71 replies to this topic

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

Television; culture; father
Growing up in Rome with Ferrari F1 posters in all Agip pertrol stations...

Villenueve/Tambay/Arnoux/Ferrari

Learn't to dislike McLaren by 1984

[Nobody]

Earliest memory is of a McLaren crossing the finish line, pretty sure it was Prost driving (mid eighties).

Earliest intelligable memory is of Berger crashing & catching on fire Imola '89

One of my favourite memories as a kid was a Sunday afternoon at an aunt's house, while everybody else was out the back havin a barbecue, I stayed inside and watched a McLaren 1-2 at Suzuka and Senna take the '91 WDC.

[LB]

Its funny in a way but I've never particularily liked McLaren at all, yet I have liked all of Watson, Lauda, Prost (yes both), Johannson, Berger, Hakkinen, Coulthard, Raikkonen (though I've gone off him), and Hamilton. I don't mind Alonso and I swung hot and cold with Senna. Others are a bit meh...

I always liked Ferrari to a point I actually have posters to prove it, yet couldn't stand Schumacher, Barrichello, Irvine, and Mansell. I liked Alesi and Capelli though. and loved Gilles.. Massa seems ok

I'm trying to remember what my earliest at the circuit memory is. I went to the Euro GP at Brands in 1983 when I was 10 but I'm sure I went to clubbies at Ingliston before that. I can vaguely remember a fiat500 scurrying after a touring car field to the great amusement of the crowd. I'm sure that was in 79 or so.

I know the first race I watched in full was in 1976 at 3 years old but I can't remember a thing about it lol

[SlateGray]

Mario winning Indy in 69, I must have seen a re-cap on a TV sports show, I was 8 years old and I wanted to be Mario Andretti.

First live event was at flamborough speedway near Hamilton Ontario, don't recall the year.

http://www.flamborospeedway.itgo.com/

[MONTOYASPEED]

Watching Gerhard Berger win my home grand prix on TV.

[Raelene]

I grew up with motorsport - my father raced speedway in Australia and was 5 times Aussie Champ and 10 times Victorian champ - in fact he raced about 2 hours after I was born. - so I've beeen following motorsport for about 38 years ;)

Anyone who is old enough and used to go to Melbourne Speedbowl (or Brooklyn as it was called before) may recognise the car (this pic is about 20 years old);)







Spent the first 16 years of my life travelling around Victoria, Sth Austrlaia and NSW watching dad race. Stopped going when I was 16 as then I was allowed to stay home.

My dad still races (he turned 69 on Monday) , just built a new car and as I live in another country I dont' get to see him much.

So racing is in my blood...and now my husband is a rally co-driver (local NZ rally's - nothing flash) and we do local clubsport events in our own cars... and the odd trip to the Nurburgring for a few laps..I don't think I'll ever really get it out of the blood

[qvn]

I started to notice F1 and watch the first race showed on TV in August 1994 because of Michael "The dominator" Schumacher whose name came up on sport news all the time at that time, even though I am from a country that was alienated from F1 world (F1 is still not popular. In my country football (soccer) is king).

[mikedeering]

Being taken to Brands for an F1 test session in May 1986.



The noise! I didn't have a clue what was happening but the cars were SO loud, even 1.5l V6 turbos. Left a big, positive impression on me. Glorious.



First Autosport - British GP preview/France GP report in the run up to 1986 race.

First GP on TV - British GP 1986. I chose a good time to get involved - after years in the doldrums we had a new GP star as Mansell took on the world and almost won.

[911]

Quote

Originally posted by mikedeering
Being taken to Brands for an F1 test session in May 1986.



The noise! I didn't have a clue what was happening but the cars were SO loud, even 1.5l V6 turbos. Left a big, positive impression on me. Glorious.



First Autosport - British GP preview/France GP report in the run up to 1986 race.

First GP on TV - British GP 1986. I chose a good time to get involved - after years in the doldrums we had a new GP star as Mansell took on the world and almost won.

Wow, you picked a great year in start following F1! That has to be one of the best seasons in Grand Prix history with 3 drivers actually having a legitimate chance to be WDC going into the last race. Poor Mansell!

On the other hand, we also lost de Angelis that year, too.

[MortenF1]

Think it must've been "car-slalom", and I reckon I must've been about four years old ~ 1983/4.

First F1 memory I can think of now was Piquet/Mansell Hungary '86, and I think I must've seen it on "sportspegeln" a late Sunday evening.

[Jerome]

Emmerson Fittipaldi. And Ronnie Petterson.

