58 replies to this topic

[Geoff Smedley]

Disregard the last paragraph but when you pass four-score in years there is always too many days to remember....Smed.

[Ray Bell]

That takes things to a whole new level Geoff...

I just tried ringing 649-9991 but you didn't answer!

[GeoffR]

So I'm probably just a tad older than a lot who have posted here, but not as old as others.
As far as motorsport goes I guess it has always had a part in my life ever since I got my licence, with varying levels of participation and spectating. I can recall a 1969 Calder meeting where Norm Beechey's blue Monaro stands out in my mind, unfortunately my colour slides have long since disappeared.
Drag racing was my first competitive participation due mainly to location, there weren't many race circuits in far NW Victoria in the late '60s. After relocating to Melbourne in the early '70s Sandown and Calder were always on the agenda, again the numerous slides taken there are also MIA.
Then there was rallying, a marvellous sport I discovered that wasn't overly expensive and gave you good 'mileage' for your $$. I managed to carve out a reasonably successful career as a navigator (as distinct from co-driver) and even managed a gig in a works GT4 when TTA was initially formed, and still competing and organising events nearly 40 years after I first started.
Back then we all knew of Sir Jack's 3 world championships but there wasn't the awareness of F1 that there is today. To me the turning point was AJ's 1980 world championship after which we started to get telecasts of F1, and the DVD recorder became a godsend as it meant the end of very late nights or early mornings to watch GPs.
As far as eras go, the '70s and '80s are my favourites, F1 with a variety of car & engine layouts, rallying at i.m.o. its peak (Group B!). and locally F5000, touring cars (more than 2 makes) and sports sedans.

[nicanary]

Now that's what I call REAL nostalgia. Just what this forum is all about. I agree whole-heartedly about how things have changed, especially the reference to the Hollywood histrionics of even minor race series. We now have club meetings in the UK where the participants jointly fund the filming of the day's events so that they can be televised - what's wrong with just having a day out and a bit of fun?

Having said that, the young fans of today must be encouraged, or the sport will die out. It's just so sad that what they think is normal is anathema to some of us.(I'm a bit of a mischief-maker, and went on one forum to suggest that Pastor Maldonado's win in Spain was "arranged" by Bernie, to maintain interest and create a talking-point. It fell on stony ground - they're all so serious about it!)

All the "Hollywood" is necessary to placate the needs of the multi-national sponsors which are now required to fund the sport. They want a return on their investment, fair do's.It'll never be the same again, and as we old codgers die out, the young'uns will simply remember the racing of THEIR youth. For me it all went wrong in '68 with the Team Lotus/Gold Leaf business - I was only 17 but I just felt that something was wrong, and things would never be the same again.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by nicanary
.....We now have club meetings in the UK where the participants jointly fund the filming of the day's events so that they can be televised - what's wrong with just having a day out and a bit of fun?

We have some racing like that here, too...

The organisers of the series includes in their entry fees an amount to pay the cinematographers, this gets them footage that the pay TV networks will run.

So the guys go home from the race meeting and a fortnight later watch themselves on TV. So do their families and friends... and their sponsors, if any. But the main aim is to help them get sponsorship of some kind.

[NPP]

Grand Prix racing was an exciting sport that was carried out in lands far away when I first became aware of the great cars in combat pre. WW2. ...

wonderful memories there, Geoff!

I'm 43 and, though briefly interested in motorsports in my early teens, from then on it was all about music and my studies. I didn't become a serious motorsports enthusiast until around 2000 when I discovered the Grand Prix Legends simulation, became interested in 60s F1, and found TNF which I have visited nearly every day ever since (at first purely as a lurker, without registering). I quickly found that past racing was much more satisfying to watch than the F1 of the (to me) dire Schumacher-and-traction-control era, and I even managed to persuade my wife to come along to the Oldtimer GP at the Ring (she actually enjoyed it). I was positively thrilled when I saw the cars going around Albert Park in the year traction control was banned, and am much more entertained by current F1 than a few years ago, even though I know that some of the spectacle is the result of workarounds such as DRS and quickly degrading tyres. But I continue to discover great things about the past through TNF, on Youtube etc. Long may it continue!

