279 replies to this topic

[cjpani]

I dunno if this thread has already seen light in TNF, if it has, let´s bring it back (it´s off season ;) )if it hasn´t it might turn awfully fun!!!

My most memorable motorsports memory dates back to the first (of the new era) Mexican Grand Prix, at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, in Mexico City.

The circuit is located relatively near to one of Mexico City´s major vehicle arterys (freeway) called Circuito Interior, which coincidentally was the route we took to get there.

My father, my two young brothers and my teenager self, drove down Circuito Interior for about 20 minutes before aproaching the premises of the sports park that borders the circuit on friday morning for the practice.

I swear I can still hear those engines in my mind right now... and we haven´t entered the parking lot yet!!!!!!!

As we parked the car (a Cutlass Eurosport) the four of us started walking to the gate that gives access to the grandstands and the sound just kept getting louder, and louder... we weren´t even near the track... I just couldn´t imagine what that adrenalinic sound would do to my ears once we were in our seats!!!!

Just as we reached our seats, practice was over and had to wait a couple of hours till the F1´s drove down the main straight catapulted at the exit of the infamous "peraltada".

So, after watching a turbine-powered trailer, a cray girl in a motorcicle doing 2 minute wheelies and all kinds of "boring" stuff the main machines came out:
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

Nowdays, my dad, my brothers and myself (mum doesn´t like motorports: too loud and dangerous... lol!) remember those days and agree on the best sounding car: the USF&G-sponsored, ugly-colored Arrows...;)

If only Bernie could bring back those days....

What´s yours????

Best regards,
cjpani

[moody]

..okay then, I was in the grandstand on the outside of Woodcote Corner at Silverstone, during practice for the 1971 Grand Prix, I was of course loving watching my heroes belting round this brilliant last bend on the circuit. Then a red car appeared coming into the corner, it started to slide from the rear and I swear to you I was ready to run for it, honestly, but the driver kind of caught the slide but accelerated through it all, it's hard to describe but he had lost this car a split second before it was on it way into my seat, fantastic car control, it made me realise just how brilliant some of these heroes really were....yhe driver was Ronnie and the car was that funny looking March he always seemed to be chasing Stewart with. I also remember Jim Clark smiling as he rounded Lodge Corner on his way to winning the 62 Gold Cup at Oulton Park and Jochen Rindt bursting a tire as he crossed the finish line at Monza in 66...can't wait to hear more from other fans.

[David M. Kane]

Mine also was that funny red car driven by Peterson. This time at Watkins Glen in the rain. On the backside of the course there is a downhill section. The corner is a reasonable hard left hander. I consider it the best viewing
section for the entire course.

Anyway, "Mad Ronald" comes roaring through there in a fairly
heavy drizzle go cart style in the rain and actually gets
smoke off the rear right tire. I look at the stranger next
to me in disbelieve, he does the same, we both blink and
say "you have got to be kidding me!"

Mario Andretti says that Ronnie Peterson had the best balance of anyone he'd ever been around. Maybe that explains
his truly amazing car control.

[Keir]

Seeing the "famous Amon stories" thread go over 1000 posts!

[Barry Boor]

Easy one for me.

Standing by the side of the A.5 road, somewhere in the Midlands with a small portable radio to my ear and hearing that Dan Gurney had finally won a Grand Prix in the Eagle.

(I was standing by my car because my radio wouldn't work inside it.)

[Boniver]

8 jun 1975

17h30 radio news

" GP of Sweden" .........and 6. Graham Hill with Lola

Yes, Yes after to years Embassy Racing, he was 45 years...


1 december 75 the same radio news give the bad news of Hill

[jk]

Iv'e only been to race 3 times, so maybe i shouldn't post this. Anyway, Le Mans this year was fantastic for me. We drove with a bus full of other danes, and everyone went full of ecxitement as our danish hero Tom Kristensen took the led. The fealing of standing at the bus ½ km from the very light up track, listening to the radio what's going on right now, and then hear the wonderfull sound... it was just surreal.

[C F Eick]

Well, I wish it could be that I witnessed the 1957 German GP. Unfortunately that's not the case being born in 1974...

Therefore, my most memorable motorsports memory has to be the first time I read Christopher Hilton's story about the 1957 German GP a couple of years ago. Wow, I must have cried for 10 minutes afterwards and then decided: Fangio is the one for me! Although feeling strongly for Nuvolari, Lang, Moss, Peterson and Prost I then decided that Fangio is the driver I admire most of all. What a drive! And Rouen in the same year is naturally sort of icing on the cake...

