Another Race Driver Dead

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 1

Another Race Driver Dead

( N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copy right)

MONZA (Italy), September 6.

The Austrian racing driver Jochen Rindt, who felt his run of good luck was about to turn against him, died yesterday when his Lotus 72 smashed into a crash barrier at more than 150 miles an hour while he was practising for the Italian Formula I Grand Prix, United Press International reported.

The 28-year-old Rindt, to many drivers and fans the fastest driver in the world, needed only one more victory to win the coveted world drivers’ championship.

Rindt’s Lotus lost a front wheel as it came into the high-banked section of the circuit. It slammed into the barrier and overturned, killing him instantly.

He was taken to the trackside infirmary and then to a Milan hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Doctors said they managed to get his heart to beat briefly at the infirmary but could not save him.

His wife. Nina, was in the pits at the time of the accident and went immediately to the infirmary.

A.A.P.-Reuter reported that the British driver. Graham Hill, who drives a Lotus from the stable of Robert Walker.

had announced that he would withdraw from tomorrow's Grand Prix because of Rindt’sl death. The New Zealand driver. Denis Hulme, who was overtaken by Rindt just before ihe accident and was only a short distance behind him. said

Rindt’s Lotus appeared to wobble before skidding into the guard rail. Had To Brake Officials said that after a preliminary reconstruction of the accident, it appeared that' Rindt had accelerated so hard to overtake Hulme that he; found himself entering the bend at between 144 and 150 miles an hour and was obliged to brake. The Lotus manager. Mr

Colin Chapman, immediately suspended the trials for the members of his team and left the circuit by car for the Niguarda Hospital in Milan, about 10 miles away, where" Rindt had been taken. He said later that his team, would withdraw altogether from today’s race. it was the second accident to hit the Lotus team since the trials began on Friday The Brazilian driver, Emerson Fittipaldi left the circuit on a bend and ended up against a tree. His car was damaged, but Fittipaldi escaped without injury. Rich Man Rindt was one of the rich men of racing. In addition to earning over £lOO.OOO a year from the sport, business inter, ests and share investments brought him another £50.000 a year.

He ran the Jochen Rindt racing company in Britain and put on racing car shows in Austria and Germany in addition to having television programmes in both countries. Because of tax problems Rindt lived in Switzerland and planned to move soon into a new luxury £lOO,OOO house near Bonnier.

Rindt was the third bigname world Grand Prix racing driver to die on the track this year. On June 2, Bruce McLaren, the 32-year-old New Zealander. was killed when his own

McLaren M3D sports racer blew up at 180 miles an hour on the Goodwood circuit in Southern England. On June 21, Piers Courage, aged 28, a top British contender for the world championship honours, was killed in his blazing Italian-built Tomaso Ford when he crashed on the twenty-third lap of the Dutch Motor Race Grand Prix in Zandvoort, in the Netherlands. Fine Form Rindt had been in impressive form this year winning the grand prix of Germany, Britain, Monaco, the Netherlands and France.

Soon after Courage’s death. Rindt was quoted as saying: “It certainly makes you think of giving up. But you keep going. Motor-racing is such a professional job today that you devote most of your time to it and lose touch with the normal world.

“You can get so completely involved in it that you wouldn't know what to do if you stopped. Some people just can’t get out

“1 want to quit before that happens to me. but racing doesn’t pay off if you quit at the top.”

Parents Killed

From a tragic background. Rindt carved out personal triumph by sheer grit and skill. I After his parents were killed , in an air raid in 1943, one! year after his birth in Mainz, Germany, he was taken to! Graz in Austria to live with his maternal grandparents, ; His interest in motor rac-j ling stemmed from his schooling in Britain, when he visi- ■ ted the famous Goodwood track during a vacation. From that day, he knew exactly what he wanted to be—a racing driver.

First it was rallying, but on his twenty-first birthday she was given an Alfa Romeo sports car. The next year, he graduated to single-seater racI ing and made world headlines i by beating several grand prix [aces at London’s Crystal Pal'ace track in a formula two : race.

This earned him a Formula 1 (grand prix) place with [the celebrated Rob Walker team and then he graduated to a three-year contract with! i Cooper-Maserati. ■ In 1965. he shared victory i of the Le Mans 24-hour classic with the American Masten Gregory, in a Ferrari and in 1968 he joined the Brabham I team, before switching to ; Lotus last season.