Shunt

by Tom Rubython

  Grovewood dominated British motor racing by dint of its ownership of a company called Motor Circuit Developments Ltd (MCD), which owned five of Britain’s top race tracks, including Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Mallory Park and Oulton Park. MCD was run by a very powerful gentleman called John Webb. Webb, a colossus in British motor sport, was famous for unlocking his office cocktail cabinet at 10 o’clock in the morning and consuming most of its contents, helped by his various visitors and staff, by 6 o’clock in the evening. He became a legend in the business.

  Luckily for Hunt, the Grovewood awards were judged by members of the British Guild of Motoring Writers, and not by Webb. The Guild’s membership included such luminaries as John Blunsden, the legendary Formula One correspondent of The Sunday Times. That year, the judges were Philip Turner, sports editor of Motor magazine, Michael Cotton, editor of Motoring News, and Alan Brinton, associate editor of Motor Racing magazine.

  The judges decided that James Hunt was the second most promising young race driver in Britain in 1969. First was Dave Walker and third Tony Trimmer, neither of whom went on to make any real impact in motor racing. The award also carried a cash prize of UK£300, then worth around US$750. The prizes were handed out at a special dinner at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London by Jackie Stewart, that year’s world champion. Webb and Danny looked on, and many of Hunt’s family and friends were also in attendance.

  It proved to be a sea-change in his life, and was most important in establishing his credibility with his own family. Now, he was not the only one telling his father he was a talented driver. From that moment on, his father’s wallet was much easier to prise open.

  It is true to say that winning the Grovewood Award kicked off Hunt’s career and got him noticed. Without it, things could have been very different. And whatever differences arose between Hunt and John Webb in years to come, he never forgot what Webb’s organisation had done for him that night. Webb’s boss, John Danny, usually a somewhat remote man, warmed to Hunt straightaway and kept an eye on his career until the day he retired.

  The Grovewood money settled all of Hunt’s debts, and, by the end of 1969, he was left with just a small overdraft position at his bank. Although MRE had financed his racing that year, he had to pay all his own expenses – and much of the money had been borrowed.

  That bank overdraft was a constant running sore between James and his father. In those days, bank overdrafts were readily available for well-educated young men of good families, and Hunt had taken full advantage, much to his parent’s chagrin. Wallis Hunt was being continually pressed by the family’s bank manager to guarantee his son’s mounting debts, something he resolutely refused to do. Hence, the younger Hunt was in possession of a growing file of letters from a not-so-friendly bank manager demanding early repayment, something he very rarely received.

  The Grovewood cash was put to good use paying off the overdraft, but Hunt was careful not to pay back so much that the bank manager could withdraw the facility and close the account. He had worked out that whilst he still owed the bank money, they would keep the account open and, because of his father, they would be reluctant to bounce his cheques.

  But far more important than the cash it provided was the genuine prestige the award bestowed upon him. Whilst journalists had been persuaded to write glowing articles in the past based on nothing but Hunt’s charm, the Grovewood Award was an official recognition of his talents, and it proved most helpful with potential sponsors.

  It also came at a significant time. At the start of 1970, James Hunt gave up his regular job to race cars full time; he truly became a professional race driver. It was a significant coming of age for any driver. From now on, he would race at the weekend and look for sponsorship full-time during the week.

  To mark the occasion, Hunt started on a door-to-door search for cash from local companies.

  The cold calling was to pay real dividends as Molyslip, a UK based company which refined industrial grease from crude oil, agreed to put up UK£1,500 to sponsor him for a season of Formula 3.

  Hunt also persuaded Lotus Components Ltd, the race car manufacturing arm of Group Lotus, to give him a free chassis and quasi-works backing to run it. This was a serious coup, and Colin Chapman personally approved the deal with the young driver. It made Hunt officially a works driver, a very important distinction in the cut and thrust of Formula 3. But he would have to run the team himself, independently.

