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BMW Formula 2
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The end of a fantastic era ...
...was the last round of the European Formula 2 Championship in Hockenheim 1970. At that moment nobody knew it would be the last appearance of BMW as the constructor of both the chassis and the engine. As you can see from the pictures from there was a fierce battle between the works Tecno Ford from Italy of Frenchman Francois Cevert (No.5) and Clay Regazzoni of Switzerland (No.4) with the BMW of Austrian Dieter Quester (No.1). The other cars from Munich, their aluminum monocoques had been built at the Dornier air-craft plant, were driven by German chassis engineer Dieter Basche (No.3) and Derek Bell from England.
In Austria Quester generally was considered to be one of the successors of late worldchampion Jochen Rindt (the others were Niki Lauda and Dr Helmut Marko). BMW won 4 races so far the 1970 season with Jacky Ickx from Belgium twotimes, Hubert Hahne (Germany) and Jo Siffert (Switzerland) once on the top position. Regazzoni, who had given his Grand prix debut at Zandvoort/Holland with a 4th place in a Ferrari 312B, was known as a tough late braker and for Quester he became a bitter pill to swallow during this event.
After the retirement of the second driver of the Bologna based and by the Pederzani brothers owned team, Francois Cevert (broken valve), Regazzoni and Quester stood alone at the top to fight for victory in a classical slipstream battlle. At the end of the race Regazzoni did everything possible to avoid being in the leading position but he failed to do so. At the end of the 35th and last lap Quester was able to overtake the Swiss at the motodrom`s entrance, a sharp right curve after a 900 metre long straight from the second chicane (today named Ayrton Senna Curve). Quester, who was at the inner side of the bend, was a quarter of a car length ahead, when Regazzoni also moved to the right side of the track ...
... the cars came
closer and closer, but Quester did not give away a single inch
...
... at the end of the
corner the BMW
jumped with his left rear wheel over Regazzonis right front wheel
...
... and was
catapulted high into the air. Both cars spun into the grass, but
Quester reacted a little faster, clever using a service road to
bring the BMW back to the track.
The Austrian won his first ever Formula 2 race (new European Champion Clay Regazzoni came home second after the incident), BMW their last one as constructors before supprisingly retiring from Formula 2 in winter 1970. The collision of Quester and Regazzoni was discussed by millions of people in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France very emotionally, the pictures shown here from an old magazine, were taken directly from the television screen and were a pure sensation. In spite of the fact, that colour television already was available in Germany for 3 years, the transmission was in black and white because of the costs.
J H
Engineer Dieter Basche from BMW (3) ahead of Vittorio Brambilla
Further informations you will find at: www.john-w.de/bmwf2/
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