James Hunt: One of Formula One’s Most Colourful and Unconventional Champions
On August 29, 1947, James Simon Wallis Hunt was born in the household of a London stock market agent, and soon proved himself to be an unyielding, restless youngster. As a self-assured, driven and vying youth, he attained considerable dexterity at tennis and squash. James Hunt had his first taste of racing during a club event at Silverstone at the age of 18 and instantly made up his mind on a career in motorsport. With his parents reluctant to fund another one of James’ reckless fancies, the unrelenting lad turned to odd jobs to accumulate sufficient finance to purchase a dilapidated Mini. It took James another two years to get the car into race worthy shape, only to witness his hard prepared weapon fail auditing as the drivers’ seat comprised of a seedy lawn chair.
Most of Hunt’s initial runs culminated in serious mishaps. During one of his races, Hunt’s Formula Ford veered out of control and drowned in a lake. The Englishman could have drowned if he had donned the essential seatbelts he did not have the financial means to purchase. In the swifter Formula Three machines, “Hunt the Shunt” had all the more incredible accidents. With time, however, James taught himself to remain on the circuit long enough to seal victories, but never completely overcame his apprehensions. Hunt’s notability as a reckless driver with average race outcomes meant it was improbable he would have managed to proceed much further had Lord Alexander Hesketh not come to his aid.
“The Good Lord” (as labelled by James) was a maverick young British gentleperson who had fallen heir to an estate and spent extravagantly on personal amusement. The unpredictable young Lord, who had little idea about motor racing, decided to delight himself by organising his own racing squad and enlisted “Superstar” (his pet name for Hunt) as his racer. The Hesketh Racing squad had lukewarm success in Formula Two and Formula Three, but since Lord Alexander was enjoying some major entertainment at motorsport’s lower levels, he assumed it would be worth a try to have a taste of racing at the pinnacle of the sport.
In 1974, the Hesketh Racing made its debut on the Formula One arena, and was regarded with contempt by the sport’s more serious contenders. Yet the mockery soon evolved into resentful deference when James Hunt defeated Ferrari’s Niki Lauda to triumph at the 1975 Grand Prix in the Netherlands. At the conclusion of the 1975 campaign, however, Lord Hesketh decided it was time to wrap the stint up for his finances would not be able to keep up with the task of manufacturing Britain’s next World Champion and James Hunt found himself unemployed.
As good fortune would have it, just before the 1976 season kicked off, Hunt happened to be the only seasoned racer who could fill the shoes of Emerson Fittipaldi who had abandoned McLaren in a shock transfer. James was instantly swift, but his volatile temperament left many kinks to be ironed in his repertoire. The Englishman only began to book the podium more frequently once he had learned to keep his temper in check.
Hunt’s big break came in 1976, when he became involved in a stimulating battle with Ferrari’s Niki Lauda, with whom he developed a flourishing camaraderie. The season’s title run was thrown wide open when Lauda was involved in a horrifying accident at the year’s German Grand Prix and the Ferrari protagonist’s retirement from the season’s ultimate event gifted the World Championship title to his close buddy, James Hunt.
Following his drivers’ title feat, Hunt’s motivation for the sport began to shrink visibly. He professed he did not really relish driving and left McLaren for Wolf after two more years with the side. The Englishman’s farewell from the sport came when the 1979 season had just hit the half-way mark and he then embarked on a job with the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) as a fairly successful Formula One commentator. James Hunt was however, tragically snatched away from his many adoring fans at the age of 45 on 15th June, 1993, after suffering a heart attack.
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