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From the dusty book shelves of Tomaso Manor, the
jacket cover to Meine Story, the autobiography of Niki Lauda. (TTC)
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As I'm sure Y'all know about the much
publicized Formula 1 movie titled RUSH, not to be 'Cornfuzed with thee Power
Trio, aka RUSh from Up North Eh! but instead the Ron Howard movie about James
Hunt v Niki Lauda for the 1976 F1 world championship Driver's crown which
finally opened nationwide this past Friday...
And I've known about "Niki-the-Rat"
since beginning my Formula 1 indoctrination circa 1986, albeit Niki had already
left the pinnacle 'O motorsports, having decided to retire for good upon the
completion of the 1985 season, which he'd spent frustratingly defending as the
reigning world champion vs. upstart McLaren teammate "The Professor,"
aka Alain Prost.
'Wayback, probably some 20+ years ago when I
could still read books, I feverishly read a 'lil gem titled Meine Story, the
autobiography of Niki's life up to that point, detailing his triumphs 'N
tragedy - from the brink of being given last rights to going onto claim another
two drivers world championship titles along with turning his back upon Il Commendatore, nee Enzo
Ferrari who
seemingly considered Lauda weak for having pulled out of the 1976 Japanese
Grand Prix, hence giving his nemesis Hunt that year's drivers crown by one lone
solitary point! Which Y'all know is now documented in 'lil Ronnie Howard's excellante
film...
As it's funny how I've felt that Niki is a pompous
ARSE for a number of years now, I suppose ever since he sent Jaguar F1 into its
inevitable tailspin, as say what Yuhs want to 'bout "Booby Ruble,"
(Bobby Rahal) but; he was pretty spot-on in his failed attempt to spirit away
Adrian Newey, eh?
Yet you can't say alls bad towards Lauda, I
mean after all he did win the world championship twice for la Scuderia... As
I've even seen a few of his ex-Formula 1 rides in action at both Monterey and
Sonoma's "Hysterical's," nee Historics over the years... Hmm? might
even try pulling out a long, lost photograph I'd taken of his No. 11 racecar, I
believe?
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| A very old photograph of a Clay Regazzoni Ferrari at Monterey Historics? (TTC) |
'Whale Otay, actually I'm pretty amazed I
could even find this photo squirreled away at Tomaso Manor since I'd taken it
'Wayback in 1994 at the Monterey Historics when Ferrari was the honoured
marque. As the No. 11 was actually 'Regga's, nee Clay Regazzoni's
car with Niki's being the number 12 - as I think this is the 1975 312T?, which
hopefully some sharp eyed Ferrarista will correct me upon? Although I know for
sure I've seen Lauda's No. 12 and 1976 312T2 No. 1 in action over the years...
Thus, it was interesting to see how an
Englishman's perspective towards these
two protagonist's was when he was just a 'Wee lad of four years old that
summer at Brands Hatch where they dueled Hammer 'N Tongs just weeks prior to
Lauda's near death accident...
As I hope to have my RUSH movie review posted
shortly...
Book cover image and 'Regga racecar photo courtesy
of The Tomaso Collection (TTC)
