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Second round of the 1970 Manufacturers Championship was obviously to be a battle between Porsche's and Ferrari's heavy metal, and as far as entries were concerned it looked like being a well-matched contest for the German cars numbered four 917s amongst their strength, and there were four Ferrari 512Ss. Two of the 917s were for the JW-Gulf camp, and there were two new cars for Porsche.-Audi of America.
The four Ferrari 512Ss were all factory cars except the one car which was allocated to Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team hereinafter known as NART The JW 917s were to be driven by the redoutable Siffert-Redman, Rodriguez-Kinnunen combinations and the Porsche-Audi machines by the powerful pairings Elford-Ahrens and Herrmann-Lins.
The factory Ferraris were in the hands of Andretti-Merzario, Ickx-Schetty, and Giunti-Vaccarella. The NART car was manned by Posey and Bucknum, and with Porsche one-up on Ferrari after the Daytona affair, it promised to be a stern fight.
Wyer actually had one brand-new 917, the Daytona-winning car for Rodriguez and Kinnunen, and a spare. Both the Porsche-Audi cars were brand-new. Since Daytona, the JW-Gulf band had added extra air-intakes for crew and damper cooling, bigger wheel bearings, wider wheels and so on.
All four Ferrari 512S machines were new with rehashed streamlining, beefed-up chassis, yet with 80 lb. rumoured to be taken off. The latest fuel-injection equipment was said to boost the V12 engines by 40 bhp.
The sport-prototype brigade included three Alfa-Romeo three-litre Tipo 33/3s for Courage-de Adamich, Stommelen-Galli, and Gregory-Hezemans and, two Matra 650 Spyders for Pescarolo-Servoz-Gavin and Cevert-Gurney.
The lanky Californian was 'standing in' for his old team-mate Jack Brabham who was racing at Brands Hatch in the Formula 1 "Race of Champions" (which he very nearly won, but finished in fourth place).
Two three-litre Ferrari 312Ps were entered by NART for Parkes-Parsons and Adamowicz-Chinetti jnr, and extra zest was lent to the entire affair by the three Porsche 908s entered, with one car each, by AA W Finland (Laine-Lennep), International Martini Racing Germany (Larrousse-Attwood), and Solar Productions' car for Revson and McQueen. The last-named car was entered by McQueen's film company, and the actor himself was driving with his left foot in a special plaster cast after a cross-country motorcycle race crash some seven days before in which he finished fourth!
Lola was represented in the 1970 race by Udy and Hailwood with the Springbok-winning Mk 3b, and. by Brown and Young in the Randy's Auto Body T70. There were also two Ford GT40s, one entered by Trevor Graham, the other by Auto Enterprises. Drivers, respectively, Forester-Hedges and Grant-HepperistalL--The field was completed by two Chevron B16s (Baker-Baker and Robinson-Kleinpeter), Corvettes, Camaros, 911Ss, MGBs, Fiats & etc.
First day of the official 1970 practice went to Siffert who rushed the JW-Gulf 917 around in 2 m. 34.47 s. On the Friday Andretti took out the works Ferrari 512S and returned an exciting 2 m. 33. 5 s., earning his car pole position.
The latest Ferrari was obviously very quick as well! The rolling start (the Le Mans start had been scrapped for the first time at Sebring) with 2 X 2 placings, had a Porsche 917 and a Ferrari 512S in the first three rows.
The bright sunny morning was blasted first by marching bands on show at the circuit, but the blast as the big field got away was more musical to race-fans ears. Andretti rushed away but Siffert wasn't far behind.
It seemed obvious that the two cars were in there as pace-setters, for the sprint pattern they were pursuing didn't seem to add-up to longevity. The Matras led the prototypes, but behind them the Ferraris and AlfaRomeos were battling grimly.
In less than half-an-hour Siffert had smashed, the lap record at 2 m. 33.11 s. in his efforts to pass the flying Ferrari, but Andretti was in the mood and held off the German aircooled machine. The Italo-American dashed into his pit after 47 minutes of racing hoyvever, and indicated that partly-filled fuel tanks were some of the reason for the Ferrari's terrific showing. But only some.
