Formula 2 The Glory Years, 1967-84

Photographs by Jutta Fausel
Foreword by Jacky Ickx
Afterword by Chris Witty
Text by Bob Constanduros, Peter Higham, Mark Hughes and Ian Phillips

This sumptuous book, a feast of nostalgia, celebrates the wonderful era of the European Formula 2 Championship, which began in 1967 and concluded in 1984. F2 pitted emerging heroes against the greats of the day and in its earlier years virtually all the top F1 drivers — names like Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Bruce McLaren — battled with young chargers in races that thrilled huge crowds at the best European circuits, from Thruxton to the Nürburgring, Enna-Pergusa to Pau, Rouen-Les-Essarts to Mugello. Nearly 900 photographs, the great majority taken by Jutta Fausel, bring the glory days of F2 back to life in this book, along with expert commentary and detailed statistics, complete with a Foreword by Jacky Ickx and an Afterword by Chris Witty.
 
Key content
• The first season, 1967, when Jacky Ickx became the first champion, driving a Tyrrell-entered Matra.
• French Matra cars propelled the next two champions, Jean-Pierre Beltoise (1968) and Johnny Servoz-Gavin (1969), both Frenchmen.
• Of all the manufacturers of F2 cars, March achieved the most success, Ronnie Peterson (1971) becoming the first of six champions to win in these British-built cars.
• A fine all-British year, 1972, saw ex-motorcycle ‘great’ Mike Hailwood win the championship in a Surtees car.
• French champions in five consecutive years: Jean-Pierre Jarier (1973), Patrick Depailler (1974), Jacques Laffite (1975), Jean-Pierre Jabouille (1976) and René Arnoux (1977) dominated their era and all but Jarier went on to become Grand Prix winners.
• Toleman and Ralt cars — also made in Britain — emerged in the final years of the championship, which saw three more British champions: Brian Henton (1980), Geoff Lees (1981) and Jonathan Palmer (1983).
• The other champions were Clay Regazzoni (1970), Bruno Giacomelli (1978), Marc Surer (1979), Corrado Fabi (1982) and Mike Thackwell (1984).

Author: Jutta Fausel grew up behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany, near Berlin, but escaped with her parents in 1961 to settle in West Germany near Stuttgart. Very soon after arriving, a visit to her first race, the Solitude Grand Prix, left her spellbound. Before long, she realised that she could combine her passion for photography with motorsport and attempt to make her living. The European F2 Championship was where Jutta established herself, usually travelling to the races in her old VW Beetle, taking her photos, driving home through the night, developing the films and making prints, delivering them to her main magazine client in Stuttgart, and only then getting some sleep. She covered the championship throughout its 18 years, meanwhile broadening out into other areas of racing, above all F1. Nowadays she lives in California with her husband, John Ward, a race engineer, and still supplies publishers with photos from her extensive archive.
 
Contributor: Chris Witty After success as a child actor, Chris Witty became a full-time journalist with a particular passion for F2, including as Club Racing Editor at Motoring News (1968–70) and Sports Editor at Autosport (1974–77). The highlight of a brief spell running a two-car F2 team in 1971 came when Reine Wisell won the Pau Grand Prix. Recruited by Toleman Group to handle all its PR, marketing and media affairs, he was an integral part of the team that dominated the 1980 European F2 Championship and then moved onwards and upwards into F1 as well as offshore powerboat programmes. In 1985 he joined the Virgin Group, where his PR role involved handling some of Sir Richard Branson’s most famous adventures, including the 1985 and 1986 Virgin Atlantic TransAtlantic powerboat crossings and the 1987 Virgin Atlantic Flyer, which achieved the first crossing of the North Atlantic in a hot-air balloon. He formed his own marketing, sponsorship and media consultancy, Chris Witty Associates, in 1989, and since then his wide-ranging activities have included significant roles with many top motorsport names such as Ford and Zytek Engineering.

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Hardbound | 560 pages | Illustrations: 890 photos, mainly colour