Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tonytats]

demonstrates solidarity with your Spanish/Middle Eastern girlfriend.

As it reminds her of her mum , I presume ?

[david3103]

demonstrates solidarity with your Spanish/Middle Eastern girlfriend

is that a hint of stereotyping there? wouldn't be allowed in Red's diary :-)

[tikay]

Marv......

[JaffaCake]

18 years since the death of Ayrton Senna....have u seen the film Senna? I'm not at all an F1 fan, but that is an awesome piece of work, what a charismatic superstar he was. The guy who ran F1 at the time comes over as a right tool, if u haven't seen it, watch it on Sky Go, brilliant film

[bobAlike]

18 years since the death of Ayrton Senna....have u seen the film Senna? I'm not at all an F1 fan, but that is an awesome piece of work, what a charismatic superstar he was. The guy who ran F1 at the time comes over as a right tool, if u haven't seen it, watch it on Sky Go, brilliant film

Agreed it is an excellent film. The tool in question was Jean Marie Ballestre who was accused of being in the SS. He claimed he was working for the French resistance but I don't think anyone got to the bottom of it.
This is his wiki page.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Balestre#section_1

Quite an Illustrious career.

[tikay]

18 years since the death of Ayrton Senna....have u seen the film Senna? I'm not at all an F1 fan, but that is an awesome piece of work, what a charismatic superstar he was. The guy who ran F1 at the time comes over as a right tool, if u haven't seen it, watch it on Sky Go, brilliant film

No, I have not seen the film, Jeff, nor will I, I find they tend to romanticise "heroes" & mess with the real life story, & it was a story that needed no embellishment.

You refer, as Bobalike later suggested, to Balestre, & yes, he was a total meglomaniac, but it was not my view that he ran F1, nor was it Bernie's view, as a result of which, war broke out between F1, & the governing body of Motorsport - different things.

BOTH wanted ownership & control of F1. By a legal quirk, technically it did not belong to anyone, so Bernie just sort of assumed ownership, & that decision caused bad blood & a feud for many a year. In my view, Bernie had no right to assume he owned it, but equally, it was Bernie, & Bernie alone, who made F1 what it was. The final deal he fudged with Balestre was a mish-mash too, as Balestre's FISA/FIA got part ownership of F1, but crucially, Bernie retained the all powerful TV rights. He also retained the advertising rights, delegated them to an Irish chap, first taking a share of the chap's business, & made a mint from that, too. 

The Circuits ended up being proper shafted, they had to PAY Bernie for the licence to run an annual F1 race, & their income was nothing more than the gate receipts, Bernie got everything else. MBN. 

Anyway, back to Mr Senna.....

Before we do, however, here are the awfully horrible Jean-Marie Balestre (a truly dreadful man) & the opportunistic Bernie, with Balestre seemingly making a proposal that Uncle Bernie is not much liking the sound of. 

[Tonji]

He also retained the advertising rights, delegated them to an Irish chap, first taking a share of the chap's business, & made a mint from that, too. 

Paddy McNally.

[tikay]

He also retained the advertising rights, delegated them to an Irish chap, first taking a share of the chap's business, & made a mint from that, too. 

Paddy McNally.

That's him, I had quite forgotten his name, thank you.

He became extremely wealthy off the back of that, & was last reported moving in the arguably exalted circles of The Duchess of Somewhere, Princess (?) Ferguson.

Were you a FI follower, presumably yes, to know that? He was quite low-profile, as I recall.

He ran (runs?) "AllSport", & they standardised the advertising format around each GP circuit, so we have him to thank for all those huge advertising "bridges" & hoardings, the sole purpose of which was to get plenty of "on-camera" TV exposure, & it was that exposure to a world-wide TV audience which made the TV rights so incredibly valuable.  Bernie had a slice of that cake - a large slice, too - of course. I often felt that Bernie pretty much controlled AllSport actually, & just used McNally as a front man.   

Here's Bernie & Paddy discussing flower arranging in Hockenheim.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Back to Ayrton.

It's so strange for me when I reflect that my life encompasses the entire career, & sometimes even, life, of eminent celebs & stars.

Note that applies (career) to Stephen Hendry, who retired yesterday, I vividly recall as if it were yesterday his entrance on the snooker scene, & how he so dominated it, blowing away Steve Davis in the process, which I did not much like seeing, as I idolised Steve. Stephen was a tremendous Ambassador for sport, & poker, (as was Steve) I thought. And now he has retired, & his career has flashed past so quickly, in retrospect the time span seems so short. I imagine there are blondes who had barely reached school-age when Hendry first came on the snooker scene, jeez. 

