99 replies to this topic

[Pat Clarke]

Hi All,

 

I stumbled across this silent film of the first race meeting I attended, the 1950 Leinster Trophy in Wicklow, Ireland.

 

 

As I was only 5, my memories are dim, but I was certainly there and remember my dad's enthusiasm for the Allards, especially the Cadillac.

 

At the 1.00 mark you can see the area we watched from and our E93A Ford would be parked behind us.

 

Here is the entry list...  https://www.facebook...08501754&type=3

 

And here are the results...   https://www.facebook...10901814&type=3

 

I thought it might be worth posting and would stir some nostalgic memories for others here.

 

Pat

Edited by Pat Clarke, 17 February 2022 - 10:35.

[broadarrow]

Hi Pat, 

 

Great topic, my first race meeting I attended was about 1973 at Amaroo Park, I have vivid memories of standing on the spectator mound overlooking the pit corner onto the main straight.

 

P.S. If I have the correct Pat Clarke I think the last time we spoke was in Leigh Wrights shop on Paramatta Road at Auburn many years ago.

Edited by broadarrow, 17 February 2022 - 15:59.

[Ray Bell]

Mine was at Warwick Farm... where else?
 
October 14, 1962, the Hordern Trophy meeting, with quite a lot of memories held almost sixty years later. Sixty years? Is that true?
 
Back around seventeen years ago I encountered a gentleman in the course of my work. He lived at Port Macquarie and when the conversation got to motor racing he told me he had some slides for which he had no further use. Incredibly, some of them were of that first meeting I attended. But not just of the meeting I attended, but they were also taken from somewhere close to where I was spectating!
 

Matich the drawcard. It was talk of Frank Matich in his Lotus 19 that really drew me to ensure I was there. He didn't disappoint. either, proving to be quick in the 19 (setting the resident outright record at 1:39.7) and the 'works' Elfin 375, also winning the secondary Sports Car race in an Elfin Clubman.
 

The first race. Leading the Minis here is J. Watson, who would finish second to Tony Hill.


McKay's bid. Bib Stillwell was in charge of the Hordern Trophy for most of its moist distance. But in the closing laps David McKay closed up, but either misjudged or was 'brake tested' by Stillwell going into Polo and slid off into a fence, bouncing from there into a hessian toilet building. John Youl then put on a spurt and finished only a second behind Stillwell.
 
Behind Youl came Chris Amon in an older Cooper 2.5, officially, but he'd been outdriven during the event by Matich in the 1475cc Elfin, but a one-minute penalty relegated Matich.
 
Further recollections were of time in the pits after the event. Lex Davison had gone off the road and got mud into his eyes under his goggles and retired, so wags had chalked up on the back of the Tote building that 'Davo's in the pits and David's in the sh*ts!'
 
Two other star cars of the meeting were the Lotus 23, which Leo Geoghegan drove on its debut, and Kevin Bartlett in the Lynx BMC winning the Formula Junior event.
 
A great day out to be followed by a great many more.

[john aston]

There are two 'firsts' - I was only interested in planes when my racing mad cousin took the young teenage me to Snetterton in the mid Sixties . in his dad's  Fiat Millecinquecento ( I knew what it was because it was spelled out thus in gold lettering on the dashboard) . Such was the sport's reputation that my main concern was where I was supposed  to look when a driver was killed. Vague memories of an Austin A 40, Keith St John's Radio London  Elva and the smell of Castrol R . 

 

My proper introduction was in 1968 - I was now firmly hooked on a diet of Autocar and my chum's dad took us in his Rover 2000 to the Oulton Park TT . We parked at Knickerbrook and it was heaven - T70s (Hulme won in his ) , Tony Dean's lovely Dino 206S , GT 40s and Chevrons . That was about 400 race meetings ago ... 

Edited by john aston, 17 February 2022 - 07:27.

[AJCee]

A real Johnny-come-lately I’m afraid: mine was the 1978 International Trophy motor/powerboat racing at Silverstone. Memories of Piquet, Warwick, Serra, Tony Dron and then the heavens opened.

