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Tricky Targa

20. Sep 2021 
by Pierre Van Vliet
4865 views

Targa… Fuori!

After the victory of Merzario-Munari in a Ferrari 312PB in 1972 (in front of an Alfa 33 of a certain Helmut Marko, partnered by Nanni Galli, who drove a fantastic race with the best lap of all times), the Scuderia fielded two prototypes in Sicily for the 1973 edition of the legendary race, on the 92 km road circuit, that counted for the World Constructors Championship.

As seen on this picture, the experience ended off track for Jacky Ickx’s only participation at the Targa, while the other 312 PB of Arturo Merzario had to retire with a mechanical problem and the Alfa 33 of Andrea de Adamich ended up in one of the guard rails.

This gave the opportunity to the Porsche 911 RSR of Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep (picture below) to capture victory, proving that the prototypes were not really adapted to this very treacherous track.

The 1973 edition was the last really competitive edition of the Targa Florio, although Larrousse-Ballestrieri (Lancia Stratos) in 1974 and Vaccarella-Merzario (Alfa Romeo 33TT12) in 1975 put on a nice show for the Sicilians, before the last two edition where entries were restricted to 2 litres engines cars.

Then came the definitive end to this fantastic race created in 1906, a race that lives on nowadays (since 1992) as an historical rallye.

Source: DR

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