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14 AUTOWEEK OCTOBER 16 1976

Narrows The Gap At The GlenBy Pete Lyons

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.-An Englisbcalling itself "Super Fans"over a batch of stickers. The

read: I SAW JAMES HUNT

THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX.

"We're going to tr y to ge t one ontoca r the night before the race," the

head Super Fan promised"Varnish i t on so they can't get it

That's th e tone of th e year, al l rigllt.ha s chosen up sides. Purist

ma y bemoan th e absurdou t of Formula One this

but they do have to admit that Ou r,\las achieved a height of noteriety

ha s brought us world attention atPeople wh o a year ag o couldn't haveyou the difference between Grandan d Grosse Point are no w ardent

for one 'side or the other: JamesMcLaren , or Niki Lauda and

"Niki, go ge t em, Babe, wantcha t ' know're pullin ' for ya ." The backslapping

ellow wa s no t en tirely sober but hiseelings were ferven t. Lauda turned to a

of journalists at h is heels. "You hearEh ? You hear that?" And he grinned

s famous toothy grin.Bu t as a bitter cold northern wind

the checkered flag on Sundayit wa s James Hunt streaking

He stuck both hi s red-glovedinto th e slipstream, making a

-sign with both hi s long arms, and letMarlboro McLaren veer

line directly at hi s pit. The Kiwis

the baby-blue rail gave backas good as they got. They

signalling boards and caps an dand legs and great happy faces an d

James know how they felt

him.

James Hunt, well into the lead in the United States Grand Prix, rushes his Mclaren M23 through the Glen Chris Mullen Photos

Eigllt seconds behind this time wa s JodyScheckter; fifty-four seconds farther backwas Niki Lauda, third.

Having wo n the week before at Mowon now again at Watkins Glen.

Having accomplished everything inNorth America that could have beenasked of him, McLaren's Golden Boyleads the team to Japan bu t three points

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An 'elated JameLHunt basks in the glory of the winner's stand after closing up to within three points ofdefending World Driving Champion Niki lauda's points lead.

short of eclipsing Ferrari's star.The Japanese have never seen a Grand

Prix before. Their first one is going todecicJe a world famous World Championship.

Practice at Watkins Glen was slashed

short by a savage storm-all of Saturdaywas washed, ou t in heavy wind-drivenra ins-but midweek testing had alreadyhelped several teams tune their cars andHunt started hi s M23 from. pole. Scheckterwith hi s P34 Tyrrell was his closestthreat, second on the grid. Then came th e

twin March 761s of Ronnie Peterson andVittorio Brambilla before Lauda, in fifth

starting spot with hi s 312T2Although he'd.spent the Wednesday test

day "trying ou t lots of things, different

rims, lots of things," th e defending champion wasn't in good shape the one periodof-official practice when conditions were

anything like dry. Friday morning's 1.5

hours were sopping, foggy wet: Laudawafdourth best then (behind To m Pryce inth e .DN8 Shadow, and the tw o M ~ c hdrivers Hans Joachim Stuck and Peter

son). When the single afternoon hourstarted conditions were scarcely better,

but the rain did slack off an d th e racing

line pretty much dried. Still, though, theFerrari wasn't as quick as it would need to

be.After that practice, a grim Latida

accompanied his mechanics around th ecooling car, watching them measure it upwith string and bars and scales. "It's no tsymetrical. It handles d i f f e ~ e n t in rightCOrners form left corners," he bit th e

words off. "The cambers are wrong, or th esprings, or something .."

In the end the mechanics discovered abent wheel, but any good it di d to find itwas washed completely away by S aturday's rains. Once as everyone huddled in

motor homes and garages and presstowers the sk y looked like lifting. Quick

ly a few cars were pushed to the pits andboth Brambilla and Peterson wentsplashing out. But the wind had already

picked up and sent freshets of rainhurling in sideways. Brambilla complet

ed hi s second la p and shut off. Peterson . .Peterson did no t complete hi s second lap.

No--here he wa s now. Coming in slowlywith his nose missing! Superswede ha dspun going along a straight bi t of road insecond gear. Everybody else who ha ddared the weather packed up an d scuttledback under shelter. That i ~ h t it snowed alittle.

Sunday, however, presented a new ai rmass. BItterly cold, it was dry and clearand by mid-morning it ha d blown thedarkest clouds away and let the wintrysu n shine in . After tw o dismal days of

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