#1 - Jean Alesi and Artur Marques, just before the drivers meeting for the F1 race.
#2 - Mika Hakinnen, back in the days of the Marlboro Maclarens.
#3- Sandro Nanninni, the ITC star. Sandro suffered a helicopter crash, soon after winning its first F1 race. He quitted F1, because of the severe injuries on his right hand. But this wouldn't stop him from doing pole time at ITC Estoril and signing me an autograph!
#4- Pedro Lamy is one of the best drivers of the late 1990s, worldwide. Unfortunately for him, he never had serious sponsorship... it seems that in Portugal, soccer eats all the money. I absolutely hate professional soccer! Soccer sucks!
Title: Top 10 Racing Autographs
Date: Summers 1993-1995
Story:
The Estoril track, at Portugal, is (or was) one of the finest racing circuits on the entire world!, only second to the original Nurburgring, the original SPA, El Kart Lake, the original Silverstone, and the old Kyalami. Its great variety, ranging from the fast main straight, to the defying mid-speed and slow turns, is (or was) unique.
Then F1 decided to "improve security" on all the championship tracks, and some dumb changes were made to Estoril's inner section, including a new ridiculous uphill "S" that literally obliges the cars to come to a stop, engage first gear, and then snake their way out of the trap.
Of course that Estoril wasn't the sole circuit to change. All the other tracks became less interesting, but because of their pedigree, Silverstone and SPA suffered as much as the portuguese track. I don't remember the exact year when it all happened, but it was sometime between 1993 and 1995.
After the death of Alfredo César Torres, President of the "Automóvel Clube de Portugal", and after some political changes, Portugal lost its F1 Grand Prix.
I was a regular spectator of many racing events at Estoril, and this exhibit's pictures, document some of my best days on that sunny and windy location. I hope these days to be back, soon!
These pictures show me chatting and getting autographs from some of the greatest persons on the world of Motorsport: Jean Alesi, Mika Hakinnen, Sandro Nanninni, Pedro Lamy, Jan Magnussen, Gerhard Berger, Nicola Larini and Alfredo César Torres.
Click on any picture to view a 640 pixels wide version of it. These pictures are on the Mavica section, but they were NOT taken with my Digital Mavica.
Discuss Digital Photos at its dedicated forum.
#5 - Magnussen is kind of another Pedro Lamy, yet with more resources. I expected him to do better on Cart @ USA.
#6- Gerhard Berger is one of those drivers who never had it easy. All his wins were hard wons, against the greatest drivers of all times: Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.
#7 - Larini is a group FIAT driver, riding the horses from F1's Ferrari to ITC's Alfa Romeo.
#8 - Alfredo César Torres is deeply missed.
#9 - Harald Frentzen.
#10 - Martin Brundle & family.