1970 Watkins Glen 6 Hours
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The 1970 Watkins Glen 6 Hours was an endurance race held at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course, New York, United States on July 11, 1970. It was the ninth round of the 1970 World Sportscar Championship season.[1]
John Wyer's team had not won a race since Spa, and they came off an unsuccessful attempt at winning Le Mans; losing all three of their cars in 10 hours and the race to their sister teams, with Porsche Salzburg and Martini Racing on the podium. Mario Andretti returned to Ferrari to try to help the great marque repeat their triumph at Sebring less than 4 months previously. Ferrari were keen on doing this; a win here would be sufficient comeuppance for them after their Le Mans run. All four works cars had retired after 4 hours and 4 of 6 other privately entered 512's also retired.
This particular race was one of four time-limited races on the 1970 calendar; the others being at Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans. It was the only 6 hour race on the calendar in 1970, with the winner covering 1140km. There were five 1000km races, lasting over 4 to nearly 7 hours depending on track and weather, and the 1970 Targa Florio had 11 laps for 792 km in 6:35 hours.
Qualifying once again went to a Porsche; the Gulf-Wyer Jo Siffert/Brian Redman 917K managed to edge out the Andretti/Giunti Ferrari 512S and the Rodriguez/Kinnunen 917K by three tenths of a second.
A pair of blue and white-striped Porsche Salzburg 917K were entered as Porsche Audi Division, while Martini Racing showed another blue-green Hippie car design, this time on the #35 917K.
This would be the last Watkins Glen 6 Hours race on the original circuit. The circuit was rebuilt for the next year; they used the short track (as the extension had not yet been finished) and the whole track in 1972.
Race
At the start, Andretti took the lead from Siffert, but the Swiss driver took the lead back from Andretti on the third lap. He then lost the lead to Rodriguez. Later on in the race, Rodriguez attempted to switch off the 917K's headlights; but instead he switched off the fuel pumps, and the engine started to fail. Rodriguez was about to come into the pits, but then he realized what he had done, switched the pumps on, and then stormed through the field, made fastest lap and he & Kinnunen went on to win for the 4th time in the season. Wyer's team finished 1-2, and both cars finished on the same lap, with the works Ferrari of Andretti/Giunti completing the podium.
