1974 United States Grand Prix

  1974 United States Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of 15 in the 1974 Formula One season
Date	October 6, 1974
Official name	XVII United States Grand Prix
Location	Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York
Course	Permanent road course
Course length	5.435 km (3.377 mi)
Distance	59 laps, 320.67 km (199.24 mi)
Weather	Clear, warm
Pole position
Driver	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford
Time	1:38.978
Fastest lap
Driver	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford
Time	1:40.608 on lap 54
Podium
First	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford
Second	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford
Third	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford

The 1974 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 6, 1974, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.

This was the last race for the 1967 world champion Denny Hulme, who scored 8 wins and 33 podiums in 112 starts.

Summary

Carlos Reutemann won from the pole, ahead of Brabham teammate Carlos Pace, while Emerson Fittipaldi's fourth place clinched his second World Championship in three years and the first for Team McLaren. American Mario Andretti, after qualifying in an excellent third position, was disqualified when the engine in his Parnelli stalled on the grid and his crew push started him.

Emerson Fittipaldi of McLaren and Ferrari's Clay Regazzoni came to the final race of the season even in the Driver's Championship standings with 52 points; Tyrrell's Jody Scheckter, with 45 points, also held an outside chance of overtaking them both. Knowing that tactics could play an important role in the race, McLaren had the two-way radios from their USAC team fitted in the F1 cars at Watkins Glen.

Early in the year, Peter Revson, one of only five American drivers to win a Grand Prix, had died in a testing crash, but the American crowd had countrymen Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue at The Glen to carry the star-spangled banner, and they were both driving American-built cars for American teams.

Andretti gave the home crowd a charge when he was fastest on Friday in the British-designed, California-built Vel's Parnelli Jones car, just two weeks after its Canadian debut. His time of 1:39.209 still had him on the provisional pole halfway through Saturday's session, when a rear brake failure put him off and damaged the nose and steering. By the time Andretti returned to the track, with ten minutes left in the session, Reutemann and Hunt had pipped him and he would start third.

Donahue, in the second race for the Penske First National City Travelers Checks Special, made less of a splash, as his lack of experience with the car made setup difficult. He and Penske were both pleased, however, with his 14th position in final qualifying.

Scheckter was the top qualifying championship contender, in sixth, with Fittipaldi directly behind him in eighth and Regazzoni in ninth. Sunday was a glorious day, clear and warm. On the parade lap, Andretti developed an ignition fault, and the start was delayed 25 minutes while the crew scrambled to solve the problem. Finally, Mario took his place on the grid, but when starter Tex Hopkins dropped the green flag, the Parnelli car sat still, and the field had to scramble to avoid him. His crew eventually got the car push started two laps late, but Andretti was black-flagged for getting assistance on the course.

From the start, Reutemann led James Hunt, Pace, Niki Lauda, Scheckter, Fittipaldi and Regazzoni. Gradually, the gap between Reutemann and Hunt widened, and by the end of the third lap, it was clear that all was not right with Regazzoni, as a train was forming behind the Ferrari. Lauda, in fourth and just ahead of Scheckter and Fittipaldi, began to do his part in the Championship battle by holding them up for his teammate, the struggling Regazzoni, whose front end was heaving and wallowing with a defective damper.

On lap 10, the Surtees of Austrian Helmuth Koinigg, in just his second Grand Prix, went off in the hairpin where Regazzoni, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Andretti had crashed in practice, probably due to a deflating rear tire. On impact with the Armco barrier, as in François Cevert's fatal crash at The Glen one year earlier, the bottom rail gave way but the top one did not, and young Koinigg had no chance and was decapitated.

On lap 15, Regazzoni pitted in desperation, but a tire change didn't improve his car. The Ferrari pit now told Lauda to go on, and he quickly pulled 2.5 seconds clear of Scheckter. Fittipaldi made half-hearted attempts to outbrake the Tyrrell, but, with Regazzoni out of the picture, he knew that if he could stay close, the Championship would be his.

Beginning on lap 24, a faulty shock absorber slowed Lauda, and he was caught by the group of cars he had left behind. Regazzoni pitted again, as the crew adjusted the rear anti-roll bar, but the Ferrari challenge was crumbling. When Lauda came in on lap 38, the crew discovered the offending shock absorber; when the Austrian also learned of his countryman's death, he gave up the chase.

Insistent on fighting to the end, Scheckter continued to hold fourth, ahead of Fittipaldi, throwing the Tyrrell around in opposite lock slides, as the McLaren clung to his gearbox. On the 44th lap, Scheckter's engine suddenly lost fuel pressure when a feed pipe broke. He coasted to a stop as Fittipaldi slashed by, knowing that a second World Championship in three years was his.

