James Simon Wallis Hunt was a British racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in 1976. After retiring from racing in 1979, Hunt became a media commentator and businessman.
Beginning his racing career in touring car racing, Hunt progressed into Formula Three, where he attracted the attention of the Hesketh Racing team and soon came under their wing. Hunt’s often reckless and action-packed exploits on track earned him the nickname “Hunt the Shunt” (shunt, as a British motor-racing term, means “crash”).
In his first year with McLaren, Hunt won the 1976 World Drivers’ Championship, and he remained with the team for a further two years, although with less success, before moving to the Wolf team in early 1979. Following a string of races in which he failed to finish, Hunt retired from driving halfway through the 1979 season.
James Hunt’s Wife: Was James Hunt Married?
Hunt met his first wife, Suzy Miller, in 1974 in Spain. A few weeks after their initial meeting, he proposed. The couple married on 18 October 1974 at the Brompton Oratory in Knightsbridge. By the end of 1975, Suzy had left Hunt for the actor Richard Burton.
In 1982, Hunt moved to Wimbledon. In September of that year, he met his second wife, Sarah Lomax, while she was on a holiday in Spain with friends. Hunt started dating Lomax when she arrived back in Britain, and they dated throughout the winter.
Hunt and Lomax were married on 17 December 1983 in Marlborough, Wiltshire. The marriage resulted in two children, Tom and Freddie, the latter of whom is also a racing driver.
They were divorced in November 1989 on the grounds of adultery committed by Hunt. Hunt met Helen Dyson in the winter of 1989 in a restaurant in Wimbledon, where she worked as a waitress.
The relationship brought new happiness to Hunt’s life, among other factors which included his clean health, his bicycle, his casual approach to dress, his two sons and his Austin A35 van. The day before he died, Hunt proposed to Dyson via telephone.