/Christian

[Jaxs]

Memorable for all the wrong reasons. Brands Hatch,a Sunday afternoon, the race meeting was just ending and everyone was in the usual goods spirits, the normal horn tooting and hooting as the cars were leaving, drivers and passengers shouting instructions to move quicker, groups in cars shouting for their favourite driver or team, all the cars on South bank were doing the usual of flashing lights and sounding of horns, A whisper started up and a silence , literally, crept across the complete circuit, the horns stopped, the engins reving stopped, the lights were switched off, "turn your radio on, get the news".voices that had been raised became no more than quiet murmers, "Clark has been killed in a race in Germany" The shockwave ran across Brands Hatch and the silence was strange. It is a moment I will never forget, the crowd made no more noise after that and the traffic lost all it's rush and hassle, Cars that had moments ago been full of boisterous fun became still and silent as everyone tuned in to hear the latest news. The unbelievable had happened.

Jack

[dbw]

well it's a motorsports memory that involves me on track at the monterey historics around 1996...i think it was lotus year and as lotus was somehow involved with the italian bugatti group,we thought an all gp bug race was an idea whose time had come... 17 cars on the grid; t37's ,t35's ,t35 a-c-b's, and a lone t54 5 liter in the capable hands of a certain p. hill.....as it was i was driving my t37,1500 cc,4 cyl.unsupercharged-single carb,running on the narrowest beaded edge tyres in all christendom. mr hill, on the other hand, was at the wheel of a 5 liter supercharged t54 on giant low pressure dunlop five studs....the race itself is a bit of a blur,for me mostly dodging faster cars while trying to keep the line...the indelible memory happened mid race...i was entering turn 4,a flat sweeping right hander.with a good launch out of 3 one can be perking right along under the bridge in the left hand groove....as i made the drift over towards the apex,all assholes and elbows,i sensed a rapidly approaching object at my rear.as i was just approaching the apex,master hill took the ideal line with just over a 50 mph speed differential....as he cut the apex PERFECTLY he casually raised his left arm in a salute, still maintaining a perfect 4 wheel drift with the right hand.both my hands were frozen to the wheel,going as fast as i ****ing possibly could.after the pass,he vanished into a dot and disappeared in the next left hander....this, i suppose, is why we have a select few world champions and a sea of duff pluggers as myself.to complete the experience,after the race[he won,going away] he approached me in the pits an commented on how well i was conducting the car in spite of the tires!a true gentleman...these moments are to truly be treasured.

[Mike Argetsinger]

For me it is the inaugural Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 - the first post-war road race in the United States. On the cool-off lap my father - Cameron Argetsinger(who had originated and organized the race, as well as competing in it!) - stopped on the circuit at Big Bend where his family was watching. I was lifted in to the car - he raced a red MG-TC that first year - along with my older brother and sister. We rode with him in to the village to join the post-race excitement. I have had many wonderful experiences in motor racing in the years since but I don't think anything touches that moment.

[Keir]

Any USGP at the beloved Glen.

[Ray Bell]

One might wonder, after reading Mike's thoughts, that for twelve-year-old Alan Jones it might have been sitting up on the tail of dad's 250F after he won the Grand Prix at Longford... after so many years of trying.
For me, though, maybe it was watching the same race at the same circuit six years later, hearing the announcement that Rocky Tresise and Robin D'Abrera had died in a crash at the end of the first lap, and then watching a race that cannot be beaten unfold...
Or maybe that moment at Warwick Farm when Matich and Amon went each side of poor Peter Caldwell in the Tojiero as they diced for the lead of the Sports Car race?
Niel Allen laying two black stripes through the kink in the straight at Catalina as he struggled to stay with Matich...
Kevin Bartlett and his 100mph Bathurst lap...
Piers Courage battling gear ratios and flicking the Brabham DFV from side to side at the Farm...
Alan Jones clipping a second and more from Piquet's lead in one lap at Monaco... followed by Piquet hitting the rev-limiter and the barriers a lap later...

So many, one will never know, really.

[Falcadore]

The helicopter shot of cars numbered 1-2, the Moffat Ford Dealer Falcons side by side down Conrod Straight on the last lap of the 1977 Bathurst 1000, it remains my oldest memory.

The enthralling dice between Brad Jones, Greg Murphy & Paul Morris at Lakeside in 1995 ASTC round, three abreast through the kink with Karrussel fast approaching is just not on! Bradley 45 degrees sideways right in front of me in the Audi but holding the car and retaking the lead.

