James Simon Wallis Hunt was born in August 29, 1947, in Belmont. He was a formula one world champion from England. Hunt studied to became a doctor until one day, before his 18th birthday a friend took him to see a motor race and Hunt was instantly hooked. Hunt passed through formula Ford and formula 3, and he earned the nickname Hunt the Shunt due to having lots of spectacular accidents.
On the 3rd of October, in the Daily Express F3 Trophy race at Crystal Palace Hunt was involved in an accident with Dave Morgan, when Dave Morgan tried to pass Hunt from the outside on the final lap. The two cars collided and crashed. Hunt got out of the car and furiously ran into Morgan and pushed him to the ground. Hunt continued with the March team, and soon got to the Hesketh team. The team entered Hunt in the formula two, and Lord Hesketh decided to put the team in the formula one too. The car had no sponsors. Hunt's first world champion win came in 1975 in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. He finished the champinship fourth. Hesketh could not find a sponsor, and with little time before 1976 season, Hunt was desperately looking for a drive. Until Emerson Fittipaldi left Mclaren and there was an open place for him. Since no other top drivers were available Mclaren signed Hunt in a very low price. He actually is one of the cheapest world champions ever.
1976 was Hunt's most successful year. Using the Mclaren M23 he won six Grand Prix. Niki Lauda's near-fatal accident in Germany allowed Hunt to close the gup. In the Japanese Grand Prix (the final round) Niki Lauda refused to race, saying that the conditions are too dangerous. Hunt managed to get to the third place and take four points, enough to give him the title, by only one point from Niki Lauda.
The 1977 season was not so good for Hunt. Although he won three Grand Prix he could not compete with Niki Lauda and Mario Andretti due to the car's reliability problems. The following season was even worst. The M26 was not working properly and without a test driver to sort the car, Hunt's motivation plummeted. He was outperformed by his inexperienced team-mate Patrick Tambay. Any motivation Hunt had left disappeared in the crash he and his friend Ronnie Peterson had in the 1978 Italian Grand Prix. There was a big accident in the first corner and Peterson's car hit the berriers and burst into flames. Hunt heroically rescued him but Peterson died the next day because of an embolism. Hunt took his friend's death very hard and he blamed Riccardo Patrese for this. Video evidence has shown that Patrese did not touch Hunt's or Reterson's car. In 1979 he joined the Wolf team and this would be his last formula one season. After failing to finish the Monaco Grand Prix, the race where six years previously he had made his debut, Hunt made a statement to the press announcing his immediate retirement and walked away from F1 competition forever.James Hunt competed in 93 races in formula one and won ten of them. Won one world champion title, got 23 podium finishes, gained 14 pole positions and he set 8 fastest laps.
