abstract
| - The 1974 South African Grand Prix, otherwise known as the VIII South African Grand Prix, was the third round of the 1974 FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Kyalami Circuit on the 30th March, 1974. The race meeting would be overshadowed by the death of Peter Revson in the build-up to the weekend, who had crashed his Shadow during testing. Shadow withdrew from the weekend before practice began, although their absence was made up for by additional entries by South African privateers. The best of the locals would be Ian Scheckter, down in twenty-second, although brother Jody would start up in eighth. Pole had gone to the Ferrari of Niki Lauda, sharing the front row with an equally impressive Carlos Pace, while Arturo Merzario stunned the field by claiming third. At the start it would be Lauda who sprinted into the lead, with Carlos Reutemann elbowing his way past Pace and Merzario to claim second into turn one. Another man to make a stunning start would be the younger Scheckter brother, as Jody surged into fourth behind Clay Regazzoni. Further back there was to be a catastrophe for Lotus, with Ronnie Peterson suffering a throttle jam and slamming into the sister car of Jacky Ickx, effectively forcing both cars to the pits for repairs as the rest of the field swept into the distance. Lauda and Reutemann managed to pull away from the field over the following laps, with the Argentine pushing his way past the Austrian on lap ten. Behind, Regazzoni was being harassed by Jody Scheckter, while James Hunt and Emerson Fittipaldi duelled for fifth a few yards behind. Unfortunately for Hunt, his race ended prematurely with a driveshaft failure, while the home fans were dismayed when Jody Scheckter began to fall down the order after picking up a vibration. For the majority of the race the order remained stable, the only notable change coming when Fittipaldi was relegated to fifth by Mike Hailwood, whose McLaren got stronger as the race wore on. They, however, were being drawn in by another hard charging driver, with Jean-Pierre Beltoise taking the pair of them a few laps later in the new BRM, which already seemed a huge step-up from their old P160s. Into the closing stages and the two Ferraris were out within nine laps of each other, both Lauda and Regazzoni suffering from identical engine failures. That left Reutemann with a cruise to the finish, while Beltoise claimed second in the new BRM, much to the delight of the experienced British crew, while Hailwood just avoided a late charge from Patrick Depailler to claim the final podium spot. Hans-Joachim Stuck had a quiet race to fifth, ahead of Merzario, while Jody Scheckter ended the day in eighth, just keeping on the lead lap.
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