so wot an amazing weekend then…

i started watching Formula 1 Grand Prix racing about 26 years ago when one of my Portuguese friends from Hillcrest Primary school in Johannesburg, South Africa invited me to watch this race – i remember it clearly because Nelson Piquet and his teammate led from start to finish and at the end of the race Piquet’s teammate was the only person he had not lapped and so from then on Nelson Piquet was ‘my guy’ and went on to win three world championships so a good pick, then…

26 years of F1 watching and the irony is i have ever only had two drivers – Piquet pretty much stopped racing as this guy called Schumacher started with a once off race for Jordan [which he got as the actual driver was imprisoned] and he qualified an amazing 7th [the team’s best qualifying that year] but sadly retired on the first lap with clutch problems… but i saw something in him that i liked and so through all the ups and downs of his career [and there were many of both] i stuck with him, often vociferously defending against claims that he was arrogant or that he cheated] and it has been difficult to see him come out of retirement into what seems to be a real crummy car – he qualified an amazing 6th for Mercedes for this race and spent the race basically losing a position a lap so that was not so much fun to watch…

so when my brother in law invited me to watch this inaugural Austin Formula 1 Grand Prix live it was not quite a dream come true cos i never dreamed i would get to see a F1 Grand Prix live but it was a dream given to me. it sucked that he later was not able to come with me cos the tickets were sold out by the time he knew his work would allow him to come and so i got to experience the magic and the excitement of the weekend all by myself which ended up being a complete vibe.

stunning weekend. and if i had to name a highlight it would probably be seeing my friends [and in particular my wife, the beautiful Val] get excited for me – that really was the best part of this weekend – from my family who i am staying with, who went to a lot of expense to make it a smooth and amazing weekend, to friends on Twitter and Facebook and to Valerie repeatedly writing statuses [stati?] and sending messages and writing me heart shaped letters and just being generally excited… from Alice [my F1 fantasy league competitor ad often co-watcher for the last many years] to MJ and Rob and cuzzin Lance and Stef and John Zippy Benn [living vicariously through me] and Liam and others and especially again and again by my lovely wife it just encouraged me and added to my excitement and made the whole weekend extra special.

see, getting to attend a Formula 1 race live was an incredible experience and really worth a lot to me
but family. and community. and great friends scattered across the world… now that’s a real formula to an incredible life.
some would say priceless. i am one of those some.

thank you to everyone who cheered and messaged and looked out for me and posted and mailed and got super excited – you guys made this weekend super uber special.