by Tom Rubython
The team rushed back to England to prepare for the Daily Express Silverstone International Trophy scheduled for 7th April, a week after Kyalami. Because of the close proximity to the South African race, it did not attract much of an entry. The only established stars were Ronnie Peterson in a Lotus and Denny Hulme in a McLaren. In order to make up the numbers, the race was opened to Formula 5000 cars. 15 Formula One cars would race alongside ten Formula 5000 cars – 25 cars in all.
Crucially, the typical English weather meant cooler temperatures. The Firestones worked so well in these cool conditions that, at a Silverstone test session before the race, Hunt found he could take Woodcote corner flat out in his new car. This was something no one had managed before, and his confidence was sky high.
When qualifying began, Hunt was in startling form, and it had the rest of the Formula One community seriously worried. His pole position time was 1.7 seconds quicker than Peterson’s second-placed Lotus. Lord Hesketh reflected: “That was a very bizarre weekend really. We went up there and the weather was perfect, which was very unusual because the race was always held in April. We went out and we got round in 1minute 15.8 seconds; we just shattered the lap record.”
The news attracted over 35,000 fans to Silverstone for race day.
Hunt knew he could win. While everyone was under the impression that the 308 was wholly superior, he had calculated that its performance was down to the Firestone tyres on which the car was running. On the warm-up lap, Hunt hit a hare running across the track and smashed the front wing. It was a potentially nasty incident but Hunt kept the car under control and brought it back to the pit lane for a replacement.
But the drama was not yet over. At the start, the gear lever knob came off in his hand and the stationary Hesketh-Ford was overtaken by virtually half the grid. 14 cars went past before he could get the car in gear. From then on, he was forced to use the sharp stub of the gear lever shaft to change gear. It was undoubtedly very painful.
But he was so much quicker than the rest of the field that, by lap five, he was in fifth place; by lap 13, he was second; and by lap 28, he had taken the lead.
His daring passing maneuver around Ronnie Peterson on Woodcote corner at over 160 miles per hour is still spoken of by people who were there that day. The two cars were side by side round Woodcote, opposite-locking on the limit of their tyres’ adhesion. Hunt’s Firestones were stickier than Peterson’s Goodyears, but that didn’t stop Gerald Donaldson calling it a “breathtaking ballet of high-speed car control.”
Hunt passed Peterson with two wheels on the grass, and the crowds in the grandstands erupted with joy. Murray Walker, commentating that day, said: “My goodness, that was a consummate bit of motor racing artistry, the like of which I have seldom seen before.”
Peterson had literally worn out his Goodyears trying to keep up, and he retired when his engine expired with the strain. Hunt set the fastest lap of the race, with an average speed of 137.38 miles per hour. Lord Hesketh would say that his finest moment was when Hunt took the chequered flag for his maiden victory. He remembered: “On that beautiful April day, I walked towards Bubbles and Harvey and all the rest of the team. We were hysterical with laughter and tears. James suddenly flung away his helmet and belted out a rendition of the ‘Dambusters March’, and we all dementedly joined in.”
Noticing Hunt’s bloody hands after the race, Hesketh was full of admiration for his driver: “He drove a 40-lap race with the top of the gearstick embedded in his hand. And it looked like a mess. He literally crucified his hand to drive the car and to win.”
Hunt’s average race speed of 133.58 miles per hour made the race the fastest ever held in Britain since the Second World War, at the old banked Brooklands track. Hunt said: “It was just a super day, and it was lovely to win in England. But we had no illusions: we knew the moment we crossed the line that it wasn’t a Grand Prix. So we sat back and enjoyed it for what it was – our first win. It was a great day.” According to Gerald Donaldson, the whole team went to celebrate at the famous Trader Vic’s bar in the basement of the London Hilton in Park Lane. There, they drank Mai Tais until morning. The following day, Hunt was lauded in the British newspapers as a new British hero.
At Silverstone that day Hunt also met Professor Sid Watkins for the first time. The two were later to become truly great friends but their first exchange of words was simple enough, as Watkins recalls: “He’d already acquired the name ‘Hunt the Shunt’, and I said to him: ‘Are you going to have a shunt today, James?’ and he said: ‘I’m going to do my level best.’” Watkins now calls it his “un-introduced encounter.”
