Monaco – The Grand Prix in Monte Carlo
Monaco – The Grand Prix in Monte Carlo
27th May 1979
The second race of the Procar series took place in Monaco and was staged over 15 laps at 3.312 km. The winner mastered the race distance of 49.680 km at an average speed of 114.338 km/h.
The second Procar race in Monaco was also spectacular. A difficult duel between Clay Regazzoni and Niki Lauda was an evocative reminder of the old days.
Monaco was thus probably the most important advertisement for the “Procar circus”. Dozens of M1s are said to have been sold at the event. However, there was also somewhat annoyance among the private drivers. They did not understand why, despite achieving faster practice times, they had to start behind the Grand Prix drivers. For example, at 1,41.39 minutes Stuck was almost a second faster than Niki Lauda in his Marlboro M1. Regazzoni, Depailler, Fittipaldi and Jarier (in factory M1s) also started in front of him. At the same time, it became apparent that the F1 stars were said to have received 10,000 Deutsche Mark per race. It is well known, that a good starting position in Monte Carlo is half the battle. Thus, contact with the enemy and accidents were unavoidable.
Already at the start Regazzoni overtook Lauda. Followed by Jarier, Fittipaldi, Depailler and Stuck. After the first lap, Stuck was already in 4th place. However, after the second lap he was in last place. This was due to a “head to head” with Lauda. But if whoever knows “Strietzel” also knows that this was only the beginning. His comeback was unfishable.
By the 10th lap the long Grainauer was already in 7th place again. But the comeback ended abruptly. Strietzel flew off the track at the swimming pool, due to a burst oil connection on the racing car, which poured onto rear left-hand tyre. The M1 destroyed the double crash barrier and was caught by the safety fence – just short of the spectators.
In his Heidegger M1, Marc Surer too shoved Depailler, who was in front of him, off the track at the swimming pool, subsequently remaining stranded himself. Close to the finish, Lauda outsmarted the until then race leader, Regazzoni (unlucky gear change) at Rascasse and won. Fittipaldi, Hezemanns, Schütz and Markus Höttinger followed. The latter was the Austrian, an up-and-coming talent, who had covered more than 60,000 test kilometres in the M1.
The race result
Monaco – The Grand Prix in Monte Carlo
BMW works cars in BMW M design
Blue text = F1 driver – Red time = F1 driver
Pos. | # | Name | Nat. | Team | Laps | Time | T-Time |
1 | 5 | Niki Lauda | A | N.Lauda | 15 | 26:04,200 | 1:28,320 |
2 | 28 | Clay Regazzoni | CH | BMW Motorsport | 15 | 26:07,090 | 1:28,480 |
3 | 14 | Emmerson Fittipaldi | BR | BMW Motorsport | 15 | 26:24,120 | 1:28,490 |
4 | 99 | Toine Hezemans | NL | BMW Nederland | 15 | 26:26,320 | 1:42,300 |
5 | 41 | Wolfgang Schütz | D | Schütz Racing | 15 | 26:43,780 | 1:45,430 |
6 | 44 | Markus Höttinger | A | Dr. Helmut Marko | 15 | 26:45,330 | 1:45,440 |
7 | 88 | Franz Konrad | A | Konrad Racing | 15 | 27:12,050 | 1:46,200 |
8 | 60 | Eddy Cheever | USA | Osella | 15 | 27:16,250 | 17. |
9 | 4 | Jean-Pierre Jarier | F | BMW Motorsport | 15 | 27:38,800 | 1:28,620 |
10 | 66 | Helmut Kelleners | D | Eggenberger | 14 | 1:43,090 | |
11 | 45 | Sepp Manhalter | A | Schnitzer | 14 | 18. | |
25 | Patrick Depailler | F | BMW Motorsport | dit not finish | 1:28,690 | ||
71 | Marc Surer | CH | BMW Schweiz | dit not finish | 1:43,470 | ||
77 | Hans-Joachim Stuck | D | Cassani Racing | dit not finish | 1:41,390 | ||
70 | Bruno Giacomelli | I | BMW Italia | dit not finish | 1:43,060 | ||
50 | Dieter Quester | A | Tom Walkinshaw | dit not finish | 1:46,160 | ||
80 | Jean-Louis Lafosse | F | BMW France | dit not finish | 1:47,070 | ||
61 | Walter Brun | CH | Schnitzer / Brun | dit not finish | 1:48,640 | ||
26 | Jacques Laffite | F | BMW Motorsport | dit not start |