By Lorenzo Baer
PART 2
RACE N° 2
GRAN PREMIO “LÍNEAS MARÍTIMAS ARGENTINAS” (CÓRDOBA, OSCAR CABALÉN)
In the day preceding the first race in Buenos Aires, Andrea De Adamich gave the following statement to the Argentine press: “Tomorrow, you will be able to see four men who will ride together, fighting for the lead: the rest will stay behind. The circuit is not very friendly to ‘fierce’ racing, as we see in Europe, where 10 to 12 cars runs inches apart. This could perhaps happen in Córdoba, which is a much faster track”. As it turned out, Adamich’s speech was a perfect description of what happened in both races.
The Oscar Cabalén circuit, located on the outskirts of the capital of the province of Córdoba, was the place where it was expected to be the scene of the best race of the Temporada, mainly because the 3,202-meter track, in its original trapezoidal format, offered good overtaking opportunities at almost every point of the circuit. Even with some more technical points, mainly in the last section of track, the race would be more about the machines than the drivers themselves.
The order of favorites, however, has not changed since Buenos Aires: the Scuderia Ferrari, with its Dinos increasingly acclimated to the Argentinean conditions, had a small advantage, while the Austrian Jochen Rindt seemed to be the only true challenger of the Italian team. One of the reasons used to explain this step that now existed between Ferrari and the other teams was the marginal power advantage that the Dinos engines possessed over the Cosworths (230hp x 220hp); in addition to the superior torque of the Ferrari engine, since it was a V6 (and the Cosworths were all 4 valves).
Checkered flag for De Adamich, after crossing the finish line first in the Gran Premio Ciudad de Cordoba. It was the Italian_s first triumph in the Argentine F2 Temporada of 1968. Credits Archivio Ferrari
Even with the superiority of De Adamich, Brambilla and Rindt over the rest of the field, who secured the first place on the starting grid was a surprising Clay Regazzoni in a Tecno PA68, with a time almost equal to the second place, Andrea de Adamich. Both scored 58s100, but in the differential, Regazzoni had the right to start in the lead.
The problem is that if one of the Ferraris was on the front-row, the other had to settle with a mid-grid starting position. That happened because of Brambilla´s terrible qualifying session, in which the pilot managed to score only the 14th fastest time.
But everything would change in a few laps after the race start. The grid was soon torn apart, taking the shape of the dispute that would mark the championship: De Adamich soon overcoming the opponents in the front row, to quickly take the lead, while Jochen Rindt followed in his wake. Behind the duo, a small group of ‘chasers’, composed by the Matras of Beltoise and Pescarolo, together with the Brabham from Courage and the Tecno of Regazzoni.
This small group of four pilots, driving cars from 3 different brands, presented a spectacle of their own, in the fight that would last till the end of the 70 laps. The balance between the engines, which were basically the same, did not allow for the possibility of much overtaking. Thus, with the chaser group focused on not making mistakes that could give overtaking opportunities to their opponents in the block, they did not notice two other drivers approaching the dispute: Andrea Vianini and Jo Siffert.
The Argentine Temporada was De Adamich_s redemption after his near-fatal accident in the Race of Champions in March 1968. Constant performances demonstrated that the driver still had a future in motorsport. Credits Archivio Ferrari
The two began to get closer and closer, but both felt that something was missing in their cars to finally close the connection between the groups – after a while, the difference between the quartet and the duo stabilized, entering a stalemate. Because of this, both Vianini and Siffert remained throughout the second half of the race seconds away from closing the gap and definitively entering the dispute for third place.
At this rate of small skirmishes, the race went on. Rindt, with his characteristic aggressive racing style, sliding the car through the fast curves of the Córdoba circuit, threatened De Adamich, who held the Austrian´s charge with an advantage that varied between 2 to 6 seconds. And with the retirement of Brambilla, on lap 46 due to ignition problems, he was the only Ferrari left on the track, facing the horde of Cosworths.
But nothing that scared Andrea de Adamich, who crossed the finish line in first place, with a total time of 1h9min22s, four seconds ahead of Jochen Rindt´s Brabham. Completing the podium, Frenchman Henri Pescarolo. The fastest lap was credited to Piers Courage, with a time of 56s100 and an average speed of 196.197 km/h.
Also read:
Part 1: Introduction: Gran Premio Gas Del Estado
Part 3: Gran Premio Empresas Agua y Energia Eletrica
Part 4: Epilogue: Gran Premio Aerolineas Argentinas
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