Three weeks later, it was the Spanish Grand Prix and, by now, it was clear the new 308 had flattered to deceive at Interlagos and Silverstone. It was only fast in cooler weather on circuits that suited the Firestone tyres, and there weren’t many in those days. At the Jarama circuit, Hunt could only qualify tenth and, by the finish of the race, he was three laps behind Niki Lauda, the eventual winner. It was Lauda’s maiden win for Ferrari from pole position. Hunt later admitted that it was extremely galling to see Lauda, who was a contemporary in Formula 3, winning races in a top team.
The Belgian Grand Prix was held at Nivelles a fortnight later, on 12th May, and it was more of the same for Hunt as he qualified ninth and became involved in an accident halfway through the race. Fittipaldi took the race from Lauda, and the championship battle shaped up to be a matter of contention between the two of them.
In the weekend in between, Hunt drove to Nürburgring to compete in the 1000-kilometre sports car race for the Gulf-Mirage team. The race was held on 19th May. He shared a car with Vern Schuppan and they were teammates to Mike Hailwood and Derek Bell. He finished fourth and partied hard with Hailwood afterwards.
On 26th May, the Monaco Grand Prix rolled around again. It was the first anniversary of the team’s Formula One debut. As ever, Hesketh, remained oblivious to the worldwide recession going on around him.
He rented two yachts for the race: a large one called Nefertiti for himself; and a smaller one, the Henry Morgan, for the Hesketh team. The Hesketh helicopter and the Rolls-Royce had also made the trip down and were busy shuttling guests to and from the airport. The champagne flowed even more freely than it had in 1973.
The race itself was disappointing compared to what was going on in the paddock. Hunt qualified well for seventh, with Lauda on pole next to teammate Regazzoni, and Peterson third. But Hunt was out halfway through the race when his half shaft broke. Retiring to the yacht, he and the team celebrated regardless. Peterson’s Lotus-Ford won it in the end, from Scheckter’s Tyrrell-Ford.
The Swedish Grand Prix on 9th June was far more encouraging, and showed that Hunt had not lost his ability to perform at the front of the grid – something which people in the paddock were beginning to doubt. This time, there were no problems with an entry, and in cool conditions, Hunt qualified fifth ahead of Peterson. But the two Tyrrell-Fords dominated, with Depailler and Scheckter first and second in qualifying, and first and second in the race the other way around.
Hunt duelled with Lauda for 20 laps before passing him on lap 66. He then began chasing down the Tyrrells at two seconds a lap. He finished third, three seconds short at the end. Another five laps and surely he would have won.
At Zandvoort on 23rd June, it was again cooler and Hunt qualified sixth, mixing it with the McLarens, Ferraris and the Tyrrells in a heartwarming performance. But by lap two, he was out of the race as he collided with the Shadow-Ford being driven by the hard-charging Tom Pryce. Lauda and Regazzoni won the race in a Ferrari 1–2.
Now that the heat of the summer had arrived, Hunt’s window of opportunity began to close in on him. In 1974, the French Grand Prix was held at Dijon, one of Hunt’s favourite tracks, but he was denied the chance to perform. Although he had qualified tenth, Hunt was taken out at the start for the second race in succession by Tom Pryce’s Shadow-Ford, which had qualified an amazing third. Hunt’s Hesketh was completely wrecked, and he blame
d his friend Fittipaldi for causing the accident. Hunt said the accident had been triggered by Fittipaldi’s dangerous driving. He climbed out of his car and performed his fist-waving antics each time Fittipaldi’s McLaren-Ford came by. Fittipaldi was smiling behind his helmet, hoping his friend would calm down by the time he got back to the pits. Fittipaldi’s engine blew up in lap 27 and the race was won by Peterson’s Lotus from pole-sitter Lauda and Regazzoni coming in second and third. Hunt had indeed calmed down, and the two men embraced in the pit lane.
Two weeks later, Hunt was back home with his parents in Surrey preparing for the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. Hunt qualified sixth, with Lauda on pole. His new girlfriend, Suzy Miller, also joined him and was introduced to his parents. The meeting was a success and Wallis and Sue really like Suzy. In fact, they bonded straightaway. It was this familial ease that finally convinced Hunt that Suzy was the girl for him.
