United States Grand Prix

Watkins Glen, 3 Oct 1971

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lotus 69/49B [69.F2.5] (Pete Lovely): New to Jochen Rindt Racing Ltd, managed by Bernie Ecclestone, for John Mikes and Graham Hill to race in F2 in 1970. According to Richard Spelberg's research, this car was Hill's previous Lotus 59B chassis 59-F2-20 converted to Lotus 69 specification for 1970. Also driven by Eugenio Baturone at Montjuich Park. Retained by Ecclestone for Hill to race in the first few F2 races of 1971, then sold to Pete Lovely and fitted with the rear end of his Lotus 49B for suitable races at his home track in Seattle, and for the 1971 US GP. After Lovely died in 2011, the car was sold by his daughter to Peter Gleeson (Seattle, WA), a BMW collector originally from England.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

3-litre Formula 1 World Championship events 1966-1985

These 1966 to 1985 results were initially compiled by Allen Brown, but these were in the very basic form required to track individual car histories. Since then further details, such as laps completed, qualifying times and so on, have been added from Rob Ryder's extensive database.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can help with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 7 Oct 1971 pp8-15 (by Pete Lyons). Motoring News 7 Oct 1971 pp11-13,22 (by 'MGD' Mike Doodson). Motor Sport November 1971 pp1131-1134 (by 'ARM' Andrew Marriott). Autocourse 1971-72 pp128-133 (by David Phipps). The Motor Racing Year No 3 (by Anthony Pritchard) pp108-115.

Two cars were entered by Lotus and Matra; one by McLaren, and three each by Ferrari, Tyrrell, Surtees, Brabham and March; and five again from BRM, Tim Parnell and Alan Challis beginning to buckle under the strain. The privateers were Frank Williams, Penske-White Racing, Bonnier, Lovely and Gene Mason, who was a reserve 30th entry. The only spare car was a Ferrari 312B for Ickx, which he elected to race. The extra entries were Peter Revson in Tyrrell 001, John Surtees in the side-radiator TS9, now with very different radiators, and Ecurie Evergreen's Brabham BT33 adopted as a works entry by Brabham. John Cannon replaced George Eaton in the fifth BRM, and De Adamich was back in the third March 711 instead of Beuttler. Stommelen was unwell so Sam Posey and Gijs van Lennep competed to replace him in the No 2 Surtees. Andretti and Donohue were both committed to a USAC race at Trenton, which had been postponed due to rain, and local sponsorship commitments forced their choice. Hobbs took over the Penske McLaren and reserve Barber replaced Andretti.

Among the departures announced after this race were BRM engine designer Aubrey Woods, who left to join Chris Amon, and Surtees team manager Gavin Frew.