1970 1000km of Brands Hatch


The 1970 1000 km of Brands Hatch was an endurance race held at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England, United Kingdom on April 12, 1970. The race was the 3rd round of the 1970 World Sportscar Championship season.

Pre-race

The challenging, bumpy and undulating Brands Hatch circuit near London saw New Zealander Chris Amon return temporarily to Ferrari to drive one of their 512's, and he qualified his car on pole position. Amon's fellow countryman Denny Hulme drove a works Porsche 917K with factory driver Vic Elford. This race was only for prototypes; no GT cars were allowed to enter.

Race

On the day of the race, the conditions were made awful by heavy rain, wind and cold air- a common occurrence during spring in England. The race started with Elford, Jacky Ickx in another works Ferrari, Jo Siffert in works/John Wyer Porsche 917K all getting past Amon around the outside of Paddock Hill, and Amon was followed by Piers Courage in a works Alfa Romeo, Pedro Rodríguez in the other John Wyer Porsche and the rest of the field followed.
At the end of the first lap, Barrie Smith in a privately entered Lola crashed heavily on the pit straight, and yellow flags were shown at the site of the accident. Rodriguez, who passed cars while yellow flags were being shown, was shown the black flag and went into the pits while an astonishing 2nd, was reprimanded. Ickx, like Rodriguez- was a wet-weather specialist, had passed Elford and was leading the race. But he soon went into the pits with rain-wiper motor failure.
Elford was back in the lead, but the flying Rodriguez, who had come up from coming out of the pits in 12th to 2nd by lap 15, passed Elford and led the race. This was a lead he kept until the end; he and Elford drove their cars for 5 1/2 of the 6 1/2 hours of the race in the dreadful conditions, and Rodriguez won the race by 5 laps. Porsches romped home 1-2-3-4; the first 3 being 917K's. Rodriguez' performance was such that the race is sometimes known as "the day they forgot to tell Pedro it was raining".
The running of the race was changed from a 6 hour time limit to a 1000 kilometer overall distance.

Official results

PosClassNoTeamDriversChassisEngineLaps
1S
5.0		10 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Pedro Rodríguez
Leo Kinnunen		Porsche 917KPorsche 4.5L Flat-12235
2S
5.0		11 Porsche Salzburg Vic Elford
Denny Hulme		Porsche 917KPorsche 4.5L Flat-12230
3S
5.0		12 Porsche Salzburg Richard Attwood
Hans Herrmann		Porsche 917KPorsche 4.5L Flat-12227
4P
3.0		57 Racing Team AAW Hans Laine
Gijs Van Lennep		Porsche 908/02Porsche 3.0L Flat-8227
5S
5.0		2 SpA Ferrari SEFAC Chris Amon
Arturo Merzario		Ferrari 512SFerrari 5.0L V12225
6P
3.0		56 Martini International Gérard Larrousse
Gerhard Koch		Porsche 908/02Porsche 3.0L Flat-8217
7S
5.0		5 Ecurie Bonnier Jo Bonnier
Reine Wisell		Lola T70 Mk.3BChevrolet 5.0L V8217
8S
5.0		1 SpA Ferrari SEFAC Jacky Ickx
Jackie Oliver		Ferrari 512SFerrari 5.0L V12213
9P
3.0		28 John L'Amie John L'Amie
Tommy Reid		Porsche 910Porsche 1.9L Flat-6211
10S
2.0		25 Central Garage John Lepp
George Silverwood		Chevron B8BMW 1.8L I4211
11P
3.0		28 Nick Gold Mike Beuttler
Nick Gold		Porsche 910Porsche 1.9L Flat-6201
12P
3.0		51 Equipe Matra-Simca Jack Brabham
Jean-Pierre Beltoise		Matra-Simca MS650Matra 3.0L V12201
13S
5.0		3 Scuderia Filipinetti Herbert Müller
Mike Parkes		Ferrari 512SFerrari 5.0L V12197
14S
2.0		25 Intertech Steering Wheels John Lepp
Angus Clydesdale		Chevron B8BMW 1.8L I4195
15P
2.0		81 A. M. Graphic Racing Organisation Gerry Birrell
Andrew Mylius		Gropa CMCFord-Cosworth FVC 1.8L I4195
16P
2.0		79 Roger Nathan Racing Roger Nathan
Mike Beckwith		Astra RNR2Ford-Cosworth FVC 1.8L I4193
17P
2.0		74 Chevron Racing Team John Bridges
Peter Lawson		Chevron B16Ford-Cosworth FVC 1.8L I4189

Did Not Finish

Statistics