Shunt

by Tom Rubython

  The record says that Caldwell’s appointment was a huge success and he welded together a team of mechanics with skills never before seen in Formula One, and the likes of which have probably never been seen since. They included the legendary Dave Ryan, Steve Bunn, Lance Gibbs, Ray Grant, Howard Moore and Mark Scott. But it has to be said that Caldwell also has his critics, and they say he was made to look good by the skills of these mechanics.

  When the 1976 season opened, Caldwell had considered Jochen Mass the number one driver and told the mechanics to treat him accordingly. He had never imagined that Hunt would be faster and, when it happened, he was genuinely stunned. He famously said: “This unknown bloke came in and blew Mass away.” Despite Caldwell’s predictions, however, the mechanics had made their own assessment, as he recalled later to Hunt biographer Gerald Donaldson: “It doesn’t matter if the guy has got number one written on his forehead or tattooed over his whole body. If he’s second fastest, he’s number two. Period.”

  After Brazil, the team’s and Caldwell’s focus automatically shifted to Hunt. The earlier problems melted away and, once the car had been modified to suit him physically, the frustration went with it. Hunt found himself in a perfectly-developed and highly-competitive car, just as it had been left by Fittipaldi and enhanced by the new six-speed gearbox.

  As the mechanics got to know him, they also began enjoying working for Hunt. Not least of all because of the amount of available women he introduced them to. Hunt drew women to the team like a magnet. Caldwell noted: “We were all as happy as pigs in shit from then on.”

  There was a six-week gap before the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami on 6th March, and as the team headed off to South Africa, it was with an entirely new frame of mind. As the undisputed number one, Hunt started getting the star treatment. His car had been totally rebuilt to suit him and there would be no repeat of the Interlagos fiasco; Mayer was even moved to publicly apologise to Hunt for letting him down in Brazil.

  It was clear that the M23 was a competitive car that had been undermined by one-off problems in Brazil. With these problems put right, Hunt headed from Marbella to South Africa early.

  By then, Suzy had left him and was spending most of her time with Richard Burton in New York. Hunt had also temporarily parted from Jane Birbeck and was playing the field, seen most often parading around Johannesburg with Paddy Norval, a famous South African film actress. All this was going on despite the fact that, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Hunt and Suzy were still happily married.

  It was while he was in Johannesburg that news of Suzy’s dalliance with Burton finally leaked out. There was no bigger story for the world’s press: Burton had split with his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, and was cavorting with the wife of a famous racing driver.

  Caldwell remembers: “With that business of his wife running off with Burton the whole bloody press world suddenly descended on us in South Africa.”

  Once again, Teddy Mayer was totally bemused by Hunt’s antics and his enormous capacity for the opposite sex. Mayer was a reserved character who lived quietly and soberly. When the team moved into the Kyalami Ranch Hotel, Hunt quickly dropped Norval and took up with Carmen Jardin, a beautiful Portuguese he had met at the hotel. Jardin was an exotic creature and her presence fueled the Burton-Miller saga. She accompanied him to the circuit every day, wrapping herself around him at every opportunity.

  The Kyalami Ranch, adjacent to the track and basic by the standards of today, was at that time a hedonist’s dream; set in rolling grass with a giant swimming pool and surrounded by low-rise motel-type buildings. It was where the Formula One circus stayed and lounged around when there was no racing. The drivers loved it, and girls were drawn in every day. Hordes of journalists were kept shepherded outside, but a few enterprising ones got in, chasing Hunt around to learn why his wife was in New York with Richard Burton and not in Kyalami with him.

  The race was almost a sideshow. Qualifying was a repeat of Interlagos, except this time it was much more relaxed as Hunt, now totally comfortable with his car, effortlessly took pole – once again alongside Lauda.

