In the 70鈥檚 and early 80鈥檚 you could tune into ABC鈥檚 Wide World of Sports and hear Jim McKay talk about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I prayed that every week they would show just a little of Formula 1 and sometimes they did - rough editing, grainy footage and all too short segments at maybe 15 minutes long, the announcers recapping the whole race. The drivers just looked different, exotic, almost like rock stars. And they were, across the pond. Guys like Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt; these guys were heroes to people in every other country in the world except the US. But I loved them, their heroic exploits, their triumph and tragedy. As a teen living in Lexington KY; where did you get Formula 1 (F1) coverage? Road & Track was months behind in coverage due to its monthly format, ABC鈥檚 coverage was sporadic, so where could you turn?
I found a magazine, razor thin and published weekly, it was called Autoweek. I think I found the only place in Lexington that carried the magazine and spent my hard earned money every week on the latest edition. What I discovered was coverage that recapped the race one week after it happened. One week, it was like a God send. I would grab the issue, turn past the features section in the front and the ads in the middle to the motorsports section in the back of the magazine and immediately read the F1 coverage. There was this team, they drove black and gold cars and man鈥hey were the coolest looking race cars ever! And they had technology, the first ground effects cars, meaning they used an inverted airplane like wing to actually suck the car to the track for better handling. There were the Lotus 77 and 78 and I loved the drivers, Mario Andretti and Ronnie Petersen. I was actually at the Italian GP in 78 when Ronnie had that horrific accident that later claimed his life.
We knew something was wrong when we saw the column of rising smoke and the noticed that the cars moved past at a much reduced speed, the race already black flagged. I had moved to Italy and discovered there were whole magazines dedicated to F1, like Autosprint, in Italian no less. It forced me to learn how to read Italian a bit faster than normal; that is if I wanted to understand what was written. And the Italian press dissected the race down to the individual lap. There was this other team, a small outfit, underfunded but plucky, run by the scrappy duo of Frank Williams and Patrick Head. I pointed them out to my step-dad. He scoffed, saying they would never win a race鈥ver. But they had this new sponsor, Saudia Airlines and they gave Williams a lot of blank checks, with only one instruction - Win. Well Williams Engineering did go on to win a couple of races and a few driver鈥檚 championships and constructor鈥檚 championships along the way. He was wrong, very wrong and I enjoyed reminding him of that鈥very chance I got.
Their drivers were my drivers and I loved all of them: Alan Jones, Kiki Rosberg, Carlos Reutemann, and of course Nigel Mansell. Ahh, Nigel, the British Lion, Red 5, the Policeman from the Isle of Mann. He was my favorite driver of all times. I would live and die based on how he did in a race. It was amazing to watch, his natural rivals, Alain Prost and Aryton Senna would spring from their cars, looking fresh, ready to go again. I actually took a picture of Senna doing a summersault coming down from the podium at the 1991 US GP in Phoenix. But not Nigel, sometimes he would have to be helped from his car. He gave every race all he had, there was nothing left at the end, he鈥檇 left it out there on the track. Bathed in sweat, he wrung every ounce of performance from the car and himself. He was my F1 hero. I will say that the one thing that has changed watching F1 has been Speed TV. Man I love those announcers, Bob Varsha with the play by play, the sardonic David Hobbs and the former F1 team mechanic Steve Machett providing color.
These guys have been together for years and it shows; they really know the sport. But let me tell a quick story. Sometimes Speed cannot carry a particular race for some silly reason or another. It fell to another network, I think ABC had it and they had some other announcers calling the race. What I recall was some TV personality named Jason Priestly (remember he used to be on Beverly Hills 90201 and maybe did a celebrity race or two in a Toyota) being pulled in as the 鈥渃olor鈥?guy. This 鈥渃ar-guy鈥?had absolutely no idea about any of the inside aspect or knowledge of F1. Besides focusing on what earrings the driver鈥檚 girlfriend was wearing, they showed little of the actual race action. I remember that at one point a particular driver was running away with the race and most of the front runners where on Michelin shod tires and all the Bridgestone shod teams were way back in the pack鈥ay back.