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The 1964 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 4, 1964 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.


Summary[]

Graham Hill padded his tenuous lead in the 1964 Driver's Championship over John Surtees and Jim Clark by bringing his BRM home first at The Glen for the second straight year. Surtees was second for Ferrari, 30.5 seconds back.

The Ferrari team brought four cars for Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini, but they were not in the usual "flaming red" that the race program advertised. Enzo Ferrari had surrendered his entrant's license in a dispute at Monza, so the cars were entered by Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team and were painted in North American racing blue and white. The only entrant missing from the 20 who were invited was American A.J. Foyt, who was offered a works BRM drive for the race, but decided against it.

The Watkins Glen Grand Prix Corporation was so pleased with the new track surface that had been laid down that they believed a 120 mph lap (1:08.9) was possible, and they had 120 bottles of champagne ready for the first one to do it! While the three remaining Championship contenders, along with American Dan Gurney, waged a stirring battle for the pole and broke Hill's record from the previous year, they did not come close to claiming the prize.

Colin Chapman had both an older Type 25 and the new Type 33 Lotus for Clark, but the Scot had little time to practice in the newer version by the time it was ready. He set the fastest time (1:12.65) using the old, reliable one, anyway, so he decided to use it in the race. Surtees, Gurney and Hill were all under 1:13, as well, followed by Bruce McLaren and Clark's teammate, Mike Spence.

Cool breezes and bright sun welcomed a crowd of 65,000 on Sunday to see the next to last round of a tense Championship battle. Hill led Clark by two points, with Surtees, having won two of the three previous races, just two points behind Clark in third. Clark led off the line, but Surtees and Spence quickly went past, dropping the defending Champion to third before they reached the top of the hill. After one lap, the order was Surtees, Spence, Clark, Hill, Jack Brabham, Innes Ireland, Gurney and McLaren.

Gurney quickly recovered from his poor start by getting around Ireland and Brabham. Hill briefly overtook the Lotus teammates for second spot, but then Clark seemed to take the bit between his teeth. The Scot surged past the BRM of Hill and set off after Surtees, taking the lead from the Ferrari on lap 14 as they exited the right-hander before the pits. For the next 18 laps, Clark continually drew away from Surtees. Gurney passed Spence to join Hill and Brabham in a three-way battle for third place, until Hill moved into second place by getting around Surtees on lap 31.

On lap 40, Clark's Lotus began to misfire as a result of a fuel injection problem. Surtees, then Hill and Gurney, went by before he entered the pits on lap 44. The crew spent two laps adjusting the injection system, and he rejoined in next to last spot, but stopped again after only six laps. Chapman called teammate Spence in from fourth place and replaced him with Clark, in the hopes that Clark could get ahead of Hill and Surtees and reduce the number of points they could earn. Spence continued in Clark's car, but retired it after five more laps.

Meanwhile, Hill had taken the lead back from Surtees on lap 45. When the leaders came up to lap Hill's teammate, American Richie Ginther, on lap 61, Hill's BRM seemed to have much less trouble getting by than the pursuing Ferrari and Brabham did. Surtees and Gurney got by Ginther after another lap, but by then, Hill was fifty yards ahead and pulling away. Two laps later, Surtees spun while lapping another backmarker, and on lap 70, Gurney retired from second place with a broken Climax engine.

Clark was now in third, gaining on Hill by a second per lap and nearly matching his qualifying time, until the second Lotus also began sputtering, this time unable to pick up its last few gallons of fuel. He retired, having completed 102 laps, and was eventually classified seventh, out of the points. At the end, Hill and Surtees had the only healthy cars, and the Englishman claimed his second win of the season, now five points ahead of Surtees, and seven ahead of Clark in the Championship standings. Jo Siffert was third in the Rob Walker-entered Brabham, ahead of Americans Richie Ginther and Walt Hansgen, with Trevor Taylor in sixth, scoring his only point of the season.

Classification[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 3 25px UK Graham Hill BRM 110 2:16:38.0 4 9
2 7 25px UK John Surtees Ferrari 110 + 30.5 2 6
3 22 25px Switzerland Jo Siffert Brabham-BRM 109 + 1 lap 12 4
4 4 25px USA Richie Ginther BRM 107 + 3 laps 13 3
5 17 25px USA Walt Hansgen Lotus-Climax 107 + 3 laps 17 2
6 12 25px UK Trevor Taylor BRP-BRM 106 + 4 laps 15 1
7 2 25px UK Mike Spence
25px UK Jim Clark
Lotus-Climax 102 Out of fuel 1
8 14 25px UK Mike Hailwood Lotus-BRM 101 Oil Pipe 15
Ret 6 25px USA Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 69 Oil Pressure 3
NC 23 25px USA Hap Sharp Brabham-BRM 65 Not Classified 18
Ret 8 25px Italy Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 58 Engine 8
Ret 1 25px UK Jim Clark
25px UK Mike Spence
Lotus-Climax 54 Injection 1
Ret 25 25px USA Ronnie Bucknum Honda 50 Overheating 14
Ret 15 25px New Zealand Chris Amon Lotus-BRM 47 Engine 11
Ret 16 25px Sweden Jo Bonnier Brabham-Climax 37 wheel 9
Ret 9 25px New Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 27 Engine 5
Ret 5 25px Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 14 Engine 7
Ret 10 25px USA Phil Hill Cooper-Climax 4 Ignition 19
Ret 11 25px UK Innes Ireland BRP-BRM 2 Gearbox 10

Notes[]

  • At the season's last round in Mexico, Lorenzo Bandini nudged off Hill, Clark's Lotus failed on the last lap, and Surtees claimed the title with a second place finish behind Gurney.
  • This is the last Formula 1 race in which drivers shared the same car.[1]

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 25px UK Graham Hill 39 (41)
2 25px UK John Surtees 34
3 25px UK Jim Clark 30
4 25px USA Richie Ginther 23
5 25px Italy Lorenzo Bandini 19
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 25px Italy Ferrari 43
2 25px UK BRM 42 (51)
3 25px UK Lotus-Climax 36 (37)
4 25px UK Brabham-Climax 21
5 25px UK Cooper-Climax 16
  • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only best 6 results counted toward the championship. Numbers without parentheses are championship points, numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References[]

  1. The Nostalgia Forum Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  • Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1
  • Tony Hogg (December, 1964). "Grand Prix of the United States". Road & Track, 61-67.


Previous race:
1964 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1964 season
Next race:
1964 Mexican Grand Prix
Previous race:
1963 United States Grand Prix
United States Grand Prix Next race:
1965 United States Grand Prix


Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1964 United States Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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