  Hunt was in very high spirits at Kyalami. His former team manager and close friend Bubbles Horsley had managed to resurrect the Hesketh team by running the 1975 308 cars which had been given to him by Lord Hesketh. Horsley had set up a new a business running rent-a-cars for would-be F1 drivers. The new Horsley-owned Hesketh team debuted in South Africa with German driver Harald Ertl paying US$20,000 to run. Ertl qualified his Hesketh 308 dead last and finished the race 15th; four laps behind the winner. Horsley’s new team may have been hopeless, but it was very profitable, as he remembered: “We had gone from the front of the grid, from being the glamour boys, to the back of the grid and being forgotten. But on the other hand, the bank balance went from zero and filled up again.” Horsley was aided by the prize money fund increase and the fact that some of the money was allocated retrospectively from the previous season’s performance by Hunt in the cars. It was worth about US$70,000 to the team in all and Horsley exploited it. Hunt didn’t mind and he enjoyed having his mentor and best friend around again.

  Lauda dropped Hunt at the start and roared off, but Hunt gave him a much harder time than he had in Brazil. He finished second within 1.3 seconds at the finish as Lauda wrestled with a slow puncture. Mass was third, albeit 46 seconds behind, and Fittipaldi was nowhere, having retired on lap 70 from the back of the grid. It was another rout of his rivals, with the only problem being that Lauda had actually won both races and was now firm favourite to be world champion again.

  The first two races, however, had lit the fuse for the 1976 world championship. It was obvious Hunt would be a contender and that Lauda may not have it all his own way.

  Hunt may have dominated qualifying so far, but Niki Lauda was dominating the racing. At the of his powers, world champion Lauda was on top of the world and enjoying both his working and personal life. Lost in all the brouhaha of Hunt’s personal life, Lauda was also making waves in the European newspapers.

  Lauda had left his long standing fiancé, Mariella von Reininghaus, and taken up with a new girl called Marlene Knaus. Knaus was an actress and sometime model. She belonged to one of the most respected families in Austria. Her grandfather was a renowned gynaecologist, and her father a famous Austrian painter. It was their first public appearance at the Kyalami Ranch hotel and Lauda introduced her by saying, simply: “This is my lady.” Remarkably, for Lauda, the sudden dumping of his companion of eight years and the woman he intend to marry did not seem to merit any further explanation than that. It turned out that he had been seeing Marlene for at least six months during the close season and Mariella, the daughter of an Austrian brewery millionaire, had already been long gone from his life. Lauda had kept his new relationship entirely secret until Kyalami, where he introduced her to everyone for the first time. Everyone, that is, except for John Hogan, who it later turned out had known all about it.

  Lauda had met Marlene the previous summer at the Salzburg home of Hollywood actor Curt Jurgens. At the time, Marlene was Jurgens’ girlfriend. She and Lauda hit it off straightaway and got together after the US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, in October 1975.

  Lauda had been away in America for three weeks and, upon his return to the apartment he shared with Mariella, his feelings suddenly struck him. As he later revealed: “I draped my jacket over the back of a chair and looked at Mariella and suddenly it hit me: this won’t work.” He drove away that night into Marlene’s arms never to return. Lauda proposed to her that night and they went away to Ibiza on Lauda’s private plane.

  Back in Austria, Lauda told Mariella a pack of lies. He told her he was stressed and, because of that, demanded they end their eight-year relationship. He told her that he “no longer had time for emotional nonsense.”

  In truth, Mariella had become a burden and, after eight years together, he had coldly dumped her in a few minutes’ conversation. Mariella was a lovely woman and had been very popu
lar on the Formula One scene. David Benson, the Daily Express motoring editor, who was a close friend, later tried to explain, saying: “Lauda had simply removed the fuse on the emotional circuit in his brain.”

  But in Kyalami, Benson could sense that Marlene was more than a casual fling – although he had no idea how much more. It later emerged that Lauda had wanted to get married to Marlene straightaway, merely days after meeting her. But he wanted it kept a secret as he did not wish Mariella and her friends to know he already had a new girlfriend. So, the previous November, he had flown to England and met secretly with John Hogan. When he arrived at Hogan’s home in Reading, he told him: “You know what I’m missing? A wife. Where can I get married in England?” It was almost comical, as Hogan remembers: “I was living out in Reading in those days, so I said: ‘Let’s try Reading registry office to see what happens.’ So we drove up to the Reading registry office; Niki, myself and Marlene. And this very nice gentleman said: ‘I’m terribly sorry. I’d love to, but I can’t.’”

