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Zandvoort Trophy

Zandvoort, Netherlands

Date: 12/8/1973
Track length: 4.226 m
Attendance: 20.000
Entries accepted: unknown
Starters: 26
Finishers: 14 classified

Pole position: Amon in 1.35,2
Fastest lap: Mass and Hezemans in 1.36,3 = 157,979 kmh

Distance: 4 hours
Average speed: 150,911 kmh
Weather: sunny and hot
Ruleset: Group 2/70
Car info: 1973 Cars

Pictures

After the Williamson drama, the international community was not very keen to visit the classic track. But the Dutch authorities had acted; the German ONS was asked to bring five rescue cars - a thing that was tried for the GP as well but failed to materialise, not only the organisers fault. So the atmosphere was relaxed after all, only the wind giving troubles - sand was blown on the track all the time.
The circuit seemed to suit the lighter Capris; apart from the works cars, Ford also had some help: the yellow-blue Capri of Fritzinger (shared with Akersloot) and the Capri of Mesia, which was lent a works engine as a thank-you for lending the car for aerodynamic tests.

BMW had its usual two-car works team, with holed front spoilers to reduce the temperature of the left front tire. They were fastest in practice, sharing the front row with the first Capri. The second row consisted of the second Capri and the Schnitzer car of Pescarolo/Ertl. Muir/Hunt with the Alpina car had to rely on a 3.3 litre engine, just like the second car of Brun/Cocher. The Zakspeed Escort of Heyer/Mohr lead the two litre brigade, faster than the Broadspeed car of the Hanson brothers, the Escort of Berg and the Koepchen-2002 of Kelleners/Menzel. Though the modified Alfetta was not too bad in practice, according to Stommelen, it was slower than the outdated GTAm of Dini/Dona.

The race turned out to be a classic. It started overwhelming, none withstanding the fact that the Koepchen BMW did not start at first so missed the action. A trio led: Stuck/Mass/Hezemans who fought for the lead in a way that one may have thought the race would only last five laps. Pescarolo closed while the Alpina cars and the second Capri took it more easy.

The fight was so intense, that hardly anyone noticed the retirements of Berg (Escort), the Alfetta and the Mesia Capri. While Fitzpatrick came to the pits to replace a spark plug, Mass had taken the lead. A failed overtaking manoeuvre by Stuck resulted in a pit stop for two new front tires and cleaning out a lot of sand.
Now Mass came in with drive shaft failure, which could not be repaired. Amon/Stuck retired with a broken gearbox. One hour to the finish, Ertl (Schnitzer) was in the lead in front of Hezemans, Muir, Fitzpatrick and Fritzinger. Hezemans came closer to Ertl, who came in unexpected with smoke alarm which turned out to be a burned front tire. When Pescarolo went out again, but brake failure took the brave Schnitzer equip out. So Hezemans won, followed by Muir and Fitzpatrick. Zakspeed took the two litre honours.


