1977 South African Grand Prix

The 1977 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 5 March 1977. The race is principally remembered for the fatal accident that claimed the lives of race marshal Frederick Jansen van Vuuren and driver Tom Pryce. It was also the last race for Carlos Pace, who was killed in an aircraft accident less than two weeks later.

Report

James Hunt continued his streak of pole positions, with Carlos Pace alongside and Niki Lauda next. Hunt led off at the start, with Lauda and Jody Scheckter following him after Pace struggled. The order stayed put until the seventh lap when Lauda took the lead and was never headed again, with Scheckter taking second from Hunt 11 laps later.

During lap 21, two marshals ran onto the track after the Shadow of Renzo Zorzi suffered engine failure. The second marshal, Fredrik Jansen van Vuuren, was hit by the car of Tom Pryce and killed instantly by the collision; the fire extinguisher he was holding flew from his hands and hit Pryce in the face, killing and nearly decapitating him.

The race continued, however, and Lauda won, his first victory since his own horror crash the previous year. South African Scheckter was second, and Patrick Depailler's six-wheeler took third from Hunt in the closing laps.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	78	1:42:21.6	3	9
2	20	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford	78	+5.2	5	6
3	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	78	+5.7	4	4
4	1	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	78	+9.5	1	3
5	2	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	78	+19.9	12	2
6	7	John Watson	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	78	+20.2	11	1
7	19	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees-Ford	78	+23.6	14
8	12	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	78	+26.7	8
9	22	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign-Ford	78	+46.2	16
10	28	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	78	+1:11.7	9
11	18	Hans Binder	Surtees-Ford	77	+1 lap	19
12	6	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus-Ford	77	+1 lap	10
13	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	76	+2 laps	2
14	30	Brett Lunger	March-Ford	76	+2 laps	23
15	14	Larry Perkins	BRM	73	+5 laps	22
Ret	9	Alex Ribeiro	March-Ford	66	Engine	17
Ret	10	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	55	Engine	18
Ret	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	43	Accident	6
Ret	33	Boy Hayje	March-Ford	33	Gearbox	21
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	22	Accident	12
Ret	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	22	Fatal Accident	15
Ret	17	Renzo Zorzi	Shadow-Ford	21	Fuel leak	20
Ret	3	Ronnie Peterson	Tyrrell-Ford	5	Fuel system	7

Accident

On lap 22, the Shadow car of Italian driver Renzo Zorzi retired from the race with engine failure and moved off the track on the left side. Moments after the car came to a halt on a blind brow, the engine caught fire. Reacting to the emergency, two teenage fire marshals carrying fire extinguishers ran across the track to put out the blaze as the race continued. At that very moment, Pryce in the other Shadow car and Hans-Joachim Stuck driving a March-Ford car suddenly crested the rise. Stuck's leading car swerved, narrowly missing the first marshal, but Pryce, who was unsighted behind the German, had no time to react before hitting the second marshal, Frederick Jansen van Vuuren, who was killed instantly.

At the moment of impact of the car with the marshal, the fire extinguisher that Jansen van Vuuren had been holding smashed into Pryce's head, cracking the driver's hard-shell helmet. The impact tore off the remnants of Pryce's protective helmet and caused the chin strap to almost decapitate the driver. The Shadow car then continued down the main straight at speed with Pryce still seated behind the wheel. The car finally left the track at the first corner taking the Ligier of Jacques Laffite out of the race in the process. The entire incident was filmed by a broadcast crew covering the race.

Jansen van Vuuren's injuries were so severe that, initially, his body was only identified after the race director had summoned all of the race marshals and Van Vuuren was not among them; his body was literally torn in half, with multiple parts scattered around the track.

Aftermath

The sport reacted with sorrow at the loss of two young men. Tyrrell mechanic Trevor Foster viewed the incident from a distance, later recalling

I can remember quite vividly [Pryce's] teammate's car had already pulled off to the side of the track and it had started a small fire. Then the next thing I can remember is seeing Tom's car coming down the straight. I can almost remember now a momentary lift of the throttle much earlier than you would have expected and I looked and I saw something fly up from the car, which tragically turned out to be the marshal.

David Tremayne, a veteran biographer and motor sports journalist, recalled the feelings of disbelief and horror following the aftermath of the incident;

The tragedy itself - the sheer randomness of it - is so hard to take and still is. You tend to focus your anger on someone and for a long time it would be focused on a 19-year-old kid, called Jansen van Vuuren, who ran across the track.

The event was included in the motor racing film The Quick and the Dead.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jody Scheckter 15 2 Carlos Reutemann 13 3 Niki Lauda 13 4 James Hunt 9 5 Carlos Pace 6

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 22 2 Wolf-Ford 15 3 McLaren-Ford 9 4 Brabham-Alfa Romeo 7 5 Fittipaldi-Ford 6

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Previous race: 1977 Brazilian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1977 season	Next race: 1977 United States Grand Prix West
Previous race: 1976 South African Grand Prix	South African Grand Prix	Next race: 1978 South African Grand Prix

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