Edited by NPP, 17 May 2012 - 20:07.

[pete53]

This thread ( and a very welcome one) started with considering the assertion that today's young F1 fans don't have an interest or knowledge of the history of the sport. That got me to thinking about whether some of us older ones, when we first got the bug, were that interested and knowledgeable about the history of F1, or other areas of the sport. I can only speak for myself, but, to begin with, I think I was more taken up with the here and now ( the here and now then being the early to mid 60s). It was only later that I started to develop a curiosity about racing pre 1960s. As I read more about the sport and its past, and, indeed, saw the odd race for historic cars, I began to learn about, and appreciate, what went before.

Gradually the likes of Hawthorne, Brooks, Collins, Fangio, Ascari, Moss etc, and the cars they raced, began to take on a significance that wasn't prominent when I first passed through the gates of Crystal Palace in 1963, at the age of 9, and saw some of the, then, stars of the day, e.g. Hill and Clark.

I suppose what I am saying is that we shouldn't be too quick to condemn younger F1 fans and an apparent ignorance of the sport's history. In time some, if not all, young fans will start to delve into the sport's past - rather in the same way that when we first get into music it will usually be what is contemporary that grabs us, but, in time, we may discover a vast and wonderful back catalogue of music.

Anyway, and I seem to recall this being discussed on another thread, how many of today's F1 stars have any knowledge and appreciation of the history of their sport?

[Geoff Smedley]

That takes things to a whole new level Geoff...

I just tried ringing 649-9991 but you didn't answer!

Cripe's Ray!, Just realised the phone number that was 47 years ago no wonder I didn't answer, Update your records old lad!!

[ryan86]

This thread ( and a very welcome one) started with considering the assertion that today's young F1 fans don't have an interest or knowledge of the history of the sport. That got me to thinking about whether some of us older ones, when we first got the bug, were that interested and knowledgeable about the history of F1, or other areas of the sport. I can only speak for myself, but, to begin with, I think I was more taken up with the here and now ( the here and now then being the early to mid 60s). It was only later that I started to develop a curiosity about racing pre 1960s. As I read more about the sport and its past, and, indeed, saw the odd race for historic cars, I began to learn about, and appreciate, what went before.

Gradually the likes of Hawthorne, Brooks, Collins, Fangio, Ascari, Moss etc, and the cars they raced, began to take on a significance that wasn't prominent when I first passed through the gates of Crystal Palace in 1963, at the age of 9, and saw some of the, then, stars of the day, e.g. Hill and Clark.

I suppose what I am saying is that we shouldn't be too quick to condemn younger F1 fans and an apparent ignorance of the sport's history. In time some, if not all, young fans will start to delve into the sport's past - rather in the same way that when we first get into music it will usually be what is contemporary that grabs us, but, in time, we may discover a vast and wonderful back catalogue of music.

Anyway, and I seem to recall this being discussed on another thread, how many of today's F1 stars have any knowledge and appreciation of the history of their sport?

It may have possibly always been there, but now the interent allows you to hear about them, but I do feel looking around the internet that fans are becoming a lot more tribal, just like football and go to apparently extreme lengths to come up with reasons (excuses) why something happened and also what I feel is going into this penalty culture, where everyone has to be at fault for something and penalised or sacked on Monday morning. There was a funny post I read in the run-up to this weekend where they were debating Schumacher v Rosberg at Monaco 2010-11 in which someone wrote this essay trying to explain why one was better than the other to which someone quite succinctly replied "so you're saying that if X was faster he wouldn't have been slower". I think in quite a few people out there, they are more fans of one team/driver and would rather the sport was harmed if it was advantageous to their favourite. Not all of course.