Shunt

by Tom Rubython

  Lord Hesketh told Gerald Donaldson that he still reaped the benefits many years later: “All these years on, it’s an advantage because I now come across people whom I’ve never met, who were 20-ish then, who now run large institutions and who were Hesketh Racing fans. I wouldn’t quite go as far as to say that it paid a dividend, but actually in the longer term of my life, it’s been very useful; as well as being fun at the time.” He added: “Even today, so many years later, that memory still gives me goose pimples.”

  For Hunt, the transition from loser to winner was even more significant. He came of age in Holland. He rose above his shortcomings and, in a rite of passage, resisted everything that Niki Lauda and Ferrari could throw at him to score a historic maiden Grand Prix victory in the red, white and blue car owned and built by Hesketh. Winning meant he had finally matured: “The race rounded off my education. I hadn’t had the experience of leading races. At Zandvoort I laid that ghost to rest completely because, when the others are sitting behind, you can jolly well dictate your way of doing things. And Zandvoort was the completion of my training as a driver.”

  The public’s perception of the team changed completely as Hesketh became a front of grid team.

  But the victory in Holland masked serious financial problems. Few people knew that the team was on its very last legs when the trucks had left for Holland. Visits from bailiffs were only days away, while the British Inland Revenue department was making regular phone calls looking for its taxes.

  The prize money Hunt won had been desperately needed to pay urgent bills and was gone completely by the Friday of the following week. Horsley then had to make a difficult decision: whether or not to pull the plug on the team. There wasn’t enough cash even to travel to Paul Ricard for the French Grand Prix on 6th July.

  As he sat at home pondering the issue, he had an idea. He went over to Easton Neston and found the log book for Lord Hesketh’s Rolls-Royce. Knowing where there was a buyer, he sold the car for US$20,000. Horsley recalls simply: “We didn’t have the money to go, and I saw it parked there.”

  In a moment of astonishing bravado, Horsley calculated that, since Hesketh rarely drove the car anymore, he would not miss it for a few weeks. Eventually, when the Lord did notice, Horsley simply told him the car was in for service: “Alexander said to me: ‘Where’s my Rolls-Royce?’” The subterfuge lasted until the end of the season, when Hesketh guessed what had happened. Rather than being annoyed, he was rather impressed with Horsley’s ingenuity in keeping the team afloat.

  The money sustained the team for another month.

  So, with a fresh US$20,000 in the coffers, Horsley was in high spirits when the team headed across France for the Paul Ricard circuit. Niki Lauda had been suffering from flu and was definitely not on top form, but it didn’t stop him annexing pole position with Jody Scheckter’s Tyrrell alongside him.

  Scheckter had a new lightweight Tyrrell-Ford 007 with which he set a record top speed of 190 miles per hour on the straight. Hunt was third on the grid. Lauda led from Scheckter, Hunt and Mass. Hunt passed him on the eighth, and Lauda and Hunt maintained first and second to the finish. Lauda won by 1.6 seconds; second place was worth around US$22,000 to the team. For the moment, Horsley’s short-term money worries were over.

  For a short while, it even looked as though the situation might get better. A fortnight after Paul Ricard, on 19th July, the British Grand Prix was held at Silverstone. The race was significant because of three notable events: Graham Hill officially announced his retirement; the famous high-speed Woodcote corner was no more, with a new chicane in front of it for safety reasons; and a new lights starting system had been installed, to be used for the first time in any Grand Prix. The lights replaced the starter with the traditional national flag. Tom Pryce put his Shadow-Ford on pole. The Shadow team had been very competitive in 1975, but this was its finest moment. After the highs of Holland and France, Hunt actually had trouble qualifying and could only manage ninth on the grid.

  From the start, Carlos Pace led from Pryce. Then Hunt led for eight laps, one of seven different drivers to do so, but a sudden cloudburst inundated the circuit and caused the race to be stopped. On lap 53, Jody Scheckter, James Hunt, and Mark Donohue crashed. Fittipaldi was adjudged the winner, with Carlos Pace second and Jody Scheckter third. Hunt was fourth, although not running at the finish. Only Emerson Fittipaldi made it to the winner’s podium. Ferrari protested the shortened race and the result was not confirmed until three days later.

