Forty years ago this morning, James Hunt kept us out of our beds. Given events throughout the previous eight months, it was impossible to resist the temptation to witness how the season would end on the far side of the world. It was the start of an early-morning ritual that would accompany the climax of future world championships.
It could hardly have been otherwise in 1976 when you think Hunt had two of his victories taken away (one eventually reinstated) and been forced to start from the back of the grid at Monza for alleged (but never proven) fuel irregularities. But all of that had faded into bureaucratic insignificance compared to his challenger, Niki Lauda, virtually coming back from the dead six weeks after being given the last rites following a fiery crash on the fiercesome Nürburgring Nordschleife.
With his British Grand Prix victory wiped out three months later and Lauda gaining another three points with elevation to P1, Hunt's back had been against the wall. Ferrari may have won the courtroom battle but, in the process, they had made Hunt a very angry man. Big mistake. That was when he was at his most determined and dangerous.
Hunt's victories in the next two races in Canada and the United States were the product of sheer bloody-minded determination to wring the neck of his McLaren and stick up two fingers at the sport's administrators. That placed James just three points behind Niki with one race remaining.
Cometh the hour and ears were pressed against radio sets. At the end of a season that had seen one controversy after another, the drama continued as Lauda pulled out of the race after a lap and Hunt, apparently heading for the title, was nearly taken out by a spinning car. Then he suffered a puncture. We're talking 1976, not 2016 and pit stops completed in the blink of an eye. Hunt was stationary for 27 seconds. It seemed like 27 minutes to the listening audience as the championship appeared to slip away once more.
Then came the comeback on fresh tyres and an eventual third place that would be enough to give Hunt the title by one point. As the celebrations began in Japan, British fans fell into bed as happy and exhausted as the new World Champion.