[windowlicker]

The Carlo Facetti/Vittorio Brambilla Lancia Stratos Group 5 car burns out during practice at the Österreichring 6 hours 1976.

[Photoplay]

Love all the pictures and threads but some just stand out to me and this is one of them
What an amazing captured photograph

[Barton Farley]

Originally Posted by The Dark ↗

I think.....it was Jochen Rindt. This is the quote I found "“you’ve got more chance of surviving with Brabham, but more chance of winning the championship with Lotus”.

Bernie Ecclestone made this statement. He was Jochen's manager at the time. Jochen drove for Brabham in 1968.

Obviously sadly prophetic, I'm not convinced he'd have survived the crash even with proper seatbelt harness (for those who don't know he didn't wear a crotch strap and in his crash he slid down and sustained throat injuries from the buckle that would kill him) as he did lose a lot of blood and have other trauma - I believe he would have lost his foot had he survived.

Jochen's carotid artery was severed by the windscreen when he "submarined" forward because he wasn't wearing the crotch straps as part of the seat belt arrangement. The Italians didn't take Jochen to the Grand Prix Medical Unit where he would have had a chance, but put him into an ambulance where it took 45 min to get to Milan.

What's undeniable is that it clearly was a mechanical failure that pitched him left into the barrier.

The Lotus 72 had inboard front brakes and therefore hollow half-shafts (to save weight). Brake failure was suspected.

The documentary - The Killer Years had a very tense interview with Rindt's widow, she clearly never forgave Chapman.

Nina said "He just didn't care."

Mario Andretti once said to Bob Dance "If you see anything that doesn't look right, make it stronger. I'll take care of it with the old man."

[Barton Farley]

The new documentary "1" has a lot of new footage (60's and 70's) and interviews (current) that are very interesting. I liked the one with Brett Lunger who was part of the Niki Lauda rescue effort.

[Barton Farley]

A redo in ref to"The Dark's" post....

I think.....it was Jochen Rindt. This is the quote I found "“you’ve got more chance of surviving with Brabham, but more chance of winning the championship with Lotus”.

Bernie Ecclestone made this statement. He was Jochen's manager at the time. Jochen drove for Brabham in 1968.

Obviously sadly prophetic, I'm not convinced he'd have survived the crash even with proper seatbelt harness (for those who don't know he didn't wear a crotch strap and in his crash he slid down and sustained throat injuries from the buckle that would kill him) as he did lose a lot of blood and have other trauma - I believe he would have lost his foot had he survived.

Jochen's carotid artery was severed by the windscreen when he "submarined" forward because he wasn't wearing the crotch straps as part of the seat belt arrangement. The Italians didn't take Jochen to the Grand Prix Medical Unit where he would have had a chance, but put him into an ambulance where it took 45 min to get to Milan.

What's undeniable is that it clearly was a mechanical failure that pitched him left into the barrier.

The Lotus 72 had inboard front brakes and therefore hollow half-shafts (to save weight). Brake failure was suspected.

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

'Bruno Sojka was the greatest Czechoslovakian driver in all the Voiturettes Czech Grand Prix - Masarykově okruhu v Brně - scheduled at Brno circuit: he finished 2nd in 1933 and 3rd in 1931, 1932, 1934 and 1935. From 1932 onwards he teamed up with countryman Florian Schmidt, racing an old Bugatti T37A. In 1934 they acquired a 1.5-liter 8-cylinder twin-cam supercharged Bugatti T51A, formerly owned by Pierre Veyron, and Sojka finished 2nd place in the Frontières Grand Prix at Chimay (Belgium) and a 5th place in the Eifelrennen at Nürburgring. In 1935 again in the Eifelrennen at Nürburgring he finished 6th overall.
After the Second World War, Sojka became the works driver for Tatra. The first car the team built in 1949 was a new Tatra T600 "Tatraplan" a sportscar fitted with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine and an aerodynamic body. The drivers of the team were Pavelka, Sojka, Vrdlovech, Chovanec: they won many sporting events such as the Internationale Österreichse Alpenfarht in 1949 where four T600s took the first four places in overall classification.
Based on the T600, in the following seasons Tatra built the aluminium two-door T601 Monte Carlo and the T602 Tatraplan Sport.

At the wheel of one of these works sportscar Bruno Sojka died after a crash during practice for the 1951 Ecce Homo hillclimb, a race he had already won the previous year.'

Original post from page 43.

A few more from Sojka's fatal crash...

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by Barton Farley ↗

A redo in ref to"The Dark's" post....

I think.....it was Jochen Rindt. This is the quote I found "“you’ve got more chance of surviving with Brabham, but more chance of winning the championship with Lotus”.

Bernie Ecclestone made this statement. He was Jochen's manager at the time. Jochen drove for Brabham in 1968.

Obviously sadly prophetic, I'm not convinced he'd have survived the crash even with proper seatbelt harness (for those who don't know he didn't wear a crotch strap and in his crash he slid down and sustained throat injuries from the buckle that would kill him) as he did lose a lot of blood and have other trauma - I believe he would have lost his foot had he survived.