  None of the drivers were looking forward to going to the Nürburgring for the German Grand Prix on 3rd August. Since the previous race, the 14-mile track had been lined with steel Armco barriers and layers of catch fencing, but it was still dangerous. Hunt qualified ninth again and Lauda took pole with an incredibly brave lap that left everyone aghast. By lap ten, Hunt had retired after a wheel came off his car. Carlos Reutemann went on to win for Brabham.

  The teams travelled to the Österreichring for the Austrian Grand Prix on 17th August. Niki Lauda delighted the home crowd by claiming his seventh pole position of the year.

  Qualifying was marred by accidents and, during the final session, Mark Donohue crashed on a flat-out curve and his car plunged into the catch fencing. The car cut straight through and became hopelessly entangled. A trackside hoarding shattered into many pieces and two track marshals died instantly. Donohue was hit on the head with bits of flying catch fencing poles and the track was strewn with debris. Hunt stopped his car as another car crashed in front of him. It sent more bits of catch fencing flying everywhere – just missing Hunt’s head.

  Donohue, now fighting for his life, was taken to hospital with severe head injuries. He died three days later of a brain hemorrhage.

  After the marshals were killed, the organisers considered cancelling the race but eventually decided against it. They went ahead with Lauda on pole, and Hunt beside him second fastest.

  As the grid formed, it was raining on the far side of the track and wet tyres were mounted on all the cars. Lauda led off the start from Hunt and Patrick Depailler. Vittorio Brambilla shot through to third place.

  By lap 15, Hunt held the lead for the fifth time in 1975. But when his Hesketh-Ford’s engine started running on seven cylinders, Brambilla was all over him.

  As the rain grew ever heavier, the Italian seized the lead and the race was brought to a halt on lap 29 as Brambilla took the flag. Having crossed the finish line, he became so exuberant he took both hands off the wheel and lost control of his car, slamming into the barriers as his March team celebrated victory.

  Believing the celebrations to be premature, most of the other teams prepared for a restart. But, as the race had been stopped with a chequered flag, this was not to be and half points were awarded to all the finishers, including a jubilant Brambilla. At 37-years-old, Brambilla had won his first Grand Prix.

  In the melee, Hunt was surprised to find he had placed second, earning the team another US$22,000 in much needed prize money. With the prize money, driver fees, and cash and asset sales, Horsley had scrambled together US$230,000. There would still be a deficit, but it was enough cash to get to the end of the season.

  With cash in mind, the team entered the non-championship Suisse Grand Prix, held at Dijon on 24th August. There were 16 cars entered and Hunt qualified 11th and managed eighth place. Clay Regazzoni won in his Ferrari by around eight seconds from Patrick Depailler and Jochen Mass.

  With the benefit of hindsight, Harvey Postlethwaite’s new car, the Hesketh- Ford 308C, was a luxury the team could have done without. The car, which had cost the team US$150,000 to develop, was finally unveiled at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix on 7th September, the penultimate race of the season.

  The Italian supporters were gathered in anticipation of Ferrari winning its first world championship in 11 years. Many Austrians came to Monza to support Niki Lauda and were delighted when Ferrari filled both slots on the front row of the grid, followed by Fittipaldi, Scheckter and Jochen Mass.
Tony Brise delighted team owner Graham Hill by qualifying sixth in his Hill-Ford car. Hunt could only manage eighth in the new car and certainly would have done better in the old one.

  On Sunday morning, it rained so hard the race was almost cancelled. At the delayed start, Clay Regazzoni led from Lauda and Jody Scheckter. There was a huge accident at the first chicane involving seven cars, of which five retired. It left the Ferraris 1-2 with Regazzoni leading from Lauda, and Fittipaldi passing Reutemann for third.

  Right at the end, Fittipaldi overtook Lauda and split the Ferraris, as Lauda played it safe to make sure he secured the championship. Third was good enough, and Ferrari won the world championship for the first time since 1961 – and in front of its home crowd. Hunt finished fifth and took back a few thousand dollars in prize money to a grateful Horsley.

