Without Wyer - Part 2

By Ted West (Road & Track September 1970)

Now listen. Practice for Le Mans just isn't wirth going into. Excerpt for Vic elford, who simply
couldn't stand having Nino Vaccarella ahead of him on the pole and did a fastest lap in 3:19.8,
to Nino's 3:20.0, nobody really gives a damn how they qualify. And rightly so. As long as you're
in amongst the right sort of cars and not back with the 911s, everything's fine. With the
exception of Matra, whose engines just seemed all wrong and kept them far too busy,
everyone went around their cars with wrenches all week making sure everything was tight.
There was one incident when Brabham's 650 and Dieter Spoerry's 908 came together before
the chicane early Wednesday evening and after hitting the ground in various awkward ways
the 908's transmission went 50 yards one way, the engine went 50 yards another way, the
front half of the carsevered diplomatic relations with the back half (and, incidentally, Dieter
hisself), the back half promptly bursting into flames. It was one of those absolutely horrid fatal
looking things, but Spoerry got unstrapped and out just as it exploded and had nothing more
than a monumental case of the shakes for several days later. Small enough price. He would
have been co-driver of the third Salzburg 917 but he was simply too badly shaken and
teammate Steinemann withdrew the entry on race day.

We're all heard of the Le Mans Start, right? Well, it no longer exists because in the dash to the
cars in the past drivers have felt themselves too hurried to bother fastening their seatbelts.
which would greatly displease the National Safety Council. So this year all manner of alternate
plans were suggested, from co-driver sprinting across to switch the external ignition control on,
to having electrical green start lights falsh on while drivers sat in the cars, to a 10-minute
game of "Simon Says" ("Simon Says don't touch that starter button. Touch that button!
Ahahahaa - I didn't say "Simon Says." Ferrari #7, you're out ...."). Finally they settled on
having four flagmen along the pits who, at the official starter's signal, decorously were to drop
their falgs - which is exactly what they did at 4 pm. Saturday and Elford and Siffert were off
first (natch), with everyone sprinting like quater-milers "just getting it out of their systems." At
the end of the first lap Vic was way ahead of Jo, then came Rodriguez, Merzario (who was to
be the "hare" among the Ferraris to lure Porsche into a car-breaking sprint), Nino Vaccarella,
David Hobbs, Herbert MUller, Gijs van Lennep, Gerard Larrousse, Derek Bell, and 41 other
Speed-Crazed-Daredevil-Maniac-Speed-Demons. Nanni Galli promptly overshot the chicane in
his Alfa, waited for the field to pass before reentering, and everyone took great notice of it,
not quite yet ready to accept the idea that there were 24 hours more and Galli hadn't
appreciably hurt his chances of winning one tiny bit.

Vic and Jo had a Grand Prix for several laps, while Vaccarella came in after seven laps with a
great steaming hole through the nether end of the block. One Ferrari out and everyone took
great notice of it, not quite yet ready to accept the idea that there were 24 hours more etc.
etc. After one hour things began to pace a bit more. Vic was still ahead, Siffert close behind,
then Rodriguez, Hobbs, Ickx (who hadn't rushed at all in the beginning), van Lennep, and
Merzario (who had pitted early for a vibration in the front end). At 5:30 rodriguez stopped on
Mulsanne with his cooling fan drive clunking about loose somewhere down in the Porsche's
crankcase. Brian Redman took over for Siffert and got ahead of Ahrens (Elford's teammate) but
they both eased off a bit, Ickx well behind them but comfortably third. Then Brian pitted with a
front wheel balance weight missing and Ahrens regained the lead, Brian getting back out in
second place.

