Two months later, his hard-fought victory was struck from the records on a technicality. His McLaren had been involved in an incident at the first corner which caused the race to be stopped and under the regulations at the time, the cars involved were required to complete a lap under their own power after the accident.
In his car, severely damaged after being hit from the side, and suffering a broken suspension after Clay Regazzoni ‘s Ferrari spun after colliding with teammate Niki Lauda , James Hunt took a short cut to the pit lane at Cooper’s straight.
Ferrari also claimed that Hunt’s car was towed away by its mechanics before the race was abandoned.
Despite winning the event in his bruised car, the decision to disqualify him handed victory to title rival Lauda.
But the title of world champion was on the line, and fame and fortune were calling our hero and taking victory from Hunt at Brands Hatch ensured that the fight for the 1976 world championship went to the last race.
The end in Fuji
When deciding the title, Hunt needed the stewards to work in his favor. Torrential rain had put the event in doubt, but McLaren demanded that the race go ahead so that Hunt would have a chance of beating Lauda.
What happened in Fuji has been well documented over the years, but there are two anecdotes that remain in the memory of those who lived that day. McLaren trucker Roy Reader and mechanic Dave Ryan looked back…
Reader recounted it this way: “It was getting dark and I felt like if they didn’t get out soon, he wasn’t going to run. With the clouds covering the sky, the rain and the fact that it was getting late, everything was going to get bad.”
But Ryan highlights a key moment, when a member of the team roused the crowd and got them so emotional that it prevented the organizers from canceling the race.
“Ferrari didn’t want to race,” he said. “It was horrible. Obviously we wanted to race, so we tried to get people excited. The stands were packed, but sitting down, like the Japanese do.”
“So one of our mechanics, Lance Gibbs, came out of the pit wall. He had that Acme Thunderer whistle. And he started waving them around and in no time the whole crowd was in high spirits.”
“That, in my opinion, helped the race to go ahead, because there was every chance it wouldn’t go ahead. It started and Ferrari weren’t happy at all. The rest is history.”
drama at the stops
Lauda – who would suffer his terrible accident at the Nürburgring that same year – thought the conditions were too dangerous to race, so he retired almost immediately, while Hunt continued on a track that was beginning to dry out. Then, in another turn of events, he had to pit with a flat tire.
It should have been easy to get him back on track, but McLaren struggled on the part of the car that Ryan was responsible for.
“There was debate, because nobody wanted to have the responsibility of calling James [into the pits]. They wanted him to decide, so he continued to run on an almost dry track and lose positions,” says Ryan.
“It finally came in, but I had a puncture on the front left, which was mine. You never expected to do tire changes in those days, so we were a bit out of place.”
“The idea was that the jack would get under the suspension and raise the wheel so it could be changed. We practiced it many times, but never with a flat. Which was stupid!”
“But eventually some team members lifted the whole front end of the car and the wheel was changed. James went out and got the third place he needed to be champion.”
What made Hunt so special?
“For me it was the last of an era. He was brilliant in our car that year. He had a lot of fun and did what he wanted. You can’t do that now,” Ryan concludes.
Enjoy these photos of James Hunt
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo by: LAT Images
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo de: Sutton Motorsport Images
Foto de: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo de: LAT Images
Photo de: LAT Photographic
Photo de: David Phipps
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Foto de: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo by: LAT Images
Photo de: LAT Images
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo de: Ford Motor Company
Photo by: LAT Images
Photo de: LAT Images
Foto de: LAT Images
Photo de: Ford Motor Company
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