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What’s in a …?

Pete Lyons
Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1972 world championship in a Lotus 72-Ford Cosworth DFV that the primary sponsor insisted on calling a John Player Special. Between themselves, Emmo and Colin Chapman (left, seen at Interlagos, Brazil, in 1973) called it a Lotus. Photo: Pete Lyons / www.petelyons.com

Emerson Fittipaldi has an impish sense of humor and, one day at Brands Hatch, he unloaded it on my poor pal Mike Doodson, live before a throng of thousands.

Nominally, “The Dood” was a journalist like me, and remains so today, but for a few seasons in the ’70s, he crossed over to the dark side, raking in pounds upon pounds of “pounds” in public relations.

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