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Clay Regazzoni at the US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen
Photo: IMAGO / Motorsport Images
Emerson Fittipaldi cannot sleep that night.
He is lying in bed, tossing and turning.
He later says that he has "never felt so much pressure in his life" as on the night before the last World Cup race in 1974.
It's the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
Fittipaldi, the Brazilian Formula 1 hero, world champion from 1972, and his Swiss rival Clay Regazzoni are tied at the top of the World Cup with 52 points.
It's the same constellation as it is now, 49 years later: Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will contest their World Cup final in Abu Dhabi next Sunday.
Only on October 6, 1974, did it happen once before that two leading drivers in the World Championship took to the track with the same number of points in the last race of the year.
The wild days of Formula 1
1974, that is the wild time in Formula 1, glamor, partying, there is one driver in the field with the laid-back Briton James Hunt who could also be a pop star.
Jackie Stewart, his legendary compatriot, retired from the Formula 1 stage a year earlier, but the line-up for 1974 still reads as if one were leafing through a motorsport photo album: Jacky Ickx, Ronnie Peterson, Niki Lauda, Carlos Reutemann, Denis Hulme, Jody Scheckter, Mario Andretti, Graham Hill, John Watson, Patrick Depailler.
With Jochen Mass, Rolf Stommelen and Hans-Joachim “Strietzel” Stuck there are three Germans, all of them cool.
Formula 1, maybe it was never as stylish as it was back then.
Fittipaldi, Regazzoni, what a sound in these names.
But it is also the time when motorsport demands its terrible and regular sacrifices.
Jochen Rindt died four years earlier, in the preseason the Briton Roger Williamson had a fatal accident, exactly one year before the grand finale in 1974, on October 6th, the highly talented Frenchman Francois Cevert died in Watkins Glen because of his youth and the attractiveness of the » French James Dean «called in training.
Regazzoni was a daredevil
And even in 1974, Formula 1 has already paid its terrible toll.
Englishman Peter Revson, who was fifth in the World Cup last year, died during test drives in Kyalami.
Death is the constant companion of Formula 1 drivers in those years.
It's also a reason Fittipaldi can't sleep before the race.
Regazzoni is considered a daredevil, uncompromising on the track, one who takes every risk.
Fittipaldi writes in a column from 2013 in which he recalls the World Cup year and his competitors: “As soon as he closed his visor, he changed.
He was an incredibly aggressive driver and didn't give in an inch. "
That almost cost the Swiss his life. In 1973, after a collision with Jacky Ickx in Kyalami, he lost consciousness and sat motionless in his car, which had long since caught fire.
His driver colleague Mike Halwood, who wants to help, desperately pulls Regazzoni's seat belt, and in the process he himself is caught in flames.
A marshals can save the Swiss from the burning car.
That didn't stop Regazzoni from attacking again in the coming season, so after a spectacularly varied season with seven different winners in 14 races, the shoot-out of Watkins Glen comes.
Sheckter also has a World Cup chance
In addition to Fittipaldi and Regazzoni, the South African Jody Sheckter can theoretically become world champion, he is seven points behind, the winner gets nine points.
Regazzoni's Ferrari team mate Niki Lauda only left the group of title contenders at the Canadian Grand Prix, the race before.
Fittipaldi only starts eighth, but Regazzoni got it worse in training, he only finishes ninth and is already on the Brazilian’s neck at the start line.
"Along with everyone else, Sheckter, Lauda, Peterson, Reutemann, I felt good when you did wheel-to-wheel duels," says Fittipaldi in retrospect.
"That wasn't the case with Clay."
The tension is in the air, at least the weather is good, the track is dry, and the duel begins with the start signal.
The Swiss’s Ferrari pulls past Fittipaldi's McLaren before the first corner.
When the Brazilian tries to counter, the two cars collide and Regazzoni pulls to the right so as not to let Fittipaldi pass.
That gets on the grass.
"I had no intention of backing down"
“I was out on the outside of the track, but Clay was getting closer and I had to go further to the right, on two wheels on the grass.
I looked over and he did the same.
I had no intention of giving in and I think he understood. ”Regazzoni gives in and Fittipaldi pulls past him on the inside.
The drama of this day is not just about the title fight.
The young Austrian Helmut Koinigg is only driving his second Formula 1 race in Watkins Glen, he jumped in on the North American tour because Jochen Mass and Carlos Pace quit with Surtees.
The car is too unsafe for them, they don't want to risk their lives, Koinigg gets his chance as a substitute driver.
In the ninth lap, the Surtees comes off the track, slams into the guardrail and shoots through it.
Koinigg is dead on the spot, the accident is initially not noticed, only one lap later does the whole tragedy become aware.
Niki Lauda is shocked by the death of his compatriot and gives up the race.
Fourth place is enough for Fittipaldi
Fittipaldi finished fourth, which is easily enough for the title, as Regazzoni had to struggle with technical problems throughout the race and only finished eleventh.
The Brazilian said in 2013: "That was one of the best days of my life."
It is also the highlight of his racing career.
Against the new shining star in the Formula 1 sky, Niki Lauda, he has no chance in the next few years.
In 1980 he no longer feels like following and stops.
Regazzoni will never come as close to the world title as it did on October 6th.
In 1980 he had a serious accident in Long Beach.
He survived but has been paraplegic since then.
Regazzoni continues to race, anyway, he takes part in the Paris-Dakar rally, an obsessed with motorsport he dies in 2006 at the age of 67 - in a car accident.
