APRil 24.

1976

AUTOWEEK

PAGE 15

sights on the pair of Shadows out in front of him. We had meanwhile s e en Hunt open a slight gap on Brambilla only to have this closed right up next to Hunt as the cars went into Copse. Behind them it was still Scheckter a lonely third with P ryce and Jarier next up. At this stage Guy Edwards retired from the race when an exhaust came adrift. Several laps later Jackie Ickx retired quietly after running tenth for most of the time. After 25 laps the leaders began to lap the tail enders with Hunt gettingbyKessel a lot easier than Brambilla and was thus able to get away from the Italian who from this point gradually lost ground. All excitement now centered around Gunnar Nilsson, who was really putting
GRAHAM Hill INTERNATIONAL TROPHY RACE. SILVERSTONE. ENGLAND. APRIL 11. 1976. ENT RY & QUALIFYING Not available at presstime due to delays in shipping RESULTS I-James Hunt. Mclaren. 40 laps in 53 :04.57 for an average speed of 132.58mph; 2-Vittorio Brambilla. Marr.h. 53 :15.81; 3Jody Scheckter. Tyrell 007. 40 ; 4Tom Pryce. Shadow. 40; 5JeanPierre Jarier. Shadow. 40; 6-Gunnar Nilsson. JPS. 40: 7-Mario Andretti. Williams . 40; 8-Alan Jones. Surtees. 40; 9-Carlos Pace. Brabham. 39: 10-Glancario Martini. Ferrari. 39; 11-Patrick Neve. Brabham. 39: 12-Loris Kesse l. Brabham. 39; 13-Brian Macguire. Williams. 30. not running at finish; 14Damien Magee. Brabham. 23. NR; 15Jacky Ickx . Will iams . 20. NR: 16-Guy Edwards. Hesketh. 17. NR. FASTEST LAP: Hunt. 133.93mph. new class and outright record.

last race for Scheckter in the four wheeled Tyrrell? Jody practiced the six-wheeler, but drove the conventional car (3) to third place in the race .

Ferraris Don't Show, Hunt Wins

Continued From Preceding Page drive the six-wheeler in the Spanish Grand Prix on the 2nd of May. Jarier appeared very desperate at most times during practice flinging the Shadow around in a most spectacular manner which did not however appear to be quite the quickest way. Through the Chicane J arier had by far the most spectacular line, entering sideways and then bouncing the car off the curbs through the "S" most times with at least one wheel well clear of the ground. His effort resulted in a time only a tenth slower than that of Scheckter. Following was a group of five cars covered by only 16 hundredths of a second comprising: Alan Jones in the Surtees, Carlos Pace in a Brabham, Mario Andretti in one of Frank Williams' cars now that Parnelli has cut off its Formula One project, Giancarlo Martini in the S'cuderia Everest Ferrari 312T, this car on loan from the works in a bid to promote an Italian driver, and Patrick Neve in a Brabham BT44. Following this group were Loris Kessel (Brabham),BT44, Chris Amon (Ensign), Damien Magee (Brabham BT44), Jackie Ickx (Williams), Brett Lunger (Surtees), Guy Edwards (Hesketh) and Brian McGuire (Williams). Of these Lunger had been the most unfortunate, having been sidelined for most of the first 90 minute official session when an engine problem was encountered which took quite some time to trace. Hardly had he got going in the second 90 minute session than he overshot the entrance to the chicane and was enmeshed in the catch fences, fortunately without damage to the car or himself, It did however mean that the car was sidelined for a while so that a check could be made for any damage which might have occured. Later on in the afternoon Lunger ran out of road when his brakes locked at the entrance of Copse corner -at the end of the pit straightand he crashed heavily into the catch fences and barriers causing minor injuries to himself and quite extensive damage to the car, mostly in the suspension department. This meant that the car would be a non starter. The day's events were preceded by a 20 minute warmup session for the Formula One cars. This session resulted in a little drama for two teams at least. Brambilla's March blew its engine during the first minutes of the session and had to be wheeled away for this to be changed. Another car to suffer a blown engine was the Ensign of Chris Amon. This lowbudget operation did not have another engine available and so the car was withdrawn from the race. This meant that only 15 cars would in fact start the 40-lap race. The field got away cleanly at Silverstone, except for Kessel who stalled and not unexpectedly James Hunt into the lead with BraI1lbilla right on his tail. Scheckter went to third from his third row grid position at the start with the Shadows of Pryce and Jarier moving in behind him. Mario Andretti had a fine start to move ahead of Jones. Nilsson meanwhile had made a bad start and dropped back to eighth place. Lap two saw Hunt only inches ahead of Brambilla with Scheckter dropping back slightly, followed by Pryce, and Jarier and Jones who had moved ahead of AndrettL Lap four was the beginning of a very determined drive by Nilsson as he started to move up on Andretti, it also saw the only incident of the race when Magee spun his Brabham in the chicane, fortunately without involving anyone else. It took Nilsson another two laps to catch. and pass Andrettiand then set off after Jones who, by this stage, had pulled out several seconds. Seven laps later Nilsson had passed Jones and set his

the Shadows under pressure. Jarier often came through the chicane with sparks flying as wing tips and otl!er metal made contact with the concrete curbs as he tried desperately to stay ahead of Nilsson. Nilsson was quite content to stay where he was as to pass Jarier would have involved a fair amount of risk. He was better off where he was, learning all the time. And so it was at the end of a rather processional race, Hunt took the flag after a fine drive just on nine seconds ahead of BrambUla, followed by Scheckter, Pryce, Jarier and Nilsson. Alan Jones should have finished seventh after a steady drive but ran out of fuel on the last lap. Nilsson too would have encountered the same problem had the race been one lap longer for his car ran out of fuel as he reached the pit road after completing his slowing down lap.

Mario Undecided About His Future In F-1 Racing

Will Mario Andretti stay with the Williams Wolf team or return to the John Player Special team? That is one question which still remains to be answered after Silverstone. Andretti was starting to get to grips with the former Hesketh and was very complimentary about the team and designer Harvey Postlethwaite. But Mario must have had second thoughts about staying when the new Superswede Gunnar Nilsson in the revised John Palayer Special, now with conventional front brakes, came roaring past him after a slow start and disappeared into the distance. Peter Warr, Competitions Manager of John Player Team Lotus, makes no secret of the fact that he would like Andretti back in the team. Meanwhile British driver Bob Evans, who failed to qualify at Long Beach, desperately wants to stay in the team and though he wasen't racing at Silverstone, Nilsson took over his car, Bob was never far from the Lotus pit. It was Evans of course who did all the testing on the new mods and Colin Chapman and Peter Warr may well decide to keep Evans on the list in preference to Mario for his testing ability plus the fact that British sponsors John Player would be happy to have a British driver on the team. Meanwhile John Player would be happy to have a British driver on the team. Meanwhile Frank Williams is obviously keen to retain the services of Mario. Since seventh place was their best finish since Jacques Laffite's fine second at the Nurburgring last year.

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SPRING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES

Mav 15, 16, 1976

Bridgehampton, L.I., N.Y.

Registrar: Colleen Kangas 22 William St. Redbank, N.J. (201) 842-7469

Race Chairman

Vince Galante
(201) 797-2420
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