After the race, Scheckter admitted that he knew he was holding Fittipaldi up. "But I didn't think he should pass, although he was being pushed from behind by Arturo Merzario. He tried three times to outbrake me, but I wouldn't let him get away with it." With Scheckter out, McLaren also clinched its first Constructor's Championship, ten years after Bruce McLaren and Teddy Mayer had founded the team.

At the front, Reutemann was in no trouble. Hunt, however, was struggling with fading brakes, and Pace, in third with the second works Brabham, was ready to pounce. When he saw his opportunity, he set the race's fastest lap just five laps from the finish, and on the next lap, he took second place from the ailing Hesketh of Hunt, completing a one-two for Brabham.

The red and white uniforms of the McLaren crew mobbed the circuit to honor their World Champion, the Brabham team celebrated their victors, and the crowd– especially the Brazilians among them– poured over the fences and jammed the pit area. The win was the 100th for the Cosworth Ford engine in Formula One, but for the second year in a row at the Glen, it was tragically flawed by the death of a promising young driver. It was also the last US driving appearance of two-time World Champion and three-time USGP winner Graham Hill, who finished eighth in his own Embassy Hill Lola.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	59	1:40:21.439	1	9
2	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford	59	+ 10.735	4	6
3	24	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	59	+ 1:10.384	2	4
4	5	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	59	+ 1:17.753	8	3
5	28	John Watson	Brabham-Ford	59	+ 1:25.804	7	2
6	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	59	+ 1:27.506	13	1
7	33	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	59	+ 1:30.012	20
8	26	Graham Hill	Lola-Ford	58	+ 1 Lap	24
9	15	Chris Amon	BRM	57	+ 2 Laps	12
10	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	57	+ 2 Laps	10
11	11	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	55	+ 4 Laps	9
12	27	Rolf Stommelen	Lola-Ford	54	+ 5 Laps	21
Ret	1	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford	52	Fuel System	19
NC	22	Mike Wilds	Ensign-Ford	50	Not Classified	22
NC	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	47	Not Classified	18
Ret	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	44	Fuel System	6
Ret	20	Arturo Merzario	Iso-Marlboro-Ford	43	Electrical	15
Ret	12	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	38	Suspension	5
Ret	21	Jacques Laffite	Iso-Marlboro-Ford	31	Engine	11
Ret	66	Mark Donohue	Penske-Ford	27	Suspension	14
WD	18	José Dolhem	Surtees-Ford	25	Withdrew	26
Ret	10	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	21	Fuel System	25
Ret	19	Helmuth Koinigg	Surtees-Ford	9	Fatal Accident	23
Ret	2	Jacky Ickx	Lotus-Ford	7	Suspension	16
DSQ	31	Tim Schenken	Lotus-Ford	6	Disqualified	27
DSQ	55	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	4	Disqualified	3
Ret	6	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford	4	Engine	17
DNQ	9	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford
DNQ	42	Ian Ashley	Brabham-Ford
DNQ	14	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM
Source:

Notes

• Three drivers went into the final round with a chance of winning the championship, for the first time in 10 years.
  • Emerson Fittipaldi (52pts) needed either:
    • To finish 4th, and ahead of Regazzoni
    • To finish 5th or 6th, with Scheckter 2nd or lower and Regazzoni behind him.
    • To finish out of the points, with Scheckter 2nd or lower and Regazzoni out of the points.
  • Clay Regazzoni (52pts) needed either:
    • To finish 3rd, and ahead of Fittipaldi
    • To finish 5th or 6th, with Scheckter 2nd or lower and Fittipaldi behind him
  • Jody Scheckter (45pts) needed either:
    • 1st, with Regazzoni 4th or lower and Fittipaldi 5th or lower
• McLaren-Ford and Ferrari went into this round with a chance of winning the Constructors' Championship.
  • McLaren-Ford (69pts) needed either:
    • 2nd or higher
    • 3rd, with the top Ferrari 2nd or lower
    • The top Ferrari 3rd or lower
  • Ferrari (65pts) needed either:
    • 1st with the top McLaren 3rd or lower
    • 2nd, with the top McLaren 6th or lower

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Emerson Fittipaldi	55
2	Clay Regazzoni	52
3	Jody Scheckter	45
4	Niki Lauda	38
5	Ronnie Peterson	35

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	McLaren-Ford	73 (75)
2	Ferrari	65
3	Tyrrell-Ford	52
4	Lotus-Ford	42
5	Brabham-Ford	35

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 7 results from the first 8 races and the best 6 results from the last 7 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

Further reading

• Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1
• "16th U.S. Grand Prix: Reutemann Wins, Fittipaldi Is Champion". (January, 1975). Road & Track, 108-111.

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