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The 1968 South African Grand Prix, formally the 2nd AA Grand Prix of South Africa ( Afrikaans: Tweede AA Suid-Afrikaanse Grand Prix ), was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami Circuit on Monday 1 January 1968. It was race 1 of 12 in both the 1968 World Championship of Drivers and the 1968 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.
- South African Grand Prix
The South African Grand Prix was first run as a Grand Prix...
- South African Grand Prix
Gran Premio de Sudáfrica de 1968. 2nd AA Grand Prix of South Africa. Fórmula 1. Prueba 1 de 12 de la. temporada 1968 de Fórmula 1. Datos generales. Sede. Kyalami, Midrand, Gauteng. Sudáfrica.
- Overview
- Background
- Qualifying
- Race
- Milestones
- Standings
- References
The 1968 South African Grand Prix, officially known as the 2nd AA Grand Prix of South Africa (Afrikaans: Tweede AA Suid-Afrikaanse Grand Prix), was the opening round of the 1968 FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Kyalami Circuit on New Year's Day, 1968. The race was significant as it would be the final win for the legendary racer Jim Clark, with the Scot taking a record twenty-fifth victory to overtake Juan Manuel Fangio in the all time standings.
Practice/qualifying would actually be held in 1967 for the first round of the 1968 season, meaning most teams were either fielding developmental versions of new cars, or fairly updated 1967 machinery. Regardless, it would be Clark who took pole from teammate Graham Hill, as the Lotus 49 continued to dominate the field on pure pace.
At the start it was Jackie Stewart, driving the new Matra as their new lead driver, who swept into the lead, as Hill tumbled down to seventh with a poor start. Clark would soon ease past his compatriot to retake the lead on the second lap, before Hill began to pick off the drivers whom had overtaken him off the line.
There was a nasty incident early on when Ludovico Scarfiotti's Cooper-Maserati decided to dump all of its water, with the Italian receiving first degree burns when the cockpit received a spray. Jack Brabham ran among the leaders until he had engine problems, a fate shared by Stewart, a few laps after Hill had blasted back into second place.
With that, the race was largely run other than some minor moves and retirements, with Clark running away to win by nearly half a minute. Hill claimed a very steady second, easing off over the final laps so that Jochen Rindt finished within six seconds of him as the last man on the lead lap. Chris Amon, defending World Champion Denny Hulme and Jean-Pierre Beltoise would round out the points, in a race which had ten finishers.
Many thought that this display would be a sign to come, with Clark in all conquering form throughout the "pre"-season. Sadly, a couple of weeks before the European season in F1 started, the Scot would be killed in a Formula Two race at Hockenheim, in a race affected by heavy rain. It came just a few months after Clark had sealed his name in F1 immortality by overtaking the win record of Juan Manuel Fangio.
The South African Grand Prix meeting was becoming something of a New Year's tradition for the Formula One circus, with Kyalami once again hosting the biggest race in the African calendar. The circuit itself had been resurfaced since 1967, with the owners also deciding to widen the circuit to promote better racing. Yet, the circuit would be be the only thing to receive a revamp for the first round of 1968, as the new Grand Prix cars were not ready bar a couple of developmental creations.
BRM were one of the only teams to field a new creation, with the Len Terry designed V12 engined P126 available for the team. Mike Spence was now their lead driver after Jackie Stewart had left the team, taking his tartan seat with him, with the Englishman getting first choice of their trio of cars. Stewart's replacement would be Mexican racer Pedro Rodríguez who had signed from Cooper-Maserati, and it would be he who got to drive the new car throughout the weekend.
Stewart's departure was down to the influence of his de facto manager Ken Tyrrell, whom had supported the Scot through Formula Two. Tyrrell had been drafted in to run the new Matra International effort in Formula One, the French F2 manufacturer making the step up to the big time in 1968. Their first full blooded F1 car, the MS9 was handed to their new lead driver, featuring a Cosworth DFV engine as the original exclusivity deal with Team Lotus had ended, although it did not form part of the monocoque. They had Jean-Pierre Beltoise as their second entry, although the Frenchman would be using a ballasted F2 Matra, entered by Matra Sports.
Speaking of Team Lotus, their cars were identical to those that had completed the 1967 season, with only a couple of minor sponsorship additions to the livery. Jim Clark had a brand new car for the season, although it was only the latest of the original 49s, while Graham Hill used the car he had driven for most of 1967. Both of the cars had the latest version of the DFV engine in the back, although the team would run with only minor support from Keith Duckworth and his engineers now that their exclusivity deal had ended.