Division 1 and 2
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine
Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)
Engine
Type
Group Distance,
time
Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out,
remarks
1 1 9 BMW Motorsport GmbH
BMW 3.0 CSL
Toine Hezemans, NL
Dieter Quester, A
3498 L6 Div. 2 143 laps, 4:00.16,0 2 1.35,7 1.36,3  
2 2 12 Jägermeister Alpina Racing
BMW 3.0 CSL
Brian Muir, AUS
James Hunt, GB
3303 L6 Div. 2 142 6 1.37,7    
3 3 1 Ford Köln
Ford Capri RS 2600 LW
John Fitzpatrick, GB
Gérard Larrousse, F
2999 V6 Div. 2 141 4 1.37,0    
4 4 3 NMB Racing Team
Ford Capri RS 2600
Klaus Fritzinger, D
Han Akersloot, NL
2980 V6 Div. 2 140 7 1.39,1    
5 5 14 BMW-Alpina
BMW 3.0 CSL
Walter Brun, CH
Cox Kocher, CH
3303 L6 Div. 2 136 8 1.40,0    
6 1 25 Zakspeed RTL
Ford Escort RS 1600
Hans Heyer, D
Manfred Mohr, D
1975 L4 Div. 1 134 9 1.40,2    
7 2 33 Koepchen BMW Tuning
BMW 2002
Helmut Kelleners, D
Harald Menzel, D
1990 L4 Div. 1 131 12 1.41,8   16v car
8 3 22 Autodelta S.p.A.
Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm
Hans Deen, NL
Teodoro Zeccoli, I
1985 L4 Div. 1 131 17 1.46,7    
9 4 23 Autodelta S.p.A.
Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm
Spartaco Dini ("Paco"), I
Walter Dona, I
1985 L4 Div. 1 130 11 1.41,4    
10 6 10 Team Schnitzer Motul
BMW 3.0 CSL
Harald Ertl, A
Henri Pescarolo, F
3498 L6 Div. 2 129 5 1.37,1    
11 5 29 The Barbarians
Ford Escort RS 1600
Peter Hanson, GB
John Hanson, GB
1996 L4 Div. 1 126 10 1.40,9    
12 6 31 Team Broadspeed
Ford Escort RS 1600
Rafael Barrios, E
Emilio Rodriguez Zapico, E
1850 L4 Div. 1 122 15 1.42,8    
13 7 24  
Opel Manta
Franz Heine, D
Gerrit de Vries, NL
2000? L4 Div. 1 120 24 1.54,4    
14 7 7 Opel Gulf Racing Team
Opel Commodore GS/E
René Tricot, B
Patrick Nève, B
2784 L6 Div. 2 119 25 1.54,7    
DNF   8 BMW Motorsport GmbH
BMW 3.0 CSL
Hans-Joachim Stuck, D
Chris Amon, NZ
3498 L6 Div. 2 90 1 1.35,2   Accident
DNF   37  
BMW 1602
Karl-Heinz Tibor, D
Dieter Hegels, D
1600 L4 Div. 1 83 21 1.51,2    
DNF   5 Pepsi-Cola
Ford Capri RS 2600
Jaime Mesia, E
Alberto Ruiz Giménez, E
ca. 2900 V6 Div. 2 72 14 1.42,4   Accident
DNF   35 Balafre Lancome
BMW 2002
Lothar Wagner, D
Paul Verheij, NL
1990 L4 Div. 1 57 22 1.52,1    
DNF   6 DNRT Marlboro Team
Opel Commodore GS/E
Fred Frankenhout, NL
Huub Vermeulen, NL
2784 L6 Div. 2 53 23 1.52,5    
DNF   41 Alfa Romeo Deutschland
Alfa Romeo 1300 GTA Junior
Hartwig Bertrams, D
Hans Hessel, D
1290 L4 Div. 1 49 26 1.55,6    
DNF   20 Toyota AG Schweiz
Toyota Celica GT
Herbert Müller, CH
Jürg Dubler, CH
1588 L4 Div. 1 40 18 1.47,7   Head gasket
DNF   2 Ford Köln
Ford Capri RS 2600 LW
Jochen Mass, D
Dieter Glemser, D
2999 V6 Div. 2 31 3 1.35,9 1.36,3 Halfshaft
DNF   39 Hannen Alt Racing Team
BMW 2002
Manfred Verkühlen, D
Peter Kuhlmann, D
1990 L4 Div. 1 14 20 1.49,9    
DNF   21 Autodelta S.p.A.
Alfa Romeo Alfetta Berlina
Rolf Stommelen, D
Carlo Facetti, I
1800 L4 Div. 1 10 13 1.42,3   Gearbox
DNF   30  
Ford Escort RS 1600
Karl-Heinz Leibold, D
Armand Müller, D
1975 L4 Div. 1 9 19 1.49,7   Rear axle
DNF   27  
Ford Escort RS 1600
Ernst Berg, NL
Bert Dolk, NL
1800 L4 Div. 1 2 16 1.45,2   Clutch
DNS   34  
BMW 2002
Wilhelm Urlbauer, D
Günther Scherf, D
1990 L4 Div. 1   27 1.56,2    
DNS   48 Datsun Radio Noordzee Racing Team
Datsun Sunny coupé
Han Tjan, NL
Ernst Antonides, NL
1295 L4 Div. 1