Totally Untested, but Highly Quotable

Thinking about it, I figure that we (I) needed a place to put those jewels of wisdom, and philosophy from those past, and present participants in our great sport.

Okay, I'll start with my #1 favoritest. ;)

Graham Hill, explaining why he remained motionless for several moments after a wreck during qualifying at Indy in 1966:

"Well, when one is involved in a motor racing accident, and one hears tremendous noise and crashing, and smell of rubber and fuel, one must be very careful, for the silence at the end can be tricky.
It may mean that you're airborne"


:eek:
 
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After Moss and Fangio in my youth, he was part of my ' 2nd generation ' of racing heros, Francois Cevert.

The most famous of his quotes that I always remember:

"You must make a choice. Whether to lead the life you enjoy, accepting it can get you killed, or to do something else which will bore you. Myself, I am not yet ready to be bored."

And he never was until that tragic day of Oct 6, 1973 at Watkins Glen.

There's another quote by him and as a post pubescent teen ager really IMPRESSED me!

"I am never lonely. I have someone in my bed every night"

I met Francois once at the Laguna Seca Can Am race before I had heard the quote above. If you think PLN drove women nuts, you never saw Francois in person!

As he came walking toward me, my jaw dropped and I was stunned! I hate to admit this, but if I were a woman I'd be in his bed in a microsecond. He had the most piercing deep blue eyes (way more powerful then PLN's) I've ever seen on any human being and truly rugid good looks. With all the photos of him, I've never seen one that does justice to those eyes or his appearance. Despite those woman killer looks, he was also a really easy guy to talk to and appreciated his fans.

Yup, Stewart's Tyrrell lapping in our SOVREN events does remind me of Francois too
 
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Francois was one very cool dude! He was also a highly talented classic pianist in addition to his talent in a race car. I have a older F1 video documentary which he is part of, and his intense blue eyes really show up. I'm not keen on the French, but he was a talented, handsome charming guy for sure.
I never had a chance to meet him, but I did meet Jackie Stewart at Long Beach in the late 70's, which was hugely awesome to a 20 something FV racer. We chatted for maybe a minute and then he was off after a firm handshake and a warm smile. Try and find that experience at a modern F1 race.
 
Wes,

I'll give you 'some' relief from you concern about the French. Francois was only 1/2 french :)

He was born in Nazi occupied Europe. His mother put Cevert (her maiden name) on the birth certificate and you can imagine why. His fathers name was Goldenberg (a Russian).

Jackie was also at that Can Am race and Cevert was his team mate even then. What a pair! But no introduction to Stewart.

Can we forget what is one of the classic understatements by a great champion?

Jim Clark:
"I didn't want to be Champion of the world, I was just curious to find out what it felt like to drive a particuler type of car fast"
 
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Geez, Ken.

You really got me thinking with this topic. While trying to go to sleep last night I thought about Jim Clark and one of his early comments suddently crossed my mind. It concerned another of an already 'hooked' teenagers heros, Masten Gregory. And why a hero to me? He was just about the only REALLY GOOD driver of the time that wore glasses! WOW, I can do that too! Although little hailed or remembered.....

Jim Clark once said:

"Suddenly there was an almighty howl of sound, a blast of wind, the whole car shook, and Masten went steaming past like a bat out of hell. He was well out in the lead with the Lister-Jaguar all sideways, his arms crossed up and fighting the steering. I remember having a sudden twinge of shock and thinking. To heck with this, if this is motor racing I'm going to give up now. It really put me off. I didn't think anyone could drive a car as quickly as that."

Although Gregory never really got well connected with a Formula One team, he was noticable faster then Clark or McLaren when they raced Cooper F1's together.

There's a second reason why you in particular would have enjoyed watching Masten, Ken. Whenever he lost control of the a race car, he would JUMP OUT if possible!! Yes, it saved his life several times. When asked why in the HECK he did that his response was.

"You should have seen what I was about to hit!".

Keeping in mind that in those days, we fans would loose 3 to 6 top drivers a year (pre Jackie Stewarts safety rampage) there was a preoccupation and in a way, a public curiousity as to why racers took such risks.

Masten once said:
"If I should die, just bury me wherever. Along the side of the road would be fine."

But he didn't. He had a heart attack in the 1985.

P.S. Despite suffering from partial night blindness he has the most LeMans races of any U.S. driver with 16.
 
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Masten Gregory's name should be mentioned right along with other American greats of that generation like Phil Hill, AJ Foyt, and Dan Gurney. Mario Andretti, too, for that matter.

My favorite racing quote of recent vintage is in my .sig. I think it reflects a nice balance of Jan's "balls to the wall"-style of driving as well as just the right amount of contempt for what was a pretty silly question.
 
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