Siffert was another seven minutes before he pulled-in for fuel-a job that the JW team managed far better than Ferrari, so after an hour's racing the Porsche, now in the hands of Redman, was out in front of the Porsches of Elford-Ahrens and Rodriguez-Kinnunen. The Ickx-Schetty Ferrari was fourth, and Matra led the prototypes with Gurney at the wheel in seventh place overall, just ahead of team-mate Pescarolo. None of the three litre cars had refuelled. The Herrmann-Lins 908 went out with an over-revved engine. Then it all happened. Race-leader Redman shot into his pit with a loose ignition lead, Kinnunen passed Ahrens into the lead then suffered a puncture: so both 917s were passed by No. 19 with Andretti back in chargeand charging! Two and a quarter hours had passed and the lckx-Schetty 512S was in second place. With three hours gone quarter-distance-the Giunti-Vaccarella 512s had moved into third and the red cars looked set and sure. The last of the "Salzburg" 917s retired as the result of being involved in a stupid accident sparked off by one of the slowest cars. Elford limped to his pit after the multiple shunt, and his front wheel fell off. It seemed the beginning of the end for the Porsches, for the Siffert-Redman 917, hopelessly behind, made for the pits with wheel bearings sloppy in a front upright. In 35 minutes it was back in the race with a new upright from the practice chassis. Examination of the removed upright however indicated stretching bolts-and more trouble. Soon the Rodriguez-Kinnunen car was in with a sloppy front-end. The original troublesome upright had by then been repaired, so it was fitted to the car which shot off again into the race. But all was riot lovely in the garden, for the Finnish driver clouted a Mustang with his tail (the car's, that is !), so he came in again for the tail to be transplanted from the spare car. In the middle of all the uproar, the other 917 came in for fuel but it wasn't necessary! The cooling fan had detached itself, and the motor had had its day-before the night stint had started.
So at half-distance it seemed that Ferrari had it made, and that they were fully avenging themselves for the Daytona debacle. The Andretti-Merzario car led with 131 laps to its credit, backed-up by Vaccarella-Giunti and Ickx-Schetty who had covered 130. The three-litre prototypes were now led by the Revson-McQueen 908, seven laps behind. Both the Matras had experienced electrical troubles, the Adamowicz-Chinetti Ferrari was out with overheating, but the Parkes-Parsons 312P was in fifth place.
The three Ferraris roared into the night looking invincible. But the NART car which had been damaged in the early multiple shunt, had fuel feed trouble, then~ the clutch became troublesome, so Chinetti snr pulled it out of the race. Then the motor of the Ickx-Schetty 512S died, and with four hours to go the Giunti-Vaccarella car punctured a tyre and the grinding drive to the pits on the wheel deranged the suspension-and it took the Ferrari mechanics 24 minutes to get it back into the contest. The three Alfas were experiencing troubles, and after another hour, Siffert's 917 broke another upright and was out. The Swiss was quickly popped into the other car with Rodriguez, and Kinnunen being given the day off, but a hub breakage happened and the Porsche dropped to fourth.
Just when it looked as though it was to be a Ferrari victory, and with only 80 minutes to go, the leading 512S slowed, jammed in one gear. Then it seized and Merzario got out. Incredibly, JW's one remaining 917 was leading!
Equally incredibly, the Revson-McQueen 908 was second. Vaccarella came in for fuel and Forghieri put Andretti behind the wheel. It was an "impossible" task, but the Italo-American put on an amazing display. He knocked off five seconds a lap, and with 22 minutes to go, passed the 908 into second place. It was terrific driving which put excitement back into the race after nearly 12 hours. Then the leading Porsche came in with broken hub studs, and it took the JW mechanics eight minutes to get it back into the race-but it was in fourth place.
So Ferrari won after all, 23.8 seconds ahead of the 908. It was a momentous drive by Andretti, but equally, the Revson-McQueen showing was great stuff. It was Ferrari's first Championship "sports car" win since 1967.
Previous Winners
Sebring
1950 Wacker-Burrell Cadillac-Allard 66.95mph
1952 Grey-Kulok Frazer-Nash 62.83
1953 Fitch-Walters Cunningham 74.96
1954 Moss-Lloyd Osca 73.96
1955 Hawthorn-Walters Jaguar 78.86
1956 Fangio- Castellotti Ferrari 84.07
1957 Fangio- Behra Maserati 85.36
1958 Collins-P.Hill Ferrari 86.6
1959 Gendebien-P.Hill-Gurney-Daigh Ferrari 81.46
1960 Gendebien-Herrmann Porsche 84.74
1961 Gendebien-P.Hill Ferrari 90.21
1962 Bonnier-Biachi Ferrari 88.28
1963 Surtees-Scarfiotti Ferrari 90.36
1964 Parkes-Maglioli Ferrari 92.36
1965 J.Hall-R.Hisson Chaparral 84.72
1966 Miles-Ruby Fort GT mk II 98.63
1967 Andretti-McLaren Ford mk IV 103.13
1968 Siffet-Herman Porsche 102.51
1969 Ickx-Oliver GT40 109.51
