14 replies to this topic

[racing_lines]

Just a quick one...

Whilst thinking long and hard about whose fault the Stoddart/Aron crash at Monaco was, my mind has been drawn off at a tangent....

Having survived the huge flameball which put him out for half the season and landed him in a neck-brace, the pipe-smoking ladies man and Gentleman Racer 'Supreme,' Bob Williams was still able to take the championship down to the wire with Jackie Stewart.

If the infernal tit hadn't locked himself in the toilet, do you reckon he'd have beaten JYS to the crown??

I don't even know what season it was. I beleive he was in a March, but I could be very wrong as in the shot below he's by a Lotus truck. Any ideas?

And didn't he look a bit like Cevert, too???

[MCS]

Am I alone in having absolutely no idea what racing_lines is talking about

Mark

[MCS]

Oh, right - you didn't load the pictures initially, did you ?!!

Mark

[racing_lines]

Originally posted by MCS
Oh, right - you didn't load the pictures initially, did you ?!!

Mark

sorry!

[smithy]

Hmmm.... much as I'm afraid to admit it, I too have thought about this.

I think the footage is from a mix of seasons but my guess is most of it is 1970, because of (what looks to me like) the Tyrrell March. But then if it's all about JYS taking the championship, isn't it 1971?

While we're pondering..... about two thirds of the way through the clip there is a beautiful shot of JYS taking a left hand bend at quite some speed. Mid way through the corner he puts it into a FANTASTIC drift as he passes the apex. Does anyone know what corner that is?

[Forza Minardi]

What is this ??? As far as I can see this is pictures where the singer Robbie Williams's face has been put into some old pictures. Sorry - what is are you talking about racing_lines and what is the point ?

[racing_lines]

Originally posted by Forza Minardi
What is this ??? As far as I can see this is pictures where the singer Robbie Williams's face has been put into some old pictures. Sorry - what is are you talking about racing_lines and what is the point ?

You mean you've never heard of the great Bob Williams and his titanic struggle for the world championship with Jackie Stewart?

As discussed over on other threads in this forum, I think good old Bob may have suffered the same fate as Pete Aron - completely overlooked by F1 historians. While Pete incurred the overwhelming wrath of journalists and historians at large for his pompous nature, maybe Williams' fate and ommission from the history of this magnificent sport was born from the very fact that on the single occasion he had the chance to make a real name for himself, he was stuck on the crapper???

Seriously though, anyone have any idea what cars he drove, or where we saw him race and when???

[Garagiste]

racing_lines has defined "fluff"!
For the benefit of the bewildered, the pictures are from the video of "Supreme", a thinly disguised cover version of Gloria Gaynor's "I will survive". The video, (which is a whole lot better than the song) tells the story of the (1971?) championship, which the ever modest Jobbie is supposed to be contesting with JYS.
Regarding the topic, no, Williams would not have won, because JYS was a racing driver, and Williams (to quote another berk from the world of pop) is a fat dancer from take that.

[BRG]

I now realise that Stewart’s antipathy towards Jan Magnussen’s cigarette smoking habit must have had its roots in his close WDC shave against Smokin’ Bob Williams all those years earlier! Another coup for TNF! Through history, how the past can illuminate the present…

Maybe I don’t have Garagiste’s musical ear, but I can hear no similarity between ‘Supreme’ and Gloria Gaynor’s hackneyed karaoke and hen-night favourite. But I agree that the Supreme video is probably better than the song (which is more than you can say about the Gayner video which IIRC featured a lone leotard-clad rollerskater).

Has anyone ever sat down to analyse where all the footage comes from? I presume that it is all genuine, rather than from any racing themed films such as Grand Prix?

[racing_lines]

BRG - I've heard it's all genuine, and that they just employed the "Forrest Gump" treatment to the footage in order to place "the fat one from Take That" in the paddock. Wasn't it Noel Gallagher who said that? Genius!

One of my mates once asked me why they'd put Williams on the podium twice in one scene... to which I had to reply - "that's Francois Cevert you tit."

On the subject of the footage, it would be great to know where it all came from. It's a great video, with more than a slight cap dothing to "Grand Prix" and Mr J Frankenheimer's genius direction - the only annoying bits are when they start a race off at Monaco, give you a bit of an action sequence around Zandvoort, then Spa, and mirraculously the race finishes in Monza

One of the best music videos of all time though, I reckon

[Garagiste]

BRG - next time you hear it, ignore the melody that Jobbie sings his lyrics to, and concentrate on the backing. You can Karaoke I will Survive straight over it (should you wish!)
r_l , it was either Noel or Liam, think it might have been the latter.

[ensign14]

It's a cross between "I Will Survive" and the Juliet Bravo theme tune. Such is the "talent" that Mr Williams possesses he cannot even commission an original song. -ensign14, waiting for someone to mash up "Disco Inferno" with "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler?"

[Wolf]

I don't know exact reasons for racing historians ignoring Bob Williams, but over here he became quite a household name because he invented smokeless pipe-tobbacco...

[Mallory Dan]

Wasn't there a Polanski film of JYS made at Monaco in 1971. I'd thought ther Fat Dancers vid was based on that. I thought the song wasn't too bad actually...

Btw shouldn't he have put some money in the Valiants when they were really struggling, or maybe 'Reginald Mitchell FC' as we're now supposed to call them.

[mctshirt]

Whatever the circumstances I feel Williams wouldn't have been up to the task. Not unlike what was to happen to Mansell years later the good life had taken it's toll. Undisclosed at the time of the incident was the reason for the visit the toilet - it was a last ditch attempt to be a better "fit" in the March team. Like so many of his kind the hype outgrew his ability while there are those who unkindly suggested he outgrew the car.

;)