Interlagos

[edu]

Sorry! Paulzinho knows better Portuguese of that English I. He will explain this

GP Brasil de 1977. A Verdadeira Curva 3 fez mais vitimas que a Curva do Sol em 2003.
O recapeamento recente da Curva 3 neste GP provocou uma série de acidentes, pois não houve tempo para uma "cura" total. Durante a corrida pedriscos soltavam-se da massa, imagine andar sobre bolas de gude. E a pista estava seca.
Foram 8 carros acidentados que ficaram na curva 3, fora os que rodaram e continuaram. José Carlos Pace saiu duas vezes. Na segunda ficou de vez.
Não havia na época Safety Car, note o fiscal correndo e arriscando-se (com o rádio na mão), o sistema de diminuir a velocidade de carros era com telas de arame, e os carros não eram retirados!
Pace rodou na sétima volta e James Hunt levou o bico do carro.
Seis voltas depois Jochen Mass perde o controle e saem junto Clay Regazzoni, Patrick Depailler e Ronnie Peterson. Depailler consegue ir aos boxes para conserto e depois saiu novamente e ficou na curva 3 (machucou as pernas) e levou junto John Watson. Logo juntaram-se ao clube Vittorio Brambilla, Jacques Lafitte e José Carlos Pace.


Resumo:
Pace
Depailler
Mass
Regazzoni
Peterson
Watson
Brambilla
Lafitte


Moco perdeu o bico na primeira vez.


Agora foi Lafitte. Note a galera em cima do muro!

Lauda passa pelo cemitério de carros


Depailler nem com 6 rodas.

Fotos: L'année Automobile 1977/78

[Lee Janotta]

Y'know, maybe using that fence from an abandoned chicken farm to stop GP cars _wasn't_ the best idea...

[paulzinho]

I don't know Portuguese perfectly but i said to edu that I'd try and translate to get the idea of what is being said, so I will!

Brasilian GP 1977. The true turn 3 took more victims than the Curva do Sol in 2003. In the recent grand prix, turn 3 took many victims but there wasn't time for a total cure to prevent these. In 1977 the track was dry! (Didn't quite understand this bit myself!).

8 cars had accidents and remained at the exit of turn 3, not counting those who spun and continued. Carlos Pace went off twice, the second time he stayed there.

There wasn't a safety car, note the official walking with radio in hand, the method of slowing cars down was catch fencing, and the cars weren't reatarding!

Pace spun on lap 7 with Hunt taking the nose off his car. 6 laps later Jochen mass lost control and took with him Depallier, Regazzoni and Peterson. Depallier managed to make it to the pits for repairs but went off again and stayed in turn 3 (hurt his legs), taking John watson with him. Joining the club soon were Brambilla, Laffite and Pace.



There you go. I think thats ok!

[edu]

"O recapeamento recente da Curva 3 neste GP provocou uma série de acidentes, pois não houve tempo para uma "cura" total. Durante a corrida pedriscos soltavam-se da massa, imagine andar sobre bolas de gude. E a pista estava seca."

Recapeamento: to change the cape of asphalt
"Cura": to dry

"The recent change of the asphalt to cape caused series of accidents, therefore did not have time for complete drying, rocks of the asphalt mass freed, were you walk on small balls".

I wait that they understand me

[Lee Janotta]

Ah, driving on ball bearings. Good lord!

[edu]

No "bearing balls". The correct translation is marbles

[Muzza]

(Edu, um abração. Obrigado pelas fotos.)

The old Curva 3 – also known as “Bacião” (The Big Bowl) was one for the brave. Located at the end of the Retão (“The Long Straight”, about 900-meter long), it had very little run-off. It was significantly slower than old Curva 1 and Curva 2, but it had less banking and less run-off area. To most categories it was a single groove turn – you need to commit to a trajectory and stick to it all the way. Margin for error was minimal.

Américo Cioffi perished at this turn in 1964 driving a Formula Libre Maserati equipped with a – believe it or not – Studebaker engine. Cioffi lost control of the car at high speed, barrel-rolled, was thrown out of the car and that was it. Other will also suffer huge shunts there, some of them with terrible consequences.

With no exaggeration, Curva 3 marked my life forever. Back in 1985, when I was still a teenager, I had already been bitten by the motorsport bug. I would ride my bicycle through the crazy São Paulo traffic all the way from Vila Pompéia to Interlagos – a 35-km long journey that we were never sure to make back alive – and a friend of mine once didn’t. An alternative was to take a bus to Santo Amaro, change lines and get a second one all the way down to Interlagos – but one weekend we got tired of being robbed by gangs and we went back to riding our bikes to the track.

Anyway, we became friends with many drivers, and one of them was Zeko Gregurincic, that raced for a small family team in the Stock Cars category – already then pinnacle of racing in Brazil. He was a backmarker, and there was no way whatsoever that we would ever become a top driver. But he and his brother were nice guys and used to let us get into their pit. This what was the coolest thing ever – and so we liked him more than most of the other drivers.

One sunny Sunday my friends and I got up early for our trip to the track on our bikes, carrying oranges, bread and water in our backpacks. And, as before, Zeko and his crew let us in. I still remember talking to him right before the start, seeing him fastening the safety belts – and giving some punches on the rev counter, for good luck or to make it work, don’t know.

We walked away, and cleared the pitlane. Away Zeko went, and the starting grid was formed. Zeko was at the back – beyond twentieth place, I believe. I walked to the front rows, to take a scoop on Ingo Hoffmann’s car, but I got there too late and I had to run and jump over the pit wall to avoid being run over by one of the Opalas.