It was a tricky weekend and little went right. In an unfortunate accident upon leaving the pits prior to the race, Hunt ran over a Tyrrell mechanic and broke both his legs. While others cleared up the mess, Hunt carried on with the race. He made a reasonable start, but it didn’t matter because on lap two his suspension broke and his car went off into the barriers.
It had been a thoroughly disappointing weekend, and Hunt immediately left the circuit to pack up. He flew back to Spain with Suzy Miller, to whom he was intending to propose. Scheckter won the race, followed by Fittipaldi, with Jacky Ickx taking another third place in his Lotus.
So the Formula One circus moved to Nürburgring, with all the usual trepidation about safety.
As usual, the race was to claim another victim. Although it wasn’t fatal, the accident did mark the last ever race for McLaren driver Mike Hailwood. Hailwood went off the circuit and wrecked his car, suffering leg injuries that effectively finished his career. It also marked the first race for Jacques Laffite in one of Frank Williams’ cars, then called the Iso-Marlboro-Fords.
If Jackie Stewart had still been racing, it is unlikely that cars would have continued to race at the Nürburgring. But safety was not paramount for the current crop of drivers, who were too interested in winning and competing. There had been some attempts to make the circuit safer: the main straight had been widened and made smoother where, originally, it was rather narrow and bumpy and flanked by bushes the entire way down; and the organisers had also replaced the bushes that previously lined the track with steel Armco barriers and installed run-off areas filled with sand. But the rest of the 14-mile circuit remained virtually unchanged and highly dangerous, as Hailwood found out.
Lauda got pole and came within a whisker of managing a sub seven-minute lap. Regazzoni’s Ferrari was alongside him on the front row. On a hot day, Hunt could only qualify tenth.
At the start, accidents abounded. Lauda crashed out in the first lap while trying to pass Scheckter’s Tyrrell. Fittipaldi could not select a gear and was passed by everybody on the grid in the process, after which he was sideswiped by teammate Hulme and both were out. Regazzoni went on to win the race from Scheckter. Hunt went out on lap ten when his gearbox gave up the ghost.
It was clear by then that the team was performing worse than it had in 1973, when it was competing in only half the number of races. The new car was actually a dog flattered by its tyres. There was much soul-searching to be done, especially as the team began to experience the first winds of recession and money suddenly became less plentiful. It was clear that the team would have done just as well and saved itself a lot of money had it simply bought a new March 741. The car, inevitably, was struggling with reliability issues and there had been a depressing sequence of retirements.
Hunt was sanguine about the situation, admitting: “The Hesketh was a pretty good workmanlike car, but it wasn’t as competitive (as the March). Therein lay the differences in results. I had to keep the sharp edges on my driving to do it justice as it was, but, even if it had been quicker, it definitely wasn’t a race-winning car.” But Hunt was enjoying just being in Formula One and competing. At that stage of his career, being successful was still a bonus: “It was very good training, driving a car that was not too good.”
Horsley was less forgiving, saying: “We recognise that if we are to survive, we must turn completely professional.”
But just as things were beginning to look their bleakest, the team was rewarded with a good result on 18th August, and morale was boosted accordingly. At the Austrian Grand Prix at Österreichring, another of Hunt’s favourite circuits, he qualified seventh and brought the car home third, albeit a minute behind the leader, Carlos Reutemann, and 43 seconds behind second-placed Denny Hulme. On this occasion, Hunt was lucky and only just managed to finish ahead of John Watson, Clay Regazzoni and Vittorio Brambilla, all of whom were on his tail at the finish. Another two laps and he could have been fifth. The cooler weather had worked wonders again.
So the team went to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix on 8th September with high hopes. Hunt easily put the car on the fourth row of the grid. Niki Lauda was dominant on pole and looked set to win the race easily, but he retired with a blown engine in the lead. Hunt only made it to lap two before his engine blew up as well. Peterson won the race in the Lotus, with Fittipaldi second and Scheckter third.
Formula One now crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Toronto, for the Canadian Grand Prix on 22nd September. It was the penultimate round of the world championship, with Fittipaldi and Lauda seemingly battling for the world title – but with Regazzoni and Scheckter also in the hunt.
