Long Beach has so many lasting memories for me. It was my first GP in 1976 (I was 10)…walking up to Shoreline Drive and hearing the glorious sound of a V12 Matra screaming by. Getting to meet my heroes - Colin Chapman, Mario Andretti, James Hunt, Gilles Villeneuve, and others. In those days, spectators were separated from the team’s work areas (inside the Arena) by only a four-foot-tall railing. One could watch teams working on the cars just a couple feet away. In 1977, my dad and I got to listen to Chapman & Andretti discuss race strategy and spring set-ups (the year they won). How things have changed since then. I lived in Long Beach for several years (mid-1990s), four blocks from the track. Every spring, there was a sense of giddiness as the walls & fences were being put up. Coming home from work, late at night, I would drive down Shoreline buzzing along close to the walls as I dared…and trying to pretend/imagine that my little Honda Civic sounded like that beautiful Matra.
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