Daytona 24 hours, 1971

[cjpani]

A little bit of history never hurt anyone :

The favoritisms in the odds oscillated between the mighty celestial blue Porsches of John Wyer´s Team, and the surprise enemy embodied in the blue Ferrari of the Sunoco Team, in charge of the North American Mark Donohue and the Englishmen David Hobbs. This particular Ferrari managed at the end of the Friday session, the right to start first, based on a time that destroyed all the previous records established in that circuit.

The minute and forty two seconds achieved by Donohue, reached the 220 km/h average speed mark, and delayed - like Andretti the last year- both of Wyer´s Porsches, after a prolonged duel in which the three machines disputed the right to start in the pole position.

"If the session had followed for one more hour, we could have lowered that time" declared Roger Penske director of the Sunoco Team, while the car was taken to the garages awaiting the great day.

The Race

For starters, the awaited war occurred. The Sunoco Ferrari leading the way from the start, and Rodriguez and Siffert immediately behind, in its persecution. But after the ten first laps, only the Mexican was glued to the tail of Donohue’s car, while Siffert already began to watch them a little more distant.

Donohue, with the Sunoco Ferrari 512M of the team Penske. It led, then fought to maintain it, participated in an accident, and finalized third.


With three hours of race, the 917 of Rodriguez-Oliver had taken the lead perfectly guarded by Siffert-Bell, while Donohue-Hobbs underwent the delay of one long shutdown by a premature fault in the alternator, and now had to be fight against the Porsche 917 of Elford-Van Lennep (Martini Racing Team) which, in spite of running a 4.5litre engine (against the 5-litre Ferraris and both leaders) did a brilliant job.

Well into the fifth hour of race, the motor of the Siffert-Bell Porsche literally exploded, leaving for another race its ambitions to win, or at least to pair with the winning car, which from that moment on, had to manage by itself with its distant but always present pursuers. Behind Rodriguez-Oliver it was located, without brightness but with effectiveness, the Ferrari 512S of Ronnie Bucknum-Tony Adamowicz.

At the first half of the test -three o’clock in the morning- Rodriguez had accumulated the shameful number of 25 laps of advantage above the second place car, while the Ferrari 312P that the Argentinean Nestor Jesus GarcÃ*a Veiga in pair with Luigi Chinetti (h) managed third place in a surprising performance.

In the middle of the night, the 917 of the Martini Team piloted by Vic Elford bursted a tire while circulating flat out amidst the banked curve, in the east side. The consequence resulted in a huge spin that sent the car towards the bottom of the ravine and scattering pieces of car in its trajectory.



Mark Donohue that was immediately behind, put somewhat behind, went easy on the throttle when he saw the precaution lights ignited, but behind him, a Porsche 911 driven by Charles Perry did not realize the warning lights and hit the Ferrari causing damages in the left part of the bodywork and back suspension. At the Sunoco boxes they took one hour and a half to get the 512 back to the track. At that point, it seemed totally assured the chance for Rodriguez, but still there would be some variations before the chequered flag.

At the end of the night, a torrential rain clouded the skies, and forced everybody to enter boxes for a suitable tire change. For Rodriguez-Oliver -as for the Wyer boxes- the thing became complicated when the 917 started to exhale mysterious whiffs of smoke off the right exhaust pipe.

The enormous advantage that they had, allowed them to reduce the race speed, but when they became aware of it, the Ferrari of Bucknum and Donohue were sent again like foxes after their prey, with more determination and hopes trying to recover the time they had lost in boxes.

Later, the Porsche had problems again, transmission problems, and was stopped for more than an hour. There, the positions began to crowd, and when the 917 returned to the track, Bucknum´s Ferrari had been able to discount all the lost laps and managed to add two laps to its favor with respect of the leader. Nevertheless, Rodriguez - who drove many hours more than the still little practical Jackie Oliver –charged again, and after pushing during the noon to a rhythm similar to the one of the beginning of the race, he managed to catch and overtake the 512S and again turn the scoreboard to his favor.

