Editors
Note:
Pedro Rodríguez, the great Mexican driving champion, died 30 years
ago July 11, 1971. He was perhaps the fastest driver we ever saw in the
rain, more dominant than even Ayrton Senna, and he did it not only in
F1 cars, but also in Sports cars. This week we remember him.
In Nuremberg Germany, the second Sunday in July is race day, just like
Memorial weekend at Indy or mid-June weekend at Le Mans. It is a long
held tradition and although nowadays we see the DTM Touring cars, there
were times when faster cars would run there.
30 years ago this Sunday, the Nuremberg 200 Miles was run, a race belonging to the Inter-Series championship for Group 7 cars, the continental equivalent to Can-Am. The organizers tried to get Pedro Rodríguez to race, he was a box office magnet at the time, but couldn't get him to agree until Herbert Müller, a Swiss driver who owned 2 Ferrari 512 prototypes -bought from Steve McQueen after he finished filming his Le Mans movie- said he would try.
The Mexican driver, 31 years old, was recently crowned as driver champion for a second consecutive year in the World Makes Championship running for the John Wyer Automotive team, using the brutal 5-liter Porsche 917K, having vanquished Ferrari and Alfa completely. Pedro had scheduled a Can-Am race for BRM but his car wasn't ready and when Herb called he was looking at a rare free weekend.
Herb, who ran the Sicilian Targa Florio with Pedro a few months ago, offered one of his Ferraris. Pedro agreed but asked for a retainer because he knew his name would strengthen the box office take enormously. The organizers agreed to give him a payment of over 5,000 dollars and Pedro simply announced to his teams he would race at Nuremberg. Nobody really objected, nor Wyer nor BRM, because they had nothing planned for him and they knew Pedro considered a non-racing weekend as something akin to torture.
Pedro went alone to Paris, left his Porsche 911 in
a friend's house and then went to Germany, arriving Friday night to the
hotel Müller reserved for him. In Nuremberg he checked the circuit,
the Norisring, during Saturday practice. It's an easy track, good for
high top speed since it resembles an inverted 'L' with hairpins on either
end, one very wide and the other extremely narrow, measuring 3,940 meters
(2.455 miles).
Probably its most interesting feature is the old, slowly decaying, concrete stands -where Hitler would supervise the marching nazi youths a few decades earlier. The track runs in front of these stands and behind too, making a small 'S' turn which has a bridge allowing access to the stands right at the "S" corner. It is an extreme track, high speed in the straights and heavy braking in the hairpins, medium speed average, no problems. After first practice in his 512M, Pedro was delighted with the car and said "With this one, let's see someone dare to beat me" and his old love for Ferrari shone again.
Among the drivers, there are some famous names and some drivers he has lapped time and again in Sports car races: one is his former teammate Leo Kinnunen with a Porsche 917 spyder -who would say before practice begins that "the 'S' turn with the bridge is stupidly dangerous"; Müller in his 512M; Peter Gethin who had lost his Can-Am seat to Peter Revson but has a McLaren run by Sid Taylor for Castrol; Chris Craft with a McLaren M8E from Ecurie Evergreen of Alain de Cadenet; Jo Bonnier in his Lola T220; George Loos in another M8E with an 8.1 liter engine; Teddy Pilette in another M8E belonging to team VDS, new mount after crashing an M8C at Zolder; and some other minor drivers.
When word gets out that Pedro was there and he will start in the front row, ticket sales boom and the extra money taken easily covers Pedro's retainer. That night at dinner with some drivers, Müller among them, Pedro would say: "It is a pity there's no rain. Rain makes driving more fun and more dangerous too" and he knows that under the rain nobody in the world comes close to him.
Early Sunday morning, Pedro sends a telegram to México, to his dad -Don Pedro- in which he says: "Run today at Nuremberg; call after the race". He arrives at the Norisring, signs many autographs and spends time watching the ambiance and checking his rivals.
The race is to be run in two 100 miles heats so there was no need to stop
for refueling in the heats. He is sure he will win, the Ferrari 512M is
very fast, and when the time of the start draws near he meets with Müller
to talk tactics. A real simple plan: take the lead and win. He also meets
Kinnunen; time has mellowed the rough relationship left when Leo left
JWA, and after wishing each other luck and predicting their own victory,
they agree on dinner after the race with the loser paying the bill. Pedro
is happy, it is a minor race he should win easily, unlike the hard racing
he usually has in his schedule, and this could be a well-paid racing holiday.
The cars line up for the start and when Pedro gets the flag he immediately takes the lead. No trouble staying in front and each lap his margin over second place is larger. On this track 41 laps make 100 miles and by lap 5 Pedro is already passing backmarkers.
Here there are several versions. Some people suggest the Ferrari lost a wheel due to poor maintenance, theory supported when they find the wheel about 250 meters from the crash, too far to get there just by the impact. Others suggest that while lapping the backmarker, who didn't watch his mirrors and accidentally cut across him, sending him to the barrier. Hild's white Porsche certainly touched Pedro's car when he was spinning but it was a minor contact after the initial crash. Hild would later say: "I saw Rodríguez approaching and ran to the right so he could pass (on the left). t was a normal passing situation happening about 400 meters (1/4 mile) from the crash. I was doing about 220 kilometers per hour (138 mph) and when the accident happened I was about 120 meters behind the Mexican" and in his car there are no other signs of action, although it would be possible Pedro could have swerved to miss him and lost control when the wheel broke due to material fatigue; or maybe the wheel got loose after the impact but nobody remembers seeing it bounce afterwards, so there's no way to tell the cause of the accident.
His Ferrari catches fire and a brave Marshall -named Helmut Schlosser- gets close to fight the fire while the cars go by at racing speed a few meters from him. The Marshall puts out the fire helped by some other track marshals, he and two of them suffering burns, one of them serious ones.
Two minutes elapsed before the rescue team opened the car and they have to carry Pedro because he has lost consciousness, he is burned all over, wet with fire fighting foam and with various fractures all over the body. The first doctor to take care of him tries to keep him alive and will bring him back 3 times in the rush to the hospital when Pedro's heart stops. A bit after they arrive, his heart stops for the fourth time and there's no way to bring him back this time, although the medical team tries for a long time.
Pedro is dead and the news slowly spreads around the
world. People cry for him everywhere and his body is received in Mexico
by a crowd of hundreds of thousands who will take him to his resting place
where he will meet brother Ricardo, almost nine years later. He's gone,
leading until the last second of his life. 30 years later, his place rests
empty, his shoes have not been filled.
© Carlos Eduardo Jalife Villalón, 2001
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