1963 United States Grand Prix

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Flag of United States   1963 United States Grand Prix
Race details
Race 8 of 10 in the 1963 Formula One season.
Date October 6, 1963
Official name 5th United States Grand Prix
Location Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Watkins Glen, New York
Course Permanent road course
2.35 mi / 3.78 km
Distance 100 laps, 235 mi / 378 km
Weather Sunny
Pole
Driver Flag of United Kingdom Graham Hill BRM
Time 1:13.4
Fastest Lap
Driver Flag of United Kingdom Jim Clark Lotus-Climax
Time 1:14.5 (on lap 50 of 100)
Podium
First Flag of United Kingdom Graham Hill BRM
Second Flag of United States Richie Ginther BRM
Third Flag of United Kingdom Jim Clark Lotus-Climax

The 1963 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 6, 1963 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.


Contents

[edit] Summary

By the time the teams -- including Ferrari for the first time at Watkins Glen -- came to America, Jim Clark had wrapped up the Driver's Championship with five wins in seven races. At The Glen, however, the day belonged to Graham Hill and BRM, as Hill started from the pole and won by more than half a minute over American teammate Richie Ginther. Hill owed much of his success to Clark's dead battery on the dummy grid (used for the first time in F1), and the failure of John Surtees' Ferrari engine while leading with 30 laps to go.

In the first hour of qualifying on Friday, Clark's Lotus equalled his lap record of 1:15.0 from the previous year. Hill and Surtees were right on the Scot's pace, as well, and all three were soon under 1:14. At one point, Hill's BRM jumped out of gear on the back straight and left the track, skipping through the woods without hitting any trees, but at the end of the session, he was fastest at 1:13.4. Jack Brabham was glad just to be at the circuit, after he was unable to find a rental car or a taxi at the airport in Elmira, twenty miles away, and ended up hitchhiking to the track with his baggage and racing gear!

On Saturday, Canadian Peter Broeker's Stebro (running a four-cylinder Ford with 110 horsepower compared to almost 200 for the Climax and BRM V8's) dumped oil all around the circuit. The session was stopped for 30 minutes to clean up, but conditions were never again good enough for anyone to better their Friday times, so the top six were Graham Hill, Clark, Surtees, Ginther, and the Brabhams of Sir Jack and Dan Gurney. In addition to Ginther and Gurney, the grid contained five other Americans -- Masten Gregory, Phil Hill, Jim Hall, Hap Sharp and Rodger Ward -- the most ever in a Formula One field, as well as Mexican Pedro Rodriguez, who was making his Formula One debut.

Race day was bright and clear with a record crowd of nearly 60,000. A dummy grid was used for the first time in a Championship Grand Prix, and when the field moved forward to the starting grid, Clark's Lotus remained still. At the flag, Hill led Ginther, Surtees, Gurney, Tony Maggs, Gregory and Brabham up the hill and through the Esses. The Lotus crew discovered that Clark's battery was dead, and by the time they replaced it, Broeker's Stebro, trailing the field, was already into his second lap.

Surtees made the first move, getting by Ginther to split the BRM's, and then, on lap seven, taking the lead from Hill. Gurney followed him and took second briefly, before surrendering the spot back to Hill. By lap 15, Clark was up into 14th place with his engine still not sounding entirely right.

Hill began pushing Surtees on lap 30. He got by to take the lead after shadowing for two laps, gave it back, took it again two laps later, and finally surrendered it again, settling into the Ferrari's slipstream. On lap 43, Gurney suddenly slowed and then retired from third place with fuel starvation and a chassis failure, moving Clark up to seventh.

After trailing Surtees closely for some time, Hill lost his tow when his anti-roll bar came loose and the BRM's handling changed abruptly. Fighting severe understeer, he began throwing the car into turns to slide the rear end around, flinging stones off the curbs and losing ground to the leading Ferrari. On lap 82, with no threat to his lead, Surtees' engine lost power, and he cruised into the pits to retire. "I was just hanging on to him," Hill said afterward. "He's a very tricky driver. He was gaining a half-second each lap on me until he went out. I think it was a good measure of the difference in our two cars." Suddenly in the lead again, with only Ginther on the same lap, Hill backed off and set his sights on bringing the car home.

The Englishman drove under the flag 34 seconds ahead of teammate Ginther, repeating BRM's season-opening sweep at Monaco. New World Champion Clark took the final podium spot when he overtook Brabham, whose engine had been misfiring for much of the race. It was Hill's first American win, but one that he would repeat in 1964 and 1965.

[edit] Classification

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 Flag of United Kingdom Graham Hill BRM 110 1:19:22.1 1 9
2 2 Flag of United States Richie Ginther BRM 110 + 34.3 4 6
3 8 Flag of United Kingdom Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 109 + 1 lap 2 4
4 5 Flag of Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 108 + 2 laps 5 3
5 24 Flag of Italy Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 106 + 4 laps 9 2
6 12 Flag of Netherlands Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 99 + 11 laps 19 1
7 21 Flag of Canada Peter Broeker Stebro-Ford 88 + 22 laps 21
8 11 Flag of Sweden Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax 85 + 25 laps 12
9 23 Flag of United Kingdom John Surtees Ferrari 82 Engine 3
10 16 Flag of United States Jim Hall Lotus-BRM 76 Gearbox 16
11 3 Flag of New Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 74 Fuel pump 11
Ret 14 Flag of Switzerland Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 56 Gearbox 14
Ret 4 Flag of South Africa Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 44 Ignition 10
Ret 18 Flag of United States Rodger Ward Lotus-BRM 44 Gearbox 17
Ret 6 Flag of United States Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 42 Chassis 6
Ret 10 Flag of Mexico Pedro Rodriguez Lotus-Climax 36 Engine 13
Ret 9 Flag of United Kingdom Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 24 Electrical 7
Ret 17 Flag of United States Masten Gregory Lola-Climax 14 Engine 8
Ret 22 Flag of United States Hap Sharp Lotus-BRM 6 Retirement 18
Ret 25 Flag of United States Phil Hill ATS 4 Oil pump 15
Ret 26 Flag of Italy Giancarlo Baghetti ATS 0 Oil Pump 20
Previous race:
1963 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World
Championship, 1963 season
Next race:
1963 Mexican Grand Prix

Previous race:
1962 United States Grand Prix
United States Grand Prix Next race:
1964 United States Grand Prix

[edit] References

  • Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1
  • Dean Batchelor (January, 1964). "Grand Prix of the United States". Road & Track, 50-55.
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