Rush Day 21 5th Page
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Transcript of Rush Day 21 5th Page
7/30/2019 Rush Day 21 5th Page
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rush-day-21-5th-page 1/1
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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