Here is Nelson Piquet having a bit of a light moment in downtown Long Beach during the United States Grand Prix West on March 30, 1980 with his Brabham BT49. This race was an opportunity for the normally-aspirated Ford-Cosworth-powered Brabhams to make up ground on the turbo Renault RE20 with which René Arnoux had won the previous two races in Brazil and South Africa.
In practice Piquet was ahead of the field by as near as may be to a full second ahead of Arnoux’s Renault and Patrick Depailler’s Alfa Romeo 179.
Once the race started Piquet was all by himself in the lead, extending it over the field lap by lap to win by 49 seconds from Riccardo Patrese’s Arrows. Fourteen of the 24 starters retired, including a terrible crash at th end of the straight which seriously injured Clay Regazzoni, ending his racing career.
Photo by Nigel Snowdon © The Klemantaski Collection – http://www.klemcoll.com
To see more photos from our archive please go to: http://www.klemcoll.com/TheGallery.aspx
Klemantaski Collection 