Circuit of Barcelona (April 9th)

The Cosworth-powered circus that performed so well at Pau on April 2nd moved across the Pyrenees to Barcelona for the following weekend and were joined by a few more runners, notably the Protos of the Ron Harris team, driven by Frenchman Offenstadt. The race was over 60 laps of the twisty circuit around the Montjuich park on the edge of the city. Clark was obviously well settled in to this new Formula for he notched pole position on the grid and Team Lotus seemed to have recovered from their disorderly start to the season. Twenty cars assembled on the grid, all with Ford-based engines; those that did not have the new 16-valve Cosworth engines had enlarged Cosworth SCA or Lotus twin-cam engines. Clark, Rindt and Brabham were on the front row, a mere tenth of a second separating the practice times of the first two, while Brabham got on the front row by a tenth of a second from Beltoise, in a works Matra.

Clark set the pace for the race, but not with ease, for Brabham, Rindt and Hulme were hard after him, with Graham Hill leading the second pack. Rindt blotted his copybook by spinning, which dropped him back down the field and while Clark continued to dominate the race Rindt fought his way back to second place, assisted by the retirement of Brabham with a blown up engine, and the retirements of Hill and Beltoise.

In the Formula Three event the British contingent were once more beaten by the works Matra team, this time by Henri Pescarolo as team leader Jaussaud was at the Le Mans test week-end. The entry was divided into two heats, over 20 laps, with a combined final over 35 laps and Chris Williams won the first heat, from Bell, Knight and Daghorn, while Pescarolo won the second heat from Cardwell, Gethin and Svensson. In the final Williams spun and lost ground, but caught up the leaders again only to retire with mechanical trouble, as did Cardwell and Gethin.

The things they say…

Eric Cant, a 20-year-old policeman, when resigning from Fife Constabulary: “It became obvious to me that the role of the policeman is going to be to hound the motorist more and more.”

Notek 777

The price of the Notek 777 iodine vapour spotlamp we referred to in March is £6 3s., and not as stated.