[Nick Planas]

Mine was the British GP 1966 at Brands Hatch. I was a little almost-7-year-old sproglet and remember vividly the sound of the 5?-litre sports car engines thundering underneath the bridge as we walked over to South Bank. I can remember seeing Surtees spinning in the Cooper while I went to explore a different part of the spectator area; seeing Jim Clark battling with Graham Hill for some time; they were both heroes of mine but then, so were all the drivers. It's strange how little else I can remember of the event but what I do remember is as clear as day and gave me a lifetime of passion for the sport.

 

I also remember the traditional honking of car horns at the winner - I think you could park at the top of South Bank in those days.

 

Oddly enough, despite my father's great enthusiasm for all things mechanical, and for all things motor racing, we didn't have a car and so the gargantuan effort (4+ hours) to get to Brands from South Bucks by public transport meant I was already pretty worn out by the time we got there. Inevitably I had a meltdown after the grand prix and must have been wonderful company on the buses / train / tubes home...

 

Apparently this was a certain M Brundle's first event too, and his family also stood at South Bank. 

[Stephen W]

The 1959 Oulton Park Gold Cup was my first race meeting. Previously my father had refused to take me as he said I was too young. I remember odd snippets from the meeting.

[lustigson]

1995 Belgian Grand Prix was the first motor race I attended.

 

[Sterzo]

My first meeting was the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 1956. I was aged 9 and can remember it like yesterday, even though today I can't remember the real yesterday. Salvadori in the new F2 Cooper winning the Gold Cup, Graham Hill's John Coombs yellow Lotus XI parked in the long grass during the Autosport 3 hours. Spectator marshals with paper armbands on their belted raincoats, to stop spectators wandering beyond the rope fences. Didn't fully grasp what was going on but gawped enchanted as a confusing stream of cars motored past. Still do the same these days.

 

Saw my first Grand Prix at Brands in 1966. I apologise to 7 year old Nick Planas if a tall skinny 18 year old stood in his way.

[68targa]

This is an interesting thread. Good to see all the ‘start points’.

 

For me it was Castle Combe in 1955 when I am told I saw BRM V16 in its last race although  I remember nothing at all about it sadly.  My brother remembers this and assures me that I was there.  So the first race I actually remember with any clarity was the same as Steve,1959 at Oulton Park for the Gold Cup meeting. And here’s the proof . My brother on the right is checking that Mr Brabham has signed his programme correctly which Jack finds very amusing whilst I am looking in awe at the soon to be World Champion thinking how lucky I am at having him sign mine!   Still have my programme.  First GP attended was Aintree in 1961 - the wet one but it didn't put me off.

Very pleasant and very happy days.

 

[nicanary]

1962 Archie Scott Brown meeting at Snetterton. I was 11 years old and totally beside myself. Sadly the rest of my family did not share my enthusiasm and we had to go home by majority consent after a couple of races.- I could have divorced my parents at that point. I saw the tintops - the usual Coombs and Endeavour Jags, and also the GT race with E-types and Elites and memorably Pat Fergusson's "Tatty Turner". My father was in the motor trade and had been given free tickets by a customer, although we had to walk from Foulgers yard as my dad refused to cough up for the car parking charges. Parsimonious doesn't begin to describe him.

 

I managed to find a period programme for the meeting on E-bay a few years ago, but left it in my collection which sold at auction in 2017. Must try again.

[GreenMachine]

Mine would have been at Headquarters - Warwick Farm - probably 1966 but possibly  late 1965.  It might have been a Tasman meeting, but at this distance they are all a bit of a blur, as after the first I was a regular driving the 200-plus kms with a car load of mates, hanging out on the fence at the Shell bridge near the esses,.getting burnt to a cinder by the western sun!

 

Happy days! 