Jochen's carotid artery was severed by the windscreen when he "submarined" forward because he wasn't wearing the crotch straps as part of the seat belt arrangement. The Italians didn't take Jochen to the Grand Prix Medical Unit where he would have had a chance, but put him into an ambulance where it took 45 min to get to Milan.

What's undeniable is that it clearly was a mechanical failure that pitched him left into the barrier.

The Lotus 72 had inboard front brakes and therefore hollow half-shafts (to save weight). Brake failure was suspected.

Original post from page 137.

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

Some photo's of the wreck of Jochen Rindt's Lotus 72 at Monza during practice for the Italian GP 1970. The 1970 posthumous World Champion crashed into the guardrail after 'something broke' and the front of the car went under the guardrail, ripping off the front section and as Jochen did not wear his crutch-belt he was dragged down into the car and incured fatal injuries.

The first photo shows the belts done up but importantly the crutch-belt undone. The fifth photo shows the gap under guardrail that the Lotus's nose went under.

In 1972 the 'Grand Prix Accident Survey1966-72' was published and contained a lengthy report on Jochen's accident.

'The car hit the barrier on the left hand side of the track at an angle of about 20 degrees, and the barrier broke at a joint. These are the butt type, the section's of the barrier do not overlap.
The car carried on, hitting the next upright, which was bent backwards and prised upwards by the nose of the car, which then dug underneath the rail, while the rear of the car started to pivot outwards, i.e. to the right. The right front wheel hooked on to the barrier's upright, but the momentum of the rear of the car carried it on spinning. The entire front assembly, comprising the box fabrication carrying the front suspension, the brake discs, and driveshafts, steering, pedals, and the front bulkhead, was wrenched from the front part of the monocoque.'

'Thus far the driver was probably relatively safe, retained in the car by the cockpit sides, which were still intact, and the seat harness. But with no front of the car there was insufficient restraint on him from being thrown forwards and downwards, still within his harness when the momentum of the heavy engine and gearbox end of the car spun it round again. This was the movement that inflicted some of the worst chest, throat and body injuries. The buckle of the harness caught him under the chin, preventing him from being fully ejected by centrifugal force in the spin. It is likely that some of these injuries would have been prevented had Rindt worn crurch straps as well as the four-point fixed belts. Had the crutch been fixed, the terrible leg injuries Rindt suffered might also have been avoided, although it is not clear at what stage of the accident they occured.'

'The right front wheel was wedged under the barrier at the second impact point, i.e. where the front of the car broke off. The front sub-frame was also here, although largely disintegrated. The left front wheel was the one Denny Hulme (who was following close behind Jochen), saw coming out of the dust and it was picked up on the other side of the road.'

Just think what more Jochen could have achieved in the sport if not for his untimely death, many more wins and championships would have followed....

[Barton Farley]

Jackie Stewart has been quoted as saying that he was certain Jochen would have retired after the 1970 season. There was a lot of uneasiness that weekend at Lotus as Jochen told them to bring the 49 and Chapman was having none of it. Add to that Chapman mandated no rear wing should be run. John Miles said he was terrified driving the 72 with no wing. After Monza, Jacky Ickx won Canada and was relieved he retired at the Glen so he wouldn't rob Jochen of the title.

[windowlicker]

Jochen was undoubtedly troubled by the fragility of his Lotus and by the loss of his friend Piers Courage at the Dutch GP in 1970 as well as other deaths in motorsport like Bruce McLaren's.

Jackie Stewart said, "He talked to me about it. He was going to retire."

But...when a driver has a quick car the dangers can be ignored...at least for another season or so. With a super-fast Lotus 72 and perhaps an increased pay packet for '71, would Jochen really have been able to stop himself?

Bernie Ecclestone, Jochen's manager for a number of years said, "Jochen would have raced as long as he could have, as long as he was competitive."

It sad that we were not able to see just what Jochen would have done at the end of 1970.


Some of Rindt's career highlights include,

Took part in 62 GP's, starting in 60 of them, from 1964 - 1970.
Scored 109 points
10 Pole positions
Six wins
13 podium finishes
Posthumous F1 World Champion 1970
3rd in 1966 F1 World Championship
4th in 1969 F1 World Championship

Won Le Mans 1965

Took part in Indy 500 in 1967 and '68

27 Championship and non-Championship F2 race wins

These stats just scratch the surface of Jochens career.

[windowlicker]

Ivan Capelli's last start in an F1 race at South Africa in '93, ending with a wrecked Jordan 193 after leaving the track on lap two. Ivan failed to qualify for the next race and then retired from F1 after 93 starts, 31 points, 3 podiums with best results of two 2nd places.

Ivan won three F3000 races winning the Championship in 1986. He also had a disastrous season with Ferrari in 1992 scoring only three points and being sacked before the end of the season.