Formula Two Review

European Championship

The 1969 Championship, which came to a close at the Gran Premio Roma, with Johnny Servoz-Gavin coming through to win from second place with only two rounds to go, taking maximum points and the overall lead from his German rival Hubert Hahne, who unhappily crashed in both the crucial races.

Full Championship positions are listed below. Points worth noting are the good showing by Frenchmen (thee of them in the first four places), Cevert’s first season in the formula rewarding him third place. Pescarolo was incapacitated by injuries for two races, retiring in the other two rounds in which he took part.

Munich, Germany, October 26th.
Although billed as an International event, the Formula Two race held on the military airfield in the Munich suburb of Neubiberg was just one of innumerable 10 lap races organised as an end of season experiment by two local clubs. There were classes for cars and motor-cycles of every type and there was non-stop racing from early in the morning virtually until dusk fell. The circuit was a strange mixture of long straights punctuated by straw bales at various places, the first of them being placed dangerously near the start line. Inevitably, there were accidents, none of them serious, for the loosely-packed bales were the only obstacle and by the time the 300-odd cars and 100 motor-cycles had finished with them there was hay scattered everywhere.

The Formula Two race, with a very poor entry, was intended to be a demonstration for the enormous crowd of spectators that the locally-manufactured BMW could win a race. But it was not to be: Hahne had aggravated a previous injury by crashing in the Rome GP and Quester, the sole representative of the marque, saw someone dithering with the chequered flag at the end of the ninth lap as he was disputing the lead with Westbury’s blue Brabham. Quester shot past as the Englishman braked for the first chicane, disappearing between a gap in the bales while Westbury loped off into the lead. Quester resumed, but there was no way he would catch the Brabham and the organisers rightly awarded the win to the blue car.

So the BMW has still to win a Formula Two race and the spectators were naturally disappointed. It is hoped that there will be a full-scale F2 event at Neubiberg next year, but Westbury will have some pungent remarks to make about the race to the next meeting of the GPDA, of which he is an associate member.—M.G.D.