[Derwent Motorsport]

As my parents were enthusiasts I went to events ever since I was born. Vague memories of an early Bo'ness hill climb and the Silverstone GP that was a wash out. After that it was two events a month with my parents and many more when I could drive and compete. Still going!

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by GreenMachine
Mine would have been at Headquarters - Warwick Farm - probably 1966 but possibly  late 1965.  It might have been a Tasman meeting, but at this distance they are all a bit of a blur, as after the first I was a regular driving the 200-plus kms with a car load of mates, hanging out on the fence at the Shell bridge near the esses,.getting burnt to a cinder by the western sun!
 
Happy days! 

My memory tells me that the Shell Bridge and that spectator area in the Esses opened some time during 1965, its first Tasman meeting would have been the 1966 meeting when Stewart and Hill were there to challenge Clark. A great spot to spectate, but I never did so from that point as I was already a flaggie by that time.

[Michael Ferner]

This is an interesting thread. Good to see all the ‘start points’.

 

For me it was Castle Combe in 1955 when I am told I saw BRM V16 in its last race although  I remember nothing at all about it sadly.  My brother remembers this and assures me that I was there.  So the first race I actually remember with any clarity was the same as Steve,1959 at Oulton Park for the Gold Cup meeting. And here’s the proof . My brother on the right is checking that Mr Brabham has signed his programme correctly which Jack finds very amusing whilst I am looking in awe at the soon to be World Champion thinking how lucky I am at having him sign mine!   Still have my programme.  First GP attended was Aintree in 1961 - the wet one but it didn't put me off.

Very pleasant and very happy days.

 

 

I see your mom went for matching clothes for the siblings, too. I myself was the shortest member of a three-organ-pipes band of brothers, so I'm well accustomed to the concept. I suppose it made it easier to keep track in a crowd.

[68targa]

I see your mom went for matching clothes for the siblings, too. I myself was the shortest member of a three-organ-pipes band of brothers, so I'm well accustomed to the concept. I suppose it made it easier to keep track in a crowd.

She knitted them so we could not complain too much !

[SteveJones]

1965 British Grand Prix at Silverstone when I was 13. Watched at Woodcote and I can picture it all now.  However biggest memory was the noise the Honda made. Another contributor to this Forum, 'Fuzzi', tells us in his explorer book that it was his first event as well. We didn't know each other then but we do now

 

SJ

[Dick Dastardly]

Sometime in the '50s at Oulton Park.....I have memories of being in the paddock, looking through a gate at the Old Hall end of the pit lane and seeing '50s single-seaters going past. No idea of the meeting....Dad used to race in handicap races there, and at Aintree.....We have a bronze-plated tray from a L & C CC meeting, Spring 1957 * [I'd be 3] don't know if it would be that meeting or not....also a DVD [old cine film copied onto DVD] of a meeting in '58 or '59 showing Mum, me and my younger brother by the car, I guess in the paddock [Dad would be filming].

* Main bit of the tray has pictures of 9 cars engraved onto it......does that sound familiar to anyone?

 

Other than that, 1st car race meeting would be May 8th 1966 at Croft [though I'd seen a Leighton Hall Hill Climb [1964], numerous quarry bashes [1960s version of Targa Tests !], the 1963 RAC Rally on a road section plus Kart Meeting (s) at Flookburgh before then].

[lcbulldog]

1953 or 1954.  SCCA National sports car races at Lockbourne AFB, Columbus, Ohio. 5 or 6 years old at the time.

 

MS

[RogerFrench]

First speed event was 194-something at Prescott. Raymond Mays and twin rear wheels on the ERA. One or other of my honorary uncles was competing, Mallock or Birkett, can't remember which. I was 5 or 6 years old.
I was dragged along to various trial hills, Nailsworth ladder and Juniper stick in my memory, and my first race meeting was Silverstone in 1950, the beginning of the 750 formula.

