Coach’s favorite races: Monaco Grand Prix 1976 Car News

You know you’re working in a nice (admittedly remote) office when an email for writers’ favorite errands is sent and all responses arrive in under five minutes.

Spanning the world and a lot of different eras, it’s amazing to see what memories stand out, whether it’s the individual performances of the pilots or the little details like how a pilot cocked his head in a corner. . There’s even a near-riot in NASCAR on our list.

Let us know which was your favorite in the comments below.

Monaco Grand Prix 1976

My favorite race will always be the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix, the first F1 race I have ever seen. Until then, the only top-level race I had witnessed was on TV, so seeing the Monaco circuit live for the first time (I took the tour) was a mind-blowing experience for a born boy. in one of those flat, arid Australians. spaces in the hinterland where no one is building roads “because there is nothing there”.

The race was an amazing and bewildering eruption of noise and color (even for someone who had watched some good local Bathurst saloon races). Notice, the competition itself was not very close.

Winner Niki Lauda was at the peak of his abilities (it was three races before his life-changing crash at the Nürburgring), and his Ferrari and six-wheeled Tyrrell of Jody Scheckter, second, held the only competition. valid, circulating at 10 second intervals. Everyone was at least a minute away from the pace at the finish.

What I remember best is the supernatural howl of the Ferrari engine bouncing off the walls of Monaco and what seemed, even then, the cars’ impossible speeds. I found a privileged place hours earlier. Watching the finish straight, I kept rapturously drinking in excitement until a few minutes before the start, when I was pushed unceremoniously in the behind by an old man in a suit with a stick. shooting.

I recognized him instantly in books and photographs as a famous car man: former driver and co-founder of ERA and BRM, Raymond Mays. He looked very pissed off. “I’m still standing here,” he asserted, indicating my point of view and clearly not caring at all that I had taken a stand hours ago.

I wondered for a second what to say, then it came to me in a flash. “Not this year, mate,” I said.