I spotted this series on Eurosport on Saturday evening when setting the box to record WSB so I recorded a few of them...
I sat down this evening and watched the 1988 French GP from Paul Ricard, absolutely brilliant... For the youngsters amongst us, Ricard was THE best circuit in France, a short hop from the beaches of Bandol on the Med, 8-) 8-) 8-) nestled in the Provençal hills, home to the punishing Mistral straight, the mile-long killer of engines, nowhere else were bikes flat out for so long...Unfortunately the last race at Ricard was the Bol d'Or in 1999 (which I was at, fortunately) before it was sold to that toxic weasel Ecclestone for his BORING F1 cars to test at... >
what a criminal waste :'(
Back to the racing, late July, shimmering heat, Christian Sarron (local hero) on the 500cc pole, his brother Dominic on the 250cc pole (has this ever happened anywhere else I wonder?) and absolutely fantastic racing bringing back so many memories of names and sights - Gardner, Lawson, Sarron, Schwantz, Rainey, Mackenzie, Haslam (Ron, not Liam, on the Elf Honda), McElnea, Chili, Mamola on the Cagiva... Fantastic f*g packet paint jobs - Marlboro, Rothmans, Gauloises, HB, Lucky Strike, plus Pepsi, 7Up, Campsa. Many memorable names in the 250s too; the other Sarron, Garriga, Pons (manager of one Dani Pedrosa now), Cadalora, Roth, Bradl (Helmut, father of Stefan in Moto2), Cornu, Eckl...
The racing was superb, proper bikes, no traction control, numerous changes of the lead, slipstreaming down the mistral, left hand always covering the clutch in fear of seizures.... Interesting analysis too from the presenters, there were much larger gaps between the riders in qualifying, even Schwantz was 2.3s off pole, but a great tale of Michelin finding a "magical" tyre for him on the morning of the race that allowed him to lap an entire 2s faster than he qualified...
They're repeating the programmes of the series, this one is definitely worth looking out for and recording if you can... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