[RS2000]

Silverstone Daily Express 1957 (rescheduled to September). Very young. Stood at.Woodcote/paddock exit/assembly point (with low board barrier - see thread on that subject).
Enthusiasm for racing/sports racing cars since earliest days was strangely somewhat curtailed from then on after seeing the saloon car race. Howling tyres as 4 jaguar 3.4s passed led by JMH, followed by the battle between Flockhart 2.4 Jaguar, Sears A105 and Grace Pathfinder. When Harold Grace came round the final lap leading them we were very happy, having travelled there in my father's RMB.
That set me off on a tin tops future, despite several Goodwood visits, but what changed my life was my mate at school telling me he'd seen Eric and Pat Carlsson filling up their Saabs at the local Gulf station and we should cycle down to the Heathrow Excellsior Hotel for the finish of the (first) Gulf London lnternational Rally. By that weekend all I wanted was to do a forest International in a Mini. It took a few years....

[Giraffe]

[/IMG]

 

Having been accused of attempting to break in to the Chairman of the BMRMC Northern Region's Fiat 125 the previous weekend, I found myself not only at my first motor race, but marshalling at Aintree the day before my 14th birthday!

Edited by Giraffe, 17 February 2022 - 17:45.

[d j fox]

Mine was the 1959 Daily Express International Trophy Race. My Dad had first been to Silverstone in 1958 and thought I might enjoy it…
We stood at Copse and the very first race I saw was for GT cars - won by every schoolboy’s hero, S. Moss, in the prototype Aston Martin DB4GT (hence my profile pic!) It was a glorious sunny May day. Big Sports cars next and Moss Aston DBR1/300 was beaten by Salvadori Cooper Maserati.
Then came saloons - howling Jaguars and no less than three works entered Volvo 122s all the way from Gothenburg for a 12-lap race!
After lunch Formula One… I was amazed how fast and quickly they came around after the previous races. Moss was leading in the (works) BRM when, to everyone’s amazement, he spun right in front of us and nosed into the bank. He calmly clambered out of the car, ran across the track, jumping over the breeze block wall and trudged back to the pits. (As we all know now, he had deliberately spun as the car had no brakes. Moss was less than impressed with BRM’s preparation!)
Jack Brabham - Cooper won fairly easily from Salvadori’s bellowing Aston Martin DBR4/250. (Aston’s F1 debut race and their best result until 2021!)
Final race was for 1100 sports and saw the new Lolas walking away. We left before the end. My dear old Dad was always complaining about sitting in traffic jams and moaning about the strain on the cars’ clutch. (This was precisely why we missed the end of the 1960 British GP - we left before Graham Hill’s storming BRM drive, from stalling on the grid to first place, came to nothing as he spun off at Copse… right in front of where we would have been standing!)
A few days later in our local newsagent I saw the June 1959 copy of Motor Sport magazine, recognised the cover picture of the start of the International Trophy race, bought the issue and have been following the sport ever since………
David

[LodgeCorner]

My grandfather used to take me every year from about 1962 to watch the Richard Seaman Trophy races at Oulton Park, before we 'moved up' to the Gold Cup from 1965.

[Joe Bosworth]

Mine was at Warwick Farm... where else?

October 14, 1962, the Hordern Trophy meeting, with quite a lot of memories held almost sixty years later. Sixty years? Is that true?

Back around seventeen years ago I encountered a gentleman in the course of my work. He lived at Port Macquarie and when the conversation got to motor racing he told me he had some slides for which he had no further use. Incredibly, some of them were of that first meeting I attended. But not just of the meeting I attended, but they were also taken from somewhere close to where I was spectating!

I normally do not post on anything that Ray gets in to but I can not resist this time.

I drove at the Hordern Trophy meeting that was Ray's first. That was somewhere about my 105th or so time that I faced the starter's flag. The first was circa 1952 or so at Santa Fe Speedway, Illinois. That followed by about 10 or 15 times at Half Day Illinois. Following was about 25 various times in an MGTC, 45 times in a Morgan Plus 4, about 25 in my ex-Colin Chapman 1955 Le Mans Lotus, with a few outings tucked between those in a Porsche Speedster and a 3 hour race co-driving in a TR3.

