Best/Worst racing memories

[00steven]

Didn't really know where to put this topic so just decided to put it here in the chit chat forum.

My question is, what are your best and worst racing memories?

For me I don't really have a clear cut fav but a great one would be when Bobby Labonte won his cup championship. Or when David Reutimann won his two races. And as for worst, I'd say any time there has been a fatility in racing. We've had some great people lose their lives.

So how about you? Look forward to seeing all your different answers.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

A few moments stand out for me.

Best:
Hill winning his WDC in 1996
Mansell racing at Donington in BTCC 1998
Hamilton winning on the last corner of 2008
Button winning the first race for Brawn in 2009

Wost:
Apart from the fatalities I would go for the US GP of 2005 with the Michelin farce.

[Rani]

Worst: Having a stomach ache after seeing Greg Moore's crash and just knowing he won't make it.

Best: Seeing Rossi and Sete's dogfights a few seasons ago.

[Jag_Warrior]

The best: when Senna won his second WDC at Suzuka by showing Jean-Marie Balestre and the world that he didn't take no... stuff!!! ;)

The worst: that dark day at Imola in May of 1994. It was a long, long time before I could watch a race again and not think of that horrible day. But Ayrton died while leading. And that's how I remember that day now. As far as I'm concerned, he won that race. He was born a winner and he died a winner. :up:

Good thread topic, BTW.

[Easy Drifter]

Best: qualifying on front row at Mosport beside 2 McLarens and having other McLarens and Lolas plus a bunch of full 2 litre cars behind me with an 1100 cc Elva. It was raining. Organizers threw out qualifying times and set grid by displacement as it was dry for the race. Darn it, although I would have been happy to be in front of the 2 litre cars but not the big boys.
Worst Gilles' death, although I actually knew far too many who died and raced against several.

[BDunnell]

Best: The 1985 RAC Rally (I know the thread says 'racing', but never mind) was sensationally good.

Worst: Difficult. The whole of the Imola weekend in 1994 and the events in rallying of 1986 are hard to separate in terms of the dreadful nature of a series of appallingly coincidental happenings.

[Captain VXR]

Best: Seeing Giovanardi take the BTCC championship live at Thruxton

Worst: Dunno really

[MrJan]

I've gone for ones that I've seen live, rather than on the telly, simply because they stick in my mind more. I also seem to have picked a top 3 for each, although they aren't really in any specific order.

Best:
1)Seeing Colin McRae for the first time, completely flat chat and sideways.
2)Marshalling at the Rally Stage on the FoS and getting to see Seb Loeb drive the stage 5 times (without having seen it before or with notes), each time going quicker than before.
3)Sat at Tetre Rouge at about 3am with my brother (no one else in sight) and a few beers, watching GT40s and some lairy Morgans in the 2006 Le Mans Classic.

Worst:
1)snVvyfAhcuA
I'm the bloke rolling around on the floor in the blue coat, at around 10 seconds.
2)Also seeing Lyndon Barton have a huge accident up on Epynt, the sort of crash that you aren't sure if the person will make it. Made worse by the fact that I was stood near David Kynaston who had broken his neck on Epynt the previous year.
3)Finally, spinning backwards through the timing gear on a sprint earlier this season. It's strangely terrifying when you come to a stop and just see the equipment lying on the floor. Thankfully that was all sorted with no problems, but I was s**tting myself for a bit.

[Mark]

Best: The 1985 RAC Rally (I know the thread says 'racing', but never mind) was sensationally good.


I would say the 1995 RAC Rally. McRae and Sainz level on points and then McRae gets a puncture and falls way back but fights back to win the rally and the World Championship. I had just started watching motorsport back then and it was amazing! Back when the 'RAC' was a proper rally, was 4 days long and you got nightly updates on BBC as well as live coverage on the Sunday afternoon. It was bascailly the final RAC rally too, it was never the same again.