  Chapman’s deal with Hunt was actually very generous and included the car, an engine, a fixed number of engine rebuilds, although not crash repair facilities. Lotus also gave him UK£1,000 in cash, which, with Molyslip’s money, gave Hunt a war chest of UK£2,500 for the season. As large as this was, it still didn’t cover his anticipated operating budget of UK£5,000 and left him needing to earn UK£2,500 in start and prize money, a tall order in those days.

  Start money was the system whereby promoters invited drivers to race at their circuits and paid them a fixed fee regardless of how they performed. Prize money was then handed out as a bonus depending on where a driver finished in the race. The big danger was crashing in qualifying and not being able to start the race – then no money was paid at all.

  The money earned was generally given out in cash after the race, before competitors left for home. At every race day evening across the circuits of Europe, Hunt could be seen with all the other drivers queuing for his cash.

  With his new-found fortune, Hunt planned to compete in as many races as he could for the 1970 Formula 3 season, in a mix of championships in Britain and across Europe. At the start of 1970, he genuinely felt it would be his year, and that at the end he would be able to attract the attention of a Formula One team principal.

  But first, he had to get properly equipped. With no back up from a team, Hunt spent his early sponsorship installments getting set up with a road car and trailer to tow the car across Europe. Later, he would buy a transit van as his tow vehicle. Balancing the books proved difficult right from the start of the season, as he was getting his sponsorship cash from Molyslip and Lotus in staged payments throughout the year.

  In 1970, Formula 3 was at a peak in Britain and there were no less than three separate championships: the Shell Super Oil, the Lombank and the Forward Trust. Hunt resolved to compete in all three, whereas other drivers wisely decided to focus on one or two of the series. Of the top runners, only the very well-funded Dave Walker tackled all three and also did well in all three. It was a scattergun approach and Hunt simply didn’t have the resources.

  It was going to be a difficult year and Hunt geared himself up for the life of a nomad gypsy.

  That spring, summer and autumn, he virtually lived in his tent and, when in England, either stayed with his parents or shared a flat in London with one of his myriad of friends, which were growing by the day.

  Money was so tight that his taste in women also became low rent, as he could not afford to invite them to dinner unless they could pay for themselves or, better still, pay for him. So he began searching for ways of sleeping with women without wining and dining them. Finding himself remarkably successful at the venture, he wondered why he hadn’t tried it before – although he admitted to friends that the girls weren’t quite so pretty. Gerald Donaldson says: “He restricted his evenings to socialising or talking shop with his fellow competitors, many of whom were similarly impecunious.”

  His girlfriend in England, Taormina Rich, took a back seat during this time. She occasionally came to a European race and he saw her casually when he was in England. She knew about his other women, but the couple would not formally split for another 12 months, when she met her future husband at that year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

  In fact, it was remarkable just how cheaply a group of people with shared ambitions and destinations could make out. It was an era and a mode of life that today’s Formula 3 competitors could neither contemplate nor carry out.

  When John Hogan’s Coca-Cola money came through, Hunt treated himself to the odd night i
n a cheap hotel, and all his friends piled in to use the shower and run the various establishments completely out of hot water. This happened time and again. Unsurprisingly, Hunt was only able to book into a hotel once, never twice.

  The much wealthier Niki Lauda had a flat in London, which was luxurious by Hunt’s standards, and he stayed there for a while. But the two were never particular friends in those days. Being friends with Niki was rather a difficult feat because it was always entirely on his terms. But, for a brief period at least, Lauda seemed to enjoy having a proper English friend. And he particularly liked Hunt because he introduced the then somewhat gawky Austrian to his spare girlfriends. Lauda was astonished by Hunt’s capacity to bed women; he couldn’t even attempt to keep up. Years later, in an interview with F1 Magazine, Lauda demonstrated his dry wit when he joked that he “liked sex as much as the next man – unless of course the next man was James Hunt.” Nine years later, British comedian Ricky Gervais seemingly picked up on the joke at the 2010 Golden Globe awards in Hollywood. Gervais made the joke about Mel Gibson, but with reference to alcohol rather than sex. It brought the house down.

