Posted 05 September 2006 - 20:34
With so much that happened in the 1975 race, i just noticed an incident on something like my fourth viewing of the race since Saturday night....
Now maybe it's because i've been brought up in the pedantic world of the sport in it's current guise, but i can't help but point out that on what would have been Fittipaldi's 58th circulation maybe (if not, then certainly his 57th - the race results being taken from lap 56 remember), with a red flag out at the start/finish line, & yellows with accompanying oil flags being shown almost all round the circuit, Emerson passed Alan Jones's Embassy Hill car at Abbey on his way to the startline where he would park.
Don't ask me why i find this interesting...i just do. I can only guess it's a case of the current generation of fans being conditioned to look for the tiniest little transgression such as this.
Having said that though, what a marvellous race the '75 British GP is, what an event! And there was so much that was unseen during that ESPN classic broadcast as well. I've subsequently played with all the available material that i've got here and there are several notable incidents missing....
*They showed in the coverage Ragazzoni closing on Pace for the lead on about lap 10 or so. The subseqent overtaking manoevure at the new woodcote chicane for P1 is'nt there.
*The whole pitlane show when the rain started in the first shower. Regazzoni leaving the pits after the rear wing amendment was shown, as was the Pryce incident at Becketts. What was'nt shown was Scheckter's stop for wets, and Lauda's screwed-up pitstop, when he left the pitbox, did a Mansell.....and stopped dead in the outer lane of the pitlane for ages. I read subsequently that it was due to a wheel-nut not being done up properly. Sideways Scheckter, on his wets, passed three cars (!) and went from P4 to P1 in the space of about 600 yards between chapel curve, and the entrance to Stowe.....awesome stuff. Behind him Jarier was also on wets and climbing inexorably through the field to second.
*Scheckter then pitted from the lead as it dried out, to go back onto slick tyres, giving Jarier the lead......which is where the ESPN classic show picked up the coverage again, after adverts.
It's taken me most of the day, studying through race reports and checking tapes to work out what was missed...cos it was really doing my nut, that i had'nt a clue how the hell Jarier got into the lead when ESPN came back from ads
There's only so much you can show in a 25 minute highlights package though, and i don't blame ESPN for missing key bits....there was after all, a lot to cover.
Thinking on it a little further, Britain 1975 seems to be very much like Monaco 1982..... Both of them are really cracking races, with great action, a very close covering of the lead positions, overtaking......but sadly the first 75% of both races is never remembered, due to the extraordinary events that would happen later. Seems a shame that, really.
Then Wilson Fittipaldi joined in. Meanwhile, all the other marshalls were trying to get out of the way while the poor unconscious marshall still lay in the middle of the wreck.
But thats another, highly litigiuos, thread...
