Off season thought

[Bob Riebe]

As I sit here in not cold enough foggy weather(this is what winter is supposed to be like in the UK, not Minnesota) a thought of future passed, came to mind:

As many here are the last generation who will have experienced the great tracks before they were codified to fit the vision of lessor men, how will ye one's of the last generation, that spans the change, relate the tales of days gone by to what the future seems to be bringing in the form of conforming to a lessor challenge.

Just as when I was a youth - to hellion - to college graduate, I read of the great Auto Union verses Mercedes confrontation at Avus; Fangio, Nuvolari, Clark, Brabham etc. taking on the challenge of man and machine at Spa, Monza, Nurburgring, right into the last days of outright track and speed records at Spa, LeMans, Daytona etc. ; i.e. Peugot doing 250 at LeMans; Greenwood hitting 236 in practice at Daytona; Rodriguez lapping Spa at over 150, what will ye of the last generation write about?

Will it be he same accomplishements of the past, when men knew the risks and attacked them with a, in your face, attitude towards the risk involved, even as many around them took the stairway to heaven; or todays win by design, without the last lap charges, throwing a deteriorating car around the track in a make or break last stand.

I am curios as those, who experienced the change in how races were run, and racers conducted themselves, will be the one who will still be writing racing history long after I am worm food, (or pickled as people sadly are these days) and I am really wondering how will these gents writing future history contrast, or simply present what was, with what is, and seems to be, in the future?

Second thought, how will those who were not around, in the "days of old" write about something they never experienced, or will they simply not write of it anymore?
Bob

[Smokey 6 litre]

Past motorsport always has a nostalgia around it, being a young man (my first memory of motorsport is Ayrton Sennas death at Imola '94) i have always looked back upon the past in the same way that you mentioned, man risking his life in the pursuit of speed, fierce competition, last lap charges and great racing.
The way we see the past is often not how it seemed at the time but what it was in contrast to now.
I expect in the years to come this period will also be seen as a great period in racing, high technoligy battling it out on track, innovation, increadiable cars, and the dawn of manufacturer backed alternative fuel sources which our sport may rely on in the future.
I think i will look back on this period with a great fondness just as i look back now.
Heres to everything that was, is and will be that makes this sport so great.