In furtherance..

http://www.planet-cutie.co.uk/zandvoort/
In furtherance to the last blog I have added the link to the pictorial record of the fatal crash of Roger Williamson in 1973, showing how nonchalant human beings can be towards death. This was the Dutch GP of 1973, and Williamson crashed owed to a deflated tire. The monocoque frame of the car was ablaze when no driver except David Purley stopped in despair to extinguish the fire. The marshals at the spot were poorly trained and it was none other then Purley who had to work on the extinguisher, only to be lead away by the race marshals. In front of Live TV racing legends like Niki Lauda and Graham Hill drove by without paying a heed to Purley's repeated plea to stop for this rookie. A fire truck reached only to find Williamson dead of asphyxiation. What is more disgusting is that the race continued with a white curtain kept on the debris with Williamson still inside.
Later Purley said:

"I just couldn't turn it over. I could see he was alive and I could hear him shouting, but I couldn't get the car over. I was trying to get people to help me, and if I could have turned the car over he would have been alright, we could have got him out."

Later, when the immediate grief had receded, he admitted, "I didn't even think about the heroism or any of that rubbish. I just did what comes naturally to a trained soldier who sees a fellow in trouble."

The photographs taken were awarded Press Photo award of the Year 1973.

http://www.planet-cutie.co.uk/zandvoort/

F1: Bloodsport to Bore-Sport ?

I remember the first time I saw F1 unlike other sports like Cricket and Football. It was in 1992 when my uncle first showed me a recorded video of an F1 race. F1 till then was considered by many as the 'Death Sports' by many. Many had lost their lives and it was not unlikely to see one or two racers dying each year. Still when they lived they lived lives of kings and playboys easing out on their private yachts in Monaco.

In 1994, came the era-switching death for F1. That year racing legend Ayrton Senna died in a fatal crash on the Tamburello corner of the Italian GP. Little was known that his death and the death of racing rookie Ratzenberger earlier in the weekend would be the last two sacrifices on the racetrack for F1.

Sadly, since then though safety concerns have made F1 a more secure sport but the relative Television viewership has dropped not only in F1 strongholds like the European Union but even in Asian countries like ours. In United States the NASCAR still remains a more dangerous sports, which has pulled a chunk of viewership from F1.

Many believe most people who left watching F1 after the eventful weekend of 1994 had similar sadistic instincts that caused throngs of people to visit the roman Circus, sitting in the sidelines like ravens to watch the next gladiator fall.

But still racing critics including me would say that F1 has lost its zeal over years. No longer it is a sport where drivers had that 'race on sunday-chill on monday' attitude. There are races like Monaco where they shoot off complete a Lap around the seafront, get into the tunnel and repeat this 78 times going around circles. The only excitement comes during the pit-stops, but I am sorry to say that if I had to see 12 men in overalls filling gas and changing tyres why should I not drive down to the next Club HP.

But still F1 remains an exciting game to me not because of the money and fame which is synonymous with it but for the sheer bravery of men who ride on wings of fire to test the limits of man and machine. The fact remains that one can hand count the times one crosses the 135 kph limit on the speedometer. So we take this vicarious pleasure in seeing a small head bobbling under 8 times the G-force of earth at 300 km/hr for 18 sundays a year.