Y’all know the saying: Can another year have slipped by already? (Hmm? Can this issue of Racer Magazine I’ve had stuffed away really be five years old?) As it’s amazing to realize that it’s now 15 years since the tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna...
Thus I found it a tad bit ironic to hear Bob Varsha waxing on poetically about the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix, held in Aida, Japan during the recent Chinese GP SPEED TV coverage, when Messer Varsha pointed out that it was now 15 years since Formula 1’s current elder statesman Rubens Barrichello had scored his very first F1 podium... Along with pointing out that the track had named a corner in honour of a certain Mister David Hobbs...
And I know that I watched that Pacific GP race... Yet I have absolutely zero recollections of it, as for reasons unknown I find it more ‘N more interesting in what we tend to keep filed away upon our cerebral hard drives, eh? As I’ve previously scribbled about my one and only encounter with the almighty Senna.
May Day
And as other generations can vividly recall where they were upon JFK’s Assassination, or when Neil Armstrong planted his foot upon that silty surface known to Mankind as the Moon... I find it somewhat strange that I can still vividly recall where I was the day that Senna died! And even more ironic that on that horrifically tragic weekend I wasn’t glued to the Telescreen, instead partaking in the very last Pantera Owners Club of America (POCA) event held on the Old Los Wages strip on Freemont Street instead... (As a guest of Roberto & Kimberly)
And yet, with “Ay-Arten’s” passing, I suppose it’s most ironic that Michael Schumacher’s very first career pole position didn’t occur until after Senna’s death... As two future multiple F1 World Champions named Herr Schumacher and the young Flying Finn Mika Hakkinen battled royale for the honours of P1 at Monaco a Fortnight later...
Thus I found it a tad bit ironic to hear Bob Varsha waxing on poetically about the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix, held in Aida, Japan during the recent Chinese GP SPEED TV coverage, when Messer Varsha pointed out that it was now 15 years since Formula 1’s current elder statesman Rubens Barrichello had scored his very first F1 podium... Along with pointing out that the track had named a corner in honour of a certain Mister David Hobbs...
And I know that I watched that Pacific GP race... Yet I have absolutely zero recollections of it, as for reasons unknown I find it more ‘N more interesting in what we tend to keep filed away upon our cerebral hard drives, eh? As I’ve previously scribbled about my one and only encounter with the almighty Senna.
May Day
And as other generations can vividly recall where they were upon JFK’s Assassination, or when Neil Armstrong planted his foot upon that silty surface known to Mankind as the Moon... I find it somewhat strange that I can still vividly recall where I was the day that Senna died! And even more ironic that on that horrifically tragic weekend I wasn’t glued to the Telescreen, instead partaking in the very last Pantera Owners Club of America (POCA) event held on the Old Los Wages strip on Freemont Street instead... (As a guest of Roberto & Kimberly)
And yet, with “Ay-Arten’s” passing, I suppose it’s most ironic that Michael Schumacher’s very first career pole position didn’t occur until after Senna’s death... As two future multiple F1 World Champions named Herr Schumacher and the young Flying Finn Mika Hakkinen battled royale for the honours of P1 at Monaco a Fortnight later...
