Autocar's favourite races: 1991 British Grand Prix
From F1 to kart racing, we all have that one race that will forever stick in the mind. These are our highlights
You know you’re working in a good (admittedly remote) office when an email for writers’ favourite races goes out and all the replies come flooding in within five minutes.
Spanning the globe and a whole number of different eras, it’s amazing what memories stand out, be they individual driver performances or tiny details like the way one driver leant his head into a corner. There’s even a near-riot in NASCAR in our list.
Let us know which was your favourite in the comments below.
-1991 British Grand Prix-
As a child with an almost unhealthy obsession with F1, the British GP in 1991 was as good as it got. Despite Nigel Mansell having a reputation for all sorts of foibles, my 10-year old self was blissfully unaware. To me he was quite literally Il Leone, the plucky, mustachioed Brit (it helped that my dad sported one too) who was taking it to the dastardly Ayrton Senna. Williams vs McLaren. Underdog vs double world champion. Tick whatever tribal cliche you want - it was manna from heaven to me.
So to be asked if I wanted to watch the British Grand Prix live, with my dad, well that was as good as father/son bonding got. We took our caravan and parked up in a grass field opposite the main gate: My dad cooked, so the food was practically inedible, but that didn’t matter. I was in the same county as my hero and we’d got grandstand seats on the outside of Woodcote - even cremated bacon wasn’t going to put me off.
Say what you want about electric racing (and I am a fan), but it’s the noise of those screaming V10s and banshee V12s that I can still remember to this day. I was sensibly made to wear ear defenders but occasionally sneaked a lap without them, but even I knew that wasn’t wise when the Ferraris came past. Jean Alesi, rather than Alain Prost, sits in the memory bank more easily, with his head cranked over and the engine note ripping through my ear drums.
And of course my hero. Mansell got pole and then led every single lap, with such a gap to second that he was waving to the crowd before he crossed the line, carried by the unbelievably partisan crowd. And to top it all, Senna never made the finish line, running out of fuel before the chequered flag so our Nige had to give him a lift back to the pits.
Along with the crowd invasion of the track afterwards, it was the sort of high octane drama that any child lives for. Nothing has ever bettered it for me.
*READ MORE*
*Autocar's favourite races: 2011 Canadian Grand Prix *
*Autocar's favourite races: 2006 NASCAR UAW-Ford 500 *
*Autocar's favourite racing drivers: Lewis Hamilton*