Andretti gave the home crowd a charge when he was fastest on Friday in the British-designed, California-built Vel's Parnelli Jones car, just two weeks after its Canadian debut.

Finally, Mario took his place on the grid, but when starter Tex Hopkins dropped the green flag, the Parnelli car sat still, and the field had to scramble to avoid him.

Lauda, in fourth and just ahead of Scheckter and Fittipaldi, began to do his part in the Championship battle by holding them up for his teammate, the struggling Regazzoni, whose front end was heaving and wallowing with a defective damper.

On lap 10, the Surtees of Austrian Helmut Koinigg, in just his second Grand Prix, went off in the hairpin turn 7 where Regazzoni, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Andretti had crashed in practice.

Koinigg's car suffered a suspension failure pitching it head-on into the Armco barrier, as in François Cevert's fatal crash at The Glen one year earlier.

The car passed underneath the top portion, which remained intact, leaving the young driver with no chance as it decapitated Koinigg, killing him instantly.

Insistent on fighting to the end, Scheckter continued to hold fourth, ahead of Fittipaldi, throwing the Tyrrell around in opposite lock slides, as the McLaren clung to his gearbox.

The red and white uniforms of the McLaren crew mobbed the circuit to honor their World Champion, the Brabham team celebrated their victors, and the crowd – especially the Brazilians among them – poured over the fences and jammed the pit area.

The win was the 78th for the Cosworth Ford engine in Formula One, but for the second year in a row at the Glen, it was tragically flawed by the death of a promising young driver.