Tour de France

[Fax]

Rick,
You were at Zolder in '81?  Jesus was that weekend a disaster!
Did you see the startline fiasco where Luckett got clobbered between Patrese & Stohr? Pironi was the only one who had the sense to get that race aborted.  Very sad win for Carlos.
Fax

[Mr. Rick]

Crikey Fax, I'd forgotten about that! Good memory!

I watched the start from just after the first left hander before they doubled back around the lake. Went for a good old wander after that and memories of the fiasco finish were such that when we boarded the tour coach to go home, no one seemed really sure who had won.

Mansell I think finished 3rd, which was (if the old grey cells serve me well) was his highest finish to that date. There was even talk that he might have won as nobody seemed sure where the race had been officially halted.

It was a sad event indeed. I didn't return the following year (impending A levels), but that one obviously was also sadly a tragic event with the loss of Gilles V on the Saturday.

[Fax]

Rick,
I vividly remember watching that race on Sunday afternoon here in the States (on tape delay obviously) I remember that Jonesy had a huge shunt that day as well and had his leg badly scalded when the contents of his shattered radiator were emptied into his cockpit.  They used to randomly broadcast the races on what was called CBS Sports Spectacular.  They never listed if & when they were showing the races, you just had to tune in and hope for the best.  I was just a couple of weeks away from my high school graduation at the time (18 years old).  My favorite memory from the CBS-SS days was the time I went looking for the '79 French GP and much to my delight ever since...it was shown.   Maybe still the single most exciting race I've ever seen, on TV or in person.  Got a buddy here in Cincy who went to the '79 GP at Zolder and really loves the place.  He's got a great photo of him sitting in front of the pit straight in a sea of Stella bottles.
John

[Mr. Rick]

We must be about the same ripe "old" age then as I was a few weeks shy of my 17th at the time and also of my first LM too (my birthday was on the race Saturday that year and remember waking my Dad up on the ferry over at 3am in the morning to remind him I was now 17!! Wonder why he didn't wish me happy birthday at the time?).

For my 18th (1982), that was my "finals" year (A levels) and my exams fell neatly a few days either side of Le Mans that year, so managed to still go!

It was always a nightmare to actually follow the race in those days if you were actually at the track, especially on foreign soil. That applies to both Zolder and Le Mans and in fact virtually any other European circuit I guess. Particularly at LM pre-radio days. We'd get about 5 mins of English summary every hour on the half hour and it was a case of tough tittie if anything vaguely powerful went past - no chance of hearing what was going on.

Zolder was/is indeed a great circuit but haven't been back since unfortunately.

Cheers

Rick

[Fax]

Meister,
Sounds like were of the same vintage (and rose tinted glasses)  seriously, those were great days.  I always loved Le Mans since the early seventies but had to content myself with ten seconds of highlight footage on the local news until my issue of Autosport arrived at the bookseller...3 weeks later, if I was lucky.  I've still got the 1981 LM issue with the Ickx/Bell Jules 936 on the cover and the headline "Jacky Does It!" the race was in June and I think I finally received it the first week in August.  Was like a kid on Christmas morning though.  Our Buddy Ricardo's been making the journey about the same length of time as you.
John

[Mr. Rick]

Our Buddy Ricardo's been making the journey about the same length of time as you.

Yeah, gets kind of addictive!! Only missed one year since then!

I've got most of the Autosport issues with their Le Mans coverage back to when they started in 1951 (few missing in the 50s & 60s and also the last few years). Got all the Brooklands Books with the magazine reports in but it's not the same as reading the actual mag with all the other little snippets in the news pages.

All I can say is that I have a very tolerant/understanding wife and kids!  

Cheers

Rick

[hgb]

Got a buddy here in Cincy who went to the '79 GP at Zolder and really loves the place.

I was there one year prior to that. Mario Andretti won the race and the title in that year.

[Fax]

Ah yes HGB,
I remember that weekend as well. I was in Indy all weekend.  Mario was caught in a somewhat tricky situation as the Zolder GP and the first weekend of qualifying for the Indy 500 were the same weekend.  Mario originally was going to try and Concorde it back and forth, qualify at Zolder then scramble to Indy, qualify his Penske then jet back to Zolder for the race.  In the end he decided to bag that idea and Penske Racing had Mike Hiss qualify the car for him and Mario just stayed in Belgium.  Good thing he did too, it was the race debut for Black Beauty and he led from pole, never pressed and won flag to flag.  Storming drive that day by Peterson as well.
John