Daily Express F3 Trophy Final - Crystal Palace October 1970

[@hunnerd4566]

The fight mentioned in the Donut Podcast is at 13:35

[@DrFoo11]

I was gonna say "Who's here from Past Gas?"

[@Diptera_Larvae]

Cheers!

[@williamford9564]

I didn't;t catch that the first time. It was Hunt attacking Morgan.

[@johnstilljohn3181]

I am stunned to see this - I was there! Aged 6. My Dad took me. I remember James Hunt fighting after the crash - it happened right in front of us.

[@motorsportministries7843]

Did you ever see james hunt race in formula ford? What else do you remember about him?

[@lynnebarkas6906]

This racing has you on the edge of your seat. It’s a rare occasion that current F1 racing achieves that.

[@thethirdman225]

Maybe you should watch F2 and F3. It’s often very close.

[@tonywilson4713]

Have you realised how famous of a race this actually is? In the film Rush they make a "Hollywood adjustment" and have James clash with Niki Lauda when in fact the actual clash was James and Dave Morgan (see Wikipedia for the film "Rush" or on the James Hunt page under F3) This is that race and at 13:50 you can see James flatten Dave Morgan. The Wikipedia page for James covers this under the section for F3.

[@LifesVoyager]

I was there, aged 18, mechanic for Chris Bruce in his Mini. And yes, James Hunt and AN Other had a little punch up as the rest of the field finished the race while weaving through the carnage.

[@dmcollie]

An Other was my godfather David Morgan 🤣

[@kgb1aze]

Glad to see this video still exists 👌

[@tonywilson4713]

Have you realised how famous of a race this actually is? In the film Rush they make a "Hollywood adjustment" and have James clash with Niki Lauda when in fact the actual clash was James and Dave Morgan (see Wikipedia for the film "Rush" or on the James Hunt page under F3) This is that race and at 13:50 you can see James flatten Dave Morgan. The Wikipedia page for James covers this under the section for F3.

[@postapank]

I miss these camera angles. Todays footage are not about racing but advertisements...

[@CandlestickSec7]

RIP Murray, fascinating to hear him commentate here. He sounds like he’s doing a Raymond Baxter impression at the start, with a posher accent than he used at the BBC.

[@probablygraham]

Most people will tell you that his nickname was "Hunt the shunt" but there was another version which rhymed as well :-) Crystal Palace was my favourite circuit back then, with the Formula 1 drivers driving in Formula 2 cars, and the Mustangs and Camaros dicing with the BDA Escorts in the Saloon car races. Great memories.

[@michaellavery4899]

Francie Howerd did a song; 'His name is James Hunt, They call him The Shunt, He likes nothing better than a nice glass of milk....'

[@zeberdeeeeee]

I love this, I had it videotaped on a Video 2000 tape, I bet nobody remembers that format! So glad I got to see it again👍

[@SteffenT1981]

I actually have a working Video 2000 recorder standing right next to me. I have used it to digitalized my families old tapes. If you are also interested in motorracing of the 1980's: I have uploaded a few of the video's that appeared to be rare for me.

[@roywinchel3620]

What a great race on a great track.

[@faspeedyscot]

Great to see Gerry Birrell in a race ..... I saw him several times in the early 70's racing his F2 March 722 at Ingliston in Scotland.

[@MrSstiel]

@Andrew Fraser. There's a book project about Gerry Birrell being written. You may want to get in touch with the author, Darren Banks.

[@williamtooth148]

Hi, just to set the record strait, Dave Morgan was very close family friend of mine and raced for my dads team and apparently he was not punched but tripped backwards so that was what I have been told,if anyone saw a punch I couldn’t, not only that with a crash helmet on he wouldn’t have felt it anyway. Great race though.

[@mrrolandlawrence]

any race with murray doing the commentary come alive!

[@probablygraham]

We often said "Silly Hunt" in those days - or something that sounded like it :-) How I miss Crystal Palace.

[@admiralcraddock464]

Yes, now we have tarmaced run off area 100' wide and the spectators are so far back they need a telescope to see what little action there is

[@russefrance4869]

I used to go there all the time as a teenager - we lived about 10 mins from the circuit. Murray Walker talks about the unforgiving sleepers at North Tower. They were. I saw a motorcyclist killed there the same year as this race. Fifty years on, how things have changed so much for the better.

[@LhodaKblerz]

I saw this race live on tv. You just knew something was going to happen. One of the worst cases of 'cutting to the winner as he crosses the line' seen on tv! I was a 13yr old paddock marshall at Croft Autodrome in those fantastic days. The 1L screamers were the most beautiful racing cars ever. I remember that whenever I opened the paddock gate to let the F3 cars out onto the track, James Hunt would give me a little wave. Being an impressionable teenager, he became my 'hero'.

[@meerkatandpug]

Nice story, Hunt was a good bloke.

