1978 United States Grand Prix East

The **1978 United States Grand Prix East** was a Formula One motor race held at Watkins Glen on 1st October 1978. It was the eleventh and penultimate race of the 1978 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1978 International Cup for F1 Constructors.

## Background

Due to the injury sustained by Argentinian driver Reinaldo Molina, reserve Marco Ricci was drafted in by the Arrows team to replace him at Watkins Glen. The Brabham team were unable to bring spare cars for either of their drivers, and after a practice crash for Nino Tempestini, the Italian was forced to pull out of the race.

## Qualifying

Once again the main challengers for pole position were Chuck Dingley, Stefan Van Damme, and Vivaldo Margheriti. Dingley outpaced his two main competitors throughout qualifying, setting a lap time 2 tenths quicker than either Van Damme or Margheriti could manage. Van Damme ended up second, a mere 9 thousandths quicker than the Williams of Margheriti.

Fabiano Margheriti qualified 4th, building off of the momentum he had from his podium at Monza, which was critical for the Ferrari team as Williams were baring down on them in the Constructors after a run of good results.

## Race Summary

Most of the grid started on the hard tyre due to high degradation, particularly through the high speed turn 5. However, McLaren drivers João Coutinho and Max Westland risked starting on the soft tyre in a bid to score McLaren's first points of the season.

The top 3 started well, with Dingley leading through the first corner. Battling for 4th, Fabiano Margheriti came together with the Lotus of Spocinklass, the Ferrari taking damage to its right skirt and dropping to last. Dingley's lead was short lived, as both Vivaldo Margheriti and Van Damme slipstreamed past the American on the back straight. The Lotus and Williams drivers would stay side by side for the rest of the first lap, with Vivaldo finally gaining the advantage over Van Damme in the penultimate corner to take the lead. The top 3 continued to swap positions for the first 4 laps of the race, until Dingley passed Vivaldo and opened a gap. On lap 11, Vivaldo and Van Damme came together through The Loop, which sent the Belgian spinning into the outside wall. Van Damme was able to limp back to the pits, but dropped to 13th position.

Further back, Stanley Robson and Michael Géni were in a fierce battle for the 4th position until the end of the 14th lap, when Géni spun in the penultimate corner, crashing into the armco and grinding into a tyre barrier, ending his race. Géni luckily walked away from the crash unhurt. Robson's respite would be short, as a few laps later he once again came under pressure, this time by the McLaren of Coutinho. On lap 22, the McLaren driver finally found a way around Robson, but by lap 23 his soft tyres had fallen off the cliff and he spun off in the same corner as Géni, ending McLaren's hopes of scoring points at Watkins Glen. This would promote the Ligier of Jurg Scheller to 5th position, the Swiss driver orchestrating an excellent comeback drive after a spin on lap 6 dropped him from 6th position to 14th.

The running order would remain mostly the same after Coutinho's accident, with Dingley and the elder Margheriti trading fastest laps for the majority of the race. With the Tyrrell struggling with tyre wear, Margheriti closed to within 3 seconds by the checkered flag, Dingley's gap proving wide enough to hold on to the lead. Spocinklass rounded out the podium after a lonely race, with Robson holding on to 4th. Scheller finished 5th, and Fabiano Margheriti's damaged Ferrari barely held off a hard charging Van Damme for 6th position.

With his win, and Van Damme finishing outside of the points for a 3rd consecutive race, Dingley locked up the 1978 Formula 1 Drivers World Championship.

A week after the race, following a protest from Lotus, FIA stewards gave Vivaldo Margheriti a 25 second penalty for his contact with Van Damme, dropping the Italian from 2nd to 3rd in the final classification.

## Post-Race

*"JA! Das ist großartig! When I span, I thought it was over. I just tried to get back into the top 10 to keep the season momentum going, but my pace started getting better and better. Eventually I started catching up with the guys ahead of me and I just kept it on the track in order to pass them."* - Jurg Scheller

*"Another solid race, another points finish. Just off that podium again, surely it's going to have to happen soon. Well done to my team mate on another podium, Vivaldo is really showing what this car is capable of. Might have to get some coaching from him"* - Stanley Robson

*"Wow, what a race. What a start! My heart was pounding during those first few laps, for sure! I hope Stefan is ok though. He is? That's good. I haven't spoken to him yet about what happened, but it was super close. I think we both could have avoided it if we did anything even slightly different. Very unlucky for him, it was a tiny touch and god knows another day it could have been me spinning out and him carrying on. I am glad he is ok though."* - Vivaldo Margheriti

*"Congrats to the American on winning the title. I tried to give it my all but it wasn't enough and we had a few unlucky accidents in the second half of the season. He was faster and more consistent and I'm sure the home support in Watkins really helped. I'm not taking any blame for the incident with Vivaldo. Ultimately it cost both me and the team a podium and it was a rookie mistake from him. I'd like to forget this season in general. There were far too many heavy crashes and injuries and the loss of Maria in Argentina will stay with me forever."* - Stefan Van Damme

## Classification

Fastest lap: Stefan Van Damme (Lotus) on lap 15 - 01:00.143

## Lap Leaders

Vivaldo Margheriti (Laps 1-2)

Chuck Dingley (Laps 3-30)