  The Lotus 59 was moderately competitive in 1970, but, Hunt, although running near the front in races, was by no means the star of the show. Others in the same equipment were faster that year, and he did not get a particularly good start to the season and subsequently didn’t earn much prize money.

  Hunt’s first crisis was not long coming. In early April, he was at Pau in the south west of France. The picturesque street circuit had always been a favourite of his. He managed to crash the Lotus twice in qualifying and, after the second crash, the Lotus 59 couldn’t be fixed for lack of spares. He therefore forfeited his right to the vital start monies. He was relying on the francs he would have collected from the organisers to help pay for the trip home.

  He literally had no money and couldn’t borrow any, as none of his fellow competitors thought him likely to repay them; such was his reputation. But at least he had a full tank of petrol, just enough, with some judicious 56 miles per hour motoring, to get him home. But he neglected to fit a locking fuel cap to his car. The device was essential in France, where petrol thievery was almost fashionable and not really considered a crime. So overnight on Friday, as he lay asleep in his tent nearby, all the fuel in his tank was siphoned off by thieves – believed to be some of his fellow competitors. Hunt was certain he knew who had done it, but he couldn’t prove it. So he resolved to steal back his petrol, and a bit more. On Saturday evening, finding a car without a locking cap, he got his fuel back by the same means and set off for home. But with no spare money for food, and the journey, at slow speed, taking two days, he and his mechanic went hungry. He just about got to Le Havre and drove the car off the ferry as the petrol ran out. At Dover, he begged money from friends who lived nearby on the coast. As he said later: “I finally got to Le Havre after two days on the road with no food, and when I got off the ferry, I borrowed some money for food and fuel and just about got home.”

  Lotus Components repaired his car on credit, and two weeks later he had received a stage payment from Molyslip. The money paid for the long drive across France down to Magny-Cours, where he came fourth and earned some much-needed prize money.

  After that, came Monte Carlo and the support race for the famous Monaco Grand Prix. Even qualifying for the race was difficult at Monaco. Inevitably, Hunt put the car into one of the steel barriers that line the narrow streets for the race, and that was that. He stayed on for the weekend to sample the nightlife and he liked what he found. He would return to sample its delights many times over the following 23 years. The race was also significant for providing the backdrop to Taormina’s first meeting with her future husband, Peter Rieck.

  Then, there followed a long trudge through Europe racing almost every weekend, sometimes with impressive results. Between 17th and 31st May, over successive weekends, Hunt placed second three times in races at Österreichring in Austria, Oulton Park in England and Chimay in Belgium.

  His performance at Chimay was extraordinary. He dominated qualifying and was on pole position leading from the start. On the second to last lap, he spun the car trying too hard and four cars passed him. Incredibly, within sight of the chequered flag, he overtook three of them and just failed to get the fourth. The first five cars were covered by less than two seconds and Hunt drove a new lap record for the circuit, five seconds faster than he had posted in qualifying. The adrenalin of close competition had made a huge difference to his performance. After that, no one could possibly have doubted that he would make it to Formula One. It was just a shame he could not do it every weekend.

  Those results would be his best run all year, making people sit up and take notice. Unfortunately however, the results went to his head as he started to believe his own press cuttings, which were now getting quite copious. The mild arrogance he developed did him no favours, and he was soon brought back to earth by some more modest results and some hand-to-mouth living.

  At the next race at Silverstone, he failed in front of his home crowd and finished a disappointing sixth, well below what he now expected of himself. After Silverstone, he made a long trudge to an obscure circuit called Hämeenlinna in Finland, where he managed to get on the podium.

  A fortnight later, on 28th June, he was at Rouen, France, desperately searching for his first win in Europe. It didn’t look at all good when he placed only 18th on the grid after a host of problems with his car in qualifying. In the end, he did not get in one fast lap. The situation looked hopeless starting from such a lowly grid position.

