Bad day for the Gulf cars…
… but good day for Porsche. Bad day indeed for this Gulf Porsche 917K entered by JW Automotive Engineering and driven by David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood which crashed out after five hours, in the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours (picture-above)… notice how exposed the driver was in the 917.
JW Automotive fielded three Gulf-livered 917Ks and was favourite. The lead car was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman: they had already won two rounds in the championship. Pedro Rodriguez, already a Le Mans winner in 1968 for Wyer in a Ford GT40, and Leo Kinnunen, in the second car, had won three races. Brits David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood, who had driven Wyer’s Ford the previous year, had the third car fitted with a 4.5-litre engine.
Porsche, much to Wyer’s surprise, supported a second works team based in Austria. The reason: the new Porsche Salzburg team was run by Louise Piëch, sister of Ferry Porsche and mother of famous technical director Ferdinand Piëch. Vic Elford-Kurt Ahrens ran the 4.9-litre 917LH, while Swiss pairing Rico Steinemann-Dieter Spoerry and veterans Hans Herrmann-Richard Attwood had 4.5-litre K’s.
No luck, all the JW Automotive-entered cars were forced to retire in the race while leading, crashing out or encountering mechanical woes, and victory went to Herrmann and Attwood in the red and white Salzburg Porsche, who led a formidable 1-2-3 for the German marque’s first overall victory.
