The Fastlane Motorsports Forum

Bottom post of the previous page:

Monza 1976 was pretty good for me, when Lauda made his miraculous return, was the fastest qualifier of the three Ferrari's entered, and to then come 4th in the race..... wow. Was I happy, you betcha. Bummer that it was before VCRs were general household items. In fact I think it was before my Mum and Dad even had a colour TV. (My parents refused to buy one cos they thought my bro and I would watch it 24/7. Even though to do that we would have had to watch about 14 hours of Test card, and we only had 3 channels back then. Channel 4 came out about just before I came to Australia in the early 1980's.

Which brings me on to arriving in Melbourne in 1983 to discover that I would be able to watch GPs in full and live on TV, as opposed to the c 40 mins IIRC of highlights on the BBC "Grand Prix" programme, delayed until after the 10.00 news.

Of course, having been a regular British GP goer, I was very happy to hear the confirmation of the first Championship Grand Prix at what is apparently the third oldest continuing GP on the planet, the Australian GP (I know there was a European GP at Monza, that venues first GP, also in the 1920's, but the French GP of course goes back even further to 1906.

I was pretty happy when the AGP moved to Melbourne, a Grand Prix that I could drive to in quarter of an hour and park within a couple of hundred metres from the track. Plus when it was first held in Melbourne for a few years I could actually hear the cars from outside in my garden. Now all the trees they planted have matured and grown, thus deadening the sound.

The strange thing is that even though I have a GP within such close proximity (anyone here live closer to a GP venue?) I dont really go these days, certainly not for the race anyway. I have been to practice sessions and qualifying, but despite the fact the Albert Park venue is so close to me, and indeed has been the venue for well over 15 or 16 years, against the Adelaide Street circuit where they had a run a dozen GPs until it moved it on to Albert park.

I have to admit that I have still been to more Adelaide GP's on raceday than I have Melbourne. Last time I went to Melbourne raceday I watched the race in front of the largest of all the Giant TVs, listening to the live sound.

Moving on to 2007 and Kimi winning the Championship from an awfully long way out, to take the title by a single point over Hamilton and Alonso was bloody fantastic.

Lol, I just remebered one of the favourites of all time..... two of them actually.
One I know I have posted about before, at Brands when Jim Clark was racing. I wont repost it here, as I have mentioned it before, and it is elsewhere on the forum, but it is certainly one of my Motor Racing highlights.....

In fact here is a link to that great memory.

The other one is not quite as 'special' as the Clark memory, but was the culmination of a great weekend, ironically at the Adelaide Grand Prix back in the late 1980's.

I had been running in the Historic Touring Cars support race that year, and in fact I managed to win my class, so I was in a pretty jubilant mood. From memory I dont think we had a race on GP day.... we used to have to be there (the couple of times I was involved there) by 5.00pm Wednesday for Scrutineering that evening. To this day the Thursday is basically all the support categories practice and qualy. Even now at Albert Park on a hursday is support day. It is free admission for all , all day Thursday, which always has a good crowd in, so we had practiced and qualified on the Thursday, and had a race on the Friday and two on the Saturday.

We were stationed in the support paddock, the entrance to which was just after the first chicane, and after racing we turned in to thee paddock within a couple of hundred metres of the finish line. We would go to the dummy grid by joining the track where the left hander after the end of the long straight and hairpin right. Basically right in the centre of the track, so pretty well we were told that if we wanted to head home before the GP ended, we were to be out before the first race on the Sunday. No convoys of trucks and trailers leaving the track as they were trying to keep their programme of events flowing. So we uaed it to our advantage and one of our category who was happy to stay for the GP parked his truck right over near where we would join the track. They bring the truck to all the events, so we were all aware that the truck had a platform which basically was assembled on the top of the truck which was all levelled off so people would not be chasing bottles across the roof. So for the GP we were all sat on the platform fitted to the roof. It had like a little fence around the edge, we had folding chairs up there and of course plenty to eat and drink. So we sat on top of the truck with an elevated view of the end of the straight and hairpin through to almost the last corner onto the start finish.

It was not the year of the big rain, which I think was the following year.

Sam wrote:

kals wrote: - Seeing Tom Coronel finally win a WTCC round at Okayama in 2008
- Everytime Alex Zanardi got into a race car after his accident at Lausitz

Especially on the latter one.

Also,
- Mika Häkkinen winning his first race and first championship
- Kimi Räikkönen clinching his title in Brazil
- I'll also rank Tony Kanaan's win in Indy right up there

I forgot to add Zanardi's racing comeback in 2003 and especially his first win (in super exciting fashion) at Oschersleben in 2005. And I when Kimi won the title I was mega happy. Good days.

kals wrote:- Mansell [...]

I think you left one out

Fairly simple one for me: October 18th 2009. The final culmination of a year that I had a very personal involvement in a tiny part of an amazing story.

As a few of you know, my best pal from my school days worked his way through Uni and was taken on by the then-named BAR squad in 2004. He was only supposed to be their on his year in industry before returning to complete his degree, but he proved so good at the job they offered him a full-time place at the end of the year. He accepted.

Anyway, the history of the team between then and 2009 is pretty well-known. A few decent years, then 2007. Awful. Nothing to cheer for my mate, and 2008 was even worse. To top it all off, Honda then announced they were pulling the plug. He was distraught - he loved his job and now it looked like it was all over. At this point best mate instinct kicked in and I told him things would work out fine. There was a bit of a buzz about the 2009 car even at that stage. Someone would pick up the pieces. To be completely honest, I wasn't sure I'd be proven right.

Eventually of course Brawn GP was formed. Went to Brackley that night and after the big staff meeting where they were told the team had been saved we went to the Red Lion and had a few drinks. Everyone seemed massively relieved and pretty confident. Testing started and that confidence grew and grew. I still have the emails saved from aforementioned chum the first time they tested - 'if they think we're running light, they're in for a big disappointment'. Heh.

