Racing in Watkins' Glen was giving terrible feelings to Niki Lauda, and it was for two reasons: one, in the previous race in the US he was crippled because of an incident at his tenure in the countryside on the Austrian Alps, and lost the race to Ferrari teammate Clay Regazzoni, losing three points which at the end of the season might reveal to be decisive. But, most importantly, he now was very badly crippled by his almost-fatal accident in Germany, just two months prior, when his up to that point trusted Ferrari 312T2 caught fire in a collision, leaving him badly burnt and fighting for his life up to his return to racing in Monza, just one month after almost having met a premature demise, and rain was pouring down, exactly as it was doing that fateful day.
"Der Schmerz… Ach, der Schmerz… Was muss ich ertrage, nur der Pflichte willen wegen?" ("The pain… Ouch, the pain… What must I endure, just for the sake of duty?"), he muttered to himself as he put on the helmet, every millimeter it glided on its head mingling his skin and flesh, still burnt by the accident.
He was having a tough rival for the title in James Hunt, which in his McLaren M23 was a force to be reckoned with; now the new M26 could have given him the ultimate edge, but the feeling with the older car was by now so perfect, he preferred not to risk dealing with an unripe design: for the moment by, he still was able going toe-to-toe with Lauda. But the two were actually competing for different reasons: Hunt had to demonstrate to the world he actually had the skills to match his talent and larger-than-life personality, while Niki Lauda was already a World Champion, the defending one to be precise, and instead the bar for him was now raised: he had to demonstrate he could beat out his own injuries and fears, both the wounds to his body and those to his mind, and actually getting past the boundary between being just a World Champion and one of the truly Greatests of All Times.