One of my heroes died yesterday
Niki Lauda’s comeback from horrific wreck in 1976 was the stuff of legends
Sporting Green // Sports
When the great Formula One driver Niki Lauda went to the pits before the German Grand Prix in 1976, a fan ran up to him and asked him for his autograph.
While Lauda wrote, the man asked him to write the date. Lauda asked why, and the man said, “Because it could be the last one.”
As Lauda told the story years later, he said, “At the time, I was upset, but he was nearly right.”
In a horrific accident early in the race, he suffered lung damage and third-degree burns to his head that scarred him for life. A priest performed last rites at the hospital.
Incredibly, Lauda missed just two races. In one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, the Austrian was back racing six weeks later. After feeling petrified in practice beforehand, he finished fourth in the Italian Grand Prix. By the end of the race, his fireproof balaclava was soaked with blood.
Lauda, who died Monday in Zurich, Switzerland, at age 70 eighth months after undergoing a lung transplant, became a prominent figure in the aviation industry after his racing days. But he will be long remembered for his amazing comeback. He redefined what it meant to compete in pain.
A year after his crash, he won his second championship with Ferrari. He would win again in 1984 with McLaren.
“Rest in peace Niki Lauda,” the Formula One organization tweeted. “Forever carried in our hearts, forever immortalised in our history. The motorsport community today mourns the devastating loss of a true legend.”
In 1976, Lauda appeared on course to defend his title despite strong competition from McLaren’s James Hunt of Britain. Their rivalry was the subject of the 2013 Ron Howard movie “Rush.”
The track at Nurburgring, Germany, was considered the most dangerous on the circuit. Lauda pushed unsuccessfully for a driver boycott of the track. He felt its 14 miles through the Eifel mountains meant emergency services were stretched too far. Driver Jackie Stewart called it “the Green Hell” because it cut through a forest.
This was at a time when, on average, one Formula One driver was dying during a race each year.
On the second lap of the race, Lauda lost control. His Ferrari swerved off the track, hit an embankment and burst into flames. Two other cars smashed into it. Lauda suffered extensive burns that cost him most of his right ear, a lot of his hair, his eyebrows and eyelids.
The worst injury was the damage to his lungs because he had inhaled toxic fumes before being dragged free of the car by other drivers. “It was something like 800 degrees,” he said many years later. At the hospital he fell into a coma.
“I was at one stage so bad that I knew that I was going to die now,” he said. “I was seeing myself falling backward into a black hole … I’m dying. What can I do? Let’s listen to the doctor. Let’s stay awake. Don’t fall unconscious. Keep your brain working. This, I think, was essential to staying alive. At least, that’s what the doctor said in the end.”
A Catholic priest arrived but didn’t try to talk to him, Lauda said. “He put a cross on my shoulder and left.” Lauda said he was so miffed that he “put more effort not to die.”
Going into the last race of the season, he trailed by just three points but was forced to withdraw in Japan because he couldn’t see the track. It was raining, and his eyes kept tearing because of damage to the ducts from the accident.
Mario Andretti said the other drivers were shocked he had come back at all. “We had nothing but admiration for him,” he said. “A lot of us were pulling for him.”
Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald
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