I attended my first Formula One race at Long Beach California in 1977.
I was living in Steamboat Springs Colorado at the time, had friends living in the Los Angeles area, and friends in Steamboat who were race fans, so we decided to drive there, despite the distance (over 1000 miles). We drive to Las Vegas, going through Zion National Park in Utah along the way, one of the many spectacular Parks in the American West.
My friends and I arrived in Long Beach in time to see many of the cars on display on one of the streets adjacent to the circuit, and I had the great pleasure of talking to Jacques Laffite, Niki Lauda, Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter, and other drivers, happy to talk to fans about their cars and the race. The tickets we purchased allowed paddock access and we wandered through there on Friday between practice sessions. Again the opportunity arose to talk to the drivers, get some great pictures, as you can see, and I even bumper into a small, officious little man, who was running the Brabham F1 team at the time.
I have never been a small person, my adult height 6 feet, and at the time I had a full head of red hair, and a full beard. I bumped into Bernie while trying to negotiate my way past the Brabham pits and get a better look at the 6-wheel Tyrrells of Patrick Depailler and Ronnie Petersen. I excused myself, Bernie turned and looked up at me, and appeared to be completely horrified.
The sound of the engines, especially the Ligier-Matra, was music to my ears, and I found a spot in the spectator area, at the bottom of the hill leading up to Ocean Blvd., where the engine sound reverberated off the walls of the buildings, and washed over me like a cascading waterfall.
The race itself turned out to be the race of the year, with Jody Scheckter in his Wolf, Mario Andretti in his Lotus, and Niki Lauda in his Ferrari, tied together at the front for the entire race, in that order. With just a few laps to go, one of Jody's tires started to go down with a slow puncture, and Mario was able to get by for the win, and Niki for second, in the last few laps.
My hero won, it was a brilliant race, and my first Formula One experience. In subsequent years I saw Grands Prix at Watkins Glen, Montreal, and Detroit, but nothing topped that first F1 race.
Jim Casey
Memory added on April 26, 2014
Comments (Add your voice)
No comments have yet been added to this memory.
