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A quick introduction -
Hi there
My name is Robert Murphy and
welcome to my website.
I am just reaching 60 (yikes!!)
and I am a retired High School History ( Advanced
Placement United States History) and Economics
(Introduction to Economic Theory) teacher. During my
thirty year teaching career I also was an assistant
football coach (offensive line and defensive ends), an
assistant basketball coach, and also coached hurdles and
middle distance events in Track and Field. As much as I
enjoyed all of this, my passion became motor
racing…especially Formula 1. I was 23 years of age when
I went to Watkins Glen in the summer of 1971 for the 6
Hours for Prototypes ( Ferrari 512’s and 312B’s…Porsche
917’s, and Alfa T33/3’s) held on Saturday and the CanAm
round held on Sunday…… that was it…..I was hooked. In
the spring of 1972 I drove up to Mosport Park for the
first round of the CanAm season…McLaren M20’s, the UOP
Shadow, and Mark Donahue with the Porsche 917/10.
Another great weekend…but something was missing…… a
camera to capture the racing. By the time my wife went
with me to Mid-Ohio for the Buckeye CanAm race held in
August…I had the camera. The slides I took weren’t the
greatest ( NOW I know why GAF slide film was so
cheap…..) but still, this was one sport I could take
home with me….. In Septemebr of ’72, I was again at
Mosport, but this time it was for the Canadian GP. And
for the next 13 out of 15 years, I was at Mosport, or
Watkins Glen, or Montreal, or even Detroit to watch “the
circus” when it came and visited my neck of the woods.
My first F1 race was
the 1972 Canadian GP.....I still remember it as if
it was just yesterday.....camping with a bunch of
Canadian/Italians who were just super friendly
people ( became a tifosi on the spot...an
Irish-American tifosi...), the sound of Chris Amon's
V-12 Matra reverberating through the Moss Corner
complex and up the Andretti Straight, the relatively
free of sponsorship Ferrari 312B's of Clay and
Jacky, Mike "the Bike" in his Surtees, Derek Bell
pushing his Techno off the track right in front of
me, sneaking into the Paddock Saturday morning and
saying hi to the March pairing of Ronnie & Niki and
getting removed from the Paddock immediately after
that encounter ('sigh), the very heavy fog that
almost prevented the race from starting, and JYS
winning in that stubby little Tyrrell 005...The
whole weekend was a #1 assault on the
senses............I was hooked......and still am. In
the 34+ years I have attended North American F1
races I've been fortunate to see some great drivers
in action and winning races and in some cases WDC's......Gilles,
JYS, Lole, Jacques Laffite, Emmo, Michael, Francois,
Niki, Hunt "the Shunt", AJ, Mika, Jody, and Ayrton,
......And, the past couple of years I’ve been
fortunate enough to travel to Spa, Imola, and Monza
for Grand Prix’s…….I have also become involved with
President Emmett Quigley and the Minardi Club of San
Francisco and have been thrilled to meet Mr. Minardi
a couple of times in Faenza.
I hope the next 30+
years are just as exciting...course if I'm still
alive at 86 ( and Mrs. Murphy keeps telling me that
as far as she is concerned…THAT isn’t
happening….)...that will be exciting in of itself
!!!!!!
I want to share with you what my
camera saw over these years…and in later years as well
(2000 thru 2006). I hope you like ‘em.
Ciao
Murph
Also known to his beautiful
grandchildren (Aidan Michael, Jack Robert, “Queen” Maeve,
Maggie, and Taite) as……. Pap Pap Irish… |
