1963 European Touring Car Challenge Explained

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

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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 Sport
25/08	Rd. 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 2
01/09	Rd. 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 S BMW 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 S Morris Mini 850
13	Ernst Furtmayr	Alfa Romeo Giulia TI	52
14	John Thurston	Morris Mini Cooper S DKW Junior de Luxe Morris Mini 850	47
15	Hans Braun	NSU Sport Prinz	46
16	Loek Nerden	Austin Mini Cooper	43
17		Vauxhall VX4/90	41
18	Leo Hans von Veh	BMW 700	40
etc.
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".

Notes and References

1. Web site: European Touring Car championship - 1963 . Touringcarracing.net . 2014-01-13.
2. Web site: European Touring Car Championship - Championships . Racing Sports Cars . 2014-01-13.