TBK-Light.com

I remember it very well, I was 12 years old.

Already watching Formula 1 a lot, the fact that Verstappen made his debut in Brazil, it increased in 1994.
Usually I only watched the races.
On Saturday April 30th I remember that I wanted to look up Qualy result and used BBC Ceefax and there I read that Roland Ratzenberger was killed in a crash.
On Sunday May 1st Dutch tv station RTL5 had the footage of the crashes (Rubens and Roland) in their pre-show and I was shocked!
My dad could not understand why the race went on.

I remember very well the footage of Senna when he was sitting in his car.
Then the start! BOOOOM!!! Lamy hit the Benetton of Lehto.
I told my sister "If Jos (Verstappen) was in the car this wouldn't have happened."
SC period, and then the restart.

"Very odd to see Senna making a mistake and crash like that. At least he moved a bit. Why is nobody helping him! This is taking to long!"
Then Sid Watkins arrived and we saw it all on our tv! (nowadays that's unimaginable)
When they stretchered Senna in the helicopter we saw the blood on the ground and I feared the worse.

The race was restarted later and then there was that pitstop accident with Alboreto's wheel.
Schumacher won the race.

In the evening, Studio Sport started at 19.00, they announced that Ayrton Senna was clinically dead.
About 10 minutes later it was announced that Ayrton Senna had died.

I also remember watching the funeral on Eurosport.

_________________
remembering Jeff Krosnoff
>>>>>> 1964 - 1996 <<<<<<

I was 4 years old. I remember watching the race live. Wonderous how details from before the race are still vivid from that day. Like the weather and what I had done before we started watching.

The effect from watching that has gradually dawned on me since then.

9 years old, no motorsport coverage locally, no satellite TV yet. Heard about it on the general news the day after. I remember some crappy graphic showing the corner layout with the normal racing line and the car's path.

I didn't really discover the Imola crashes until much much later, when there were 10th anniversary programs on TV in 2004. Despite having internet access to crash videos before that, somehow I had never been enclined to specifically search for those.

20 years ago I was only 12 years old but already a big motorsport fan. (Went to the Dutch TT since 1989) On friday I found out Rubens had crashed his Jordan big time during qualifying highlights later that day. On saturday I was watching qualifying live on Eurosport. Still remember clearly seeing Roland his head laying to the side in the cockpit with blood coming out above his visor. It didn't look good at all and when they started to resuscitate him I knew it was very very bad indeed. Never witnessed something like that before in my life on live TV and it made a big impression on me. I told my dad when he came home and we watched it again later that day.

It indeed was a sunny sunday on May 1st 1994, also in the north of Holland. I was watching the race form the big chair in the middle of the living room, and we were preparing to go out to friends of my parents. We could watch the start but during the race we had to leave. But not before Ayrton went straight into the concrete wall and we all know what I witnessed those moments after the crash on live Dutch tv. I will never forget the voice of Olav Mol..."Ayrton Senna schiet er af, Ayrton Senna schiet radeloos rechtdoor, mijn God wat gebeurd hier allemaal!!"

about half an hour after the crash we left our house and we saw the finish at our friends house. After the race I was the one who was looking for news on text-tv and finally on Dutch Studio Sport they said that he was put into a coma and just a few moments later they found out that he died of his injuries. I kind of hated the sport that day, maybe even that whole week. It even went on in Monaco with Wendlinger and that strange chicane in Barcelona. I collected newspaper articles and pictures from Holland and Germany, as my dad was a truck driver so he took them from Germany.

A year later RTL5 did a special about Ayrton in their preview of the Imola GP 1995. They showed his biggest moments in his career with a song my dad and I both liked very much. Later, when dutch radio-DJ Jeroen van Inkel released a F1-sounds cd with famous music compilated with F1 sounds and live commentary of Olav Mol, we found out it was a song by Karla Bonoff, called "Goodbye my Friend".

[youtubeidiot]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGsKvgEZSAM[/youtubeidiot]

I remember very well how my dad and I first listened to this song when we just bought that cd. We were both sitting on the side of my bed in my room, and both had goosebumps all over our arms listening to Olav's voice... Afterwards my dad told me that when he would die, he wanted that same song on his funeral.
We laughed about it as he said he would be racing of stage in his coffin when those F1 sounds would come in at the end of the song

On september 12th 2003 my father died because of a heart faillure, aged 47. The last song we both listened to was "Goodbye My Friend" by Karla Bonoff, only not the version with the F1 sounds in it So Senna and Ratzenbergers death introduced me into the real life where not everything turns out to be ok, and it also has a link to the worst thing that ever happened to me when my father died. But this song always brings a tear to my eyes, but those words give me so much comfort as I know my dad (even as his English wasn't that good) would also say: "I'm okay now...."