[@seamusblack5876]

What a gem

[@rhmotorsport6271]

If only there was more footage on here of 1970s Formula 2 and Formula 3

[@SteffenT1981]

Somehow ironic that Morgan's only F1 races at Silverstone 1975 ended for him in a pile up, where Hunt's Hesketh came to a hold on top of Morgan's Surtees.

[@zebop917]

This race and more particularly the collision between James Hunt and Dave Morgan was still getting mentions in the racing news when I started to follow the sport closely about a year later via the pages of Motoring News. Great to see F3 cars at the end of the period when they were powered by the unrestricted 1-litre “screamers”.

[@TheMelamia]

It's so strange to see this as a racetrack. I lived by Crystal Palace Park for many years and used to go for my daily walks on these "tracks".

[@russefrance4869]

I grew up just by South Norwood Lake. From about 1968 when I was thirteen until it closed in 1972 I would be at the track for car and bike races. My parents lived there for another thirty years and when I visited, we often strolled in the park but for me, walking the old, almost unrecognisable, circuit was always a real pleasure.

[@MrJulian1959]

I don't know if anyone has noticed but right at the end, James Hunt (yes the future 1976 World Champion) crashes with Dave Morgan on the finishing straight, gets out of his car and punches him to the ground. He did the same thing with a marshal at the Canadian Grand Prix!!

[@williamford9564]

I missed it until I saw the comments. The announcer totally missed it.

[@CosmicSeeker69]

@@williamford9564 apparently not - check the comment from William Tooth

[@80srockfan1]

amazing-just found this thread-I actually went to that meeting! did not have VHS then.

[@EricIrl]

Nobody did. It hadn't been invented yet.

[@brianwhitelegg112]

Remember that well. I was sat in the grandstand at the beginning of the home straight.

[@wilhelmtauber836]

I lived in Bromley during the 60's, and we could here the roar from CP on race-meets for miles around. We used to go there and watch from time to time, which was great to see, and here! What ring-side views we had, and very little 'crowd management''. You didn't seem to get the spectator suicidal idiots like today. Happy days indeed.

[@kacper38]

Back in my days bullshit. Talking about spectators and safety, i bring Le Mans 1955. Yeah good ol dayz.

[@johnstilljohn3181]

Hi Wilhelm - we used to hear it from South Norwood.

[@ianskeggs5294]

Blimey, I heard these cars from Beckenham in 1968

[@gregtaylor6146]

same!

[@duncanbuchanan218]

Just imagine, a motor racing track in London... can even get there on the overground now. They used part of the track for some vintage hill climb events a few years ago. (pre pandemic).

[@TheMightyAntar]

It was a beautiful track. I wonder with the development of much quieter electric-powered race cars if some kind of London race might happen again sooner or later.

[@michaellavery4899]

Was the guy who did the into suggesting Seb Coe's coach was his dad?

[@claytonnelmes1367]

did everyone else see James Hunt deck the other driver haha

[@BigDuke6ixx]

He was know for that. Always kept his helmet on when fighting though.

[@BD12]

Hahaha, good on him

[@mrrolandlawrence]

yeh right at the end. oops. same reason chapman didn't get a knighthood you know! he punched a policeman of a foreign crown..

[@peterlovett5841]

@@mrrolandlawrence The Netherlands I believe.

[@richardsmallwood7940]

I was there just when they came together, Hunt's car broke apart!

[@ianskeggs5294]

And I’m sure I saw sir Jackie Stewart there in person in maybe 1969

[@Quadrant14]

I only just found out about Dave Walker from my own country of Australia, this is great racing, that Morgan move was brilliant too!

[@zandvoort8616]

Hunt was doing so well in that race and impressed enough in my opinion. Even if he had lost a few places towards the end perhaps through his tyres going off. Shame about that shunt.

[@CosmicSeeker69]

perhaps through his tyres going off.... I'm only guessing but I'd think they were running Dunlop 484's - in which case they'd have done half a season. You'd think they were made out of hard wood. Maybe someone could confirm or deny - pls

[@jonnysl6560]

David Morgan True Gentleman

[@gregtaylor6146]

..... not if his driving in this clip is anything to go by.

[@dmcollie]

@@gregtaylor6146 Dave Morgan was a Hard Charging Gentleman!

[@ianskeggs5294]

My uncle put me on his shoulders to see the race

[@keyboarddancers7751]

My dad took me to watch a race there around that time; don't know whether it was this actual race but it was a very sunny day. I remember the noise of the cars being utterly terrifying! Sack the camera man!

[@bbborp]

Um, the continuity announcer at the beginning is talking rubbish - the legends of the cricketing arena happened to play in the exact same venue, the cricket pitch where W. G. Grace played in his later career is just outside the circuit. I'm not just being a pedant, the sporting history of Crystal Palace Park is fascinating and there are many clues to the past still visible if you know what to look for. The largest ever crowds for the FA Cup final were at Crystal Palace on the same site as the motor racing.

[@williamford9564]

13:25: At this point, something was going to happen. Hunt looks a peak inside on Beuttler and then Morgan goes to the outside to pass one or both.

