1979 James Hunt Practice Accident Kyalami, 3rd Rd. WDC

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Jesper Hvid
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1979 James Hunt Practice Accident Kyalami, 3rd Rd. WDC

#1

Post by Jesper Hvid »

Antonov wrote:does anyone have a photo of Hunt's Wolf crashed during practice in Kyalami 1979?

Allegedly that would have been the time when he decided to retire from F1.
I'd like to see this also.
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Everso Biggyballies
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#2

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

I must have clicked the quote button when this topic was in another thread.... this is just a copy of what I wrote there....
Everso Biggyballies wrote:
Antonov wrote:does anyone have a photo of Hunt's Wolf crashed during practice in Kyalami 1979?

Allegedly that would have been the time when he decided to retire from F1.
Cant help you re the pic but I think the idea of quitting was initiated by Ronnie P's death at Monza.
The ultimate reason he gave were that in effect the effort to remain competitive in a lesser car meant the risk taken > returns gained factor was too far the wrong way. In the Belgian GP he had just got to 4th position after a string of mechanical failures in the previous races, when he had an almighty off and was on the exit of a turn broadside across the track having bounced off the barriers. As marshals tried to move the car he was still inside and a number of cars came fairly close to .....

The following race was Monaco, where James suffered from his 'joint failure' after a couple of laps, having qualified in the top 10.... with the writing on the wall in terms of ground effects he saw that future chances of success were too limited for the risk of driving at 105% to even be close to keeping up. He lost enthusiasm.

But I am sure that they all, from Ronnie, the accidents, the DNF's and car failures, through to his 'off track and domestic situation, were influences in his finally saying 'That's it' after the race which happened to be the same GP, Monaco, as where he had started his F1 Championship days back in 1973, driving the Hesketh March 731, with all the glitz and glamour that accompanied the impressive Hunt / Hesketh Grand Prix debut that day.

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Everso Biggyballies
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#3

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Curious as I was, I looked back into the Donaldson book on James Hunt, and here are a couple of pages from the book that refer to not only the accident in Kyalami, but also his accident in Belgium as well as in the second image / scan of the book an interview with James where he talks of his 'preservation v risk formula' that I alluded to above, and his whole retirement thinking..

Image

The next line in the book is of James saying he believes the Belgium crash was caused by a tyre failure, because the steering had got heavy before.



Image

I know this is not the clip we are specifically looking for (Kyalami 79,) but here is his Belgium 1979 accident. 27 mins 20 secs in for his accident.


* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
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Post by Antonov »

thanks for that Mr. encyclopedia ;)
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Everso Biggyballies
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#5

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Antonov wrote:thanks for that Mr. encyclopedia ;)
You are welcome. I remember the older stuff more than I can the more modern stuff. Image :oops:

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#6

Post by kals »

I'm going to use that quote the next time you criticize Lewis or Bruno :tongue:
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