Security back then
12/26/2023
What a sight! A Mercedes-Benz 280 SL drives along the start-finish straight in Buenos Aires, seemingly chased by super-fast prototypes.
The picture is from the start of the 1000 km race in 1971, the Pagoda is being driven by Juan-Manuel Fangio. Behind him, Giunti in the Ferrari 312 P and Rodriguez in the Porsche 917 roar along the track, of course not yet at racing speed.
The endurance race is overshadowed by the death of Ignazio Giunti, who crashes into Beltoise's almost stationary Matra 660 in his Ferrari on the 39th lap.
Jo Siffert and Derek Bell won the race, but nobody was really happy about it at the time.
The picture from the first lap, however, shows that even less thought was given to safety back then. Despite the fast pace, Fangio and his co-driver are not wearing helmets.
P.S. The race report on the 1000 km Buenos Aires was printed in AR 3/1971 , the photo can of course also be found in high resolution in the Zwischengas archive .
