The first turn was approached at maximum speed and if you were an exceptional driver in an exceptional car maybe, just maybe, it could be taken flat. Except there was a crest on the straight so the entry point was obscured. So you turned in blind.
It was a circuit where being the best driver was not enough, you had to be the bravest too. And of all those who raced there, it was Pedro Rodriguez’s performance in the 1971 Osterreichring 1,000km race that for me stands out as the greatest drive ever seen at this extraordinary track.
It is largely a forgotten race today, which is a shame because it should live on in our memories for reasons that go beyond Pedro’s extraordinary performance in his Gulf Porsche 917K. But more of that in a moment.
Unsurprisingly, given who he was and what he was in, Pedro put the 917 on pole at over 130mph, and come the start of the race duly led away, setting a furious pace. He had two problems: first was the Ferrari 312P in second place which had qualified only 0.5 seconds slower and was equipped with the dream team of Clay Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx. Second, his regular team-mate Jackie Oliver had been fired and replaced by Richard Attwood. Now, Richard is no slouch as we all know, but he was getting out of the racing game to go and run the family business and that year had barely driven at all, being drafted in for Le Mans where he backed up his win from the previous year with a fine second place. But by his own admission, he was rusty and viewed his job as to preserve the machinery so as to give Pedro the best shot at victory.