PAGE 14 AUTOWEEK APRIL 24, 1976

Silverstone Sees The Shadows' Best Show

Continued From Page 1
Shadows of Tom Pryce and Jean-Pierre
Jarier for third palace. Both were hard
pushed to stay ahead of Gunnar Nillson in
a much improved John Player Special.
Nilsson eventually settled for sixth
behind the two Shadows.
A total of 20 entries were received for
this non-championship event of which
only the fastest 18 were allowed to start.
The non-appearance ofthe works Ferrari
and of the Penske of John Watson ensured
that the two reserves would in fact be able
to take up positions on the grid. Penske
were absent as the new PC4 is nearing
completion and the two PC3 cars were
undergoing modification to bripg them
up to the specification of the new Form ula
One regulations which go into effect on
the second of May. The team felt it silly to
rush things to take part in a non-
championship event, preferring to be that
much better prepared for an event that
counted towards the World
Championship. A third car that did not
appear was the second JPS for Bob Evans.
It came as no surprise tofind that Hunt
was on pole, for it was he who dominated
the last half hour or so of practice
looking really determined but never
ragged in front. of his home crowd. The
point that did surprise, however, was that
his pole position time was a fraction more
than eight tenths of a second quicker than
that of his nearest rival.
The Shadows. shown here with Tom Pryce leading Jumper Jarier. finished a strong fourth and fifth.
Whilst Hunt was dominating this last
portion of practioe Brambilla had an ott
course excu.rsion, picking up minor
damage which meant he was not able to be
out on the circuit fOF most of the final half
hour. He did reappear with about five
minutes to go but this was not enough to
remove Hunt. circulating quietly
safeguarding his position, from pole and
so he settled for second spot on the grid.
Lunger First
F-l Driver
Hurt In '16
American Grand Prix driver Brett
Lunger became the first Formula One
driver to receive hospital treatment in
1976 when he crashed at Silverstone in
Saturday's final qualifying.
Third spot. went to Tom Pryce, who had
been forced to use the team's spare ear
after he hit a hare out on the circuit and,
unknown to him, had a brake line
damaged. This ledto an excursion into the
catch fences at the chicane at Woodcote
when the brakes failed to work as
expected. Damage was slight and Pryce
emerged unharmed. Surprise of the day
came from Gunnar Nillson, who forced
his way up to fourth spot on the grid after
missing the first timed session because of
a clutch failure. It was magic to watch
Nilsson out on the circuit smoothly going
about the business of getting the quiCKest
time possible. The JPS at last was doing
what was expected of it.
If you lived in England, and wanted-to watch the races on television. this car would be the reason you couldn't:
the Durex Surtees of Alan Jones.
Lunger lost control under braking for
the fast Copse Corner as he started to turn
the very last lap of the qualifying session.
He went straight on through several
layers of the recently erected chicken
wire catch fencing. The wire virtually
cleaned his helmet of paint and even
ripped badges off his overalls and one of
the posts hit Lunger on the head. He was
unconscious in the car for a couple of
minutes but recovered to walk to the
ambulance.
Auntie 8eeb's Big Decision:
Next on the grid and in much the same
time bracket as Pryce and N elsson were
Scheckter and Jarier. Scheckter, having
probably his last race in the four wheel
Tyrrell 007, as the six wheel Project 34
car was making its first pulic appearance
in the form of a demonstration between
races at this meeting. Jody is expected to
Continued On Next Page
The 1976 International Trophy race was
the first in over five years which had not
been shown to British television viewers.
But unlike the Brands Hatch debacle
Auntie Beeb (Short for BBC, the British
Broadcasting Company-Ed.) pulled out
way before the meeting.
It has also announced that it will
not be covering the Thruxton Formula 2
meeting at Easter, which was originally
scheduled and has a field of cars carrying
largely foreign sponsorship slogans
which mean nothing to British viewers.
The public is now starting to wonder if
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the Beeb is just using the current alleged
row as an excuse not to cover races.
Currently the Bee.b has no further plans to
cover any motor racing at all.
Meanwhile Britian's other channel,
lTV, had proved that it finds motor racing
perfectly acceptable. In fact it obtained
the CBS coverage of Long Beach, did its
own edit and commentary
and screened twenty minutes of the action
at peak viewing time on the Saturday
afternoon after the US Grand Prix West.
The coverage showed all the sponsors
names including that of the famous
Bri tish dirty word Durex, which has made
the BBC blush so. But as far as British
racing fans are concerned the dirtiest
word in racing at the moment is the BBC.
However doctors at Silverstone decided
he should be admitted to Northampton
General Hospital where he had a
"comfortable night" and after further
observation he was released on Sunday
afternoon.
Lunger still has some cuts to the neck
and "can't remember a thing about the
accident. " The arrester 'fences certainly
saved the car, which otherwise would
have plowed into a solid bank and Team
Surtees mechanics could have had the
Chesterfield TS19 in race shape had
Lunger been fit. Lunger now plans to
continue his Granct Prix career in Spain
next month.-Allan Trim
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