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| MYSPACE |
LUNGER, BRETT
11/14/1945, Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Starts:32
Points: 0
Wins:0
Poles:0
Fastest Laps:0
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Lunger was mostly famous for being a DuPont heir, but at times he actually showed a good turn of speed, although not in Formula 1. By the early 70’s he had graduated to Formula 5000, where he found most of his success, eventually trying his hand in Formula 2 in Europe, without success. As Hesketh racing was running out of the rotund and partygoing Lord’s money by late 1975, Lunger was able to hire one of its cars from three races, in Austria, Italy and the USA. He qualified mostly midfield, his best result being 10th in Italy. For 1976, Lunger found backing to become one of Team Surtees’ drivers, starting with South Africa. The association was not successful, as Lunger’s best race finish was again a 10th in Austria. He failed to qualify for a couple of races, and got some notoriety for helping save Niki Lauda’s life from the burning Ferrari wreck, thus reliving some of his Vietnam nightmares on the track. Brett continued to attempt consolidating a Formula 1 career in 1977, initially with a March 761 run by BS Fabrications, which by then was far from a competitive mount. He raced the car three times, with a best 10th place, then managed to buy a McLaren M23, theoretically still a competitive car (it had been world champion the year before, after all). The performance did not improve much, the season’s best result a 9th at Zandvoort. Lunger continued with the M23 in the first races of 1978, managing to qualify 13th in Rio, but was mostly uncompetitive. He changed into a newer M26 for Monaco, and finished a season and career best 7th place in Belgium. In 1978 Lunger was failing to qualify with some frequency, and although he finished two other races in 8th place (British and Austria) it was obvious that the American was out of his depth in this category. He would race one last time in Formula 1, driving an Ensign for the works team in Watkins Glen, finishing 13th, wrapping up his GP career. He continued driving sports cars for a while, with no great distinction
 | Cars driven out of formula 1: |
Formula 2: March, Chevron
Formula 5000: McRae, Lola
Sports-Cars: Porsche (908, 935), March, Datsun 240Z
Can-Am: Lola, McLaren, Caldwell
Touring cars: BMW