  The car was sorted out for race day and, amazingly, he managed to drive himself into contention. The trouble was that there were another 14 cars all circulating within a few seconds of each other. Any of the 14 could have won the race. It was very close and very dangerous racing with so many cars competing for the same piece of track. On lap 13, the inevitable happened and there was a very serious accident. A French driver called Denis Dayan went straight on into the Armco steel barriers at over 100 miles per hour. He was rushed to hospital by helicopter. Dayan was badly injured with two broken legs and a broken arm. When news got back to the paddock about his condition, bad as it was, everyone thought he had got off lightly bearing in mind the severity of the accident.

  The race went on, with the lead swapping many times a lap. Hunt was involved in an accident which sent another French driver, Bob Wollek, flying off over the Armco barrier and straight into trees lining the circuit. Wollek suffered severe chest injuries and a broken arm. The helicopter was back just in time to make a return journey to Rouen hospital.

  In the accident, Hunt’s Lotus had been hit by parts flying off Wollek’s Brabham, but he continued virtually unaffected. With only five laps to go, Hunt was back in eighth place. On the deciding last lap, he came out of the slipstream of the cars in front and flew past them down the start/finish straight to take the chequered flag first. Hunt had won his first international race by less than one tenth of a second from the next man. He was ecstatic and went wild in the cockpit, gesticulating furiously to the crowd on his slowing down lap.

  When he got to the podium, a young British girl called April Tod was waiting to greet him. She was the girlfriend of Grahame White, who had co-opted her to present the winner’s garland. As she recalls: “I was about 19 at the time and this was my first motor race and I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I was wandering around doing nothing and suddenly there was this kerfuffle because they suddenly realised that a British driver had won. They just grabbed me and asked if I would put this garland round this guy’s neck whom I’d never met before. I didn’t know what I had to do.” She adds: “As James got out of his car, he said: ‘Got a fag, love?’ I said: ‘I’m sorry, I don’t smoke.’ And then he gave me this really wet, sticky kiss because he was sweaty and had grown this little sort of beard, too.”

  After that somewhat unconventional introduction, Hunt and Tod became lifelong friends, a friendship
that endured through the good and bad times that followed. Tod, now a well-known tennis journalist, used to park her car in Hunt’s drive during the Wimbledon tennis championships.

  But the celebrations that day were muted by tragedy, as the third major accident of the day took place on the last lap. Another French driver, called Jean-Luc Salomon, was launched into the air. This time, Salomon’s car landed upside down on top of another competitor. No one could survive that sort of accident and he died instantly from a broken neck. The news travelled quickly and Hunt’s celebrations were soon over as the podium ceremony was curtailed. At the time, France had few Grand Prix stars of its own, and Salomon had been France’s biggest young hopeful.

  For Hunt, though, the Rouen win was a portent of good things to come, and a string of good results followed, culminating in another win at Zolder in Belgium on 6th September and a fine second place at Brands Hatch on 18th October as the season wound its way to a close. In between, he had his famous altercation with Dave Morgan at Crystal Palace on 3rd October, and, after that, he became a household name amongst motor racing fans.

  Hunt had been rescued by a strong performance in the second half of the season and, by season end, he had earned UK£2,000 in start and prize money, leaving a UK£500 shortfall in his budget.

  His season had also been notable for the lack of accidents. There had only been two of any significance at Pau and Crystal Palace. Pau had cost UK£200 in repairs and Crystal Palace UK£400. As he recalled years later: “Hunt the Shunt hadn’t come into existence then, and in fact I had hardly any accident damage that year. My accident bill was about £600, and the one well-publicised shunt at Crystal Palace accounted for about £400 of that.”

  But a UK£500 shortfall was a lot of money in those days, and, when the season ended, he was desperately short. That winter, he was totally reliant on cash handouts from his father.