Spa 1998 - another exciting race

Anthony_Ferrari · Sep 10, 2008

Got this from http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_feature_item.php?fes_art_id=35908
It's written by Mark Gallagher who I believe was the commercial manager for Jordon back then:

F1nvestor - A Race To Remember

09/09/2008

The Belgian Grand Prix, Spa Francorchamps. Take the best race track in the world, throw in the local microclimatic with its inevitable splash of rain with exciting racing, dramatic incidents and accidents, and you have a race never to be forgotten. Even if the ultimate winner was, well, unexpected.

Forgive me for embarking on a reverie of recollection and reminiscence but, Spa, ten years ago was no less exciting than the last few laps of last Sunday's event; the only difference was that the result was settled on the track, undisputed and good for the sport..

It is a full decade since that day, when, against all the odds, Benson and Hedges Total Jordan (for that was its name) scored a famous 1-2 victory, Damon Hill leading home Ralf Schumacher (remember him?) in what was surely the most dramatic, unexpected race the famous track nestling in the heart of the Ardennes had ever produced.

In the ten years since, much has happened. Formula One has changed. Only two teams have won all of the races held there since - McLaren and Ferrari - for on this track of tracks, where drivers enjoy the topography of the earth rather than the computer generated curves of the modern genre of circuits, the infinite detail of the aerodynamicist, the vehicle dynamics experts and their cohorts come into their own.

Only the weather can prove a leveller these days and, as on Sunday when a dash of rain a few laps from home brought us to our collective feet, Spa in 1998 gave us a race few can forget. Especially if you worked for Jordan.

I've often been asked about that day, what it felt like, or else been told how lucky we were that the conditions played into our hands. But it really wasn't like that. If ever you want to answer the question of 'how good Damon Hill was?' you need only look at that event. And I don't mean the race.

McLaren's main man dominated qualifying on Saturday. In that respect at least F1 hasn't changed. Hakkinen it was, with DC following up, and they locked out the front row. Third, however, was available and I remember watching as Damon embarked upon his final qualifying shot, the sector times coming up on our screens as the former World Champion powered his way through Eau Rouge, Les Combes, Malmedy, Rivage, Pouhon. Behind, ominously, drove Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari.

Damon, it seemed, was doomed to crushing defeat by the German, and yet. And yet it didn't happen. Damon's last sector, as I recall, nailed Michael's time to the wall and the yellow Jordan burst across the finish line in third, splitting the McLarens from the Ferrari's. It was, quite simply, astonishing.

Astonishing, not because Damon had pulled it off, but because a mere three months earlier he had managed to finish two laps behind Hakkinen in Monte Carlo, and one second ahead of Shinji Nakano's Minardi (remember him). It was a low-point. The first half of the season, indeed, had produced about as much as a Steward asked to explain a decision. Rien, nada, nothing. Fxxk all, as Eddie Jordan was want to say. Until Ralf Schumacher's sixth in Silverstone had got us off the ground, with a solitary point.

The Belgian race, as aficionados will remember, saw drama follow drama. DC provoked the pile-up to end all pile-ups on the run down from La Source, prompting a restart. The carnage was complete. Except at Jordan, where Damon and Ralf had somehow, someway, managed to steer their Jordan-Mugen Honda 198's through the ricocheting cars and debris to emerge undamaged and ready for another opportunity.

Damon, of course, took it, and in style, powering between the two McLarens to take the lead. And take the fight to the McLaren/Ferrari duopoly. Naturally it didn't last long, particularly once Schumi got into his stride, but Spa didn't let us down. The Ferrari legend was too fast for the conditions, and certainly too fast to notice DC's McLaren in the mist and spray. The resulting impact left Schumi with three wheels, enough to warrant that this was one race Ferrari would not win. Irrespective of the Stewards.

You may remember Schumi angrily stalking his way to McLaren's garage where he wanted to have a show down with his Scottish rival, but for those of us at Jordan there were more important things to do. Nails to bite.

Into the closing stages Damon led, with Ralf in second but on a better set-up for the conditions and reluctant to leave his team mate in the lead. Communication was established, instructions issued, but Ralf delayed responding; until finally accepting second best. It was a brave decision, but the right one. Right for the team, who deserved this win, and right for Damon, who had done a magnificent job and laid to rest the accusations of those who said he'd only won the World Championship by virtue of having had the best car. A year earlier only a stupid technical failure had prevented him from winning the Hungarian Grand Prix for Arrows and Tom Walkinshaw (remember them?) but now, on this track of tracks, Damon won a grand prix in not-a-Williams. A Jordan.