Other ones are of course Damon Hill winning in 1996. I'd just started university and we went around to a friends student flat in the middle of the night, when the cameras cut to Villeneuve in the wall, which meant that Hill had won, the place just erupted!

Then Hamilton's win in 2008. Sitting with my Mum (who never normally watches the races) screaming at the TV in the final few seconds as first Massa crossed the line to become WDC for a few seconds and then Hamilton completed his pass of Glock, never seen anything like it before or since!

[markabilly]

best was Riverside in 1967, walking through the pits and garage for the two days before the race and the second was 1967 watkins glen, where we did not go walking around in the pits before the race, but got in afterwards....and then there were some races I won

but riverside was the magic moment for me as it was the hook that i shall never forget (and turning down Paul Newman's offer to sign my racing program because he was not a racing driver, but just some actor)


worst: Jim Clark's death in 1968. It meant to me there was no one who was immortal in F1, no hero who you knew could take on the world and live happily ever after. And all those many deaths of Mclaren and the rest afterwards, just pounded that fact into my brain.

[wedge]

Best: Mansell vs. Senna "wheel to wheel stuff" down the main straight at the 1992 Spanish GP

Worst: Greg Moore's fatal crash at California Speedway. Still miss you RIP.

[schmenke]

Best:
Jacques Villeneuve's win at the Indy 500 in 1995, his rookie year.

Worst:
The death of his father in 1982 :(

[markabilly]

Best: Mansell vs. Senna "wheel to wheel stuff" down the main straight at the 1992 Spanish GP

Worst: Greg Moore's fatal crash at California Speedway. Still miss you RIP.
Yes, Greg Moore was the last professional racing driver I spent time speaking with, at a Denny's of all places.....nice guy, and maybe cause i was not bugging him or nothing, we had a nice chat, and then given some of his comments, finally figured out who he was. Funny, was that I thought he did not look like the photos i had seen nor act like some big time, big deal racer, so I went back and double checked the photos to be sure. Last thing I said was be safe, and he said, always.... :(

Then there was Scott Speed about a couple of years ago in the garage area after a truck practice. My battery in the cell phone had died, and I asked if he had the time, and he looked at me like i had spit in his face and stomped off; did not recognize him as he was in sort of street type clothes and when I looked around, someone said that was, Scottnot Speed, I had spoken to, BINGO, so when i said some of these guys would not give you the time of the day, well I can point to him!!!

Just as well, because if I had known who he was, I would have asked my hero if he still painted his toenails pink, like he was quoted in some magazine. :rolleyes:

The pity is that Gregg Moore never took up F1, because I am convinced he would have been a big success.

Another great moment was listening to Troy Blayliss explain that he did not ride a bike on the street because it was so dangerous and scary!! This was another casual conversation with a couple of people sitting at a Denny's in Monterey.....Could not help but notice his hand was very swollen from an accident, so he had to race without using his clutch that year at Seca and very limited or no grip in that hand, where he won one of the WSB races going over 180 mph down the front straight.....

[F1boat]

Best - the world championship wins of Hill in 1996 and Hakkinen in 1998, Michael winning the 2006 Chinese GP
Worst - Greg Moore's awful crash. RIP

[Rudy Tamasz]

The best would be Hill winning the title and then winning the race at Spa in '98.

The worst was getting the news of Dale Earnhardt's death. I don't know why, I've never been a fan of his or even NASCAR in general but that struck me pretty badly.

Adelaide '94 comes second after that.

[wedge]

Yes, Greg Moore was the last professional racing driver I spent time speaking with, at a Denny's of all places.....nice guy, and maybe cause i was not bugging him or nothing, we had a nice chat, and then given some of his comments, finally figured out who he was. Funny, was that I thought he did not look like the photos i had seen nor act like some big time, big deal racer, so I went back and double checked the photos to be sure. Last thing I said was be safe, and he said, always.... :(

There was something very genuine about Greg Moore that was so appealing. Racing is a macho sport and a guy who was as hard racer with little ego to spare and so much warmth.

