Eppie Wietzes
Egbert " Eppie " Wietzes ( born May 28, 1938 in Assen, Netherlands) is a former Canadian race car driver. In the years 1967 and 1974, he played the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1
Career
1960
In the 1960s Wietzes was much talked about for the first time the various racing missions in GT and sports car racing. In 1963 he was engaged in the USRRC, but this had a major accident in 1964, in which he incurred serious leg injuries prematurely.
1966 denied Wietzes in a Ford GT40 for the Canadian " Comstock Racing Team ", the six round of the newly formed Canadian CanAm series, his best and only result in the championship points was the sixth rank in Mosport.
Also in 1966 took Wietzes together with Craig Fisher on the 12- hour race at Sebring in part, but withdrew from the race back.
In 1967 when the first Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 history took place at Mosport, Wietzes leased the third plant lotus and thus got with the competitive Lotus 49, the same technical material as teammate Jim Clark and Graham Hill. Nevertheless Wietzes had in qualifying due to his inexperience in dealing with Formula 1 cars 8.4 seconds behind the pole position of Clark and qualified as Seventeenth to start, but fell because of a wet ignition during the race from. Wietzes was subsequently disqualified because he to start the car again while trying unassisted took to complete.
1968 returned Wietzes as a driver in the USRRC back and finished the championship in his McLaren M6B in seventh place in the overall standings.
Since the USRRC 1969 broke up, Wietzes moved to the "Canadian Formula Atlantic ," whose championship he won in a Lola T142 and 1970 in a McLaren M10 1969.
1970s and 80s
1970-1975 Wietzes also drove for McLaren or Lola in Formula 5000, where he always showed consistent performance. His best result of the season was three times the fourth rank in the Meistreschaftswertung.
After Wietzes at Mosport was the Grand Prix of Canada in 1973 as the first safety car driver of the Grand Prix history to use, he purchased a Brabham BT42 for the coming year again, a Formula 1 activities with his private team "Canada F1 Racing ". With great difficulty Wietzes failed to qualify for the 26th and last place immediately. However, he had to retire from the race after an engine failure.
1976 to 1985 he drove in the U.S. Trans-Am series, the championship with two wins this season, he decided in a 1981 Chevrolet Corvette for themselves.
In addition Wietzes took in the 70s and 80s a few times on the long-distance race 6- hour race at Mosport and 24 - hour race at Daytona in part, but to achieve great success without.
1993 Wietzes was taken to honor his nearly thirty-year career in motorsport in the "Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame".