Quote Originally Posted by khyndart in CA View Post
As the two teams of Datsun and Alfa Romeo were tied on points entering the final race at Laguna Seca it meant that the winner would win the 1971 Challenge Series. The race would end being greatly disputed, frayed tempers and comments about the SCCA incompetence !
First the Alfa Romeo's were not allowed to refuel as the filler was on the right rear area and the officials did not want refueling from the track side for safety reasons so the Alfa fillers were taped over. The team thought to heck with that and installed a flexible fuel cell that expanded to hold more than the 15 gallon tank limit as per the rules..
When the race started John Morton and Horst Kwech were soon battling for the lead once again with several passes being made. Kwech even tapped Morton at the infamous Corkscrew Corner which caused Morton to do a full 360 * spin but he soon gained back the lost ground and Kwech almost tapped him again so Pete Brock had Morton pit for a quick topping of fuel so he could get away from Kwech and then take the lead when the Alfa Romeo pitted. The Kwech Alfa did not pit and went onto win the race and then appeared to run out of gas on the far side of the track after the finish. Immediately the Brock Datsun team protested and when the officials drained almost 4 gallons from the Alfa tank it was then disqualified and Brock became the winner. So the Alfa Romeo team and fans were upset as they felt it was unnecessary to have the fuel filler sealed but as it was they would have won as they used less than the allowed 15 gallons ! So that is how the final race ended but as the drivers said back then that they fought on the track but they would all socialize together off the track.
Name: Datsun 510_0005.jpg Views: 864 Size: 148.1 KB
Horst Kwech tapping the back of John Morton's Datsun 510 that led to a complete spin coming through the Laguna Seca Corkscrew.
(Bob Tronolone photo)




(Ken Hyndman )
Great photos Ken and a great read.