The 1970 Watkins Glen 6 Hours was an endurance race held at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course, New York, United States on July 11, 1970. It was the ninth round of the 1970 World Sportscar Championship season.

Pre-race

John Wyer's team had not won a race since Spa, and they came off an unsuccessful attempt at winning Le Mans; losing all three of their cars in 10 hours and the race to their sister teams, with Porsche Salzburg and Martini Racing on the podium. Mario Andretti returned to Ferrari to try to help the great marque repeat their triumph at Sebring less than 4 months previously. Ferrari were keen on doing this; a win here would be sufficient comeuppance for them after their Le Mans run. All four works cars had retired after 4 hours and 4 of 6 other privately entered 512's also retired.

This particular race was one of four time-limited races on the 1970 calendar; the others being at Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans. It was the only 6 hour race on the calendar in 1970, with the winner covering 1140km. There were five 1000km races, lasting over 4 to nearly 7 hours depending on track and weather, and the 1970 Targa Florio had 11 laps for 792 km in 6:35 hours.

Qualifying once again went to a Porsche; the Gulf-Wyer Jo Siffert/Brian Redman 917K managed to edge out the Andretti/Giunti Ferrari 512S and the Rodriguez/Kinnunen 917K by three tenths of a second.

A pair of blue and white-striped Porsche Salzburg 917K were entered as Porsche Audi Division, while Martini Racing showed another blue-green Hippie car design, this time on the #35 917K.

This would be the last Watkins Glen 6 Hours race on the original circuit. The circuit was rebuilt for the next year; they used the short track (as the extension had not yet been finished) and the whole track in 1972.

Race At the start, Andretti took the lead from Siffert, but the Swiss driver took the lead back from Andretti on the third lap. He then lost the lead to Rodriguez. Later on in the race, Rodriguez attempted to switch off the 917K's headlights; but instead he switched off the fuel pumps, and the engine started to fail. Rodriguez was about to come into the pits, but then he realized what he had done, switched the pumps on, and then stormed through the field, made fastest lap and he & Kinnunen went on to win for the 4th time in the season. Wyer's team finished 1-2, and both cars finished on the same lap, with the works Ferrari of Andretti/Giunti completing the podium.

Official results Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Engine Laps 1 S5.0 2 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Pedro Rodríguez Leo Kinnunen Porsche 917K Porsche 4.9L Flat-12 308 2 S5.0 1 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Jo Siffert Brian Redman Porsche 917K Porsche 4.9L Flat-12 308 3 S5.0 92 SpA Ferrari SEFAC Mario Andretti Ignazio Giunti Ferrari 512S Spyder Ferrari 5.0L V12 305 4 S5.0 31 Porsche-Audi USA Vic Elford Denny Hulme Porsche 917K Porsche 4.9L Flat-12 302 5 S5.0 91 SpA Ferrari SEFAC Jacky Ickx Peter Schetty Ferrari 512S Spyder Ferrari 5.0L V12 298 6 S5.0 32 Porsche-Audi USA Richard Attwood Kurt Ahrens Jr. Porsche 917K Porsche 4.9L Flat-12 295 7 P3.0 36 Martini International Racing Helmut Marko Rudi Lins Porsche 908/02 Porsche 3.0L Flat-8 288 8 S5.0 50 Ecurie Bonnier Jo Bonnier Reine Wisell Lola T70 Mk.3B Chevrolet 5.0L V8 264 9 S5.0 35 Martini International Racing Gijs van Lennep Gérard Larrousse Porsche 917K Porsche 4.5L Flat-12 260 10 GT+2.5 9 Bob Grossman Bob Grossman Don Yenko Chevrolet Camaro 427 Chevrolet 7.0L V8 243 11 S2.0 52 Dr. Mervin Rosen Merv Rosen Dick Jacobs Porsche 906 Porsche 1.9L Flat-6 241 12 S2.0 53 Mike Rahal Hugh Wise Werner Frank Porsche 906 Porsche 1.9L Flat-6 236 13 GT2.5 77 Bruce Jennings Bob Tuillus Bruce Jennings Porsche 911T Porsche 2.2L Flat-6 233 14 GT2.5 41 Jim Bandy Jim Bandy Bruce Cargill Lotus Europa Ford 1.6L I4 233 15 S2.0 39 Rainer Brezinka Rainer Brezinka Horst Petermann Rudy Bartling Porsche 906 Porsche 1.9L Flat-6 231 16 GT2.0 84 Ralph Meaney Gary Wright Francis C. Grant Porsche 911S Porsche 2.0L Flat-6 223 17 P2.0 46 Jim Baker Wayne Christian Charles Reynolds Bobby Rinzler Chevron B16 Ford 1.8L I4 223 18 GT2.5 70 Sylvain Garant André Wicky Sylvain Garant Porsche 911T Porsche 2.2L Flat-6 217 19 P2.0 46 Jim Baker Paul Richards Jim Baker Chevron B16 Ford 1.8L I4 206 20 GT2.5 94 Ralph Meaney Ralph Meaney Stephen Behr Porsche 914/6 GT Porsche 1.9L Flat-6 181

Did Not Finish

Class No Team Drivers Chassis Engine Laps GT+2.5 20 John Greenwood Allan Barker John Greenwood Chevrolet Corvette Chevrolet 7.0L V8 116 GT2.5 37 Sunoco Canada Jacques Duval George Nicholas Porsche 911T Porsche 2.0L Flat-6 92 GT+2.5 63 Robert Luebbe Robert Luebbe Michael Summers Chevrolet Corvette Chevrolet 7.0L V8 85 S5.0 33 Georg Loos Georg Loos Franz Pesch Ferrari 512S Ferrari 5.0L V12 24 GT+2.5 63 William A. Schumacher Bill Schumacher Robert R. Johnson Chevrolet Corvette Chevrolet 7.0L V8 8 P3.0 53 A. G. Dean Ltd. Tony Dean Peter Revson Porsche 908/02 Porsche 3.0L Flat-8 3

Statistics Pole position: #1 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Porsche 917K (Jo Siffert/Brian Redman) - 1:06.3 (127.581 mph/205.322 km/h) Fastest lap: #2 John Wyer Automotive Engineering Porsche 917K (Pedro Rodriguez)- 1:04.9 (124.833 mph/200.898 km/h) Time taken for winning car to cover scheduled distance: 6 hours and 47.7 seconds Average Speed: 189.592 km/h (117.807 mph) Weather conditions: Sunny

References