Murph at the Races- Mosport 1972

Part One: An Overview of the 1972 Formula One Season

It was a much different Formula One world back in 1972. Today, we are so used to the amount of information on the Internet, monthly and weekly Formula One magazines can be found in the major bookstores, even here in the USA, SPEED TV carries some of the Friday practice sessions, and has live coverage of Saturday Qualifying and the F1 race on Sunday. We are used to the manufacturers ruling the roost from Renault and Toyota to BMW and Mercedes. The amount of races that make up a Formula One season run from a minimum of 17 and there is a call from Bernie E. to have up to 20 races held each year. Points are awarded for the top 8 finishers on race day…. 10 points to the winner…. And then 2^nd place = 8pts., 3^rd place earns 6pts, 4^th place = 5pts, 5^th place = 4pts, 6^th place = 3 pts, 7^th place = 2 pts. And finally the 8^th place driver earns 1 point.

The 1972 season had 12 Grand Prix’. Only the top 6 driver positions earned points……. A win earned you 9 points….. 2^nd earned you 6 pts, 3^rd = 4 points, and the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th positions earned you 3, 2 ,and 1 point respectfully. But…… you could only count your top 5 point scoring positions out of the first 6 races of the season, and your top 5 point scoring positions out of the last 6 races as well.

The 1972 season saw 5 men win Grand Prix’s….. Emerson Fittipaldi won 5 races for Lotus-Ford, Jackie Stewart won 4 races for Tyrrell-Ford, and single wins were earned by Denny Hulme for McLaren-Ford, Jacky Ickx for Ferrari, and Jean-Pierre Beltoise for BRM. Emerson Fittipaldi won the Drivers Championship and his team Lotus-Ford won the Constructors Championship.

A quick look at my 1972 copy of the AUTOCOURSE Annual reveals their “Top Ten” drivers of the year……

1: Jackie Stewart

2: Emerson Fittipaldi

3: Jacky Ickx

4: Denny Hulme

5: Mike Hailwood

6: Peter Revson

7: Ronnie Peterson

8: Chris Amon

9: Clay Regazzoni

10: Carlos Reutemann

Part Two: Mosport Park

Mosport Park is located in Ontario Province. For this race, the organizers had put up some extra guardrail, added the GPDA-approved curbing, and mesh-fencing but the course was still not quite up to snuff for a modern day Grand Prix. But, since the Canadian Grand Prix offered excellent prize money and the organizers shared the transportation costs to and from North America with the good folks at Watkins Glen ( the richest in prize money of all the Grand Prix venues), this race was not in any trouble with facing a team boycott over the safety issues. There is the promise of modern facilities and a track resurfacing that will smooth out the track……it has allot of potential.

The track itself has been compared to Brands Hatch. It is made up of mostly medium-speed sweeping bends and has one, long, uphill straight. The track is 2.459 miles in length and the race will be held over 80 laps. The start/finish line is at the high point of the course….there are 10 turns and the Moss Corner Hairpin/Complex (consisting of 3 parts of turn 5…A, B, and C.. This is the area that spectators congregate and this is where I stood most of Saturday and Sunday. and Sunday.

The price of a 3-day ticket for the event was $25.00 Canadian…… and well worth it!!!

Part Three: The 1972 Grand Prix of Canada….. the Numbers game….

1: The Canadian GP was held on September 24, 1972

2: On Pole: Peter Revson in a McLaren M19 1:13.6

The grid was a 3-2-3-2 make up. Second on the grid was Revson’ McLaren team mate, Denny Hulme, and third on the grid was Ronnie Peterson in a March 721G.

3: The Winner was Jackie Stewart in a Tyrrell-Ford 005

4: The other points positions were….

