Lost Track: Circuits of the Yore XII - Dutch Grand Prix - II

Driving on the Zandvoort track

With ghosts of 1970 Dutch GP haunting the organisers and fresh in driver’s memory, the race in 1971 went ahead smoothly. Though there were no casualties, the track was slippery and the conditions tested the wet weather driving skills of Jacky Ickx and Pedro Rodriguez, who prevailed when compared to the rest of the field to finish one and two. Interestingly, Rodriguez was the last podium finisher for a Mexican until recently when Sergio Perez, in 2012 came second in the Malaysian GP. 

The race in 1972 was cancelled because of safety reasons as the Zandvoort track had not been upgraded with the much improved racing standards at other circuits. The track underwent severe modifications and safety upgrades. The hard work paid as the race was reinstated in 1973.

Welcomed back to the F1 circus, Zandvoort circuit with its new avatar saw a lot of crowd. The excitement was seen and the race was a carnival. With race safely underway, the organisers who, until then had done a great job, saw their worst nightmare come true. Roger Williamson on lap 8, crashed out courtesy of a tyre failure. Within no time, his car was in fumes, inverted with the driver stuck inside it. The petrol tank ignited while lying on the track and caught fire.

David Purley stopped his car and came to Williamson’s rescue. The race continued but with yellow flags as they believed it was Purley’s car which had suffered this fate. He tried stopping other drivers, but they all thought it was his car that had gone off track.

Purley calls out the on-field fire marshals for help; they hesitate initially, he snatches the fire extinguisher and tries to quench the flames, but in vain. He hears his friend’s screams from the car and tries unsuccessfully to overturn the car to safety. The track side assistants were poorly trained, ill-equipped (without fire retardant suits) and bad communication didn’t help the situation as the fire rescue truck came around eight minutes later. Purley was left disappointed, helpless as he saw his friend consumed by the fire and die of suffocation. 

He was awarded the George Medal for his bravery, but he knew the medal meant nothing when compared to the way the whole situation was handled. 

Jackie Stewart won the race, his 26th and thereby took his tally of wins one more than Jim Clark’s total Grand Prix victories (which was a record then). He retired at the end of 1973 season after winning his 3rd Driver's World Championships.

Nikki Lauda by this time in 1974 had emerged as one of the stars in F1. Ferrari made it 1-2 with Lauda and the Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni claiming the top two places. 

James Hunt was steadily making his way up in his F1 career and in the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix, he won the race by 1 second over Nikki Lauda. The Austrian driving ace Lauda was quicker than the rest all weekend, had the pole position and fastest lap. James Hunt gave his constructor Hesketh Racing their first and only race win in F1.

With Lauda’s life threatening accident in West Germany during the German GP, Ferrari dropped out of the next race in Austria keeping in mind of Lauda’s condition. Call it a miracle, the Ferrari ace driver recovered well and ended up missing just the two GP’s. Ferrari returned to racing without Lauda to Zandvoort where Hunt again won the race, this time in a McLaren. The rest of the 1976 season is well documented in the forthcoming Ron Howard’s movie ‘Rush’.

The 1977 edition was won by Nikki Lauda aided by the accidents and retirements of Mario Andretti and James Hunt. Mario Andretti had a successful 1978 season. In Zandvoort, it was no different. He won the race after starting the race from pole. Incidentally this win also happened to be his final GP victory. Its been 25 years since an American driver has won a F1 race since that Andretti’s victory; and it will remain this way unless there is an influx of American race drivers in F1.

Alan Jones won the 1979 race and the 1980 edition saw the future 3-time World Champion Nelson Piquet battle it out with Alan Jones for the top spot. After an impressive debut season for the McLaren, Alain Prost was racing with his home team Renault in the 1981 season. He won his second of his 51 victories at Zandvoort.

1982 is one of the landmark years in the history of F1. Boycott of constructors, tussle with the F1 heads (FISA-FOCA war) and death of few drivers on track including that of Gilles Villeneuve.  For three races after Villeneuve’s death, Ferrari had just one of its cars running during the races. Patrick Tambay, an experienced French driver was called in to replace Gilles Villeneuve. Didier Pironi won the race, which also happened to be his last win in F1. 

Ferrari dominated the next year’s Dutch GP with Rene Arnoux winning last of his seven GP victories here and Patrick Tambay coming in second. In 1984, McLaren-TAG was close to unbeatable barring for few races (four); Alain Prost and Nikki Lauda won the remaining 12 races. Alain Prost won the race with his team mate coming in second.

Nikki Lauda after winning his third World Championships, raced one last time with McLaren in 1985. Alain Prost was fresh and had all the hunger while it was clear Lauda was well past his previous best. The season belonged to Prost hands down; however the race in Zandvoort will be remembered for the Austrian racing legend’s victory, his 25th win and most notably his last GP win.

