Spa 1000 Kms Pictorial

Gulf Mirage wins. – After a season and a half trying to get the cars reliable, the Slough team finally found reward in a 1-2 victory at Spa-Francorchamps. Hailwood’s car had a puncture early in the race so he was paired with Bell (pictured) and they profited from the problems encountered by Ferrari and Matra. Hailwood also shared the second-placed car with Ganley and Schuppan.

German contest. – The Alpina-entered BMW driven by Lauda and Stuck had a close battle with the works Porsche 911 Carrera driven by van Lennep and Mueller, the better placing going to the Porsche which had been entered as a protoype.

Debut marred. – After innumerable delays the Autodelta-entered Alfa Romeo flat-12 prototype made its debut at Spa. Stommelen lapped it impressively inside the existing 3-litre sports-car record. Tyre failure caused an accident during practice and it could not race.

Ferrari beaten. – Both the Ferraris had gearbox failures due to oil leaks and Schuppan’s Gulf Mirage, in this photograph, had little difficulty in passing Pace’s Ferrari which had lost 4th and 5th gears in the latter part of the race. Schuppan helped Hailwood and Ganley to finish second in this car, Pace/Merzario claimed fourth at the finish.

Matra mishaps. – Two Matras were run at Spa, but both dropped back in the first quarter of the race with repeated failures of the front tyres. Pescarolo, Larrousse and Amon eventually finished third, but the sister car driven by Hill, Amon and Pescarolo had engine trouble while making up time, and retired. This car was badly damaged by fire during the second practice session, but was skilfully restored in less than 48 hours to take the start.