This month's issue of MotorSport magazine features an interview with
Chris Amon in which he discusses the 1968 Belgian GP. This race was
significant in that it was the first race in which an F1 car was
fitted with a wing. A couple of Chris' comments regarding Spa:
On the difference the wing made: "...the car was working beautifully.
I came down the Masta Straight, after the kink. I caught up with
Brian Redman, and I can remember going by him on the inside at the
entry to Stavelot with my foot buried right in it, while he was having
to brake in his Cooper."
On a very scary moment: On lap 8 Amon's legendary ill luck struck
once again, a stone flicked up by Surtees' Honda piercing the
Ferrari's oil radiator. "It happened at the Masta kink, of all places,
which was pretty well flat. Immediately I got oil on my rear tire,
and what happened next was one of the most horrific ***y experiences
I ever had. I came out of the kink sideways, at close to 180 mph I
suppose, and I've absolutely no idea how I ever got it back"
And my favourite quote, one which I can relate to after six days of
GPL, discussing the 1968 Ferrari: "...it was a gorgeous thing to
drive, in that it was a car you could over-drive; you steered it with
the throttle really. What it lacked though was horsepower. Because
it was a V12, it SOUNDED as if it had all the grunt in the world, but
we had a lot less than the Cosworth V8 or Honda V12, and at Spa that
was very apparent"
Yeah, I can empathize with that. I've been spending a lot of GPL time
driving the Nurburgring, and I think I've gotten to know the track
fairly well (although I'm still lacking some speed in a few sections).
My best lap in the Lotus so far is 9:16.34, and that included one spin
and one trip through the grass. I switched to the Ferrari, and it
felt SO much better. I drove a completely clean lap, and as I was
flying down the long final straight, I was pretty pleased with myself
as I thought for sure I had broken the 9:00 barrier. As I passed the
S/F line my time flashed up: 9:15.99. Talk about disappointing!
Ian