My father lived in Zandvoort at the time, and because my parents were divorced, I used to spent weekends over at his hous there. One time, I could not have been older than five or six, through the village Zandvoort, one could hear the roars of the F1 engines between the dunes, practicising for the next day's Grand Prix. Even in my father's house, about two miles away, the sounds could be heard, but wavering, hovering like ghosts, like a radio that swings in and out of reception. My brother said: 'Ronnie Petterson will win.' But my father said: 'No, Emmerson Fittipaldi, he's the best.'

My earliest memory of F1. And the earliest memory of my father. At least: the one I remember.

* Edit. Because I was born in 1965, this must have been either 1971, 1972 or 1973

[275 GTB-4]

Sydney Showground Speedway as a wee lad - mid 1950s.

[xflow7]

Depends how broadly you define motorsports. My first memory of things with engines racing was going to the Unlimited Hydro races on Lake Washington every summer while visiting my grandmother as a kid. This would have been starting somewhere around 1985 or so. Chip Hanauer was the new superstar since Muncey had been killed. My brother got his autograph and was hooked which led him into racing APBA J-Stock Outboard for a few years.

First auto racing memories are vague recollections of watching the Indy 500 and Rick Mears.

[Lotus23]

My first motorsports memory coincided with my first race attendance.

There was no racing during the Big War, but when it started back up in '46, my dad took my 5yo brother and myself to see Offy midgets run at a 1/4-mile paved bullring near our Massachusetts home. I'd just turned 8 and was instantly addicted by the experience.

61 years and >100 tracks later, the flame burns as brightly as ever.

Oddly enough, my brother never succumbed: to this day, he's a stick-and-ball man with little or no interest in motorsport. Go figure.

[Raelene]

Quote

Oddly enough, my brother never succumbed: to this day, he's a stick-and-ball man with little or no interest in motorsport. Go figure

not too odd - I'm one of 7 kids and apart from my brother doing a few races, none of us took it up

[fastlegs]

My earliest motorsport memory was as a young boy watching Jim Clark on tv in 1962. That's around the time he started winning in F1 and making a name for himself. He was a great driver.

[repcobrabham]

my first vivid / contextual motorsport memory is from when i was eight years old, of the 1983 bathurst 1000. i remember flashes of AJ on podiums and dribs and drabs of touring cars from 1980 onwards (all commodores, dad had a golden VB so i was hooked) but the memory of this race is really strong.

the reason is because i really liked the look of the white tape in the grooves of the rear lights of john harvey's car. i didn't realise (or care) that they had created a one-off colour scheme to advertise marlboro lights - women's cigarettes, as it were. they're now gold-and-white packets but they were mostly white then, with minimal red. as was the car.

anyways, i was a brocky nut but also liked john harvey - and cheered when he won in europe in the rothmans VK - so kept an eye on them both during the race. then brocky jumps in harvey's car. then perkins. then that weird white car wins bathurst. i didn't fully understand why at the time, but i could sense the tension on the podium.

the epilogue is the brockfest that occurred at last year's bathurst. they had eight of his nine race-winning cars there... guess which one was missing?

[FonzCam]

I remember watching the British GP and Mansell won in a Williams, I can remember that he lapped everyone but his team-mate and based on where in the house I was watching the TV it must have been either '86 or '87. So that makes me either 2 or 3 at the time, I also remember the tyre blowout from '86 but that may have been on a replay. My dad always watched F1 so I don't ever remember not being aware of it.

My first live motorsport memories are of BTCC at Thruxton in the early 90s (first trip was probably 91 or 92) I remember me and dad thinking this was a great family day out but my sister not agreeing! By this point my interest in motorsport in general had become a passion (it only became an obsession around 2000).

[backwards]

i was there when senna crashed. that would be the earliest i think. i have vague memories of watching races when i was 3 or 4

[Coral]

I remember when Jim Clark died. I was only three years old at the time, but I can remember it as clearly as anything. It was the following day, the Monday morning. I was sitting in a chair and my Mum was putting a ribbon in my hair. She said "Jim Clark has been killed. He was a Scottish racing driver and he had an accident and died." I was a sensitive wee thing and I remember feeling really sad. I started getting interested in motorsport after that...but whenever I cheered for Jackie Stewart, my Mum would say "yes, but he's not as good as Jim Clark." That has always stayed with me.

[Andy Donovan]

The track invasion at the '92 British GP is the first F1 thing I remember, but then I the next thing I remember was Senna's crash in '94.

My other early motorsport memory is the British round of the WRC (which always tended to get better coverage than the other rounds) especially the night stages which looked amazing. Don't know what year though.

[davegp3]

I was nine years old and saw on TV two cars on the track fighting and the one with yellow helmet had won the race. Later i found out it was Italian GP 1990. Four years later that guy with yellow helmet crashed and died.