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EUROPEAN GT CHAMPIONSHIP 1972-1976 By Carlos De Paula
Today GT racing is in a healthy state the world over. We do live in more affluent times, with quite a few dream cars eligible to run in the category and a lot of sponsorship money, which was not the case in the early 70’s. However, the world of sports car racing has always been a struggle between bona fide, purebred racers, mostly called prototypes, and GTs, which are basically racy, production based cars. Plus, there have been categories in between, such as the Group 5 of the mid 70’s/early 80’s, and the 5 liter sports cars of the late 60’s, which required a minimum production run of 25 units.
FISA was obviously thinking along the lines of separating the production-based GTs from pure-breed sports cars in the early 70’s. With the benefit of hindsight one might say the experience was anything but successful. The prototype (Group 6) era of the World Championship of Makes was never successful in terms of quantity or cars or field depth, while the European GT championship created for 1972 remained a Porsche benefit during the years in which the series was run.
FISA was obviously worried about the large numbers of Porsche 911’s that had been entered in the 1971 Le Mans. In fact, the ubiquitous car was entered in many other races, as it was relatively cheap to run, and reasonably competitive for long distance racing, often finishing ahead of faster, less reliable machinery such as 2-liter sports racers. However, these cars, that just a couple of years back were entered in the European Touring Car championship, were relatively slow in their 1971 guise, in comparison to beasts such as the Ferrari 512 and Porsche 917, and it was by sheer luck that they did not cause any major accidents.
The European GT championship was run between 1972 and 1976. I suppose FISA expected other GT manufacturers would jump on the GT bandwagon, as, you will notice on the illustration below, a large number of cars were eligible for the championship in 1972/1973. The graphics are scans of pages from the FIA Yearbook of Automobile Sport, which lists the cars that were homologated in Groups III and IV. In the end, Porsche 911’s dominated the series, only slightly disturbed by De Tomaso, which challenged Porsche in 1972 and 1973. It is noteworthy that certain cars, which were obvious GTs, such as Maseratis and Lamborghinis, were not homologated by the FIA, thus they absence from the racetracks. FIA HOMOLOGATED GT CARS (1972/1973)
By and large, the championship ended up a contest between teams, such as Kremer, George Loos (Gelo), Tebernum and Max Moritz, with very little non-Porsche opposition ever racing. As any reasonable person would expect, Porsche 911’s were in the majority, although some interesting, low displacement cars such as Alpines, Datsun 240, Opel GTs did appear here and there, plus the odd Ferrari Daytonas. Every once in a while, very discretely driven and prepared Chevrolet Corvettes and Camaros, Lancia and Lotus were fielded as well.
Brit John Fitzpatrik, driving a Kremer 911 ended up winning the 1972 championship on the strength of five victories, two at the Nurburgring, one at Hockenheim, one at Monza and one at Estoril. The De Tomaso challenge resulted in a win by Herbert Muller at Nivelles, plus other minor placings. The Tour de France, more of a Rally than a race, was included in the calendar, and Andruet/Biche won it in a Ferrari Daytona. Several series heroes emerged this very first year, including Claude Haldi, Claude Ballot Lena, Paul Keller, Gunther Steckkonig, Clemens Schickentanz and Jurgen Neuhaus.
The 1973 title was shared by Ballot-Lena and Schickentanz, both with 164 points. No single driver dominated the series, and Haldi and Keller did well again. Fitzpatrick raced up front, but was not lucky that year, while another Brit, Mike Parkes, of Ferrari fame, scored for De Tomaso a popular win at Imola, his last win. Formula 1 driver Clay Regazzoni added more stature for the series and scored De Tomaso’s second win of the season at Hockenheim, in a one-off drive. Sandro Munari won the Tour de France for Lancia, proving the point it was more of a rally than a race. Ligier run the latter race, with its Maserati engined example.
John Fitzpatrick won the Championship again in 1974. The calendar was much shorter than in the previous years, as the oil crisis affected most racing series in the world, with the sole exception of Formula 1, which thrived. This time Fitz won only three races, and was closely followed by Swiss Paul Keller and German Clemens Schickentanz, who won a race apiece. De Tomaso showed well in the first heat of the first Monza race, won by Mario Casoni, thereafter evaporating from the series. On the drivers side, new exponents appeared, such as Tim Schenken, Reine Wissel, Gijs Van Lennep, Manfred Schurti, Bob Wollek and Rolf Stommelen, who won the Intereuropa Cup at Monza.
Hartwig Bertrams, who often paired with Schickentanz in the long distance races, won the 1975 title for Tebernum. The year marked the emergence of Gelo as a power to be reckoned with, fielding a strong team of drivers that included Fitzpatrick, Schenken and newcomer to the series Toine Hezemans. While Gelo accumulated victories, Bertrams accumulated points, and his sole victory was at the 6 Hours of Monza. Formula 1 drivers such as Arturo Merzario and Vittorio Brambilla also appeared in the series, the latter sharing a Marlboro sponsored Lancia with Faccetti at Monza. Merzario raced two rounds, ending 4th at Misano and 2nd in Monza. As for diversity of machinery, things got worse, and except for the Lancia, most non Porsches just made up the numbers.
By this point, it was becoming clear that the European GT Championship made very little sense. Most of the top teams also contested the World Championship of Makes, where the by now much more powerful Porsche Carreras could often score top 5 results. The German championship was little by little gaining in stature as an international tournament, plus, the 1976 World Championship of Makes would be run to Group 5 specification, further diluting the resources of the teams and the reason for the championship.
Nonetheless, the championship was run one last time in 1976, and GELO came out far ahead of its main competitor, Kremer. Toine Hezemans won five races, including the first three of the year, and was expertly backed up by teammate Schenken, who shared one win. Bob Wollek won his single race in the series, at Imola, and other prominent drivers, such as Klaus Ludwig, Hans Heyer, Derek Bell and Helmut Kelleners also made the scene. The only interloper in a sea of Porsches was the lone Lancia Stratos, which did not do much in the hands of Gianfranco Ricci, except for a third place in the poorly support race at Misano, which was boycotted by the German teams, won by the strangely named “Tambauto”. So in 1977 there was no more European GT Championship. The German Championship (DRM) was run to Group 5 specification, although many of the grid fillers in the larger division were in fact group 4 Porsches, the same occurring with the World Championship of Makes. However, Group 5 was not much of a long term success, and by the end of the decade the “Silhouette” formula was pretty much dead.
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