Flat Top

This is the fatefull day that Francois Cevert passed away while batling for pole position for the Watkins Glen GP of 1973. R I P.

Larry Herman

I was there. It was a very sad weekend. His flair and joy of driving was a perfect complement to Stewart's methodical precision.

MikeQuig

I was there as well. I remember being told about it after the practice session during which it happened. which was just shortly after I arrived at the track. All the glee that I had built up looking forward to the GP weekend at the Glen was shattered. And how ironic that a chicane installed in the name of safety would wind up claiming his life. Senseless! I also remember that Jackie Stewart, Cevert's teamate on Team Tyrell, came out for the final practice session which to my knowledge was the last time he ever took to the track in a Formula One car because after that session Ken Tyrell withdrew the car out of respect for Francois. Stewart, of course had already locked up the championship. It was a sad day for all!

Mike Quigley
Euro SC
F Class

gerry100

It was a different time. Cevert was a charismatic,fast living,faster driving rennasiance man who competed in a time when F1 drivers died every year. Not a tightly managed,movie star compensated, promotion machine as many are today.

Stewart had already decided to retire after that Glen race, safety issues being a major factor. As talented as he was, he realized that if he raced long enough he would pay the price.

We were all silent among the blazing fall colors in the hills of upstate New York while the French National anthem played over the loudspeakers. After a short pause, we heard the sounds of giant, enraged bees and the race was on.

Timothy Stewart

F1 Racing magazine (12/03, p101) has a good description
by Jackie Stewart on what he thought happened in the
accident , basically that it was a characteristic of the car.

Also a good picture of Cevert on p97.

tim

TMH

I definitely agree with this, but it was definitely not the only factor. Jackie had also determined, and later acknowledged, that Francois had gotten to the point where he was faster on the track. Jackie, the ultimate race driver with MATURITY, knew that his time at the top of his field was passing to his protégé, and he would retire at the top of his game.

What a loss that day for the sport, for the Tyrell team, and for Jackie Stewart and Ken Tyrell personally.

Tom

Tom R.

I have a history question for you guys.

It was about this time in '73 I was a pimply faced kid working at a beach club in the off season. Talking to a member (a super nice lady and great tipper to boot) I said something about becoming a race driver. I pushed a button.

She told me her son was a race driver and drove with "the Revson boy". She said her son was going to die racing, and Peter would too. She finished by saying the same would happen to me if I tried to go pro (thirty years later I am still scared).

She didn't come down for a couple of weeks after that. Turns out that while she was saying to me her son was going to crash and die, he did! It was either at Watkins or The Bridge.

She was with her second husband so I never got to know what her son's name was. Does anyone have any idea?

Thanks.

Mike in Chi

Very chilling, Tom.

Hmmm...

A little research shows a driver named Helmut Koinigg died at the Glen the following year
http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/cir-074.html

Was the beach club in Florida? Could it have been Peter Gregg's mother?

My first thought was Masten Gregory, but he lived another 10 years or so.

Your story also reminded me of Jochen Rindt who was a posthumous Champion a few years earlier.

It truly was the cruel sport. You might find Brock Yates new book interesting.

Mike in Chi

Swede Savage and Roger McCluskey also died that year...

gerry100

Hemingway said something about Bull Fighting and motor racing being the only true sports with everything else being just a game.

Motor racing is now a game, to most of us the only truly exciting game, and that's a good thing.

mdbickell

Go Papa... he knew how to get to the pith of things.

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."
-Ernest Hemmingway-

Ron Cohn

I, too, was at the Glen that day. My teammate, Bruce MacInness, and I were standing near and talking to Jackie Stewart (he knew Jackie from racing at the F/Ford World Championships at Brands Hatch) and Francois Cevert was close by before going out for the tragic F-1 practice session before the start of our F/Atlantic race. It had been a tense weekend for us, having had various mechanical problems with both our March's. We were waiting for the short F-1 practice to end in order for our race to commence.

After about roughly five minutes, all the cars came back to the pits and there was silence around the track for close to two hours. Our race was postponed about one hour while they fixed the guard rail on the top of the esses where Cevert crashed. About ten minutes before the start of our race, it was announced that Cevert had been killed.

When our pace lap began, I glaced over to the spot where the Armco had been repaired. I gave me the chills. At the start oif the race, I could hear hear my engine, being in about the forth row with a buch of cars surrounding me. On the first lap, just about at the same point where the crash had occured, my engine stopped and I coasted to the inside edge of the uphill straight. I had a black box failure and my race was over.

Months later, I had read that Cevert was the son of a Parisian jeweler and was part Jewish. I got another chill, for the day of the race had been the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. I am not a very spiritual person, but I do believe that there are meanings and messages in things. I recalll that day as being a serious life lesson for me.

I have only told this story to a select few friends and acquaintances over the years, but I though it fitting to relate it, now as I saw the post and comments regarding that day and Francois Cevert.

Mark in Baltimore

You raced Grand Prix cars, Ron? That's impressive...

Ron Cohn

No, Formula Atlantic, more like a Formula 2 car. F/Atlantic was a supporting race for several F-1 races.

Mark in Baltimore

Thanks for the clarification, Ron. It's okay; I'm still impressed.