[@CM1032]

Kobayashi and Alesi would have loved that move from Dave Morgan at 6:01, I didn't think he would get through that without contact, wonderful.

[@zanemurcha2675]

For this scene in Rush, Hunt's car was British Racing Green, but in real life it was red.

[@jacobmassey3897]

And in the film it was Niki Lauda who he collided with.

[@gregtaylor6146]

@@jacobmassey3897 - ..... and not at Crystal Palace either.

[@leach1527]

A pity we never see the coming together of Hunt & Morgan so that we can make our own judgement about who was at fault. Morgan has tended to be cast as the bad guy but there being no film of the incident we can only go by the memories of those who were watching and the claims of the two drivers. F3 was so close in those days that clashes were inevitable and could sometimes be simply put down to being a "racing accident" rather than being the obvious fault of any individual.

[@darrenwilson8042]

James and Murray were to become friends and co-commentators until James' premature passing

[@TheMightyAntar]

In the defence of Mr Rubython, he was repeating the "facts" as they were remembered by many motoring writers in the years since the incident including Hunt himself on at least one occasion I recall. He certainly threw a punch on other occasions.

[@dejanigma]

9:30 everyone is clearly taking it easy in light of what just happened. Such great driving. I'm amazed they didn't all crash and die driving open wheeled cars at these speeds on this track.

[@RAWDernison1]

Alan Jones didn't qualify for the final, Carlos Pace retired (engine).

[@BillHFA]

They had already had a close call at 8:59. We can't see the finishing straight crash, but things really got personal there!

[@weallfollowmanutd]

That was a really dirty move by the driver who shoved Hunt off.

[@ernestomartinez4090]

You can see at 13:48 Hunt punched Dave Morgan from behind what a coward Hunt was. He grabbed Morgan by the neck from behind and threw him to the floor. He didn't punch Morgan face to face like Nelson Piquet with Eliseo Salazar. Hunt was a coward. Eight years after this he touched Ronnie Peterson's Lotus and then blamed Patrese who was absolutely not at fault in that accident. What a coward. What a cowardly attitude of him. He knew he had touched Peterson. That's why he risked pulling Peterson out of the car and out of the flames. There're photos that clearly show Patrese had nothing to do with the accident all the way his Arrows was already ahead of both Peterson and Hunt.

[@joddball]

Racing historic track Where James hunt 1st meet Niki Lauda

[@markcherriman6136]

Anybody know why they closed the track ?

[@ajlavric2006]

Apparently racing around a park at 100 mph was considered too dangerous back then... looks pretty safe to me

[@leach1527]

There were concerns about rising speeds. The track was very tight and narrow. Mind you, the same could be said of the Monaco GP circuit and that still persists. Also, the track wasn't a great money spinner for the GLC. Only around 5 or 6 meetings a year were allowed due to environmental issues e.g. houses very close to the track up around The Glade section of the circuit. Finally though, athletics was gaining in popularity and the GLC decided to put their eggs in that basket and authorise the building of a second grandstand in the athletics stadium which was situated adjacent to the track. This couldn't be done without it spilling over on to the back straight of the circuit, so that was that as far as motor racing was concerned in Crystal Palace Park. The last meeting was in September 1972.

[@elainecheesman2114]

I think the slogan at the time was 'Sport For All'. Just not for motor racing fans...

[@MrJulian1959]

In reply to your comment about Tony Rubython's recent book, you will find that he is a journalist who never lets a fact get in the way of a good story. As you have noted in the footage, James was running on adrenalin and shoved him, not quite as bad as has been made out! Mr. Rubython has previously been editor on various magazines including one owned by Bernie Ecclestone who fired him for his rather controversial form of journalism.

[@Tranmere59]

No, first the shove, then the right hook when Trimmer's on the floor. Good ol' James. Shame there isn't an interview.. "Well the bladdy wally rammed me up the arse old chap!".

[@roywinchel3620]

Yeah the combustion engine.

[@pmay222]

proper car racing...they ACTUALLY PASS ON THE TRACK...!

[@navex4786]

Anyone remember the letters to Autosport purporting to be from 'Dave Morgan's mum' after Hunt had him off? 😄

[@russeller71]

Fantastic racing,slipstreaming and you did not need sacks of cash to do F3,why ca,nt somebody organise things better now? Yes,it really was better in the past.

[@jonnysl6560]

30k a year

[@thethirdman225]

Cost is relative. So is Gini Coefficient.

[@martinburke362]

Hunt the Shunt!!

[@rhmotorsport6271]

At sounds like Murray Walker is saying bautier's piss! Lol!!!!!

[@rhmotorsport6271]

*3:21

[@NarrowboatJophina2]

😂

[@WeAreTheGods1]

I'm personally not a fan of a move like that. You are forcing the guy ahead of you to either crash or move out of the way.

[@CosmicSeeker69]

written long before Max came along. Nothing new under the sun