The Greatest Race
\nby cricketjeff on July 25, 2010.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nIf there should be a heaven I shall watch one motor race,
\nWhere gods of men compete in pouring rain,
\nAnd Stirling Moss and Fangio will battle for a place,
\nWhile Schumacher will find his touch again.
\nMy death may be unwelcome but all’s not completely dark
\nIf I’ll see Ayrton Senna head to head with Jimmy Clark.<\/p>\n
We’ll gasp at Nicki Lauda and “Professor” Alain Prost,
\nWhile Mike the Bike and Surtees tag along.
\nAscari will be drifting letting Piquet count the cost
\nAnd even BRMs will be on song.
\nWhoever else is racing they’ll be far behind the mark
\nWhen I see Ayrton Senna head to head with Jimmy Clark.<\/p>\n
With Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell passing Graham Hill at speed
\nAnd Damon pushing Dad down every straight,
\nAndrettis old and young compete to see who must concede
\nAnd Ronnie Petersen will prove he’s great
\nBut all these racing marvels will seem grannies in the park
\nWhen I see Ayrton Senna head to head with Jimmy Clark.<\/p>\n
The Bentley boys will be there, and Bugattis, ERMs,
\nWith Vanwall, Cooper-Climax, Lotus too.
\nFrom all of motor racing there will be the finest gems
\nBut nothing there will match the mighty two.
\nClimb aboard the train to heaven, when it’s time to disembark
\nWe’ll all see Ayrton Senna head to head with Jimmy Clark.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n Author notes
\nAyrton Senna would have been 50 years old this year, those who raced against
\nhim said he was the greatest of all time, and he had the results to back that
\nup. He died at Imola in 1994 a race where another driver (Ratzenberger) died in
\npractice which prompted the formation of a driver’s safety group which Senna
\nwould have lead. When Senna’s car was examined after his death they found an
\nAustrian flag tightly furled, Senna had intended to wave it after winning the
\nrace in tribute to Ratzenberger. Three million people watched Senna’s funeral
\ncortege in Brazil and the government declared 3 days of official mourning.
\nMy other hero, Jim, or Jimmy, Clark, was the most dominant driver of any era in
\nGP racing, he started 72 races, 33 of them from pole position, won 25 and set
\n28 fastest laps. He was F1 world champion twice as well as at F2 and various
\nother levels, he finished the Indi 500 three times, winning once by 2 clear
\nlaps and finishing second on both other occasions. He competed at Le Mans (his
\nbest there was a 3rd) won World Championship rally stages and died in a
\npointless Formula Two race at Hockenheim when I was 10, the first time I
\nremember crying for any reason other than being hurt.
\nOh and the only reason Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and others aren’t in the
\npoem above is I assume they’ll outlive me by years!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Greatest Race by cricketjeff on July 25, 2010.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved If there should be a heaven I shall watch one motor race, Where gods of men compete in pouring rain, And Stirling Moss and Fangio will battle for a place, While Schumacher will find his touch again. My death may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9742,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4682","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6826,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4682\/revisions\/6826"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}