The race marked the debut of two new American Formula One teams: Penske, owned by Roger Penske; and Vel’s Parnelli Racing, owned by Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich. Both teams had built new cars, suggesting a serious commitment by a country that previously had been uninterested in Formula One. Both cars qualified and finished their first race.
Fittipaldi rose to the occasion of the world championship battle, positioned side-by-side with Lauda on the front row of the starting grid. Lauda retired on lap 67 after crashing the car, and Fittipaldi won. The second retirement in a row was a disaster for Lauda’s title hopes and he now had to rely on his rivals retiring as well. Hunt qualified eighth, but lost a very tight battle for second place with Regazzoni and Peterson, who finished third, with only two and a half seconds between each of them.
A fortnight later, on 6th October, the United States Grand Prix saw the final race of the season held at Watkins Glen. Interestingly, only one of three drivers – Fittipaldi, Regazzoni or Scheckter – seemed set to win the championship, as Lauda’s retirements in Italy and Canada had ruined his hopes. Fittipaldi and Regazzoni had 52 points each. Scheckter, on 45 points, had a more difficult job to do. There was also a last race battle for the constructors’ championship. Either McLaren on 69 points or Ferrari on 65 points was to be champion.
It was also the first anniversary of the dreadful accident that had killed François Cevert, and the Tyrrell team was very sombre all weekend. Unfortunately, the race was to claim a second victim in tragically similar circumstances.
The race was marked by the first installation of pit-to-car two-way radios in the McLaren cars of Fittipaldi and Hulme. Although standard in American racing, the radios were completely new to Formula One.
None of the championship contenders shone in qualifying or the race. Their performances were strangely muted. The three contenders were markedly unimpressive, with Scheckter coming in sixth, Fittipaldi managing only eighth, and Regazzoni ninth.
Qualifying was dominated by the Brabham team, with Carlos Reutemann on pole position ahead of teammate Carlos Pace in fourth. American Mario Andretti shone in front of his home crowd and qualified best of the rest in the new American team, Vel’s Parnelli Racing. The home fans also had another American hero to cheer with Mark Donohue, who was driving an American-built car for the Penske team.
But the star of qualifying was James Hunt, who battled Reutemann and was alongside him on the front row of the grid. Firestone enginee
rs made a huge effort on home soil in what would be the American tyre company’s last ever Formula One race.
Qualifying was marked by three accidents, involving the cars of Regazzoni, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Andretti. Watkins Glen was not a safe circuit and the accidents caused concern amongst the drivers; concerns that were to be justified the following day.
The world championship showdown on Sunday was a glorious warm day, as can only be had in New York state in late October. But before it could start, the US organisers demonstrated an inordinate degree of favoritism to local hero Mario Andretti. The start was delayed 25 minutes to allow Andretti’s team to solve a technical problem with the car’s ignition. The organisers were mindful that at least half of the 100,000-plus crowd had come to see Andretti race, and were determined that they not be disappointed. The other team managers simply shrugged their shoulders, content that the favoritism was at least transparent – unlike in Italy where it was all done under the table.
In those days, races were still started by the drop of a flag, and American eccentric Tex Hopkins traditionally did the honours at Watkins Glen, dropping the green flag. Reutemann led Hunt, Pace, Lauda, Scheckter, Fittipaldi and Regazzoni off the line. Andretti was out straightaway when he was disqualified for a push start on the grid. His two laps, however, were just enough to keep the fans happy.
Gradually, the gap between Reutemann and Hunt widened and, by the end of the third lap, Regazzoni was struggling with suspension problems. His world championship aspirations were over.
On lap ten, the Surtees-Ford of Austrian Helmut Koinigg, in only his second Grand Prix, went off at the hairpin where the cars had crashed in qualifying the previous day. His rear tyre deflated slowly and, not recognising the problem, he eventually lost control of his car and hit the Armco barrier. The bottom rail gave way but the top one held firm. Koinigg went underneath and had no chance of survival. When Lauda pitted on lap 38, the Ferrari mechanics told him his fellow Austrian had died. Out of respect for his countryman, Lauda immediately retired.
