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... of Minardi's annus mirabilis. Ahh, Silverstone ... mobbed at Bologna airport, TOIT under pressure ... happy days.
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I was still living ....
let me start that again, I was still living in Sydney and driving an MX6 and hadn't met Viges, who was still a young journo and racing enthusiast.
RJ's voice was just breaking, and he had to take the choiced between choir boy or opera singer.
Oznomad had survived his first year in the army.
Mark Webber was learning to ride his bike and Alonso was mastering his first set of training wheeels.
Emmet was trying for Astronaut school, and Telstar had just burnt up.
Allan Border takes 7-46 against the West Indies at the SCG (26 jan) and Mark Taylor makes his Test debut,
China's Tiananmen Square protests were to happen later in the year.
Ahh yes, 1989 indeed.
But do tell us again about Silverstone, Viges, do tell!
Spin
I can recall a few exciting times from age 6.
Of course that was back in the days before TV, before jets, and when records were 78s.
I remember my Dad bringing home a new "ivory" colored FX early model GM Holden. Actually I was about ten then.
....and I repainted my bike.
Who does that stuff these days?
...and I flew my first flight to Tasmania in a DC3, and flew back in a DC4 "Convair" with Turbo jet engines that whined at about 80,000 rpm.
We also had box cameras, but I had a fancy folding Kodak 616, and I processed my own films under the bed with developing solution and later a rotating developer tank.
Mt first home built radio was a crystal set, and my first intercom comprised headphones and mike from the army disposals store and powered by a battery made from copper pennies, silver shillings, blotting paper and lemon juice, followed years later by one of the first transistor radios.
.....and today I give young engineers a hard time when they see problems instead of solutions......and heaps of encouragement when they turn ideas into reality.
Spin
Also the year of my second visit to the Adelaide GP. I remember it very well, "SPIN SPIN SPIN". What a wet race!
Senna was with Mclaren, so was Prost, who withdrew because he thought it was tooooo wet, Nige and Gerhard were with TOIT and only
8 cars finished and only 4 of those on the same lap. PL Martini came in sixth for Minardi picking up the last point.
But what a field!!! Ferrari, Mclaren, Williams, Benneton, Lotus, Minardi, March, Brabham, Arrows, Onyx, Ligier, Osella, Dallara, Larrousse, Tyrrell, Rial, Zakspeed, Coloni, AGS and Euro Brun. 32 Cars and the days of prequalifying.
I was sitting near the hairpin that gets onto the main straight and I saw Ayrton aquaplane and spin about 3 times, collect it and kept going. Great stuff. Till he ran into the back of someone. I can't remember who it was but it was great vision.
We can't bring back 1989 or alot of these names but maybe we can bring back Adelaide!!!
I was thirty. Chased a very beautiful auburn-haired girl in Perth. Stuffed the whole thing up of course. Came home with my tail between my legs.
Car racing?...very poor second to what I was interested in.
I remember everything as though it were yesterday or last year, simply can't believe I was 15 at the time and now 20 years have gone by since then!