I ran to watch the race from the back of the paddock, where one could see more than three-quarts of the track (you cannot imagine how beautiful the old Interlagos was!). Green light, it all begun. Then, at the early stages of the race, I saw one car go straight at the entry of Curva 3 and brush the external wall. I recognized the car – it was Zeko. The car seemed to scrub the wall, running along it – and, to my despair, I then saw flames.

I felt like the blood had been drained out of my face. The car was on fire, and I could not see the driver. Other cars passed by. Things seem to be moving slowly, seconds lasted forever. Then Zeko opened the door and jumped out of the car – his overall was burning. He ran on the track. It all seemed to be a nightmare. I jumped and shouted expletives, puta que pariu, não aparece ninguém para ajudar, cadê os bombeiros, caralho. Other also screamed. I looked at my friend Marcelo, and he was paralysed, frozen, covering his mouth with his hand.

[Muzza]

A fire truck arrived, one fireman ran with an extinguisher to the car. Then he saw Zeko in flames and shifted to his direction. Zeko was jumping on fire, trying to somehow bring the flames down. When he saw the fireman, he laid on the grass, face down. To my horror, I saw flames shooting out from the helmet visor.

By then the race had been stopped, or so I think. Other firemen arrived, also an ambulance. Zeko was taken to a hospital. I don’t remember well the rest of the race. It didn’t matter. Zeko was extensively burnt, going in and out of consciousness. He was judged in critical condition. Motor racing had been my passion since I was a five or six year-old kid, but I begun to wonder if it was worth. I was shocked.

Some forty days later, when he seemed to be slowly making steps towards a full recovery, Zeko died on his hospital bed of multiple organ failure, maybe associated to a septicemy.

Those were wild days in Brazilian motorsports. Rules were not enforced, and just about everything was done to make the cars faster – no matter if legally or not. Most cars were running on homemade, tricked-up fuel, highly flammable and very unstable. Zeko and his brother were suspected of doing that – but then (almost) everybody else was doing that too. Before dying, Zeko had been able to talk, and he mentioned that the saw fuel running over the dashboard even before the car had stopped. This seemed to confirm the gossips. Also, the quality of his fuel tank and safety gear was much criticized.

And as usual, as when a racing fatality happens, there were many to criticize the cars, the drivers, the teams. Most of the critics – and here we can see a parallel with too many of these occurrences – were people with no relation or experience with racing whatsoever. The expected finger-pointing started, followed by a collection of unfeasible or plain stupid suggestions. Few were able to remember that motorsport is dangerous, it will always be – and that nothing but logical and well-studied steps should be taken to minimize this risk.

Not surprisingly, few of these critics noticed that Curva 3 and the end of the Retão offered very little run-off room. Any incident was bound to become major there. Because of the nature of his crash, proper run-off areas and safety barriers might not have saved Zeko Gregurincic – but, at least, he would have sustained more chances.

Years later I would experience other very sad days in race meetings, but that was the first time I questioned my passion for this sport – and, more than that, I questioned the sport itself. And even though time and again I went back to grandstands and boxes, I will never forget that sunny Sunday, back in 1985. When I was a teenager, and loved to ride my bike to Interlagos.

[gfm]

Beautiful piece.

[Lee Janotta]

Thank you so much for sharing that, Muzza. I'm... Well, I'm speechless, that was beautifully poetic.

I was never lucky enough to see the old Interlagos firsthand, but, I though I could share a couple photos from the '75 and '80 GPs I've gotten ahold of.

De Angelis heading into (and please correct me if I'm wrong, Muzza) turn 2. Gotta love ground effects.

[Lee Janotta]

Look back from the Ferradura to turn 4, with turn 3 in the center.

[Lee Janotta]

A JPS-Lotus turning through Esse, one of the corners that's still in use.

[Lee Janotta]

Last one. A nice shot looking back from Esse to Laranja, with Ferradura below it. The natural ampitheater Interlagos is set in is simply amazing.

[Muzza]

Lee,

Thanks for your words, and double thanks for posting these pictures.

The last picture allows the viewer to imagine the steep incline at the current Laranjinha turn, linking the old Ferradura (nowadays only its final third is used, and on opposite direction to what it used to be) and Laranja.

And you are right - the first picture shows the entrance to Curva 2. Note the ample width of the track, and the pronouced banking (also worth remarking the amount of rolling on De Angelis's car suspension. The loads applied by those turns were huge).

Cheers rapaz,

[paulzinho]

Beautiful story Muzza and thanks for those pictures Lee.

The old Interlagos was once described as being like spaghetti in the way that it kept folding up on itself in such a defined area, from these photos I guess you can see why!

[mickj]

Muzza,
Well written.

[DNQ]

Great pictures, the old Interlagos track must have been fantastic. Today, with the removal of Spa, I firmly believe it's the only true drivers circuit left, alongside Monaco, and Suzuka by a stretch of the imagination.

[gfm]

Thanks for the pictures Lee and edu.

[Bulletnoz]

Originally Posted by Muzza

(Edu, um abração. Obrigado pelas fotos.)

<SNIP>

Américo Cioffi perished at this turn in 1964 driving a Formula Libre Maserati equipped with a – believe it or not – Studebaker engine.

<SNIP> .

I DO believe it was powered by a Studebaker engine! They were, and STILL are one of the toughest engines ever built. They are capable of HUGE horsepower, and they're still racing and wining today! An almost stock '53 Studebaker just finished second in his class at the La Carrera Panamericanna.

Can you tell me more about the Studebaker powered car? Any pictures? I have a Studebaker racing website, I collect and archive ANY information about them. I can't post the web address, (I already got spanked ), but if you email me I'll reveal it.