  So Lauda’s plans were thwarted and he hid away in Ibiza with Marlene over the winter. Then, three months later, they turned up in Kyalami. Lauda figured he could test the water in South Africa, away from the full glare of European journalists. But he hadn’t figured on the Hunt-Burton-Taylor story making his news a complete non-event. Such was the buzz surrounding Hunt hardly anyone noticed Lauda and Marlene.

  Only David Benson relayed a story back to his newspaper, which was barely interested. It was easy to see why Lauda had become so transfixed. Marlene Knaus was a very beautiful girl and wore her hair in a severe brushed back bun at the top of her head. Benson said: “I established a friendly relationship with Marlene when the other people on the racing circuit cold-shouldered her, thinking she was merely some local pick-up.”

  Lauda was distressed by this and decided he must make an honest woman of Marlene as quickly as he could. Meanwhile, the wives and girlfriends of the other drivers had different ideas and completely sided with Mariella as news of the new relationship leaked out in Europe’s tabloid newspapers. There was still a great deal of speculation about whether Niki and Mariella would get back together again.

  At a party hosted by Nina Rindt, the widow of Jochen Rindt, at her house overlooking Lake Geneva, there was an attempt to bring Lauda and Mariella together again. Helen Stewart offered to get in touch with both Mariella and Lauda and to try and heal the breach. And she was nominated by the others to directly intervene. But they were labouring under the impression that Lauda and Marlene had just met, and had no idea what had occurred the previous year in Reading.

  But when news of the women’s summit at Lake Geneva reached him the next day, Lauda decided to take action. He didn’t want a media circus, and he knew the Austrian and German press would take Mariella’s side against his. So Lauda went as quietly as he could to a registry office in Vienna-Neustadt and married Marlene. The registrar agreed to a secret marriage out of hours and, astonishingly, it remained a secret for nearly a month, by which time journalists accepted it as a fait accompli, making further speculation effectively unnecessary.

  The three weeks between Kyalami and Long Beach were dominated by reports of Hunt’s crumbling marriage and his sustained attempt to avoid quote-hungry journalists. After Johannesburg, Hunt flew straight back into London to stay with his parents.

  He was due to drive at the non-championship Race of Champions at nearby Brands Hatch. At Brands he won his first race for McLaren, beating Niki Lauda fair and square for the first time, although Lauda had eventually retired.

  But, for many, the Race of Champions was more significant for what happened off-track than on. John Surtees’ new Formula One team had obtained sponsorship from the London Rubber Company, which owned Durex, the condom maker. The Durex logos on the car caused considerable embarrassment to the BBC and its then head of sport, Sam Leitch. Times were different back then and there is no doubt a large proportion of Britain would have been offended if that brand had appeared on their television screens. After qualifying, Jonathan Martin, producing the coverage, issued a statement which said: “The BBC will consider again all the implications of this new Formula One sponsorship before it confirms its decision to cover and transmit the Race of Champions.” After unsuccessfully asking John Surtees to cover up the sponsors’ name on his car, Martin ordered the cameras taken down, and the BBC packed up and disappeared overnight. It was too late to make other arrangements and the race would not be broadcast. The implications for the coverage of the British Grand Prix, four months later, were not lost on anybody.

  At the time, the BBC was wrestling with its own crisis of conscience over the rapidly growing trend towards commercial sponsorship of sport. Formula One was the worst offender, and the BBC used the Durex situation to cancel its broadcasting contracts for 1976 whilst it considered its position towards the whole issue of sponsorship and television.

  Hunt was oblivious to all of this and had other more pressing matters on his mind. He helicoptered away from Brands Hatch and went straight to London’s Heathrow Airport and flew to New York to meet with Suzy and Richard Burton to discuss a divorce. After that, he flew across country to Los Angeles and Long Beach, where the first ever United States Grand Prix West was due to be staged on a converted street circuit. But by the time he arrived, Hunt felt ill and had severe stomach pains caused by nervous exhaustion.