Starting in Australia in several Notas in 1960 and my Lotus interspersed with several more Notas led up to the Hordern meeting mentioned above. Too bad Ray does not have a photo that I appeared in. The 1970s found me in a Brabham BT15 in the US. Sixties and seventies found me occasionally in a Lotus Esprit. 1980 or 81 found me in Graham Howard's ex Chivas Lotus 7 getting a second place at the Amaroo Historics, 80s and 90s found me in historics in Western Australia a few times as well regularly in karts just to keep my eye in. One day soon I will try my Porsche Boxster that I am now hotting up a bit. These totalled facing the starters flag over 200 times, possibly approaching 300. Only failed to finish four times with only once upside down. Almost every race finished in the top 5 with a year or so years holding the under 2L sports car lap record at Oran Park which was only exceeded at that time by Frank Matich in his +2L Lotus 19. One meeting at Catalina Park practised three cars putting them 1 2 and 3 on the under 1500cc grid.

My first race attended was probably 87th Street Speedway in south Chicago in about 1950ish though Granatelli Brothers speedaway races at Soldiers Field in downtown Chicago tucked in there as well. I attended at Wilmot Hills, Milwaukee Showgrounds and Elkhart Lake road races before I got my road racing license at Stout Field Indianapolis in 1955 or 56.


Regards

[john winfield]

Aged 6, 750 Motor Club at Silverstone, May 1964, taken by our next door neighbours I think.  We sat on the canvas seats in the Woodcote grandstand. I don't remember a lot except for Alan Eccles and Chris Summers booming along in their Chevy-powered machines, but Chris Irwin was there, and Roger Mac, John Miles, Phil de Banks etc. One year later I was back for the International Trophy, watching Jackie Stewart holding off John Surtees.

Edited by john winfield, 19 February 2022 - 11:28.

[D-Type]

The first meeting I remember is the 1955 London Trophy meeting at Crystal Palace, aged 8.  I remember my dad telling me that Stirling Moss couldn't be there so 'his friend' Mike Hawthorn was driving his car.  Hawthorn's first race in a Maserati which he won.  I have since found that it was also the F1 debut of Tony Brooks in an ex-F2 Connaught.  

[Alan Lewis]

It would have been one of the Shelsley meetings in 1968 or '69, though I don't remember which was the first (and we weren't a big photography/memorabilia family so it's too late to check).

We also did the Bewdley Motorcycle Club's grasstrack meeting at Pensax for many years as it was usually around my birthday in October (and Dad had been a biker in his mis-spent youth). They attracted a few speedway "names" in the seventies; I saw Ivan Mauger and Peter Collins at Pensax amongst others, Collins being particularly memorable as he had the same name as "our" Grand Prix driver from Shatterford though, of course, there's no connection.

My first RAC Rally stages must have been early seventies as well, West Midlands Safari Park or Burwarton.

[Perruqueporte]

Mine was at Brands Hatch in 1961 aged seven or eight. I was driven to the circuit in the back of the Superspeed Anglia that my cousin Robert Jankel campaigned alongside that of his team mate John Young in the British Saloon Car Championship. We lived 20 minutes away from Brands Hatch, and Robert had asked my father if the Superspeed cars could spend the Saturday night of a two-day meeting in our garage rather than in the Brands paddock, because there had been some overnight sabotage at a previous weekend meeting. The Anglias only had drivers’ seats, so my mother produced a cushion for me to sit on in the back of the car. You cannot imagine how exciting it was at that age, to be in a racing car on the way to Brands Hatch. The fact that it was noisy and uncomfortable had nothing to do with it. Half-way along the Swanley Bypass the bungee holding the fibreglass bonnet in place gave way, and the lightweight panel flew up and away. In the rear view mirror Robert thought he saw it land in the back of the lorry behind us. He managed to gain the attention of the driver who pulled over. We walked over to the cab and Robert said to the driver “Sorry mate, I think my bonnet’s in the back of your truck”. This man hadn’t seen a thing and probably thought Robert was mad, nevertheless he had a look and sure enough, there sat the maroon bonnet. We continued on our way, and I had the greatest of days. I seem to remember that one of the Anglias won the main race, but can’t recall which. I was well and truly hooked…………

Christopher W.