For the last few laps we were dogged by none other than Jean Alesi, the man whose career was due largely to Eddie Jordan, in a Sauber. Ten years later Heidfeld might well have scored a podium for the same team, now under BMW auspices, but in 1998 a Sauber running third was as unexpected as two Jordans leading the field. Jean, with all his Latin temperament, was capable of anything, including taking one of our cars off, so the tension was extreme.

We need not have worried, for Damon reeled off the laps and the 1-2 was secured in a roar from the team, the fans and commentators. It was extraordinary. Not the 'extraordinary' that our TV commentators yell at us every race, every week, thus rendering 'extraordinary' meaningless, but in the genuine meaning. It was out of the ordinary.

Let me share some insights.

This was the first time a team had scored its maiden win with a 1-2. It would be ten years, and fall to BMW Sauber, to repeat the feat in Montreal 2008.

It was the first time that Jordan had decided to invite all its staff to a race. The factory outing meant that the majority of people who never get to share in the apparent glamour, glory and glitz of travelling with the team were there. For the first win.

It was also a race where we hosted our fan club. I had started Jordan fan club trips to Spa the previous year. They would gather at our Silverstone factory on the Friday, undertake a tour of our headquarters, and then coach to Spa.

Then there were the sponsors.

For reasons only Fate could understand, we had the bosses of Benson and Hedges, MasterCard, Lucent and Pearl Assurance present. They'd all come. I recall hugging Nigel Northridge (above), CEO of Benson and Hedges parent company. We didn't hug often. But we did that day.

And then there was the team; not only the euphoria felt by Eddie Jordan in securing his first World Championship victory, but among those who had been with him from day one. Ian Phillips et al.

As EJ skipped and jumped his way into the waiting minibus to take him to the podium ceremony, the celebrations started. Celebrations that would last for days, yet leave memories for a life time.

Damon's win, in a Jordan, went down very well.

For Mugen Honda it was a breakthrough moment, paving the way for further triumphs with Jordan in France and Italy the following season; incredibly to become three of the four victories scored by a Honda branded car or engine in the last ten years.

It was also the occasion on which Maurice Hamilton, one of F1's very best journalists, had chosen to travel to a race with a truckie, and his story of the journey home from Spa, in a bright yellow Jordan truck hooted and waved at by motorists throughout Belgium, France and England, was emotive.

So too was the dinner we enjoyed at the Le Plein Vent Hotel near Les Combes that evening. EJ and the drivers had disappeared, so around 20 of us gathered for dinner, the winning trophy in the centre of the table, and enjoyed a victory meal. Richard Surface, boss of Pearl Assurance, joined us and wrote the cheque to open the wine cellar; and so it flowed.

I called Gary Anderson on my mobile phone, Jordan's famous technical director and designer not present at the race after departing for a sabbatical from which he would not return, and after congratulating him I handed the phone to our chief mechanic Andy Stevenson. We were a team in the thrall of success.

The following morning we would travel home via a British Airways flight from Brussels, the team invited to board the team before anyone else. The world, it seemed, was delighted for us.

Ten years ago. Not long in a life time, but long in Formula One history, and an eternity for some. EJ's first team win came one month after Mike Gascoyne had joined us, with Sam Michael engineering Ralf Schumacher's car and Damon's overseen by a certain Dino Toso. The same Dino Toso, most recently of Renault F1, who died three weeks ago after a long and brave battle against cancer.

It was a day to remember, a race which would embed itself in the memory of many people, some great and good, mostly average Joes, for whom on this day, at this race, in Spa, victory was complete.

Much has changed in ten years. Jordan is gone, Spa's unique curves have changed, Formula One is unrecognisable in many respects. Yet, still the racing can be dramatic, the incidents controversial, the winners celebrated.

Such a shame the results are no longer decided on the track.

Mark Gallagher
[email protected]
Click to expand...

SPEEDCORE · Sep 10, 2008

Wow another whining pom with an awesome punch line at the end, who would of guess'd

No longer on the track? Fark everyone has short memory span in F1.

What happened on Oct 22 1989?!??!?!

*Drumroll* Senna was DISQUALIFIED AFTER WINNING THE RACE!! for CUTTING A CORNER!!! and DANGEROUS DRIVING!!
OMG!! IT HAPPENED B4 2008 OMG!! How does Mark Gallagher not remember one of the most talked about races in the history of F1?!?!?!?!

So exactly what era was Mark talking about 1756?

Actually going by that Lewis got off lightly, he should of got DQ!!!!!

I will agree about the world was happy to see Jordan win. I was at the very next race and the talk of the town was all good about Jordan even us tifosi were cheering Ralf to pass Hakk, DC on the other hand he had to walk back to the pits and was boo'd all the way back, at least he took it in his stride smiling and waving

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Spa 1998 - another exciting race

Anthony_Ferrari Formula 3

SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

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