Easier being a fan today ?

            When I first got the F1 “bug” in 1972…..it was hard work being a fan of F1 living in the USA.  Now, going to the races was not a problem.  Both the Canadian and United States Grand Prix’s were held fairly close to my home in Western Pennsylvania.  Watkins Glen was only about a 6-hour drive.  Ticket prices ran about $20 for the 3-day pass.  With the elevation changes, the track offered a lot of good spectating areas and if ya had a decent camera with a 200mm lens…..you could take the race “home with you”.  Lodging was also simple and cheap….join the 100,000 other fans and camp.  Plus as an added attraction in the evening, one could go down to the “BOG” to beat the chill of an October night………………   The Canadian GP was held at Mosport Park.  Mosport was located about an hour east of Toronto, which made it about an 8-hour drive.  Of course, I never realized that the posted speed limit signs along the Queen E were in kph…not mph.  So when I saw 100, I assumed it meant 100 mph….. Mosport was a bargain with excellent camping facilities and great spectator areas at a price of $25 Canadian.

No…..attending F1 races was the easy job….getting information through out the season,  NOW that was the hard part.

1:  TV:  Forget it….. oh, ABC would carry a 2-week old tape of the Monaco GP.  Not the whole race, mind you.  The Monaco race would be about 30 minutes of a 2-hour show that would include the likes of the Lumberjack Olympics, the Synchronized Swimming Championships from Pyongyang, and other such fare.

2:  The Print Media:  Jeeeezz…..even today the newspapers carry zero F1, barring a driver fatality, of course.

3:  The “Enthusiast” Press:  American motor racing magazines consisted of AUTOWEEK (which was in a newspaper format back then), ROAD & TRACK which had Rob Walker cover the GP’s, and a very good monthly magazine called FORMULA.  FORMULA was blessed with two outstanding writers…..Pete Lyons and Jeff Hutchinson.  But as good as the American magazines were, I always felt that I was missing out on something.  The solution was easy….subscribe to foreign/British racing magazines.  Now cost had to be considered…..I am cheap and the wife and kids were always nagging me about food and a roof over their heads…..I realized that I had to practice cost benefit analyses…..example of that would be that if got the MOTORING NEWS instead of AUTOSPORT, that with the savings I could get a couple of other magazines as well.  Some of the “highlights/lowlights” of my foreign/British magazine quest…..

MOTOR SPORT was THE magazine to get for two reasons….#1 was the all color center spread….nobody else had color photos of the F1 cars…..hmmm “so that’s what they look like”.  While other guys would be checking the centerfolds of Playboy….it was the MOTOR SPORT center “fold” that got my attention. 

#2  throw in the finest F1 correspondent of the era…Dennis Jenkinson.  He made the races and the people involved in F1 “real” to me.  I always eagerly awaited the arrival of my new Green One, even if it meant reading “Jenks” report on the French GP (August Issue) while I was in my tent at the Glen in October. 

The there was a years subscription to SPORT AUTO, another great magazine….I think…I just didn’t read French!!  And I don’t even want to talk about the subscription from hell…..Motor und Sport, or something like that….my English/German dictionary proved to be of no value at all……  I was blessed in the very early 80’s when I found GRAND PRIX INTERNATIONAL.  Loved it, which of course meant it would go out of business……..

OK, so TV and the local newspapers were useless but the magazines were a godsend…..but what about up to date information…..Race weekends?  How did I get information then?

Short-wave radio:  Yep, I bought a short-wave radio.  The BBC always gave the pole-sitter on a Saturday evening (my time) program…if I could ever remember the correct time to turn on the radio.  Same thing on Sunday…..try to listen to “Sports Roundup” or something like that.  Even had my son Sean work on those all-important “tree climbing” skills….. My wife forbade me from having the little tyke climbing up the large maple tree in the back yard (something about him only being 4-years old) ….but I truly believe he liked carrying the antenna wire in his teeth as he scurried up to the top of the tree, especially during those sever thunder and lightning storms we seem to get in late July and early August…….even then the broadcasts would fade in and out.  I must admit that I developed an unhealthy attitude toward solar flares and those damn cricket scores, I mean….what the hell is a “test match”???

      What a difference today…In fact the problem today is not a lack of information but that there is almost too much !!!

1:  I have a satellite dish….so it is live qualifying and race coverage thanks to Speed TV.  I know that many American fans were hurt when ESPN2 dropped their F1 coverage, but I am one of the minority that does not miss the “Deuces” coverage.  I believe that ESPN2 used us racing fans to build their ratings around, and then dropped F1 once the cable channel had been picked up by most cable systems.  Their argument about the huge price increase was, in my opinion, bogus.

2:  Race Weekends:  Thank you…the Internet !!!  Here is how I spend a “GP Race Weekend”…..

A:  On Monday:  I hit the “Race Venue” site on the Formula One website                        (www.formula1.com ).  Usually these sites provide a history of the race, GP press Releases, weather links for the race weekend, driver and team profiles, and even information on buying souvenirs. 

B:  During the week I will visit the major F1 news sites on the web.  The ones I visit are….. Autocourse at www.autocourse.com ,  Pitpass as www.pitpass.com ,  Crash Net at www.crash.net , and F1 News Now at www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=F1 .  When I get the chance I also like to visit  The Nostalgia Forum on Atlas F1 which allows old farts like myself a chance to re-live the past.

C:  Plus the teams have their own sites as do the various venues of the races. When I went to Monza last year (2006) I ordered my race tickets on their website…what a breeze.  I signed up for the Red Bull Bulletin this year and I do look forward to reading it online each race weekend.

 D:  Friday through Sunday morning (since most races are still held in Europe….. the practice sessions and the race is held VERY EARLY in the morning for me…), I turn on SPEED TV and get online for live timing at the Official F1 website…. www.formula1.com

I don’t need Sean to be scurrying up trees….of course he is now 39 years old and lives in Kansas…I think he lives there because there are very few trees in that state !!!

E:  Sunday…… again it’s SPEED and the www.formula1.com for the race and then after the race is over…I hit a couple of racing “forums” to see what others think about just what occurred.  Later I will hit the Internet F1 News sites and the various team sites to get their take on the weekend.

F:  Later in the week….I hit the bookstore to get the Race issue from AUTOSPORT….. this provides a more in-depth look at the past race weekend….. and the next thing you know…..it’s time for the next Grand Prix weekend……

     You know….I haven’t been thrilled with many of the changes that have occurred to F1 since I began following it in the early ‘70’s…..from grooved tires, pit stops, lost venues, and too many stupid chicanes, to name just a few…..but in this instance…Change is Good!!!!!!