I don't overly care for those that diss the sport that makes them so successful. Ronnie is sheer magic to watch, as were Alex & Jimmy, but I'm not so sure they respect(ed) the game quite as much as they should. Biting the hand that feeds you is rarely wise.   

Anyway, Ayrton.

Same thing - I watched (on TV) every race he ever drove, & he was definitely one of a kind, I sort of idolised him in the same way I idolised Piggott, despite the fact that both would piss on their granny to "jock-off" another driver/jockey & thus ensure the best horse or car. Terribly, dreadfully, horribly, selfish, both of them, but their success came from that, & I adored them for their success,. Very odd that the two things clashed so, & that I still hero-worshipped them, & sort of made escuses for their self-centred approach to their careers. 

Ayrton, in fact, has one of those prized "what were you doing when?" moments in my life, when he was killed in a race one Sunday afternoon at the San Marino GP.

I can recall every detail of that day, where I was, what I was doing, everything. I watched, horrified, as the TV pictures clearly showed his crash, Murray was blathering away his usual pap & nonsense, & then, a helicopter got a close up, & a river of blood could be seen streaming from Ayrton's yellow helmet, & I knew the deal right away. OMG.

He was a unique individual, outrageously gifted & talented, we shall never see his like again imo.  Not a nice man, perhaps, though he seemed to take care of his family, but very, very, talented.

We folowed his every step in life. He would turn up late for race meetings, always carrying a briefcase rumoured to have various drive contracts within, & gave all his employers a hard time. He gave them value great though, & the same value for us, the gawpers.

   

[Tonji]

I was a follower of F1 & Motorsport through the late 70s til the 90s.

My brother set up his own Race Team in the 80s (he later went on to work with Williams F1 & other teams developing software & stuff). We were racing Formula Ford upto Formula Renault. Fun times came to an end in the mid 90s with Sponsorship problems.

I was at Donnington last week for a testing session with MR2 Racing Series Cars as he has started back this season. I managed to spin his car, but he backed it up into a wall  

[Tonji]

I have vague memories of Senna in his first year in Britain. He drove for Van Diemen (the factory Formula Ford team, & consequently the best team). He was a winner straight away. I certainly remember him winning at Brands Hatch.

Had a quick search on You Tube & found this clip, in his second year with Van Diemen.

[tonytats]

Senna was probably the most talented driver at the time ,he was the master in the wet ,a title Schumacher inherited on his demise ,IMO he was nowhere near as good as ayrton it was a huge loss to motorsport and the fans
I used to watch / follow it intently at the time and after his death lost interest

[tikay]

Senna was an absolute master in the rain, as Tonytats & others suggest.

The memory plays tricks, but I always thought his best race was his in his first season in F1, in the Monaco GP. It was very wet, & he was catching the immensely dislikeable Frenchie, Alain Prost (we all disliked him because he was French, & good, of course),  hand over fist, 4 or 5 seconds per lap, but they stopped the race, & so begun much hoohah, as it was thought that fellow-Frenchie Balestre had a hand in the premature conclusion of the race, thus denying Senna such a glorious win.

It was rather unfair that we all disliked Prost, because there was no logic to that, but we just did.

Booo!

[TightEnd]

I know many films aren't your thing but "Senna" is magnificent

It doesn't eulogise over the man, its not one sided, it shows you a portrait of him downside and all. You don't doubt afterwards that he was a complete shit, but at least you know he was a driven complete shit

And the driving, well it shows one Senna lap of monaco from the drivers view that is simple immense to watch


Thoroughly recommended on DVD or whatever.

[tikay]

I know many films aren't your thing but "Senna" is magnificent

It doesn't eulogise over the man, its not one sided, it shows you a portrait of him downside and all. You don't doubt afterwards that he was a complete shit, but at least you know he was a driven complete shit

And the driving, well it shows one Senna lap of monaco from the drivers view that is simple immense to watch


Thoroughly recommended on DVD or whatever.

Thanks Rich, well I'm glad it shows both sides of him. He was, as you say, & as I wrote earlier, both a horrible person, & an utter genius. The two often go hand in hand, especially in sport, have you ever noticed that?

Dare you to name 5 examples......