As my FChat odometer rolls towards the triple WDC I figured this would be a nice moment to look back to when my passion with F1 begun: After Emerson nailed his title his sponsor Texaco sent him on a promo tour, which eventually led him to our tiny village in Switzerland where he opened a Texaco gas station. I'm sure this event left a much longer lasting impression in my memory than in his. This was also the first time I was "stalking a celebrity" for an autograph, another passion that has stayed with me to this day. As luck would have it, the photographer of the local newspaper took a picture as I was in the crowd patiently (?) waiting for Emmo to sign my book. After that I was hooked. Watched F1 on TV and couldn't wait to attend my first GP in 1979: Hockenheim where my idol Alan Jones won. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Cool story and pics. This exactly why F1 needs drivers to be closer to fans. It baffles me how F1 and other series have become so distant to the people that in the end support the sport and business.
My Father used to go the USGP back in the early 60's - and to Watking Glen when it was formula libre races.... so when I was born in 67, I was at the 68 Gp as a 10 month old... and went to every USGP ever since... missing only a couple here and there when it moved around. This car / racing passion of my father and his passion for Photography led us to go to many races in the 80's under a professional basis, but it was always a fan basis too.. I wish I could post pics, but we dont own them anymore... All I have are some of my own snaps from Watkins Glen and some from the 80's ... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
In 2000 I was working at Toytoa HQ and JPM was their driver in CART. When he went to F1, I followed him there. And the rest is history.. When he came to Dallas for the NASCAR race, he did a meet and greet at the local Texaco. . Image Unavailable, Please Login
For me it was the metered, yet excited, delivery of Jim McKay and his hilarious sounding boothmate calling races for ABC's Wide World Of Sports, Jackie Stewart. They completed the package. By the 80's I was watching the races via an enormous backyard satellite dish, my first exposure to Murray Walker and James Hunt on the Beeb's Grand Prix programme. Fleetwood Mac's The Chain never meant the same after that. Then Ayrton died and I was devastated. After that I drifted away from F1 for a while. I came back a couple/few years later when Speedvision came upon the scene. There were some amazing years between then and 2001, when Mika left. I dropped out again in 2003, sick of watching a certain Red car win. I came back in 2005, when I heard he didn't win so much anymore. I'm sure I'll watch it for life, with a short break from it here and there...
when I was a young boy my dad was driving near Chullora in Sydney when we got rear-ened after he stopped at a stop sign. I was expecting him to come back from the exchanges a bit miffed, instead he was smiling and said "you won't believe who just hit us ..... Jack Brabham !!" I went home and checked up to find Jack had already won his first WDC by then Hence why I am so protective of Jack and his accomplishments and my belief even the best can have an off day
I can relate to that ^ apart from speedvision. Andreas great photos, love the real old one.. And congrats on 30k posts!!
Fantastic pics Andreas! My earliest F1 memory is the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix when James Hunt became champion. I watched it with my Grandad - I'm sure it wasn't live. I was already a fan of Ferraris and had a few small model cars that I played with. It was in 1976 that I realised that there were other Ferraris that raced in F1! I have been hooked since then.
My dad took me to the Questor Grand Prix at Ontario Motor Speedway when I was six. Mario won in a 312B Ferrari. That did it for me... http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGdSMhv9JMG0AAXQ9XNyoA?ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701&p=1971+questor+grand+prix&rs=0&fr2=rs-top
Very good point. In 1980 I travelled to the British GP at Brands Hatch. I had the shot I took of Jones in Hockenheim with me as a huge poster. When I did the pit walk (remember those?) one of the Williams mechanics saw the poster and asked me whether I wanted to get it signed by Jones. Imagine that! And to my total surprise he waved me into the garage, past the WDC leading Williams, let me take a picture of it (the mere thought of doing that today is insane) and took me behind the garage to Jones' RV. There he went inside, Jones signed while I saw his shadow through the tinted window. F1's currently elitist status towards its fans is idiotic and maybe something that changes once Bernie is gone. PS: Thanks all for your kind words and for sharing your stories on how you got hooked. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great thread and thank you all for sharing your historical photos. I did not learn about F1 until the mid-1980's, and has been a fan ever since. I still have not had a chance to attend a GP yet but if FIA does bring back the US GP @ Austin, I will for sure try to make it to that one.
Me, too! I so much loved when they had Jackie hooked up to a mic while driving - Jim'd pass it over to the see in-car lap demo featuring the one with the brogue . . . "Hello, this is Jackie Stewart! I'm driving on the . . . " . . . that I've done the same when calling from car to certain people, making sure to emphasize status of hand placement on steering wheel.
I stumbled on F1 in the eighties while channel surfing. The sound of those engines was unearthly, the cars could change direction like nothing I'd ever seen. For me it's about the machines. I'm no longer a "fan". The machines could be so much better today if it weren't for the sake of the show.
Great story Andreas! Congrats on 30K! I have been watching F1 since I was atleast six. My first memory of F1 was Senna's death. I remember watching it with my dad. Sad first memory. Finally got to go to a race in '07. F1 is awesome and I don't miss a session. Alex
I have some old R&T magazines from the 80's with some good GP reports, I need to dig them up for old time sakes.
Been a car nut from day 1 (almost literally if family lore is to be believed) but first exposure to F1 was the Wide World of Sports taped Monaco GPs
Followed F1 from the year when Sheckter won ('79), as a 9 year old in South Africa that was way cool. Our TV coverage was sporadic, they would have it for a couple years, then skip a few years. Cant say I got passionate about it, but I supported Senna til he died. Then the turning point, told to go to Adelaide for a conference at the last minute when my boss' wife had a kid. Happened to be November 1995, the weekend of the last Adelaide Grand Prix. As it turned our we had tickets from our host, to the race on Sunday. Then it turned out he owned Clipsal, a major sponsor ... cant remember his name, maybe Rob something? So we get there in a bus, and get escorted to our seats: VIP marque on the roof of the pits, ABOVE the Ferrari pit! I was hooked from the second the first engine started. This was Schumi's last race for Benetton, and when he moved to Ferrrari to resurrect the under-dogs I become a die hard Schumi (now Ferrari) fanatic. Been to 5 GPs since including Schumis last race for Ferrari, when I also got to go to Sennas grave. Owned a Ferrari for the last 7 years, been to the factory twice, and have met Massa; probably all down to a random chance to go to a work conference 15 years ago!
I attended 1963 Le Mans when I was 10...I was already an F1 fanatic and then an endurance prototype fan, too. Followed racing closely through the mid 70's when my career got in the way, and I eventually turned into a casual follower with occasional detailed updates from people I turned into zealots years earlier that continued to almost starve in order to follow the circus. By the mid nineties, my motorsports interests shifted to motorcycle racing and only recently have I reignited an interest in F1. I have plans to hit Europe hard next year for F1, WSBK and MotoGP raceing, along with everything else Europe has to offer an American on a motorsports binge.