  He was suddenly a genuine world championship contender and was strangely surprised by it. Fiercely intelligent, he was often caught out by reality. Though it had always been his ambition to be world champion, when he finally had the chance to realise it, he was caught totally unaware; he didn’t recognise those words associated with him in the newspapers.

  The US Grand Prix West was a brand new event, a second race in America at a circuit carved out of public streets in the little-known Los Angeles suburb of Long Beach. The town was best known as the retirement home of the ex-Cunard cruise liner the Queen Mary, which had been converted into a hotel.

  Long Beach was billed as an American version of the Monaco Grand Prix. In truth, the two locations shared only a proximity to water. The harbour was filthy and the surrounding buildings decrepit. Downtown Long Beach consisted of run-down motels, dirty apartment blocks and old warehouses, some of which had been converted into cinemas showing blue movies.

  The circuit was worn-out tarmac bordered by concrete walls and vertical catch fencing. Long Beach turned out to be a seedy low-rent resort, and nothing at all like Monaco.

  It had been the improbable dream of an improbable character called Chris Pook to hold a world championship Grand Prix round the streets of such a location. Pook was a grey-bearded expatriate Englishman. He was a chancer who was perennially short of cash but had somehow raised the funds from the Long Beach local authority to pay FOCA US$500,000 for the event. The local authority was keen to promote Long Beach’s tourism, and they had watched as Pook tested the concept with lower powered Formula 5000 cars the year before.

  Despite his efforts, however, there were doubts that the track could be made safe enough around its two-mile length.

  Hunt didn’t expect to do well in Long Beach on its tight twisty track with the guard rails inches from the action. He hated street tracks and, despite three attempts, had never managed to finish the Monaco Grand Prix. The McLaren-Ford M23 was also ill-suited to slow twisty tracks and had primarily been designed for the fast-sweeping tracks of Europe.

  In qualifying, Hunt was very surprised when he qualified third behind Regazzoni’s Ferrari and Patrick Depailler’s Tyrrell-Ford. Lauda was having problems and could only manage fourth, once again beside Hunt on the second row of the grid. Only three tenths of a second covered the first three cars. Hunt said: “It was one of those sessions where everyone was getting quicker all the time and we were as good as anybody. The four of us had been fast, swapping times, and there was really nothing to choose between us.”

  Hunt made a good start in the race, passed Depailler, and set off a
fter Regazzoni. But there was a vapour lock in his fuel system and his engine kept spluttering. It soon cleared, but his efforts came to nought on the third lap when, as he was attempting to overtake Patrick Depailler’s Tyrrell-Ford, it moved over and pushed Hunt’s McLaren off the track. Hunt was shunted head first into the wall but at slow speed so there was little damage to the car. The crowd was surprised that Hunt didn’t carry on.

  Instead, a furious Hunt leapt from his car, stood out in the middle of the track, only slightly off the racing line, and took to his trademark fist-shaking and shouting of abuse directed at the Frenchman. Hunt continued this tirade for three laps before he was dragged away by marshals.

  Regazzoni and Lauda cruised to victory, scoring a 1-2 for Ferrari, with Depailler third.

  After the race, Hunt gate-crashed the podium press conference and tackled a startled Depailler about what happened. Becoming increasingly enraged by Depailler’s answers, Hunt shouted: “It was just flagrant stupidity. I came alongside you and you saw me, but you just moved over and squeezed me out. You made a complete cock-up of that corner and the first thing you should do when you make a cock-up is to look where all the others are. The first thing you must do is to bloody well learn to drive.” Depailler replied: “Look, James, I am desolate at what has happened. I am so sorry.” James said: “I am bloody well sorry too. Just watch it in future.” Outside, Hunt told journalists that Depailler was a “crazy frog driver” who had robbed him of a certain second place.

  In the end, though, most people took Depailler’s side and Hunt emerged from Long Beach with very bad press. Even his friend, Jody Scheckter described Hunt’s antics that day as “very foolish.”

  When the McLaren mechanics brought his car back to the pits, the only damage appeared to be a crumpled nose; it appeared that Hunt could have continued the race if his anger had not overpowered his reason and exaggerated the incident. Later, Hunt admitted he had made a mistake trying to pass Depailler at that corner, but he still blamed him for the accident.