Let this twenty minute video be your solace for the lost races of 2020.
A week ago Dave Leadbetter of ViaRETRO-columnist fame summed up 2020 as “Motorsport’s Lost Season” and he was right too. Whether from his viewpoint as an active competitor or from mine as a commentator, race enthusiast and spectator there really were not many positives to report. One of my otherwise rather motorsport aware friends completely missed that there was a Le Mans 24 Hours in September, another one knew but had the impression it was carried out virtually as some E-sport-thing and didn’t pay much notice. I can’t blame either of them, really. My Le Mans is the Classic one which was cancelled altogether.
That left the Goodwood Revival as my high of the year – and that was cancelled too. Instead Goodwood, always great in coming up with new ideas, carried out the “Speed Week” blending all their motor racing events – although with no spectators but live coverage of the racing and show. There sure was some great racing but I could barely persevere through the literal masquarade behind the scenes stuff: For someone like me a modern helmet severely detracts from my enjoyment of a great classic race car and the bloody masks even in interview situations with plenty of fresh octanefilled air between the parties did nothing other than ruin the fantasy of the usual great racing.
Luckily I have found the antidote that we are all looking for: So when you are tired of hearing about death tolls, scams, war, politics and destruction, pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage. Sit in your best armchair or sofa. Light a few candles. Maybe even an oil lamp? I can also recommend slippers, a soft shirt and a knitted tie because of the season. The great thing about your eventual home office situation is that you can even see it during work hours. Pretend you are in an online meeting or something.
And then you’re ready: The below video clip is a veritable time travel back to 1955, to one of the most beautiful places in Europe, to a legendary race track jammed full of race cars of a league that not a single one of them would cost less than a couple of hundred thousand Euros or Pounds, and many of them tenfold and much more. And like the trump card of it all: All these magnificent machines are driven by names that exude the best racing history has ever come up with: Ascari as mentioned in the headline is just one of them, Moss, Fangio, Schell, Musso and Hawthorn are others.
In full Technicolor we dive deep under the bonnet of the Mercedes’ eight-cylinder in-line engines, see Maserati mechanics change spark plugs on the 250F’s twinplugged in-line sixes, wonder why only Vanwall’s British mechanics are really dirty while the hairs rise on the neck when we see the gladiators run very, very close to everything from curbs, lampposts and photographers.
Those were the times, as they say. You shake hands, everything is beautiful, some things are dangerous and you lived with it and died with it. Quite naturally, in other words. Never forget it.