[AllanL]

My first race was the 1962 Aintree 200. I had been taken along to see Stirling Moss, but he had been injured the week before in the Glover Trophy.

 

So instead we saw a young Borders farmer win in a Lotus 24. For a non-championship race it included a previous World Champion, the current World Champion and three future World Champions, Phil Hill, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Jim Clark and John Surtees.

 

I eventually saw Stirling race in an Audi in a Saloon race at Oulton Park. Possibly not his favourite racing memory in later years. The last time I saw Stirling race was in his Osca at a Revival Meeting.

 

I saw Jack Brabham race in the McLaren BRM at the second (?) Revival Meeting and then in various slower cars as they tried to slow his competitive urges in following years.....

 

My favourite racing memory of  John Surtees was seeing him open up a lead over drivers decades younger in a Revival TT, From memory his lead was sadly lost in a slow pitstop to get David Piper into the car. Phil Hill's pride in watching his son win at Goodwood on one of his (if not the) last trip to Goodwood was worth the trip to witness.

 

So apart form the top sentence, I have been digressing. Oops.

[Jack-the-Lad]

The 12 Hours of Sebring, 1963, age 16.  What a first race!  Seeing my hero Phil Hill lead the first lap in the Cobra’s international debut, and his first appearance since leaving the Scuderia; John Surtees’s win in his maiden race for Ferrari…..and then discussing it with him in the paddock at Goodwood decades later.  My childhood chums and now dear friends, Doug and Reggie Smith, are the sons of 12 Hours race secretary and Alec Ullman’s right hand, Reginald Smith. 
 

Oh, and I still have the program and the poster.

Edited by Jack-the-Lad, 18 February 2022 - 00:52.

[GregThomas]

I was taken to the NZ Motorcycle GP meetings from birth. Father was the chief lapscorer right up to the end of the Cust circuit and it was a family outing. Wasn't till I was about seven I was allowed to roam the infield and go from corner to corner. It was made up of rural roads and the fields on the infield were spectator territory.In those days families would stake out a good spot on the hillside and picnic.

Car racing the first was again when I was seven. 1956 Wigram. Again Father worked - infield travelling marshall on his BMW 250. For several years with me on the pillion. On the spot for quite a few incidents.

But I'm told that it was apparent I was interested much earlier. In the lead up to the first Wigram race in 1949, the car club held a 2 day event on the outskirts of Christchurch. A bent sprint on the Saturday and a hillclimb on the Sunday. Father had a guest drive in Hec Green's RA Special. He was part of the brains trust around Hec. His speciality was wiring the cars as he taught Auto Electrics at nightschool. Anyway, the WAGS were given a good viewing spot for the hillclimb on a bank inside the first corner - amongst them my pregnant Mum... The old man spun the RA right in front of her - and i'm told I made a spirited attempt to come out for a look

Years later i only had to be introduced to senior officials wives to be told the story of how they were almost at my birth....

[john aston]

Another first was my first marshalling  role on my first RAC Rally , in  1969. Dalby Forest , near midnight . The pace and noise of leader Bjorn Waldegaard's 911 stunned me , if not as much as Hannu Mikkola did a few minutes later as he rolled into the trees. We escorted (hah!) a very dazed driver off the track at the place  which is known to this day as Mikkola;s Bend. Later on , Per Eklund rolled his Saab 96 end over end down the steep bank, felling trees as he did so . The car was was swiftly rolled back on to its wheels and growled off into the night . Before we left I .err. liberated Mikkola's tax disc holder , which had been dislodged  in the crash and was lying on the floor. Still have it,  too 

[Michael Ferner]

My first meeting was one of the first Oldtimer Grands Prix at the Nürburgring, mid seventies. I was too young to remember much, but old enough to wield a "pocket camera" that was all the rage at the time, but the pictures it produced were pretty crap. Or maybe the photographer was...

