2nd-May-19, 09:04 AM
I have been watching motorsport for more years than I care to admit and have many memories from races I have attended, not just the actual racing but the things that went on around it.
I can share a few of them here but what are yours?
First off - my one and only visit to the Monaco GP in 1987. It was an expensive trip even then, which we were unlikely to repeat, so we were determined to do the job properly and booked the full works; posh apartment in Nice and race seats in the garden of the Hotel Mirabeau, situated just before the tunnel, with a five course lunch thrown in before qualifying and the race.
On the Sunday, having drunk the first free bottle of a very good red wine we chatted up the waiter and worked our way through a second, followed by a third to consume during the race. There was also a pay bar and a visit to that produced the following exchange with a man in the queue who had just paid £8 for a small gin and tonic: " I bet that is the most expensive G&T you have ever bought."
"No, I was in the TipTop bar last night and it was £10!" This was 1987 remember and the price in an English pub was about £1.
About 3/4 of the way through the race my good lady needed to visit the facilities and descended the steep steps from our seats, never to return. After the race I went looking for her and found her in the bar, apparently she had been unable to reascend the steps because she was more than a teensy bit inebriated and had watched the rest of the race on the TV!
So there you have it - a trip to the Monaco GP costing more than £1000 and she watched it on the telly! Great weekend though and a tale to embarrass her with for many years after.
Anybody else like to chip in with their memories? Not the racing, but the stories related to it.
I can share a few of them here but what are yours?
First off - my one and only visit to the Monaco GP in 1987. It was an expensive trip even then, which we were unlikely to repeat, so we were determined to do the job properly and booked the full works; posh apartment in Nice and race seats in the garden of the Hotel Mirabeau, situated just before the tunnel, with a five course lunch thrown in before qualifying and the race.
On the Sunday, having drunk the first free bottle of a very good red wine we chatted up the waiter and worked our way through a second, followed by a third to consume during the race. There was also a pay bar and a visit to that produced the following exchange with a man in the queue who had just paid £8 for a small gin and tonic: " I bet that is the most expensive G&T you have ever bought."
"No, I was in the TipTop bar last night and it was £10!" This was 1987 remember and the price in an English pub was about £1.
About 3/4 of the way through the race my good lady needed to visit the facilities and descended the steep steps from our seats, never to return. After the race I went looking for her and found her in the bar, apparently she had been unable to reascend the steps because she was more than a teensy bit inebriated and had watched the rest of the race on the TV!
So there you have it - a trip to the Monaco GP costing more than £1000 and she watched it on the telly! Great weekend though and a tale to embarrass her with for many years after.
Anybody else like to chip in with their memories? Not the racing, but the stories related to it.