Bathurst 1997 and seeing the white rocks spelling Mount Panorama away on the hill as the haze of pain disappearing in the knowledge that this at last was the Bathurst 1000.

Walking around on the amongst all the colour and excitement of the final moments on the grid before the start of the 1999 FAI Bathurst 1000 and being able to wish Dick Johnson all the best in what we thought at the time was his last race.

Innumerable moments of capturing something on film, usually a race doing racecar type thing, but not always.

The sound of Formula One engines exploding into life at Albert Park 2000, five years is a long time between races, so glorious to hear the sound again.

I could go on. I am going on.

When Phil Branagan rang me and asked me if I could write for Motorsport News.

First seeing VESRIX website appear, and the reaction to it since.

ramble ramble ramble.......

[Darren Galpin]

At my first GP - seeing Mansell overtake Piquet at Stowe corner while sat on the Hangar Straight. Never seen anything to match that while present at a GP. Mind you, I haven't been to that many (Belgium '91, Brazil '98, Britain '99). You see far more memorable moments at a club race though.....

[Don Capps]

I have many, but I will only cite a few:

1. Seeing Phil Hill win the 1960 Italian GP. For an American kid, that was pretty special.

2. Being at the first USGP run at Watkins Glen in 1961.

3. Cale Yarborough winning the 1968 Southern 500 at Darlington.

4. Alan Kulwicki winning the 1992 Winston Cup Championship at Atlanta. This is perhaps one of the best moments I have of racing as it should be -- underdog wins....

5. Reading the Sunday morning UPI wire reports and realizing that Dan Gurney and the Eagle had won the 1967 Belgian GP!

6. Ford winning Le Mans in 1966 and in 1967.

7. Worst moments: being at Le Mans 1955 & Spa in 1960; and reading the UPI wire reports and seeing the sports flash that Clark had been killed at Hockenheim.

8. Best personal moments: being asked to do RVM; getting an interview with Phil Hill while I was in high school; meeting Alberto Ascari at Torino; being around folks like Henry N. Manney III & Denis Jenkinson and being able to watch them in action; and, sitting on the front tire of one of Stirling Moss' cars on the grid before the race and chatting away with him as if it were something I did every day!

[Jaxs]

Don, I thought the 67 Le Mans win was spoilt by the political decision to have the two Mk ll's coming in together. The hi-light was watching Dan Gurney virtually brushing the wall opposite the pits at 150+ MPH. The American fans shouting encouragement in the early hours of the morning whenever a Ford came into the pits.

Jack

[Ray Bell]

Don... I would suppose that you, like me, would also count that time we heard the blue car had beaten the red car at Brands Hatch?

[Barry Boor]

Ssssh! If you mean what I think you mean, you'll upset Keir!

[Ray Bell]

...and the anticipation of reading the report in Road & Track!
Which was no letdown either, with reference to a 'prophet without honour in his own country...'

[Ross Stonefeld]

Hmm

My first and only professionally attended race, 1985 CART race in Phoenix. I was a huge Knight Rider fan as a kid and my dad had pit passes and told me David Hasselhoff had some sort of involvement in Indycar racing then (anyone have more information?)

First time I drove a race car, at Road America August 19th 1997, one day before my 17th birthday.

Traveling down one of the narrowest roads ive ever been on, with the assurance mighty silverstone was at the other end.

Gerhard Berger winning the 97 German Grand Prix, unreal

[Yves]

I havnt been at too much races myself but I remember of a race I was at Sneterton in the sixteens : Jim Clark was engaged in the tourism serie with white Cortina Lotus with the green line and if I remember well was leading before a udge Galaxy driven by the english championship leader overtake him. I don't know what I prefer, Clark able to keep the tail of the Galaxy or the 2 Mini Cooper at the rear that were able to stay in the same lap !

I also always have a very old image in mind of Jimmy Clark at the Nürbürgring 1000kms with a "miniature" car, the Lotus 23 (is that the right number ? I think so) leading all the big red cars from Maranello with a 160 HP powered car. And on this picture, Clark was smiling

Y.

[Ray Bell]

Yes Yves (careful with the spelling there!), Clark was in the Lotus 23, but I don't think it had that many horsepower.. it was a very early version of the twincam, and I think it was only 1100cc.
As for Snetterton, it may not have been an Englishman in the Galaxie, but if it was then Jack Sears, I think, and Gawain Baillie drove them, but also the Australian Brian Muir contested those races.