After the 1985 season, it was curtains for Zandvoort as it turned to be the last time they hosted the Grand Prix. Outdated track and facilities which needed up gradation and housing facilities in the proximity protested against the sound levels were some of the infrastructural reasons given for the closure.

A lot of history, fatal accidents, deaths on track and yet Dutch Grand Prix hosted the F1 family no less than 30 years since the start of F1 World Championships.

I can only say I was privileged to have had an opportunity to burn some rubber on this track. Zandvoort is no Spa, Silverstone or Monza; nevertheless it has its own stories to share and the racing cars at different levels do make a visit even today to this dune town close to North Sea.

Lost Track: Circuits of the Yore VI - Adelaide Grand Prix

As a cricket enthusiast, South Australia reminds me of the Test cricket ground Adelaide. In the last few years, whenever I have mentioned my little knowledge of Adelaide to the Aussies I have met, they ask me do you follow cricket? And there you go; it is easy for them to fathom why I know few things about Adelaide.

My exposure to Adelaide in my childhood days was strictly restricted to the Channel Nine coverage of the Australian cricket. Adelaide Oval, home to the South Australian State team boasts many champions, none more famous than the legendary Sir Donald Bradman who adopted Adelaide to be his home since 1933. In the sixth part of the ‘Lost Track’ series, I write about Adelaide and my knowledge of it beyond cricket.

Few years and at the turn of this millennium, when I started researching about Formula 1; I got to know Adelaide hosted Australian Grand Prix prior to Melbourne. Called Adelaide Street circuit also known as Adelaide Parklands Circuit, this 3.78 km track brought Formula One Down Under for the first time. Although, there have been many racing activities that took place prior to the Adelaide Grand Prix such as Tasman Formula, Formula 5000 and other non-championship races; Formula One arrived a good thirty five years after it was started.

The race was part of the 1985 calendar and was slated as the last race of the F1 World Championships. Nikki Lauda after a remarkable career winning three World Championships retired after this race. Keke Rosberg, the 1982 World Champion won the race which turned out to be the last of his career.

Nigel Mansell on his way to win his maiden title in 1986 blew a tyre which destroyed his World Championship and was won by Alain Prost (second in a row) winning in a TAG Porsche powered Mc Laren. It was one such epic three way battle to the title that Prost had an outside chance against Mansell and Nelson Piquet of the Williams quite similar to the one Kimi Raikkonen had in the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix against the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Season of 1987 was somewhat a consolation for the Ferrari, winning 1-2 in spite struggling to come to grips with the power houses of McLaren and Williams. In 1988, Ayrton Senna in his first season after having moved to McLaren won the championships in spite of Prost having more points. Since the best 11 results counted to the World Championships, Senna won his maiden title by 3 points over Prost. In 1989, the race with showers was won by Thierry Boutsen after a re-start.

In 1991, there was a torrential outpour which forced the organizers to stop the race at the end of 14 laps. This race, till date happens to be the shortest race in the history of Formula One, 24 minutes all it took. Ayrton Senna won the race by which he had collected his third and last World Championships. Nelson Piquet, after having a successful F1 career winning three world championships, called it a day in 1991 and Adelaide was his last appearance.

Amongst others, Prost was fired by Ferrari before this event, for criticizing the work environment of Ferrari. He took a sabbatical in 1992 before appearing again with Williams in 1993.

1992 Adelaide marked the end of a successful partnership of McLaren and Honda. Gerhard Berger won the race for McLaren in what was a season dominated by Williams and in particular by Nigel Mansell who had already won the driver’s championships.

Williams continuing their strong form of 1992 dominated the championships with Alain Prost winning the driver’s title and retired at the end of the season. His retirement was partly due to his unwillingness to have Senna as his team-mate. Senna after having spent six successful years with the McLaren, which saw him win three World Championship titles, was to move to Williams in the following season. Senna ended on a high note when he took McLaren-Ford to the top step of the podium on his last race with McLaren. If you have watched the movie ‘Senna’, this section is beautifully captured with friendly emotions being exchanged between the McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Senna.

With the loss of Ayrton Senna early in the season, the fight for the championships was between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. With a point apart, Michael and Hill collided and both had retirements which ensured Schumacher to be the first German World Champion. The verdict was divided as to whose fault it was and it remained in that way till the final race of 1997 season at Jerez, Spain. After the 1997 season, Michael’s reputation tarnished and although he has been able to overcome with some splendid drives over the years, the incident at Adelaide will remain in the minds of F1 pundits forever.

After having made an announcement of the Australian GP being shifted to Melbourne the following season, the season of 1995 was the last Adelaide would host a Grand Prix.

The street circuit which included the famous racecourse Victoria Park as the pit lane;  Damon Hill won the final race and after 11 years of hosting the race on a street, the baton was passed on to Melbourne’s Albert Park. Adelaide also is one of the four circuits that has a corner named dedicated in the circuit 'Magny Cours', which hosted French Grand Prix several times.