The 1963 European Touring Car Challenge was the inaugural season of what would become the European Touring Car Championship. On 16 June 1963, the first race was staged on the classic Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. After a hillclimb event at Mont Ventoux, the challenge headed to England for two races, as classes were divided between events at Brands Hatch and Mallory Park. Round five was hosted by the brand new Zolder circuit, then the challenge crossed the border into the Netherlands and on to Zandvoort. Another hillclimb at the Timmelsjoch for round seven, and the final would be held behind the Iron Curtain, in Hungary.
Although the challenge was a success, the point-scoring systems used weren't. The first challenge left us with five drivers sharing the top position, with Peter Nöcker, being declared the champion. This was because there were up to nine classes, all having their own separate race winners. This point system would remain right up to 1988 when the ETCC stopped.
The challenge had a lot of competitive cars, but not many of them were in the same class. On the other hand, speed differences were not that large, so a Mini was sometimes able to outpace many bigger cars.
European Touring Car Challenge Champion: Peter Nöcker
Runner Up: Wolf-Dieter Mantzel
Results
Date Round Circuit/Hillclimb Classes Winning driver(s) Winning team Winning car 16/06 Rd. 1 Nürburgring Class 1-9 Peter Lindner Peter Nöcker Peter Lindner Racing Jaguar 3.8 Litre Mark 2 23/06 Rd. 2 Mont Ventoux Class 2-9 Leo Cella Driver Lancia Flavia Coupé 06/07 Rd. 3 Brands Hatch Class 4-9 Roy Salvadori Denny Hulme Tommy Atkins Jaguar 3.8 Litre Mark 2 13/07 Rd. 4 Mallory Park Class 2-3 Björn Rothstein Driver Saab 96 Sport25/08Rd. 5 Zolder Class 2-3 Gösta Karlsson Gösta Karlsson Saab 96 Sport Class 4-5 Rob Slotemaker Downton Engineering Austin Mini Cooper S Class 6-9 Peter Nöcker Jaguar 3.8 Litre Mark 201/09Rd. 6 Zandvoort Class 1-3 Gösta Karlsson Driver Saab 96 Sport Class 4-6 Rob Slotemaker Downton Engineering Austin Mini Cooper S Class 7-9 John Sparrow John Sparrow Jaguar 3.8 Litre Mark 2 15/09 Rd. 7 Timmelsjoch Class 2-9 Peter Nöcker Jaguar 3.8 Litre Mark 2 22/09 Rd. 8 Népliget Park, Budapest Class 2-9 Luigi Cabella Carlo Facetti HF Squadra Corse Lancia Flaminia Source:
Table Place Driver Car Total 1 Peter Nöcker Jaguar 3.8 Litre Mark 2 60 2 Wolf-Dieter Mantzel DKW F12 60 3 Hubert Hahne BMW 700 60 4 Rob Slotemaker Austin Mini Cooper SBMW 700 60 5 Tom Trana Volvo 122S 60 6 Gösta Karlsson Saab 96 Sport 58 7 Björn Rothstein Saab 96 Sport 56 8= Luigi Cabella Lancia Flaminia 54 Leo Cella Lancia Flaminia Jochen Neerpasch Volvo 122S Jürgen Grähser BMW 700 John Aley Austin Mini Cooper SMorris Mini 850 13 Ernst Furtmayr Alfa Romeo Giulia TI 52 14 John Thurston Morris Mini Cooper SDKW Junior de LuxeMorris Mini 850 47 15 Hans Braun NSU Sport Prinz 46 16 Loek Nerden Austin Mini Cooper 43 17 Bill Blydenstein Vauxhall VX4/90 41 18 Leo Hans von Veh BMW 700 40etc. Source: The first five drivers finished level on points; the overall result of the Nürburgring was decisive... another contemporary report mentions "the ones with the most victories, Nöcker, Mantzel and Hahne were classified in the order of who had the biggest winner margin over second in class".
References