Round and Round

Niki and James 

What it is, which brings me to Singapore in the first instance is my passion for Formula One.  The movie Rush which was out recently tells the story of James Hunts 1976 title campaign, it would be this dramatic showdown in Japan that would whet my 7-year-old appetite for racing cars.

Mid 70's, for reasons I cannot qualify, I was somewhat obsessed with cars. You know, cars.....I had an Addis bin full to the top with Matchbox / Corgi and all brands of car, I'd more or less spend all my time vrooming the around the living room carpet to occasional "shut up Kenneth the news is on" from my dad in between puffs of his rolly-up.  Undeterred, I'd whizz them aboot beeps and revving. I could tell you every single model of toy car that I owned and could easily name each and every car

My container for cars

on the road, be it a Cavalier, a Cortina or a Zenith, I knew cars inside and out. Back in those flared trooser days, mum would buy the Sun in the Morning and The Tully at nights. One of my "jobs" was to go to the Whitfield Shops to RS McColls to get the papers. I didn't really pay a lot of attention to the news of the day, but for some reason, this dude James Hunt, a blonde haired, hard drinking, heaving smoking posh bloke was all over the news and the papers.  I don't know if this was *the* first sportsman to be glamourised in such a fashion but not far off it.  Maybe George Best was a little before James, but a sportsman making front page news, back then, was quite a big deal.

F1 back then was confined to a half hour highlights show on BBC2, I'd love to say that there was a specific race I remember watching for the 1st time, but I don't. As a 7 year old I remember James Hunt, that Austrian bloke with the gammy ear and the JPS Lotus cars which were, and to my mind still are, the coolest cars in the world - ever! Even better than my coveted green Matchbox Corvette

Corvette 

Stingray with silver side pipes.

So, James goes on to win that 1976 title, due in no small part to Niki's decision to not race on those atrocious conditions and I've kinda now had a modest bite of this F1 lark -  so now, if I remember I put it on of a Sunday evening but quite often, it was on WAY past my bedtime, and to be honest, I didn't really understand the whole thing and the commentary guy who spoke at 500 miles an hour.

It would be some 8 years later when my interest in the sport would become something of an obsession, Nigel Ernest James Mansell would be leading the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, his name appeared on my TV with a little Union Jack beside it and I was hooked. He was in THAT JPS Lotus and was in a position to win the Monaco Grand Prix, which by now I knew was the big race of the year. Of course, he didn't, he thumped into the barriers at Massanet in the pourung rain, Nigel being Nigel was able to deflect the blame from himself of course citing that it was the paint on the road which was why he spun out.....ahhh good ole Nige. From that point onward,

Ooor Nige rounding Rascasse in Monaco

whenever there was a race on live, I'd watch it. I'd get myself more knowledge of the events, the teams, the cars and how the points system worked. I'd *tried* getting into football with my mates from school, both on telly and at the ground -  it bored me shitless. I'd been selected for the school rugby team and as a hormonal 15 year old laddie thoroughly enjoyed playing with my odd shaped balls, rugby was good too!

In my time of viewing F1, I've seen champions come and go, teams come and go, circuits come and go, sponsors come and go - but I've always remained loyal to the competition of it all. As a wee scroat from a socially and economically deprived area of Scotland, the glamour and mystique attracted me too, almost as much as the competition itself.  For sheer escapism, watching these flying machines go wheel to wheel from Brazil, South Africa, Monte Carlo, Detroit, San Marino....even the drivers names were exotic! Nelson Piquet, Rene Arnoux, Elio de Angelis, Gerhard Berger....the blokes I knew were called Angus, Jim, John, Boab.....and then of course, the stars of the show, those fag-branded flying machines. By now, at 15, I'd become something of an accomplished smoker - which brand did I smoke??

My tabs of choice 

 It is easy for those who don't follow the sport to state; "it's only cars going round and round" - fair enough, but if one applies the same logic, breaking it down to component parts, football is 22 blokes changing a ball!

I'd have to say, that not even 1% of me from back then would have foreseen where this passion for F1 would take me.  The people I would meet, the places I would visit and ultimately now, how I put food on my table and pay my bills! In truth, mainly thanks to a moustachioed moaning faced Brummie with balls the size of watermelons who spiked my interest in the sport.  Nigel would go on to race for Williams, narrowly missing out on a couple of titles, he'd have a stint with Ferrari for a couple of years alongside Berger and Prost, back to Williams where he'd win the 1992 World Championship and then off to America to conquer IndyCar, he was a massively talented driver who had no idea how to play the media game, so quite often came across a a right whinging old bugger, but in fairness to him, once he strapped himself into a race car, you knew there'd be something exciting to watch.  His main rival would be Ayrton Senna, who was kinda the 'baddie' of the day, but I always had a bit of a liking for him as this cheeky never-say-die racer, in the

Das Wunderkids 

same way I'd later admire Schumacher and today, Sebastian Vettel.  I'd love to be able to root on a Brit....but well.....if only Lewis could just race and not be a pop star/media daring/rapper/LA wannabe/Stevenage Gangsta (HA!) then he too would be easy to like as his driving is sensational....alas.....just not for me.

I've now made great friends through my love of this sport, and those friends by-and-large are all pretty big 'petrol heads' too, in that they enjoy F1 motor-racing and share my love of cars! You know, cars....those things that get you around and the fast ones which go round and round....we don't care whether you support Driver A over Driver B for the most part, it is just like-minded enthusiasts who enjoy a shared passion.  So, Singapore, from the ones I've done (almost all of them) I proffer as my favourite of all, I'm finishing this chapter off a couple of days since arriving in Singapore, and well......so far so excellent, this place is just the most incredible and vibrant country.......  What is it makes this one so amazing? That'll have to wait until the next bit of down time.

Móet time.
KMc.