1975 United States Grand Prix

The **1975 Canadian Grand Prix** was a Formula One motor race held at Watkins Glen on 5th October 1975. It was race 11 of 11 in both the 1975 World Championship of Drivers and the 1975 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.

Stefan Van Damme won the race, ahead of Scott Amor and William Worchester-Smythe, who started from pole position after buying a race seat from Ferrari.

## Race Summary

With the championship essentially wrapped up, there were mixed emotions in the paddock prior to the final race of the season at Watkins Glen. Maria Parker of McLaren was relieved that her season was coming to an end after a series of disappointing results and the halt of development on the M23. The newly crowned champion Stefan Van Damme was relaxed, having taken the championship in the previous round at Mosport.

 Several drivers were absent from this race, with Mick Ashcroft spending time at home due to his wife's pregnancy and imminent birth of their son. Gunnar Olander was still recovering in hospital from injuries sustained in a crash at Mosport and Vadim Pshenichnikov's location was still unknown.

Stefan Van Damme had reported engine problems during practice and had several components replaced before qualifying. Despite the new parts, his car's engine failed in the closing stages of qualifying as he was completing his lap and having not completed a representative laptime, the Belgian driver decided to start from the back of the field. Rookie driver William Worchestershire-Smythe was the sole Ferrari driver present this weekend and surprised almost everyone in the paddock by grabbing pole position. Canadian Grand Prix winner Nathan Meiri qualified second, with the two Brabham cars following behind.

Poddel Noyeimya had a great start from seventh and immediately took the lead of the race, with W-S and Scott Amor in 2nd and 3rd. Giuseppe Ferrari was hit by his rookie teammate Sven Assing as Assing lost control of his car off the race start. Ferrari hit the wall and received car damage but was able to continue.

Meanwhile, Amor was able to pass Worchestershire-Smythe and then catch up to the back of race leader Noyeimya and eventually passed him at the beginning of lap three. Noyeimya then battled W-S for 2nd which allowed Amor to pull away at the front of the pack. The McLaren driver started to struggle as his brakes slowly got worse over the course of the race and he lost several positions before hitting a wall at the penultimate corner on lap five and retiring from the race.

Having started at the back of the grid, Stefan Van Damme had moved up to 7th by the end of lap three. Nathan Meiri and Assing had a collision at the exit of turn five which sent Assing heavily into the outside wall, destroying his car in the process. He escaped the accident without injury. Van Damme and his teammate Meiri battled for several laps before the world champion eventually found his way past and caught up to W-S and Amor.

Giuseppe Ferrari was attempting to recover after the start incident and had made up a couple of positions by lap nine. Pushing the track limits of the final corner, his car lost grip on the outside kerb and he span into the pitlane wall. Spectators watched as the Italian driver sat motionless in his Brabham car. By the time the marshals reached him, he was already pronounced dead. He would be the fifth and final driver to lose his life in the 1975 Formula One Season.

Maria Parker was running in the points when her engine started misfiring near the end of the race. The car's gearbox also started failing at the same time but Parker managed to recover the car back to the pits.

Amor's low-drag setup on his Tyrrell car was managing to keep the Ferrari of W-S and Lotus of Van Damme behind him until the Scottish driver made a mistake at the first corner by locking up. W-S made a move on Amor and the double slipstream allowed Van Damme to pull alongside the other two cars as they were momentarily three-wide on the straight, before Van Damme backed out. W-S was able to hold onto the lead and managed to build a gap of around two seconds as they approached the penultimate lap.

Amor was pushing hard to catch up to W-S when he went slightly wide at the first corner, got onto tyre marbles, and then had a snap of oversteer. Narrowly managing to keep the car out of the armco-barrier, he returned to the race in third behind W-S and Van Damme.

W-S was on course to win his first Formula One race as he started the final lap, with Van Damme and Amor trailing just a second behind. He had started on soft tyres, contrary to most other drivers, and these tyres were starting to lose grip by the final laps. As he was exiting turn five, his Ferrari car oversteered and suddenly snapped, causing W-S to slam into the outside wall. Van Damme took the lead of the race, but with a spluttering and overheating engine was forced to lift and coast for the final sections of the race. This allowed Amor to pull alongside as they reached the penultimate corner and Van Damme placed his car in the middle of the circuit, doing all he could to defend the race lead. Pulling out of the final corner, Van Damme's Lotus let out a plume of smoke and Amor pulled alongside but was just unable to snatch the race win. The final gap between Van Damme and Amor was just 42 thousandths, one of the closest race finishes in Formula One history.