  As the team packed up the cars and the crates to ship them to Watkins Glen for the United States Grand Prix on 5th October, there was no sense that it would be Hesketh Racing’s last race. Hunt had not bothered to seek a drive elsewhere, and he confidently asserted that he would be driving for Hesketh Racing in 1976. He said: “We knew that there was no more money forthcoming from Alexander; he’d spent what he’d got for racing. But that didn’t worry us too much because we felt that we were in a very good position with the success we had to get a commercial sponsor. Bubbles particularly wanted to do that because, of course, that was his future.”

  And Hunt believed it was his future as well. Horsley was his best friend and he loved his patron Lord Hesketh in the same way he did his parents. Wanting to drive for the team for the rest of his career, he genuinely thought it could be a world championship contender. He also had absolute faith in the design talents of Harvey Postlethwaite.

  Far from being down, the team flew across the Atlantic to New York in a good frame of mind and with high hopes for the future.

  The rest of the grid might have expected Ferrari to wind back once the championship had been won, but Ferrari was in fact more determined. Having never won the United States Grand Prix, the team knew it represented a very important market for its road cars. Luca di Montezemolo, the team principal, ordered no expense to be spared to correct the historical anomaly.

  Throwing caution to the wind, the team made every effort to win the race. Lauda easily got pole from Fittipaldi’s McLaren-Ford. Hunt only qualify 15th, but in the race worked his way up to fourth after a succession of retirements cleared his way.

  Lauda got his victory.

  CHAPTER 20

  Nearly down and out of Formula One 1975

  Saved by the man from Marlboro

  James Hunt was down and out of Formula One at the end of 1975. When the season ended on 5th October of that year, he was effectively out of a drive. It was his own fault, of course, as the writing had been on the wall at Hesketh Racing since the end of 1974, when Lord Hesketh had effectively stopped funding the team. It had survived the 1975 season by using up funds left in the bank account, selling off assets, spending Hunt’s prize money and renting out its spare car at races to drivers willing to pay. Hunt admitted as much to Nigel Roebuck years later: “From mid to late 1974, there was no more money really forthcoming from Alexander. He’d spent what he’d got for racing.”

  Although he was aware that a sponsor would be needed for 1976, Hunt knew little else of the financial difficulties at the time. However, with his retainer continually being paid late and eventually falling substantially into arrears, he didn’t need Bubbles Horsley to tell him there were problems. Out of loyalty to Hesketh and Horsley, Hunt decided not to look for an alternative drive. And it was not only Hunt’s but also Horsley’s future which was at stake. Horsley had wagered his entire career on the survival of the team, as had the 20 or so people who worked at Easton Neston in the old stables.

  Because of the success of the team, particularly after its first Grand Prix win, Hunt believed that a sponsor would be signed with relative ease: “It didn’t worry us too much because we felt that we were in a very good position with the success we were getting. Bubbles particularly wanted to do that because, of course, it was his future. He knew there was going to be no long-term future with Alexander. He wouldn’t just pay forever.”

  The truth was not only that Hesketh would not pay, but also that he could not pay. The UK£600,000 Hesketh had effectively spent on the team in his four years as a team entrant, from Formula 3 to Formula One, was his limit. In today’s money, that is the equivalent of around UK£20 million and it was virtually all the liquid cash Hesketh had inherited from his father’s trust fund four years earlier. Although his father had died when he was four, Hesketh had to wait until he was 21 to inherit.

  When he set up the team in 1971, also at the age of 21, Hesketh was already running his own business conglomerate alongside it and imagined that the profits from the business would pay the team’s bills and that the team would likewise promote the businesses. This business conglomerate model was a popular strategy in the 1970s and Hesketh initially enjoyed some success at it, but he was riding the wave of an economic boom that had begun in 1971 and was soon to come to an end. When the Arabs cut off the world’s oil supply in late 1973, the global economy came to an abrupt halt and, by mid 1974, Hesketh’s businesses were in serious trouble and he needed all the resources he could muster to keep afloat. Simply put, Hesketh, like many, was a brilliant businessman in boom times and a lousy businessman in a recession. And he wasn’t alone. Business stars of the era, like Jim Slater and John Bentley, watched as the oil shock destroyed western economies and their companies collapsed. To Hesketh, the world had effectively stopped whilst Formula One sailed on obliviously. By early 1974, he no longer enjoyed owning his own team, and so the frivolities came to an end as well. Hunt said: “We raced off our earnings on the track and by a bit of ducking and weaving by Bubbles.” As his ambitious business conglomerate slowly disintegrated, so too did the rationale of having a team to promote it.

