1978 United States Grand Prix West

The **1978 United States Grand Prix West** was a Formula One motor race held at Long Beach on 2nd April 1978. It was the third race in both the 1978 World Championship of Drivers and the 1978 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.

## Background

Following poor results during the 1977 season, Shadow Racing Team had financial trouble heading into 1978 and missed the first two races. In March, new owners took hold of the team and invested enough funding to stop Shadow going into administration. They announced their return to the grid at the United States Grand Prix West and hired Gervais Trémaux and Richard Jockey as their drivers. Both brought significant funding to pay for their seats and Trémaux had made a successful debut in the South African Grand Prix after finishing on the podium.

Vadim Pshenichnikov was held at the airport for several days before eventually being allowed to enter the country and race. The Soviet driver had been accused of having connections to the KGB and US authorities were reluctant to let him into the country. This would be the first time that he had raced in the United States.

## Qualifying

The revived Shadow team appeared to immediately have pace following their return to the sport. Gervais Trémaux clinched pole position, with his teammate Richard Jockey starting 5th on his debut. Stefan Van Damme qualified 2nd with Chuck Dingley starting 3rd. Traffic in the session was an inherent problem and many drivers struggled to complete laps without getting held up.

## Race Summary

The weather was unusually dull and overcast on race day but despite this, 65000 fans turned out to watch the race. Gervais Trémaux and Stefan Van Damme pulled away at the start of the race with Trémaux being briefly challenged by Van Damme. Richard Jockey attempted to outbrake Chuck Dingley at the first corner but locked up and went down an escape road before returning to the race. Further down the field there was a small collision between Lotus' Spocinklass and Nino Tempestini which resulted in the latter temporarily stopping on track. The incident resulted in many other cars getting stuck behind Tempestini's Brabham-Alfa Romeo car before they could start moving again.

Trémaux was doing well to keep the world champion Van Damme behind for the start of the race. The Belgian driver was able to stay close to Trémaux throughout the lap, but Trémaux had superior traction out of the final corner which prevented an overtaking opportunity on the long straight afterwards. On lap four, Van Damme lit up the rear tyres of his car and grazed the outside barrier after the hairpin. The barrier's hasty and poor construction resulted in the Lotus sustaining heavy suspension damage and Van Damme was forced to do a full lap before pitting for repairs. Despite the pitstop being fairly fast for the damage that Van Damme had sustained, the team had fitted the wrong tyres on the rear of the car and Van Damme stated after the race: *"I think the team forgot to use the right pressures for the rear tyres and the rear of the car was everywhere for the rest of the race."* The pitstop dropped Van Damme into 10th.

On lap seven, Trémaux had a collision with the Renault of Strip Weathers, who had just been involved in an incident with Ferrari's Hugo Gehring at the first corner. Both Weathers and Gehring were a lap down and the incident allowed Chuck Dingley to gain time on the race leader. In the scrappy moments after the incident, Trémaux was half-spun by Gehring and Dingley passed him for the lead of the race, before Dingley himself was held up by Gehring. In an opportunistic move, Trémaux lunged Dingley at turn five and the pair had contact which ended with Dingley spinning. Afterwards, Trémaux pulled away and would remain unchallenged for the remainder of the race.

Richard Jockey spent much of his first race in 5th, before Stefan Van Damme overtook him around the outside of turn nine. Two laps later, Jockey picked up suspension damage and was quickly caught and passed by Vadim Pshenichnikov for the final points position. However, Shadow were more than impressed with the rookie's first race in the sport despite not finishing in the points.

Chuck Dingley was running comfortably in 2nd in the closing laps of the race when he hit the wall and bent his steering rack. This allowed Jeremy Spocinklass to close up and easily pass Dingley on the start-finish straight for 2nd. Trémaux went on to win by just over twenty seconds, an impressive performance in only his second race in the sport and first race for Shadow. He was delighted with his first win: *"Yes! I cannot believe zat zees car was ztill running after ze crash I had with ze lapped cars! VIVA LA FRANCE! YES YES YESSSS!!!! Zees is bigger zan anything! To come from ze sports cars into ze zhadow' 'n ween! Hon hon! ZO GOOT!"*

## Post-Race

Shortly after the race, Ferrari announced the immediate firing of Hugo Gehring from the team. Ferrari had failed to pick up any points from the first three races of the season and Gehring had criticised the car following the race in which he finished 10th and two laps down. Gehring and Gervais Trémaux effectively swapped seats and Trémaux was hired by Ferrari after his win in Long Beach, whilst Gehring was picked up by Shadow. When asked about the decision, Ferrari said: *"He has not performed to the level that we require for our team, and his comments about the car are unfounded."*

## Classification

Fastest lap: Chuck Dingley (Tyrrell) on lap 5 - 1:13.097