[Yves]

Hello Ray,

It's just out of my memory and don't keep anything out of this period so ...
I remember that the guy at the wheel of the Galaxy had converted from the Jaguar MkII that dominated the european tourist scene before the bigger american cubes come from the US, first the Falcon's mainly in Rallye and after that the 7 liters Galaxies preceding the Mustang.
But the names you mention sounds familiar to me ;)
Need to get back to my Sport-Auto collection if they report the race !

Y.

PS : Hey, I feel better, it was so amazing to be junior at my age ;)

[Ray Bell]

That would probably be Jack Sears, but there are some Brits (I would normally put 'poms' but a Frenchman would never understand!) around here who can verify that one. I don't thing Baillie raced a Jag, but there were many who did and then went into the big American stuff.
One was Mike Salmon, I'm sure, who ran a Mustang. In fact, I just found a 1966 Snetterton meeting where Jim Clark got away in front in the Cortina and Muir in the Galaxie had to pass Salmon before chasing Clark... is this the race?

[Yves]

Yes Ray, it really looks like to be this one, the year match very well with my agenda ;-)
The main course of the meeting (in spring) was a FII 1000cc with all the big names of that time. I had a pass to walk through the pits and chatted with the only two french drivers engaged on the Ford France team, Jo Schlesser and Guy Ligier.
I think it was the first year in FII for Jackie Stewart who did a very good start on a Cooper, also Sir Jack (he won ? think so) on a Brabham Honda, Jim and Graham on the Lotus (Graham ? I think ...) but they were not at the lead.
Old souvenirs ...

Y.

[Ray Bell]

Hard to tell if it is the right one, but the players were all there in those cars at that time.... JYS was actually a fully-fledged F1 driver by then, by the way, no mention of G Hill anywhere.
That formula went on into the next year, but I think the Galaxies were dead by then. I know Muir's was, and Mustangs ruled the roost.
The mention of Ford France and racing cars brings to mind the movie Un Homme et Une Femme, which came out about that time and used their cars at Montlhery. I guess you saw this too?

[Yves]

Yes, with also a GT40 !
The main actor in this film was Jean Louis Trintignant, I think he is the nephew of Maurice alias "Petoulet"

Y.

[Yves]

Wouah, I didn't know that Jim Clark himself has spoken on the race I was in 1963 :

From Graham Gauld, "Jim Clark at the Wheel" (Clarksport 1964) :

"I again drove a saloon car, this time a racing Lotus Cortina at Snetterton towards the end of the 1963 season and this proved to be a real laugh. I kept finding the inside front wheel lifting of the ground. This set me thinking, so I started going closer and closer to the semi-circular rubber tyres which mark the inside of one of the bends. Eventually I found that I could tricycle the corner with the front wheel well over the tyres on the inside.

I had the chance of driving Alan Brown's Ford Galaxie. This was an opportunity to drive a different car and I was intrigued with the prospect. I agreed and found in practice that driving a Galaxie can be fun."

In fact, it was around Oster in April or so !

Y.

[ZippyD]

Watkins Glen around 73-74.
A very young Jody Schecter in the 3rd McLaren trying to pass the "old man", Graham Hill in the Embassy Hill at the end of the Start/Finish straight into the right hand 90. Jody kept trying to get Graham on the outside. Graham would let him go around and as Jody would dive for the late apex the wily old vet Graham would repass him with ease. I think Jody learned a thing or two that day.

[Ross Stonefeld]

I have a letter on my desk from Jack Sears' son telling me to **** off and stop asking him to manage me

[Jaxs]

Jimmy Clark at Brands in a Lotus Cortina taking the short cut thro the pits because of a loose battery. At the Palace, nudging the blue Galaxy of Hutchinson ( who drove the car throught the streets of South london to get to Crystal Palace, the plugs oiled up when he got caught behind a milk float,) in trying to get past in practice. Clark walking away from the Lotus can am beast ( 40?) after stuffing it into the banking backwards and .. giving a wave to the crowd as he walked away.

Bruce McLaren in the Xerox special at Brands, kicking every ones butt.

Bruce not changing to wet tyres and going straight on at Brands ( different year)

the big blue car in front of all the red cars in the rain, wow..

Walking across the fields to get to the Mulsanne and watch the cars on Thursday practice, Bruce put in fastest lap but the spectacle was the Chaperall with a vortex coming off of the wing in the damp conditions. absolutely flying.

Rindt and Stewart, Silverstone....

Collecting a Lotus Sunbeam from the Lotus works and thrashing one around the test track.

Ronnie Petersen, JPS, Brands, one of my best trackside photos.


