Jack Brabham negotiates the tight confines of Pau during the April 5 weekend. Got his Jet Jackson helmet on too, hasn’t he, see here; https://primotipo.com/2020/07/11/jack-piers-and-helmets/
The car is Brabham BT30 chassis # 17 owned by ex-racer/businessman/team owner John ‘Noddy’ Coombs, the machine was shared by Jack and Jackie Stewart that season
Brabham didn’t finish at Pau fuel metering unit problems intervened. Jochen Rindt won in a works/Jochen Rindt Racing Lotus 69 Ford FVA from four BT30s: the machines of Henri Pescarolo, Tim Schenken, Derek Bell and Francois Mazet.
“Yeah, its not a bad little jigger, we’ve won a few races with BT30s in the last twelve months I suppose. It’s a lot tighter than I remember when I tested it for Ron last year mind you…”
Jack gets out of BT30/17 over the June 28, XVIII Grand Prix de Rouen-les-Essarts weekend where he was eighth in the race won by Jo Siffert’s BMW 270.
BT30/17’s best results that season was Jackie’s second place at Thruxton and victory at Crystal Palace, while Jack was second at Tulln-Langenlebarn. Coombs shipped the car to Japan in May, where JYS won the Formula Libre Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji with Ford Cosworth FVC power.
The Brothers Brambilla compound during the Hockenheim 11, 1970 weekend. The car in shot is Tino’s #7 Brabham BT30/21 (DNF) during the 1970 Preis von Baden – Wurttemberg und Hessen Euro F2 Championship round. Dieter Quester had a home-win for BMW, he prevailed in an M11 powered BMW 270. The exhaust of Vittorio’s car, BT30/22, is at right.
The essential elements of customer F2 Brabhams of the era are on display; a spaceframe chassis, Ford Cosworth 1.6-litre FVA 210bhp engine and Hewland FT200 five-speed transaxle. It was then up to the driver to make these immensely robust, chuckable, fast, Ron Tauranac designed cars do the rest.
Chassis fetishests should check out Allen Brown’s detailed review of all BT30s built on oldracingcars.com, here; https://www.oldracingcars.com/brabham/bt30/
Etcetera…
Jack toyed with wings on and off at Rouen, racing without the appendages. Here he is showing the way to customers, Derek Bell (seventh) and Peter Westbury (tenth).
Another lovely Pau GP shot, where Tim Schenken was third in the Sports Motors International Brabham BT30.
That year the European F2 Championship was won by Clay Regazzoni’s Tecno 69 and 70 FVAs with 44 points, from Derek Bell’s BT30 (he also bagged one point in a BMW 270) 35 points, and Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus 69 FVA on 25.
‘Graded drivers’ – in essence and summary, drivers who had scored points twice in the Top Six of a Grand Prix in the previous two years, and the World, F2, Indy, and Can Am Champs of the previous year – were ineligible for Euro F2 championship points.
In 1970 Rindt won at Thruxton, Stewart at Crystal Palace and Ickx at Tulln-Langenlebarn. Of the non-graded drivers, Regga won at Hockenheim, Enna-Pergusa and Imola – and won his first Grand Prix for Ferrari that September at Monza -, for Derek Bell at Montjuich Park, Barcelona, and Dieter Quester in the final Hockenheim round.
Credits…
MotorSport Images
Tailpiece…
The ‘guvnor keeps an eye on his protege during the Rouen weekend. Brabham and John Coombs, who bought his share of Brabhams over the years. See here for a MotorSport interview with John; https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-2009/71/lunch-john-coombs/
Finito…
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