The only team who had looked to be a challenger to the Lotus effort during 1967 had been eventual World Champions Brabham-Repco, and they were also largely unchanged, mechanically, from the end of the previous season. They only entered one car on the original list, that being for new driver Jochen Rindt, whose arrival had given World Champion Denny Hulme the chance to leave the team. Jack Brabham then added his name to the entry list that was eventually submitted for the meeting, with the two Brabham racers using the 1967 BT24.
The World Drivers Champion had taken the chance to join Bruce McLaren's F1 effort, having teamed up with his New Zealand compatriot in CanAm over the previous couple of seasons. The World Champion was the only entrant for the team at the opening round, using the 1967 car, the McLaren M5A with the BRM V12, now painted orange in tribute to their American triumphs. McLaren himself would attend the race to run the team, with the brand new car set to appear in time for the start of the "pre"-season in Europe.
Practice/qualifying were scheduled together as was usual for Formula One in the 1960s, with three days of practice pencilled in, taking up Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Quite a few mechanics would be delayed on a late Boxing Day flight, while a fair number of drivers would miss out on running in the first session as their flight a day later was ha...
Sunday was a day of rest in South Africa, the mechanics were allowed to work at a rather more leisurely pace to prepare the cars for race day, with very little celebration over New Year's Eve. Most teams had been busy either swapping engines or changing cooling parts, with a rush to complete work on Monday morning, as temperatures once again rose, ...
•Debut for Jackie Pretorius.
•Seventy-second and final World Championship start for Jim Clark
•Thirty-third and final pole position for Clark.
•Ford Cosworth secured their tenth pole position.
•Clark won for the twenty-fifth time, overtaking the record set by Juan Manuel Fangio.
•The Scot also recorded his twenty-eighth fastest lap, the last time he would achieve both feats.
Victory for Jim Clark saw him top the early standings, with the Scot's victory looking fairly ominous for the rest of the runners. Graham Hill was a very healthy second and would potentially be the only challenger to the Scot, having equal machinery, and only time would tell whether the Lotus-Ford Cosworth reliability issues from 1967 would return. Jochen Rindt, Chris Amon, Denny Hulme and Jean-Pierre Beltoise were the other first round scorers.
There was a great deal of variety on the board for the Intercontinental Cup for Manufacturers, although the advantage at the top was very much in favour of Team Lotus. They headed the pack with a five point gap over Brabham-Repco, with Anglo-Aussie effort opening a second title defence. Ferrari, McLaren-BRM and Matra-Ford Cosworth were the other scorers, the latter of that trio scoring their first points.
Images and Videos:
References:
1.'GRAND PRIX RESULTS: SOUTH AFRICAN GP, 1968', grandprix.com, (Inside F1 Inc., 2016), http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr162.html, (Accessed 28/08/2016)
2.M.J.T., 'GRAND PRIX OF SOUTH AFRICA: Team Lotus dominate', motorsportmagazine.com, (MotorSport Magazine, 01/02/1968), http://motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/february-1968/20/grand-prix-south-africa, (Accessed 29/08/2016)
3.'South Africa 1968: Entrants', statsf1.com, (Stats F1, 2016), http://www.statsf1.com/en/1968/afrique-du-sud/engages.aspx, (Accessed 28/08/2016)
4.'South Africa 1968: Qualifications', statsf1.com, (Stats F1, 2016), http://www.statsf1.com/en/1968/afrique-du-sud/qualification.aspx, (Accessed 29/08/2016)
The 1968 South African Grand Prix, formally the 2nd AA Grand Prix of South Africa, was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami Circuit on Monday 1 January 1968. It was race 1 of 12 in both the 1968 World Championship of Drivers and the 1968 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.
The fast and flowing Kyalami circuit between Johannesburg and Pretoria played host to the South African Grand Prix for the second time on New Year's Day 1968. Briton Jim Clark was fastest by a second with his Lotus-Ford/Cosworth teammate Graham Hill alongside him with Jackie Stewart in the new Matra-Ford/Cosworth completing the front ...
01 Jan 1968 Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, South Africa. Race. Race result. Fastest laps. Starting grid. Qualifying. Pos. No.
