Jody Scheckter triggerd a mass pile-up in 1973 while Peter Revson scored his maiden Formula 1 victory.
During the seventies the british Grand Prix alternated between Brands Hatch and Silverstone. The 1970 race was at Brands and victory went to Jochen Rindt in the ground-breaking Lotus 72. Jack Brabham came home second, setting fastest lap in the process. Denny Hulme was third for a McLaren team still reeling from the death of their founder Bruce McLaren the previous month. It was also the popular American driver Dan Gurney’s final Formula 1 appearance.
At Silverstone in 1971 Jackie Stewart scored a home victory, his Tyrrell finishing ahead of Ronnie Peterson in second and Emerson Fittipaldi in third. No other driver finished on the lead lap. Clay Regazzoni had started from pole in his Ferrari but a loss of oil pressure put him out. A notable absentee from the meeting was Pedro Rodriguez. The popular Mexican had been killed during a sports car race in Germany a few days earlier.
It was back to Brands in 1972 and a pole position for Jacky Ickx in his Ferrari. In a repeat of the previous year the Ferrari retired after losing oil pressure. The win was taken by Fittipaldi, followed home by Stewart in the Tyrrell and Peter Revson’s McLaren.
The 1973 race at Silvertone was an enthralling encounter. Jody Scheckter lost control of his McLaren at the end of the first lap while exiting Woodcote corner. The ensuing pile-up eliminated, among others, all three of the Surtees cars. At the restart Peterson led from Stewart until the latter made an uncharacteristic mistake at Stowe corner, ending up in a corn field. Although he got going again he would finish a lap down on the eventual winner, Peter Revson. It was revson’s first Grand Prix victory, nine years after competing in his first British Grand Prix.
The most notable performance at the 1973 race came from a young James Hunt, who finished fourth in a March entered by Lord Alexander Hesketh. Hunt stayed in touch with the leaders all afternoon, despite having to borrow a replacement airbox after his own one was knocked off in the first lap carnage.
Scheckter made up for his mistake the previous year by winning the 1974 race at Brands. Fittipaldi and Ickx completed the podium while pole-sitter Niki Lauda was involved in a bizarre incident late in the race when he found the exit from the pit-lane blocked. He was later promoted four places in the standings as a result.