The guys at Ilmor told me he seemed like someone so unique. The general feeling was this kid wanted to cross the Atlantic to visit a factory in a middle of nowhere, wanted to find out more about the car and powerplant he was driving, not at the insistence of people like Roger Penske, Gerald Forsythe, Mario Ilien, Paul Morgan or Norbet Haug but because love and attention to detail.

[Bob Riebe]

Best: Warren Agor making up fifteen seconds in three laps at the '74 Road America Trans-Am ready to pass Peter Gregg for the win at the last corner of the last lap.

Worst: An also-ran Porsche moving over to let Peter Gregg by on the last corner of the last lap, at the '74 Road America Trans-Am, then quickly moving back in front of and blocking Warren Agor, costing Agor the win by .1 of a second.

Jerry Titus death from a crash at the '70 Road America Trans-Am.

[dwboogityfan]

My best moment was being at the 2008 and 2010 Daytona 500's. Seeing those great races live was very special.
Other great moments were that last lap of the 2008 Brazilian GP, thinking Lewis had blown it and then the joy of seeing him pass Glock and Dale Earnhardt finally winning the Daytona 500 in 1998.
Worst moments were the deaths of Senna, Moore and Earnhardt. Particularly with Greg's accident. Was on holiday in Florida at the time and only put the race on while the rest of the family were at the swimming pool. As soon as I saw the accident I felt sick to my stomach - particularly with it being days after the death of another of my favourite sportsman, the golfer Payne Stewart.

[Mark in Oshawa]

For me? Seeing Villeneuve win the WDC despite Schuey being a suck and trying to run him off the road at Jerez. I also put seeing Jackie Stewart win the Canadian GP at Mosport in 72?(in the rain)...I was 6 or 7..so forgive me not knowing the exact year!.

Also, seeing Mark Martin, my favourite NASCAR shoe win 3 consecutive years at the Glen, and Seeing any one of Ron Fellow's wins in NASCAR...and yes, last but not least, seeing PT win Toronto not once but TWICE....the roar the crowd had THAT day was special.

The worst?

Being in timing and scoring in 85 when we heard of a bad crash in 2 at Mosport (where I watched that first Canadian GP and got my love of racing)and hearing about Winklehock's passing. Seeing the torn up 956 with the front just shoved in proved to me that no one could survive that....

Watching Greg Moore pass away before my eyes...hearing about Villeneuve's crash in practice at Zolder on the radio and hearing he was dead...and it was raining...and I thought, my god, this matches my mood...

Hearing about ole number 3 or Senna dying was distressing, because you don't expect Supermen like those two to find their kryptonite...but somehow I was detached.

That said, the worst day? My spectating outside of corner 3 at the Molson Indy when Jeff Krosnoff's body was attached to the seat and not much else as it tumbled to a stop. Hearing about course worker injuries and the death of Gary Avrin ripped my heart out. Seeing marshal's crying at what usually is a whale of a party after the race tore the heart out of me and this with Moore's death made me question racing.

Not Earnhardt or Senna...they were too far away...but in the case of Moore, I met him when he ran Ford's, and knowing a fellow volunteered died at that dark day in Toronto, it was far more personalized. Seeing Krosnoff's body still strapped to the seat and not much else scared me...because I was 15 yards away and knew I was looking at a dead man...

[ZEROX]

The best .

- Kobayashi battles with Button (Brazil and Abu Dhabi GP 2009)

The worst .

- Red Bull Racing duo crash out at Turkey GP 2010.

[raybak]

The best for me - 2007 winning Australian Rally Championship Class P3

The worst - being there at Targa West in 2006 when Brocky died. Lost all respect for the media that day. It's nearly 4 years since he died, a big loss to motorsport.

Ray

[markabilly]

That said, the worst day? .....made me question racing.
.....

stuuf like this heard from a distance of newspaper and other media causes me too question it as well, far too often