1960 Dutch GP
Grote Prijs van Nederland |
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Zandvoort |
June 6, 1960 |
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Ecurie Maarsbergen |
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Cooper-Climax T51 (1060) |
No: 20 |
Q: 17 |
R: 8 |
C: GP |
Carel’s home race was in fact the only World Championship Grand Prix he took part in during the 1960 season and the only one in which he started with the Cooper.
There was some confusion over the qualification rules. First of all the KNAC (the Dutch Autosport Federation) only awarded starting money to the best sixteen in qualifying, which annoyed the drivers very much. Furthermore the times of each car were composed of its three fastest laps. After protests a compromise was reached: timing was only for the best laps of each entrant and the twenty fastest drivers would qualify. The best fifteen of them would receive starting money, while the organisation promised starting money to two more drivers if the ticket revenues were any good. As a result Brown and Reventlow withdrew their entries.
This was not the end of the controversy because the session timing was done by hand and therefore greatly criticized for not being as accurate as should be for a World Championship Grand Prix. Annoyance about the organisation would however not have been the only reason for Reventlow to eventually pull out of the race because his Scarab was outclassed by the entire field, including Carel's Formula 2 Cooper. Thus Carel qualified last and his race turned out to be not much more than following the field and getting lapped six times by the frontrunners.
Jack Brabham had a commanding start-to-finish victory in a race that was marred by a terrible crash. On lap 11 the rear brakes on Dan Gurney’s BRM failed at the end of the main straight at about 140mph. The car somersaulted through a barbed wire fence into the audience. Miraculously the barbed wire only scratched Gurney’s helmet and he got away with minor injuries, but his car hit an 18-year-old spectator that died on the spot.