  Hesketh, in fact, was caught in a massive dilemma. He wanted to cut his losses, close down the team and clear out the stables, but he felt he owed a debt to Horsley and Hunt. If a debt was owed, it was very much the other way around, and the success of the team in 1975 made matters worse for Hesketh as it became increasingly impossible to close down a winning team.

  Hunt remembered: “When it became totally obvious that there was no other way, we could have got sponsorship. Bubbles could have gone out and got sponsorship – he is very good at that. He would have got it had he been given the chance in June or July. But he was given more than assurances that a serious effort was being made in London. He was given reasonable proof and, as he was up in Towcester working 16 hours a day running the team and trying to survive on a shoestring, he didn’t actually go down to London to check it all out. Alexander had been saying that he was looking for a sponsor for a year.” Having come up with no prospects, Hesketh partnered with Horsley and began a more active search for sponsors. At first, Hesketh seemed genuinely keen on the scheme, saying: “They’ll get a hell of an advertising campaign for a very reasonable investment.”

  But then began a bizarre game of cat and mouse between Horsley and an increasingly withdrawn Hesketh. Because of the team’s success and the glamour of Hunt, finding sponsors willing to put up UK£250,000 proved to be little problem. It seemed that everyone wanted to be associated with the glamour boy Hunt. In fact, several deals got to the draft contract stage only for Lord Hesketh to find some reason not to conclude them.

  Eventually, Hunt began to suspect that Hesketh didn’t want a sponsor, either because he wanted to rid himself of the team altogether or he just couldn’t stomach the idea of someone else taking it over: “Several deals came close to being signed, but he seemed to torpedo them just as they were about to happen. He’d get cold feet. He didn’t really want to give it away.”

  Hunt thought later that Hesketh was suffering from a form of schizophrenia. He believed that one half of him wanted to continue while the other half didn’t
. It later became obvious that business problems were weighing on his mind and he couldn’t think straight. Hunt said: “Whenever confronted with a commercial sponsor, he would shoot it out at the last minute because he couldn’t quite handle it not being his team anymore. We had several sponsors ready to sign but he would not come to the meetings.”

  Hunt was desperately grateful to Lord Hesketh for what he had done for his career, as was Horsley, so they didn’t confront him even as the situation grew increasingly more bizarre. And they continued to indulge him when, at midnight on 14th November 1975, a self-imposed deadline expired and the team was closed down.

  Hunt says ruefully: “I am sure that sponsorship could have been arranged, although not at the eleventh hour. We had known for 18 months that we probably would not make it to the end of 1975. I don’t think that Alexander really wanted a sponsor – for very understandable reasons. He wanted it to stay as it had been and, as he was hoping to get things together in his business, he didn’t give sponsorship first priority.”

  The next day, Hesketh, Hunt, Horsley, Harvey Postlethwaite and the mechanics held a large press conference at Thruxton circuit in Hampshire and invited the team’s fans to attend. The event was televised live on BBC’s Saturday afternoon ‘Grandstand’ programme. To the delight of the crowd, Hunt did a few laps around Thruxton in his Dutch Grand Prix-winning Hesketh 308.

  Upon being presented with a gold medal by The British Automobile Racing Club, Hesketh announced, with a somewhat bemused Hunt and Horsley looking on, that Hesketh Racing was over and the dream was dead. He said: “I’m a very lucky man in having enjoyed a friendship and a relationship with James Hunt to such an extent that he knew, several months ago, the problems that we had to face in racing next year. I am deeply grateful to James for having stayed when the going got tough. The fact that he has not secured his future drive for next year is because he believed in a dream that we all believed in. It was my honour and privilege, and still the greatest thing I ever took part in, to have been able to give James his chance.” Hunt spoke afterwards: “All of us were plucked out of nowhere, particularly me. They showed great confidence in me which, considering my performance in Formula 3, was not strictly deserved. Yet they stuck by me and took me all the way. More particularly, they gave me a very happy period in my life and we’ve been a team of very close friends. That is something I feel will be difficult to replace.” He added: “Hesketh Racing gave me and taught me everything in Formula One. And it was where my soul was.”