Talk:Masta Kink

Language

It is hard to believe that the German drivers Stuck and Mass talked to each other in English. In German the words for human body-parts and parts of a car's body are quite different. Refering to human remains one would say "Körperteile" whereas exterior car parts are "Karosserieteile", "Verkleidungsteile" or simply "Autoteile". The German expressions for human-body and car-body simply do not match like they do in English. In German a car doesn't have a body, it rather has a "Karosserie" or a "Verkleidung".

They might have used the German word for parts which is in both cases just "Teile". So maybe Stuck told Mass to watch out for parts around Masta. Only that way Mass had two options to consider. But who knows, maybe they really used to talk English and not their mother-tongue which happens to be the same. At least this is not impossible. It would be interesting to find out.

Another point is that some sources state Stuck and Mass shared a car in this race. In 1973 Stuck drove a BMW togehter with Chris Amon and Jochen Mass had a contract with a Ford team where he joined forces with John Fitzpatrick. This adds further doubts to the story.

Crashes of 1966 and 1973

I am afraid this account about the Masta kink contains some factual inaccuracies.

When Jackie Stewart crashed his car during the first lap of the 1966 F1 GP, it happened in the Burnenville turn, which is a very fast and long turn. If fact, that year, when the start was given, the cars started in dry race condition. However, due to the length of the track, it often happened at Francorchamps that some parts of the track could be wet while others were not. This is exactly what happened that year. When the cars started, there was a rainstorm over the hamlet of Burnenville and the track became wet at this place, but it was still dry on the start line. During the first lap of the race, the drivers entered Burnenville almost at full speed only to suddenly find a wet track. If I recall well, at least 4 drivers crashed, among which J. Steward. His car ended indeed upside down, but not in the cellar and not even in the courtyard of the farm (which by the way lays on the left of the track and – at least – 3 or 4 meters below the level of the track). But since there were several cars involved, it took several minutes before one could extract Jackie from his car. And I can easily think that for him these few minutes have seemed to be hours. Since them, he really hated the track. Another driver, Jo Siffert if I recall well, was also in a very uncomfortable position. The front of his car (including the front wheels) was over the farm courtyard, while the back was still on the track, the whole being in an unstable balance. I can’t recall who the other drivers involved were, but Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier could have been involved as well. In fact, other drivers too got crashes during that race and only 5 managed to get points. Altough a few more actually finished the race, but with insufficient distance covered.

With respect to the 24 hours race of 1973, there were indeed 3 drivers killed in two distinct crashes. The first one took place in Malmedy corner (just before the Masta straight) and not in the Masta kink. During the night, one driver lost control of his car and the car behind him crashed into it, both being killed almost instantly. I can't remember their names anymore.

The other crash indeed occurred in the Masta kink, where an older gentleman driver (if I remember well, he was almost 60 y.o.), Léon Denier (or maybe Dernier) lost control in the kink and rolled his car up an electrical pole. I can’t however remember whether a marshall was involved in this accident as well. --Lebob-BE 00:49, 4 January 2007 (UTC)