In some appalling weather conditions in Japan, Niki Lauda drops from the race giving Hunt the chance he deserves. He wins the championship for McLaren.

I helped my boss Teddy Mayer to the helicopter. He liked to fly off in a helicopter because it made him feel good, to appear important. I helped him with his bags and he said: ‘I know what you’re like but you are not to take that car to Japan.’ I had already organised a truck to come from New York to pick it up and booked a flight on Monday night, which was the only freighter that could take it with doors big enough. So I said: ‘Yeah, yeah, alright Teddy off you go.’ I didn’t stop organising the car to be air lifted and freighted to Japan. I left for Japan with James and two mechanics. This was a very good move because, although the testing wasn’t important, we needed to be fully acclimatized.

We were there for two weeks and in that time James had settled into a pattern. He was going to the gym and playing squash and beating the best that Japan could come up with. Our hotel was the stop-over for British Airways and AirFrance so a new group of girls came in every day. James would pop over to them at breakfast and say: ‘Hello I’m James Hunt,’ and they’d say: ‘Yeah we know who you are!’ So he was very happy.

We didn’t finish first, we finished third in the incredibly trying race that's part of history. It was an amazing weekend with the awful weather, the organisers were not going to run the race and Bernie Ecclestone was trying to get it held. I was trying to get the race held and my driver was trying to cancel it because he was on the safety committee of the Grand Prix association and the race track was deep with water. Bernie and I persevered and eventually prevailed and they ran the race at 4 o’clock in the afternoon when it was almost dark. Off they went in the gloom. James did very poorly but he finished third, which was what he had to do.

Fortunately for us Niki was too worried by the weather conditions and he and Fittipaldi, who was also a very sensible driver, pulled in the pits after the first lap and said it was too dangerous. This was good for James because he was in the front row and didn't have to contend with the spray from the cars in front. So we won the world championship in ’76.

• 1943 Alastair's early years
• 1955 Licence to drive
• 1957 Alastair's High School years
• 1959 Evading the police
• 1960 Becoming a mechanic
• 1966 The Tasman series
• 1966 Leaving New Zealand
• 1967 Joining McLaren
• 1967 CanAm Door Catches
• 1967 Monza
• 1968 South Africa
• 1968 CanAm
• 1969 Driving the Formula 1 Cars
• 1973 Fittipaldi joins McLaren
• 1973 McLaren Team manager
• 1974 Montezemolo
• 1975 Hunt replaces Fittipaldi
• 1975 Hunt gets paid little
• 1976 Inventing the Air-Starter
• 1976 Six-speed Gear Boxes
• 1976 Misbehaving in Canada
• 1976 Japan
• 1977 Adidas Uniforms
• 1977 Changing Tyres
• 1977 Leaving McLaren
• 1979 Nelson Piquet
• 1980 Skirts on Formula 1 Cars
• 1981 Leaving Formula 1
• 1982 Making Lists
• 1982 Signing on
• 1982 Creating Space Station
• 1991 Highland Fling
• 1991 Classic Marathon
• 1992 Getting the Austin A35
• 1992 El Salvador
• 1993 Carerra Panamerica
• 1993 Centre of attention
• 1993 Nicest car in rally
• 1993 LeJog
• 2000 London to Sydney
• 2000 Porsche Racing
• 2000 Porsche Crashing
• 2001 Ferrari
• 2001 Inca Trail
• 2004 Berlin - Moscow - Berlin
• 2005 World Cup Rally
• 2007 Norway
• 2008 Liège-Brescia-Liège
• 2008 An Icelandic Odyssey
• 2008 North & West Africa
• 2009 West Coast America
• 2009 London to Casablanca
• 2010 New Zealand Festival of motor racing
• 2010 New Zealand Big Sky Adventure