The year then unfolded the way we all remember. Two very personal memories I have:

1) Melbourne. The first Brawn win, and a 1-2 as well. After everything he'd gone through over the winter, my mate was ecstatic. He got home (we lived next door to each other at that time) and at 9.30am in the morning we were drinking champagne and beer in the residents' car park. Sun was just coming up and it was a brilliant, brilliant moment.

2) Brazil. I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the race in the Brawn conference room with about 60 other people, and as you can imagine with Jenson cutting through the field we were all pretty involved - getting to our feet to cheer Jenson as he passed Kobayashi etc. Then he crossed the line and it was just incredible. Looked over at my mate, grinned and said 'you're a world champion!'. He was pretty emotional.

A little while later we left the factory and took a moment to stand in the car park. It was dark and cold, but we could also hear cars driving past the factory beeping their horns to say well done. It was at that point we both realised how amazing it was that we were where we were. We'd grown up together and raced around on Formula One games pretty much every week, dreaming of fighting it out for a World Championship one year. We obviously never got the driving bit done, but... there we were. Two kids from a small village in Dorset grown up, one of us a World Champion and the other not officially, but who'd lived the year being involved in it all and being made to feel like I'd been a help to my mate through the dark days of the previous winter. I also got to know some great guys from the team and was really fortunate that they then graciously invited me to join them for their celebrations in Brackley afterwards and make me feel very welcome... to the point where some of them got so drunk they forgot I didn't work there and kept saying 'well done mate!' and buying me drinks

Not only my happiest moment watching racing, but my happiest memory full-stop. Was proud then, and am still proud now. If anyone wonders why I support Mercedes GP to the degree I do, I hope the above goes some way to explaining it

What an awesome and very personal story, thanks Matt!

And your nice little pre-season tip off netted me £510 at the bookies Matt, which I'm still immensely grateful for Could have been £5510 if I'd only risked that tenner on the championship win as well Let's face it though, by mid-season, the other teams had caught on and Brawn were barely hanging onto the championship lead. It came down to rather more than just luck and having a better car.

Thanks sharing your story, it's heart-warming Must be nice to see Mercedes (aka Brawn) back up at the front again, even if it is just for qualifying and the first few laps!

Great story Matt. Thanks.

- Elio de Angelis winning the 1981 austrian GP.
-Luis Perez Sala scoring one point in Silverstone 89, in spite of ill-treatment from Pirelli.
-Alonso's first podium.
-De la Rosa's podium in Hungary.
-Alonso standing up against the Losers of the Year, Dennis and Hamilton.
-Every single race with Alonso on the grid.

Alonso taking himself out of the 2012 Japanese GP on lap 1 when he tried to push Raikkonen off track.

David Couthard winning the Brazilian GP in 2001, after passing Schumacher in the rain.



Alonso's first win in Hungary.

- the first F1 race I ever attended hoping that Kimi would win, and he did (Spa 2004)
- Kimi winning the 2005 Suzuka race (not even the lack of DRS could stop him from winning)
- Mika's overtake on Schumacher in Spa 2000 ensuring he still had a small chance for the championship that year
- Hamilton beaching it in Shanghai 2007 (well, given I'm a Kimi fan, you should forgive me on this one)

Everso Biggyballies wrote:Alonso taking himself out of the 2012 Japanese GP on lap 1 when he tried to push Raikkonen off track.

I wonder if you have this on canvas?

Frikandel wrote:- Kimi winning the 2005 Suzuka race (not even the lack of DRS could stop him from winning)

DRS in 2005???

erwin greven wrote:

Frikandel wrote:- Kimi winning the 2005 Suzuka race (not even the lack of DRS could stop him from winning)

DRS in 2005???

He said LACK OF DRS btw.

Thinking about it it would have been around then that every car had their own form of inbuilt DRS that they would utilise on any straight, or high speed low downforce areas..... it was the era of the flexible wing that was strong enough to pass the FIA Flex tests of the time but on track would flex sufficiently to have DRS like benefits..... on both front AND Rear wings
The claims still popped up after that era and indeed no doubt some of the reasonings of DRS may have been a sort of "If you cant beat them join them: In other words if it is illegal and the teams with money get round the law then make them legal via the DRS laws, albeit in a probably more controlled way.

The most amazing thing I've ever seen in motorsport was Hans Nielsen going from 4th to 1st pos. on last lap of a speedway heat at a point where he needed the win to become champion, I can't quite remember what the circumstances were, anymore. It was over 25 years ago. It was unbelievable, shouldn't be physically possible. I was literally speechless and euphoric at the same time. To this day, I still believe he is the greatest motorsportsman from Denmark, with noone even a close second.

Jesper Hvid wrote:The most amazing thing I've ever seen in motorsport was Hans Nielsen going from 4th to 1st pos. on last lap of a speedway heat at a point where he needed the win to become champion, I can't quite remember what the circumstances were, anymore. It was over 25 years ago. It was unbelievable, shouldn't be physically possible. I was literally speechless and euphoric at the same time. To this day, I still believe he is the greatest motorsportsman from Denmark, with noone even a close second.

Thanks for sharing that one.... [tongue in cheek mode] actually I think it is the first memory of yours that I have read of here that has not mentioned drunkenness, alcohol, deviant sex, knuckle butties, some act of thuggery ( ), or the police.
Oh I nearly forgot, red hair as well. [/tongue in cheek mode]

Edit: Forgot to mention that this one does still share some elements of your previously mentioned, other 'off topic' memories....., 'I can't quite remember......', not to mention 'literally speechless' and 'euphoric'.