2^nd: Peter Revson McLaren-Ford

3^rd: Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford

4^th: Carlos Reuteman Brabham-Ford

5^th: Clay Regazzoni Ferrari

6^th: Chris Amon Matra-Simca

Part Four: My Photographs; What is There and What Isn’t

When I first went to races and took a camera I usually only took two or three rolls of slide film…..about 72 to 108 slides. I usually tried to get one pic of everybody during the race weekend but when you screw up either the exposure of the slide, or screw up the panning affect, or just blur the picture…….anyway, The result is that I don’t have usable slides of everybody…and then 30 years later when I go “digital” and start to scan my old stuff….I can’t find some of my old slides as well……….. the result is that for this 1972 Canadian GP I know I have some slides of Mike “The Bike” Hailwood in his Surtees, and Henri Pescarolo with that hideous Green helmet, and the BRM’s of Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Howden Ganley, and others including Bill Brack, Andrea de Adamich, and Tim Schenken….but I have no idea where they could possibly be……..’sigh.

I would like to mention a couple of things about race day. The first deals with the weather. Race day morning saw Mosport Park fogged in. The fog was so thick that you couldn’t see more than 30 yards or so in front of you. The 10:00AM warm-up was cancelled. The race was supposed to start at 1:00PM but that came and went….some in the crowd down at Moss Corner came onto the track…the natives were getting restless. At 2:00PM to pacify the crowd, the cars were sent out for a reconnaissance lap but because it was so foggy, they were sent out only one at a time. At 3:00PM, the fog started to lift so the track was open for a warm-up….. this is when Derek Bell crashed out his Tecno right in front of me and he was out of the race before it began. The race finally started just before 4:00PM…….

The second thing I want to mention is that it seemed just about everyone of the 60,000+ at the race had a transistor radio ( I was one of the few without). The reason for bringing the radios was to listen to Game 6 of the 1972 Hockey Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. Canada was down in the series and needed a miracle. Game 6 was being played in Moscow so with the time difference, the fans were listening to the game. Canada found their miracle and one could their cheers from all around the track as Canada defeated the USSR 3-2 (and would win the last 2 games to capture the series…..) Mosport Park was electric and that was before the start of the race.

About the pics……

Chris Amon pictures…… the first sound I heard at the GP was the mind-numbing Matra 12 cylinder….simply awesome. I was able to get a couple pics of Chris Amon at Moss Corners……

I also like the pic of Chris coming over the start/finish line at Mosport and when I snuck into the paddock on Saturday after practice, I was able to get a pic of Chris after the session.

Francois Cevert pictures…… the same time I took the Chris Amon pic in the Paddock, I was able to get this picture of Cevert with the French journalist “Jabby” Crombac…. The other pic is of Cevert leaving the pits for the track…one can see just how primitive those pits were.

Clay Regazzoni pictures……. Both taken at Moss Corners…one is low and one is from a tree I scaled on Saturday…… I left Mosport a “tifosi”

Derek Bell on Sunday…he is out during the warm-up

Emerson Fittipaldi…. The 1972 WDC…. From the tree

Graham Hill….taken during the warm-up…notice the fog…hard to miss

Jacky Ickx pictures…. I shot 4 with Jacky…. I like the “at speed” shot taken between turns 1 and 2…like the cars driving into the camping area as a backdrop…. Other pics are coming out of turn 1, Moss Corner, and another pic of Ickx at a distance between turns 1 and 2 giving you a glimpse of the track.

Jackie Stewart pics…I have a few of JYS…. Most at Moss Corner in his car and also Cevert’s…. also I have a pic of JYS on the long uphill “Andretti Straight” (those Canucks have a sense of humor) and a pic of JYS going through turn 10 and taking the checkered flag.

Carlos Reutemann pics… I have 3 of “Lole”… one in the pits and the other 2 coming out of Moss Corner 5A early in the race.

Niki Lauda picture…. I left Mosport a “fan” of Niki… I wished him and Ronnie Peterson good luck when I snuck into the pits on Saturday and he was very nice in his reply…. Doesn’t take much for me….though he did turn out to be a great driver….

Peter Revson pictures….. both taken at Moss Corner.

Ronnie Peterson pics….. again, both taken at Moss Corner….. Ronnie led the first 4 laps of the race but was passed by JYS right in front of me…… He was one of my favorites until his death in 1978.

Wish I had more…..heck, I wish I could find the ones that are missing….. ‘sigh

Ciao

Murph