Review September 1979 - Motorsport headlines 40 years ago

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Review September 1979 - Motorsport headlines 40 years ago

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Created on September 20, 2019

Text:

Rainer Braun

Photos:

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Nicot

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Archiv Porsche, Kremer

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Mampe

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DPPI

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Ceci

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Hazelaar

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Kräling

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Seufert

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BMW

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PureRacing

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Archiv

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Slotemaker-Pon in the orange Porsche 904 GTS with #36 - at the 1000 km race in Monza 1965

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Fed up - Lauda's last look at his abandoned Brabham at the 1979 Canadian GP

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World Champion Scheckter #11 ahead of his Ferrari teammate Villeneuve - 1979

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Lauda and his BMW M1 at the Procar final in Monza - 1979

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Rob Slotemaker prepares the track with soft soap for a racing driver training session

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Ben Pon, Rob Slotemaker & David van Lennep - 1965 at Schiphol Airport

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Formula 3 champion in Germany - Mike Korten 1979

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Coronation at Le Mans - Ludwig on his way to victory in the 935 K3

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BMW Sports Cup Winner 1979 - Helmut Kelleners 1972

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Victory at the end of the season - Höttinger in the 1979 BMW 320 with turbo test engine

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European F3 champion with record winning streak - Alain Prost in the Martini Renault

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1979 Formula Super Vee European Championship winner - John Nielsen in the Ralt RT at Hockenheim

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Champion sticker - From Mampe for DRM champion Klaus Ludwig

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Weltmeister Scheckter #11 vor seinem Ferrari-Teamkollegen Villeneuve - 1979

Lauda und sein BMW M1 beim Procar-Finale in Monza - 1979

Rob Slotemaker präpariert für ein Rennfahrertraining die Piste mit Schmierseife

Ben Pon, Rob Slotemaker & David van Lennep - 1965 am Flughafen Schiphol

Meister der Formel 3 in Deutschland - Mike Korten 1979

Summary

It's not every day that a racing driver bids farewell to motor racing with the words "Over, done, over, I don't feel like driving around in circles anymore". In September 1979, this is exactly what happened and it was the Austrian Niki Lauda who (temporarily) hung up his helmet. And caused quite a stir in the press. But this was by no means the only memorable event of a turbulent racing season in 1979. Rainer Braun was there at the time and his summary of the scenes and anecdotes are still as exciting today as they were then.

This article contains the following chapters

F-1 World Championship: Scheckter is world champion - Lauda steps down
M1 Procar Series: Final win for Stück, title for Lauda
DRM: The almost perfect record year for Klaus-Ludwig
Zandvoort: Rob Slotemaker dies on his home circuit
Formula 3 European Championship/DM: Prost and Korten
In a nutshell:

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Dear readers , September 1979 was marked by two events - Niki Lauda's "sudden" retirement and the death of drifting and skidding artist Rob Slotemaker. The fact that Niki would give up everything came out of the blue for everyone. There were no signs in the days leading up to the Canadian GP, even his bosom buddies Helmut Zwickl and Heinz Prüller had no clues. When Niki got out of the Brabham after the first practice session in Montreal and announced "Over, done, over, I don't feel like driving around in circles anymore", everyone was stunned. No one had ever done that before in such a brutally consistent way - a real Lauda .

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Images of this article

Weltmeister Scheckter #11 vor seinem Ferrari-Teamkollegen Villeneuve - 1979

Lauda und sein BMW M1 beim Procar-Finale in Monza - 1979

Rob Slotemaker präpariert für ein Rennfahrertraining die Piste mit Schmierseife

Ben Pon, Rob Slotemaker & David van Lennep - 1965 am Flughafen Schiphol

Meister der Formel 3 in Deutschland - Mike Korten 1979

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