[pete53]

Crystal Palace Whit Monday 1963.

 

Without reference to any record books I can instantly recall that Denny Hulme won the Formula Junior final, Jim Clark (Lotus 23) the sports car race, Jack Sears (Galaxie) big saloons, and John Whitmore (Mini Cooper) the small saloon race . I still have the programme which has the lap charts and results penned in by my father. We arrived during morning practice, and the 9 year old me was overwhelmed by the noise, smell and spectacle, and instantly hooked on it. 

 

Strange to think that was nearly 60 years ago, and that it will be 50 years this coming September since the Palace closed to racing.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Player's 200 at Mosport, 1961.  SSM an easy winner.

[GTMRacer]

Great topic!

My first speed event was at the local hillclimb at Cricket St Thomas in about 1984, I was offered 2 free tickets by the lady who ran our youth club and was competing in her Red Porsche 911T, she could see I was totally made about cars! I managed to persuade my Father to take me, the free entry seemed to sway him...

First race event was Castle Combe later in that same year for a very wet JDC meeting, the main thing I remember is Gerry Marshall in maybe an Aston Martin DBS? sideways all the time. I was hooked!

[sabrejet]

1995 Belgian Grand Prix was the first motor race I attended.

 

 

Glad we have someone (I guess) a bit closer to my age on here!

[wheadon1985]

1995 British GP… 9 years old, stood on the outside of Bridge Corner by the tunnel, seen Hill and Schumacher’s accident with my own eyes and cheered when Johnny Herbert took his maiden win. Will never forget hearing a 3ltr V12 Ferrari for the first time, it’ll be with me forever.

[Henk Vasmel]

Apart from some motorized mud-wrestling locally, my first (and next to last) race meeting was the Dutch GP 1982. Many great memories. The first serious practice lap by Nelson Piquet, by going into the Tarzan curve with about 100 kph more than anyone before him. My first impression of real speed. Seeing Manfred Winkelhock quietly preparing himself (I was a fan those days). Seeing the Fittipaldi team lifting their car onto trestles by hand (no lifting device). So I understood what being a poor team was like. Seeing Rob Walker talking to team members to get the quotes for his report in R&T (had a subscription those days). Seeing DSJ eating a Dutch herring, the Dutch way (by the tail). Seeing René Arnoux crash in the Tarzan after losing a wheel on the straight, and the worry after that. The relief when I saw Arnoux walking in the paddock after the race, and the frustration that my camera had run out of film by then. A paddock ticket was expensive back then, but at least it was available. Oh, and sitting in the traffic jam after the race, next to Marc Surer in a Ford Capri, like he wanted to drive back to Switzerland that day. No real memory of Pironi (winner). Villeneuve and Paletti were too recent for that.

[GLaird]

Club meeting at Kirkistown, 29th March 1980. Driven down faster than I had ever been driven before in a road car, by Roy (thanks again for taking me). Marshaling at Fishermans, taking an involuntary step back at the 'straight on' post, at the speed of the Formula Atlantics. Just enjoying the chat, banter, the welcoming cameraderie from the off, despite the wind and weather.

 

I was well bitten by the bug.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Joe Bosworth
I normally do not post on anything that Ray gets in to but I can not resist this time.

I drove at the Hordern Trophy meeting that was Ray's first.....

Too bad Ray does not have a photo that I appeared in.....

And I certainly remember Keith Regan calling out your name as he went through the entry lists, Joe.

But I have been wondering why you didn't get back to the discussion about BMC ratios.