Meanwhile, Donohue -that had also driven the double that Hobbs- was able to put itself just ten laps behind the leaders as the afternoon and the end of the race came. The 24 Hs. of Daytona 917 were closely decided after a distressing end in favor of the Porsche 917, thanks to the Mexican, who knew to contain the charge of Bucknum and Donohue that finished in that order with their Ferraris in one of the most close finishes on the history of the event.

Ferrari did a good performance in the hands of privateers. They did not enter Daytona in official form, still maintaining the mourning by the death of Ignazio Giunti. Some people there speculated that it was is a good excuse for Il Commendattore not to appear, because of the fear to lose against Porsche

Evidently Porsche, on behalf of the Gulf-Wyer team and its drivers, counted with the best organization than it has ever been known of. While everything worked well, the differences with the others were scandalous; at the time when problems arised, the work at pits and boxes was an example of what should be done - and of how it must be done- demonstrating that their people do not to surrender until the car cannot run one more meter.

And when there was to overcome the adversity in the track, Rodriguez confirmed again that its long leaf of triumphs is not product of the chance or the good luck, but of an aggressive and quick driving, but mainly, very effective. The followers of David Yorke fulfilled again, to demonstrate that they are the authentic, unquestionable champions of the category, and as the reward, they take nine points more for the contest of this year.


Best regards
cj

[Dr. Austin]

Thanks for reviving such good memories. I was working for Luigi chinetti's NART team that year and we were in the fight as well. Our car was in second place with Tony Adamowicz and Ronnie Bucknam. Chuck Parsons, whom I knew from my time with Penske, was in another NART entry and got me in with the team.

When the Gulf 917 expereienced the gearbox failure Luigi sent me down to observe the repair. At the time, you were not allowed to change the entire gearbox, just the internals. The Wyer crew set about rebuilding the gearbox right on pit road, in the middle of all that swirling dirt, grit and sand. Luigi sent me down to "observe" the Wyer crew and make sure they did not replace the entire box. The repair took an agonizing 90 minutes (agonizing for me because i could not leave and really needed to visit the men's room!) and Rodrigeuz returned to the fray several laps down. His drive to the front was unbelievable. Many of us just could not believe how he charged back with such authority , especially with such a ragged car and so little sleep.

If you will look just below the "76" ball, you will see me peering over the assemble masses, observing the proceedings and wishing like hell they would get done so I could take a much needed break.

We eventually finished second, the second podium for me (as crew) personally in three years. At one point we thought we might win the race, but rodrigeuz was just too much for us. After watching his performance that day, it is surprising that anyone ever beat him.


You forgot to post a link to the 917 web site.

http://www.porsche917.com.ar/

[jimclark]

Indeed, good memories.

cj - 'Just curious tho'....why do you refer to the Wyer team as such as opposed to it being the "Gulf Team" as you do with Penskes' team to which you erroneously refer as the "Sunoco Team". It was always Team Penske, as was Wyers'...Sunoco was just his sponsor as was Gulf for John Wyer.

[Dr. Austin]

It was Wyer's team, but they were officially known as 'Gulf Porsche," so i suppose it is correct to call them either one. Same with Penske, who was, at the time, so closely associated with Sunoco that the car was labelled "Sunoco Ferrari."

To muddy the waters even further, Penske's IRL team is officially known as "Marlboro team Penske." And Porsche's Group C factory effort was officially "Rothmans Porsche."
So it seems that a team's sponsor has nowdays become an intregal part of the team's name. Looking back, I am not sure when it became more proper to call a team by who they are or by who they are sponsored by, or both.

Either way, you are correct that Wyer owned his team and Gulf was merely the sponsor. Penske owned his team and was merely sponsored by Sunoco.



Sorry if there was any consusion.

Check out the rear fender.

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Dr. Austin
I was working for Luigi chinetti's NART team that year and we were in the fight as well.

That's interesting, tell us more - what was your role in the team?

[Dr. Austin]

Originally posted by cybersdorf


That's interesting, tell us more - what was your role in the team?

I was the donut and coffee chaser. I also cleaned helmets. Not very glamouros, but I was right in the middle of all, which was a priceless opportunity.

I was also with Penske in 69 when the won the race. That was an utterly amazing time.