Letters

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THE GREATEST, AND THE GREATEST COMEBACK

A few weeks back, golfing scribes were lauding Tiger Woods for his comeback and said it was the greatest ever! Most motor sport fans might think differently.

I was at the Nürburgring in 1976 as one of Frank Williams mechanics at Wolf/Williams. Our driver was Arturo Merzario who, as usual, was running toward the rear of the field when he came upon Niki’s [Lauda] accident. Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger, and Harald Ertl had tried unsuccessfully to get Niki out of the burning wreck but failed because they couldn’t undo the seat belt. Most teams used Willans seat belts with [a]twist knob release mechanism whereas Ferrari used their own over-centre camlock lever configuration. Lunger went in for a second attempt and Art, being an ex-Ferrari driver, followed and released the seat belt. There.