne Escorts and Capris in Tourenwagen Gruppe 2 events.

Prior to this he had apprenticed and gone to sea in the German merchant marine and his lasting love of the ocean led to the acquisition of a monster sized three masted sailboat once he could afford it.

He was very quiet and relatively shy (Jochen Neerpasch who was running Ford Motorsports in Cologne was very shy himself), had a good mellow flow and was quite a hit with the ladies who were attracted by his personality and muscular physique.

What set him apart from contemporaries like Strietzel Stuck was the fact that Jochen was the antithesis of the self promoting extrovert personalities of people like Stuck. Jochen was a reader of books, quiet, unassuming and not willing to promote himself as well as he should have.

He was once introduced to a group of Italian industrialists, led by Ferrero and Vitaloni, who had asked to meet him after being impressed by a particularly gutsy drive in Monza and while the Italians had their checkbooks open, Jochen was uncomfortable with the praise heaped on him, they called him "il leone" for his courageous drive, and walked away without closing any of the offered promo deals.

Some of the higher profile people who occasionaly drove Ford's Tourenwagen at the time included Jackie Stewart, Jody Scheckter, Gerard Larousse etc. with Stewart being far and away the most charismatic of the bunch. Those were good times for Maas to observe and to learn first hand from the masters of the sport.

[Doug Nye]

Jochen Mass = very fine driver indeed and an extremely good bloke. His early F1 drives looked truly promising, but he never managed to assert himself in the way required for a team to regard him as anything more than a number two. His service to Ford, Porsche, Sauber, Audi has been exemplary. Any German who can be introduced to cricket for the first time - slash at and miss the first three balls of a six-ball over - zing the next three for three consecutivertracer-bullet boundaries and then turn round to the wicket keeper and snort "Susse! How come we ever lost ze War?" can't be half bad...

DCN

[DOHC]

Mass or Maas? We have at least two spellings here. I thought the correct one was Mass, but I may be wrong.

[bergwerk]

You are correct, it is Mass indeed.

Apologies to all, Jochen and Doug Nye in particular. It'll take me long to crawl out from under this rock.