Jack

[cjpani]

Originally posted by Jaxs
Collecting a Lotus Sunbeam from the Lotus works and thrashing one around the test track.

OUCH!!!

Could you tell us a bit more about this story Jaxs... Sounds very sad

Regards,
cjpani

[Ross Stonefeld]

Isnt thrashing talk for giving it some wellington?

[josh.lintz]

I suppose I'm late to the party...my favorite F1 memories (in no particular order):

• Mansell overtaking Senna (and Johannson) at Hungaroring in 1989 (from 12th on the grid to victory).
• Senna winning at Donnington in 1993 (one of the most masterful drives I'd ever seen).
• Getting my first Autocourse in the mail (February of '88).
• That ridiculous pile-up at Austria, 1987 (it was really funny how the best drivers in the world could do such a thing).
• Schumacher beating Senna on the Brazilian's home turf in 1994 (a changing of the guard).
• Waiting to see my one (and so far, only) F1 meeting at Barcelona, Spain in 1998.

Hopefully my cable TV provider will get their act together and broadcast F1 races again...there is life outside of NASCAR, but the Southern U.S. doesn't know it!

[Jaxs]

Nothing sad about at all. Lotus had developed the Sunbeam hatchback for Chrysler and it was sold to the dealers as part of a sport package. I was asked to picked one of two from the Lotus works in Norfolk. Lotus had suppled several cars for use around the test track. Some were driven by Lotus staff and if you were lucky, you got to drive one, and
Ross, you are absolutely right, lots of wellie, thing was sliding beautifully, the 150+ bhp in a small light three door hatch was excellent. the uprated suspension and balance of the whole car was very good. The Lotus Sunbeam went on to win the rally championship so they got something right.

I then drove the new one sedately back to London.

Jack.

[cjpani]

Jack, thx.
Nothing sad indeed!!!! Sounds very adrenalinic.

Regards,
cjpani

[b3nster]

-May 30, 1988 Lime Rock

I was in the paddock, and I saw Geoff Brabham. At the time I was about 8. I could think of nothing to say that would not have been an interruption, so I managed to squeak out at the last minute "Hey Geoff, how does it look for today?"
This was my first time talking to a notable race car driver, I was nervous, and I was sure it was meddlesome. But he blew my mind. He smiled, looked down at me and said

"Depends on how hot the track is...but I hope its just hot enough of course! Enjoying yourself today?"

I nodded and smiled back, sort of in awe of not only Brabham, but also the monstrous Nissan being worked on behind him. I realized he had business to attent to, so I quickly wished him luck. He smiled and told me to take care. Brabham won that day, and dominated the rest of the season, winning the GTP championship the next 3 years. It was that day talking to Brabham that I knew I would be in love with sports car racing.

[Barry Boor]

Speaking of Geoff Brabham; I stood next to him in a gentleman's toilet at Oulton Park during the 1967 Gold Cup meeting.

The thing was, at that time, HE was nearer 8 years old, not me!

[b3nster]

hehe maybe you are thinking of a different Brabham, Geoff would have been 15 then. But for all intensive purposes, he probably looked 8! And it does make for a better story.

[b3nster]

good story being full circle, and all...

[Don Capps]

Bruce McLaren in the Xerox special at Brands, kicking every ones butt.

Did he drive that before or after the Telar/Zerex Special he bought from Roger Penske?

[Jaxs]

I could put that down to a typegraphical error, but more like mis spelling on my part. The old memory and all that, but thank you Don, Zerex special..

[Barry Boor]

Mr. nster, or may I call you b3? He may well have been 15. It was rather a long time ago, and at the time I was concentrating rather hard on something else!

[cheesy poofs]

I wanted to know if you had to share your one " priceless " moment in motor racing
What would this moment be ?

[mikedeering]

It's pretty evil, but Taki Inoue being run over by a marshall's car at Hungary 1995 does it for me!

[Udo K.]

John Surtees asking me to take his lap times in unofficial practice for the German Grand Prix.

[conplan]

Chatting with Piquet and Schumacher in 1991 before the portuguese GP... and on a funnier note
Damon Hill desperately trying to find the bathroom after Saturday qualifying also at the portuguese GP (I believe I took a picture.... If you want I could try to find it...)

[bobbo]

Great thead!

Got me thinking about some great times I had in the past.

I will gladly go with Watkins Glen, 1965, Saturday morning. My dad & I were just at the top of the hill where the Esses go on to the back straight, and here comes Richie Ginther in the Honda V12 . . .

What a sound! What a memory!

Bobbo

[2F-001]

Only one?
Hmm, that's tough...