[chr1s]

Mine was a shell sports group 8 meeting on August bank holiday in 1976. My father was on the board of Lec Refrigeration and dragged my brother and me to Brands to see the bosses' son racing there that day. My older brother really wanted to go but i was not bothered but as I had no choice in the matter, had to go along anyway. Ironically my brother was board rigid within half an hour and wanted to go home, but I was hooked and would go on to be so for the next 40 years...

Edited by chr1s, 18 February 2022 - 21:50.

[nexfast]

I guess mine would be unique here. I'm not absolutely sure of the date but I believe it was either 1969 or 1970, when holidaying in Portugal I was taken by my father to watch a local race in the Montes Claros circuit near Lisbon. It actually used parts of the old Monsanto circuit that hosted GPs in the fifties. Blurred memories, mainly, with a Porsche 906 and a Fiat Abarth 850 somehow encroached in my recollections (did they compete together? Possibly but not sure). 

[LittleChris]

Mine was a shell sports group 8 meeting on August bank holiday in 1976. My father was on the board of Lec Refrigeration and dragged my brother and me to Brands to see the bosses' son racing there that day. My older brother really wanted to go but i was not bothered but as I had no choice in the matter, had to go along anyway. Ironically my brother was board rigid within half an hour and wanted to go home, but I was hooked and would go on to be so for the next 40 years...

 

So did you get to meet Charlie and David Purley ? 

[LittleChris]

Silverstone 1968 aged 6 I think but not sure of the meeting or whether it was perhaps a test session.  NGH in a Gold Leaf Lotus of who I became a fan & Amon in a Ferrari are the two I remember passing us as we stood at Woodcote.  Followed shortly by visiting Brands but can't remember what featured.  First real memory was 1973 East Monday F2 Thruxton meeting and being gutted when Ronnie and Emerson failed to turn up in the F2 Texaco Star Lotus. Good day for Ron Dennis though after Beuttler took Birrell out 

[john aston]

1995 British GP… 9 years old, stood on the outside of Bridge Corner by the tunnel, seen Hill and Schumacher’s accident with my own eyes and cheered when Johnny Herbert took his maiden win. Will never forget hearing a 3ltr V12 Ferrari for the first time, it’ll be with me forever.

 I wonder if you were the lad standing with his dad near me  at Bridge ? I remember watching dad and lad and realising they'd only seen F1 on TV before - the expression on their faces , even as the cars left the pits (ie 400 yards away ) was sheer disbelief at the noise , turning to a combination of terror and ecstasy as they slammed out of the tunnel. V10s an 12s still almost reduce me to tears (of joy, obvs )  

[Charlieman]

A club event at Longridge in 1976. James Hunt and Graham Hill (other ones) were amongst the competitors. Longridge provided some of the best free grandstand views from the quarry cliffs.

[wheadon1985]

I wonder if you were the lad standing with his dad near me at Bridge ? I remember watching dad and lad and realising they'd only seen F1 on TV before - the expression on their faces , even as the cars left the pits (ie 400 yards away ) was sheer disbelief at the noise , turning to a combination of terror and ecstasy as they slammed out of the tunnel. V10s an 12s still almost reduce me to tears (of joy, obvs )

That sounds like Dad and Me!! It wasn’t just the noise but the rumble through the ground too. I’d been racing Karts for a couple of years by this point but nothing could prepare a young child for that experience.

Being at Goodwood Speedweek made me remember that feeling again when the F1s were doing the high speed demo. I was stood at the Assembly Area exit so had the cars going past me at full beans. Although there were no V10 engines, the splattering of Mercedes & Ferrari V6s, Honda V12, BMW 1.5T, Mercedes Hybrid Turbo and those good old faithful DFV V8s were more than appreciated - https://youtu.be/NXLmk3bc1vE

My Mrs is finally joining me as Secretary at the Members Meeting in April where we are having the V10 F1 Demos. So glad she’s finally getting her chance to experience the V10 F1 for the first time and maybe understand a bit about what I’ve been harping on about for years and years.

[DN5]

I first dragged my parents to the 1975 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. It was a couple of years later until I managed to get to Brands independently