Glemser/Fitzpatrick Ford Capri RS2600 ahead of a Ferrari 312PB and a Porsche 911RSR, Le Mans 1973 (Schlegelmilch)
Ford’s battles with BMW in 1970’s touring car racing are legendary as both manufacturers battled for supremacy. The adage ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’ was reflected in big marketing spends in the European Touring Car Championship at the time…
Chris Amon in the CSL he shared with Hans Stuck, Le Mans ’73 DNF lap 162 with accident damage (Schlegelmilch)
In 1973 the protagonists in the big car class were the RS2600 Capri and 3.0CSL, the title that year won by Toine Hezeman’s BMW with wins at the Spa, Zandvoort and Paul Ricard rounds.
Toine Hezemans/Dieter Quester CSL winning the class at LeMans in 1973 (unattributed)
Jackie Stewart and Jochen Mass, Monza ETCC round 25 March 1973 (Schlegelmilch)
Such were the number of GeePee drivers involved one could have mistaken the paddocks for F1 events rather than touring cars; Stewart, Amon, Stuck, Hunt, Lauda, Ickx, Pescarolo and Emerson Fittipaldi all had a steer during the ETCC that year.
Jean Claude Andruet/Richard Bond Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona 20th, Dieter Glemser/John Fitzpatrick Capri, out in the 20th hour with a broken rod (Schlegelmilch)
Whilst Le Mans was not part of the ETCC, Ford and BMW slugged it out in the 24 Hour Classic although only one of the factory cars went the distance; the Dieter Quester/Toine Hezemans BMW was 11th overall with 307 laps.
The race was won by the superb 3 litre V12 Matra MS670B piloted by Henri Pescarolo/Gerard Larrousse, the rapid sports-prototype covering 355 laps. The best placed Ferrari 312PB was 6 laps adrift of the Matra, Art Merzario and Carlos Pace were second with another Matra 670B driven by the two Jean-Pierre’s, Jabouille and Jaussaud in third place.
#53 Koinigg/Vinatier/Birrell and #55 Glemser/Fitzpatrick (Schlegelmilch)
As to the rest of the factory touring car entries; the Dieter Glemser/John Fitzpatrick RS2600 schnapped a conrod on lap 239, the Chris Amon/Hans Stuck BMW had an accident on lap 162.
The woe continued with the Helmut Koinigg/Jean Vinatier/Gerry Birrell Ford having valve gear trouble on lap 152, Gerry Birrell swapped into this car after his own Capri had ignition problems. Hans Heyer co-drove that entry.
Mike Kranefuss, keeps an eye on proceedings, ‘the boss’ as the cap suggests (Schlegelmilch)
Glemser/Fitzpatrick RS2600 at Le Mans, DNF with a broken rod (unattributed)
I guess the cars weren’t stressed for 24 hours so perhaps the results are not too surprising, I posted an article about the fabulous Cologne Capri’s which may be of interest to those who have not read it; https://primotipo.com/2015/04/09/australias-cologne-capris/
Credits…
Rainer Schlegelmilch
Tailpiece: Glemser/Fitz in the pits…
primotipo... 
Again Mark you have done a great job on this! I love reading your work!
Thanks Mike,
the touring car stuff always hits the spot, Moffs Capri a favourite car of mine!
Mark