Classic Racing: A Moment of Awesomeness From the 1970 1000KM of Spa

December 14, 2009

Here’s classic racing at it’s best. As you already know, racing car’s of old took more driver skill than they do today. The lack of electronics and the massive power contributed to an awesome display of racing skills and drama. Here at the 1970 1000KM of Spa, we see some of the best racing machinery of its day at work with some of the best racing drivers of the time.

Watch out for 0:28 in the video, Pedro Rodrigues and Jo Siffert of the BRM team go neck to neck at the infamous Eau Rouge corner at Spa, showing a perfect display of courage, skill and car control at the famously notorious corner. It is said that both Pedro and Jo were given team orders at the start but it certainly doesn’t look like they are paying any attention to it.

The race was won by Siffert and Brian Redman with an average speed over 71 laps of 240km/h but Rodriguez turned a race lap at 258km/h. On the same track, that was 14 seconds faster than the fastest Formula 1 lap that year and 3 seconds faster than his own pole position. Sadly both, Pedro and Jo were killed the following year in separate races.

Source: Axis of Oversteer