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It doesn't happen often, but just once in a while you get a race that not only lives up to its promise but actually exceeds it. Anyone who was there will tell you that the 1969 British Grand Prix was one such. Jackie Stewart versus Jochen Rindt. Matra against Lotus. The rest nowhere.
"There were something like 30 lead changes between us," says Stewart, "although they didn't necessarily register at the start-finish line because they happened out on the circuit. We'd pass each other on the Hangar Straight and on the approach to Woodcote, but intelligently, not trying to block in fact quite the reverse, because we were drawing away from the competition. We got miles ahead because we weren't blocking each other."
Eventually Rindt's car suffered problems and Stewart won comfortably. It was, he has always said, the most enjoyable race of his career. "Oh yes how many times in your life are you going to have a race like that? Jochen and I were so evenly matched on ability and it was the same with our cars. Off the track Jochen was my closest friend, and on it he was a man I trusted implicitly."
