Page 19 - Against All The Others

024 David Bull
©2024 David Bull Publishing ©2024 David Bull Publishing ©2024 David Bull Publishing
OPPOSITE: There are as many opportunities for accidents as there are turns on the road course. Practice days involve not only learning the route but dodging everyday traffic and even animals. [REVS INSTITUTE, KARL LUDVIGSEN PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION]
BELOW: The traditional Porsche “win” poster showed a car blurred through a corner or flashing along a straight. But as Helmuth
Bott explained to Vic Elford, “For once, it wasn’t Porsche that won, it was the driver.” [COURTESY PORSCHE CORPORATE ARCHIV]
As the course evolved, so did its challenges. But it was never shorter than 72 km, never fewer than 1,600 turns, and never less than 1100 m (3609 ft) in elevation changes. Practice days were always open to local traffic, putting racers and civilians alike at great risk. What’s more, because they were public roads and not a groomed closed circuit, the road surface was often brutal on race cars. Merely finishing brought the entrants bragging rights. And in truth, very little had changed with the circuit, the roadway, or its freely moving spectator citizenry between 1906 and 1968.
Following the less than sterling debut of the new 908s at Monza, Ferdinand Piëch and Huschke von Hanstein realistically chose to leave those cars in Zuffenhausen for the Targa and take the well- proven 907s. While these cars still had problems, they were identified, and spare pieces and repair times could be factored into the Targa equation.
Porsche Engineering arrived in Palermo with five 907s, four as racing cars plus a fifth, already with plenty of miles on it, as the shared training car. Von Hanstein paired Hans Herrmann and Jochen Neerpasch in 907-022 (#222); Vic Elford and local hero Umberto Maglioli in 907-025 (#224); Jo Siffert and Rolf Stommelen in 907-029 (#226); and Ludovico Scarfiotti and Gerhard Mitter in 907-030 (#230). It seemed that Ferdinand Piëch’s “business plan” of assembling new cars for each race and selling off
the “used cars” was beginning to work. Because, in addition, three private teams entered their 910s and were welcomed into the family. On top of that, there were three 906s whose teams also were made welcome. What was more, six 911s also entered, equally divided among S and T versions. And a single 356 (#38) also came to compete—a cabriolet, no less.
With the same sense of reality that led Porsche to leave the 908s for another time, John Wyer reviewed the mix of roads on the Piccolo Madonie and knew these could defeat his cars and drivers as easily as any other car. His priority was the 1000 km at the Nürburgring two weeks later. He rationalized his decision, writing in his book The Certain Sound, “On the Sicilian circuit, the GT40 was like a whale in a goldfish pond.” They stayed home. A single private GT40 did enter.
Enzo Ferrari continued his protest against the FIA. He essentially had dissolved his sports-car team, and this left several talented drivers available to other teams. Just as with the lone Ford GT40 aspirants, two Ferraris entered anyway: David Piper’s 250 LM (with Paul Vestey co-driving) had
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1968 RACINg SEASON, PART I
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