It was at this time that a most bizarre thing happened. Five Ferrari 512S's were coming past
Maison Blanche. The first of these was Reine Wisell, going about 50 mph and wandering all over
because he couldn't see after Larrousse's Porsche (he said) had covered his windshield with oil.
Sam POsey in a NART 512S came up behind him, saw he was very slow and got around, but
Derek Bell, Clay Regazzoni and Mike Parkes were too close behind Posey to see Wisell. As Posey
got past the following three descended on Wisell at some ridiculous rate of speed immorally
close to 150 mph, everyone tried a different direction to avoid Reine. Regazzoni first gave him a
proper wallop from the rear, Bell overrevved the bejeezus out of it down-shifting to try to get
slowed up and osterized the bearings in a terminal sort of way, then Parkes went straight up
the middle for a strike, rather blunting his car and making mush of what remained of Regazzoni's
and Wisell's cars. Miraculously no one was hurt but four Ferraris had been packed up and
shipped in just one incident. This left only Ickx well placed and challenging, the Posey/Bucknum
512S way down with a weakening engine.

There were four 917s leading after four hours, then Ickx pacing coolly now in fifth, and two
more 917s. At this point an incredible rain storm hit, during which just about everyone dervished
on the greasy track at least once and Hailwood crashed teh second Wyer 917 into Facetti's
already immobile Alfa. Conditions were simply abominable for over an hour, but Siffert/Redman,
Elford/Ahrens, and van Lennep/Piper were able to position. Then at 10 pm Piper spun and
damaged the nose of the 917 at Tertre Rouge and after long repairs it limped around in the dark
until it threw a tread on Mulsanne, further whacking the front end and eliminating the car. Vic
came in shortly afterward with odd handling and it took them a long time to find a slow leak in
the rear tire, putting Ickx up to second behind Siffert.

Jacky's wonderful sense of pace had gotten the car up to a strong position but he was feeling
very tired and the body burns from the Spanish GP aggravated by the fuel leak into his cockpit
at the Belgian GP, were causing him severe and exhausting discomfort. Dicing with Siffert
/though several laps behind) about 1 am in the rain he locked up a rear brake going into the
chicane, the 512S crashed heavily, killing a turn marshal and burtsing into flame. Jacky got free
without injury but it was a terrrible thing for him after so many other terrible things have
happened to him this year.

An hour later Siffert's car popped out of gear and overrrevved, eliminating the last Wyer car.
This put the slowish but sensibly paced Herrmann/Attwood 917 in the lead. THe challenge from
Ferrari had collapsed completely before the 10-hr mark and indded there were only two factory
POrsches left. Then Elford/Ahrens sucked an intake valve just after the factory entries, with the
two "private" Martini cars of Larrousse/Kauhsen (917) and Lins/Marko (908) 2nd and 3rd.

Of the other factory entries all three Matras were out after only four hours with their rings
disintegrating. The Masten Gregory/Toine Hezemans Alfa ingfested a stone through an intake
after only five laps and developed appropiate dyspepsia, Carlo Facetti/Teodoro Zeccoli were hit
by Hailwood in the rain, Nanni Galli/Rolf Stommelen were disqulified for a pushstart at 8 am and
Piers Courage/Andrea de Adamwich finally withdrew at 10:35 am with a dead engine.

It was not a bad day for Luigi Chinette's North American Racing Team. Despite their 512S engine
degenerating to a V10.5 Posey and Bucknum soldiered on and had fourth place, the first Ferrari
home. Parsons and Adamowicz had been having ignition trouble with the NART 312P all week
and it slowed them Sunday morning, though they had been placed as high as sixth. They
dropped to tenth getting a new distributor, but ran well for the rest of the day, unfortunately
not covering enough distance to be officially classed as finishers. De Fierlandt/Walker did well to
finish fifth for the Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps, and sixth was the remarkable consistent
Porsche 914/6 of Claude Ballot-Lena/Guy Chasseuil.

For Attie it was a rewarding win he'd been very close to last year leading so much of the race,
and for Herrmann it was a win he'd missed last year by only 100 yards. For Gerhard Strasser and
Porsche Salzburg it was two wins in a row after a very trying season. Their luck had finally
changed. And if you don't think there was some luck in it, just ask me how high the telltale was
on the winning 917 at the finish without having done any damage. Gerhard must sleep with his
toes crossed.