It’s fair to say Mexican fans were pretty passionate about their racing, especially their local hero Rodriguez, and the passion began to get out of hand in the late sixties. The problems had become apparent in 1968. Civil unrest meant that crowd control was carried out by unarmed policemen and track marshals, instead of the military police who had kept fans safe in previous years. By the end of the Grand Prix, a number of fans had made their way out onto the track.
By 1970, 200,000 fans flocked to the circuit to watch the drivers speed around the track. The circuit simply couldn’t support such a large number of people, and the crowd soon caused chaos by moving beyond their allocated areas. Fences were torn down and bottles were thrown on track. Jackie Stewart and Rodriguez had even been sent out on track to plead with the crowd to stay back behind the fences. Autocourse say the track was effectively lined with a ‘human guardrail’, but the race went ahead after an hour’s delay. Stewart would suffer misfortune in the Grand Prix, as he hit a dog which had wandered onto the circuit. With his car out of control, the Scotsman narrowly avoided a bank where people were sitting to watch the race.
The event had become a victim of its own success, and the danger presented to fans and drivers couldn’t continue. The organisers had secured money to be able to offer better crowd control for the following season, though interest in holding the event waned following the death of Pedro Rodriguez in a sportscar crash at the Norisring in Germany. The 1971 Mexican Grand Prix was cancelled as a result, and subsequently disappeared from the calendar.