I was almost 7 years old. I don't remember watching the race, but I do remember watching the news of the crash. I'm not aware of watching live races until 1996 or so, but maybe saw a few there and there about that time.

Based on what I experienced later in the '90s, there was no qualifying coverage and maybe just a highlight during the race broadcast prior to the start, so the Roland deal surely wasn't shown live, although surely it appeared in that day's news, as it's always been when there is a fatal crash in a major motor race.

The first fatality in racing I remember seeing live was Greg Moore. Even though I follow AOWR since 1995 or so, I must have missed that '96 Toronto race.

I was 12 years old in 1994, and I had been following F1 on and off since 1990 thanks to my father being a F1 fanatic . But in 1994 my interest in motorsport literally exploded and I began following any kind of racing, not missing a single race of what was broadcasted live at the time (basically F1, Superturismo and Indycar) nor a single issue of Autosprint.

On April 30th, I remember watching qualifying in my living room. Strangely, I was alone. My father was out doing some errand or something (must have been VERY important for him to miss anything F1 related.). All of a sudden, the image of a Simtek spinning and stopping in the middle of the track filled the screen.
I immediately noticed the unnatural bobbing of the driver's head and, wait, is that blood on the helmet or am I hallucinating?
Mario Poltronieri's usual awful commentary dind't help: "aaand...hmm..there's a crash...a quite serious crash..hmmm" in a monotone voice just like he was reading an announcement. I can't remember anything else about the commentary because I stopped paying attention.
I felt chills down my spine and in my veins and I had this ominous feeling from the very first moment: he's dead. I've just seen somebody die on the tv screen. I was in some kind of shock, and went out for a walk after the session ended, hoping to clam down my train of thought.
Later in the afternoon, I remember listening to the radio in my dad's car when Roland's death was announced. "Well...unfortunately RATZINGER (sic) is dead..." the speaker said, tragicomically misspelling his surname. I remember having a chat with my father about other fatal accidents in F1, most notably Jochen Rindt's crash, which he witnessed from the grandstands at Monza.

Come May 1st, a beautiful spring day, I was sitting in my comfortable livingroom with my dad waiting for the race.
But I felt kind of uncomfortable at the sole idea of wathcing the GP. I had a bad feeling about the whole thing, somehow I wished they had cancelled the race.
And what happened at the the start just plunged me in an even worse mood. But as the race was underway, I began to feel the usual excitement again.

When that fateful moment at Tamburello came, I remember having a "Japanese commentator" moment, jumping on the armchair overexcited and shouting "that's...that's Senna!". The thought of witnessing a second fatal crash didn't cross my mind at first, since I was more surprised and in utter disbelief to see the man who was set to dominate the season scoring his 3rd DNF in a row. But the iconic yellow helmet didn't move, and that horrible feeling crawled up my spine and down to my stomach once again. I started becoming anxious and restless, my father his usual mask of seriousness. I hoped for the best but feared the worst. Suddenly I thought I saw the helmet moving and I started to say aloud. "He is going to make it...I saw him moving. He must have been knocked unconsious by the hit, or he has broken legs and has passed out from the pain. But he's gonna make it". My father somehow agreed, probably just to make me feel a bit less worried.
Then came Alboreto's incident in the pits and I started thinking the race was cursed. They shouldn't even have started it. I lost interest in the race results and listened to the radio for updates for the whole afternoon (no Net back then!) until the news came.

My father used to collect GP recordings on VHS, writing the 3 podium finishers on the label. I rememeber adding an asterisk symbol with "Senna dies" written underneath, as if to mark something out of the ordinary happend and something was kind of missing from that podium.

_________________
"IT'S CHAOS! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!"

I was in Primary School and on my very first holiday away from my parents with the school at an adventure park type place in Wales called "Plas Dol-Y-Moch" (Welsh forum posters might giggle at that name) during the bank holiday weekend.

We had no access to TV or any media but on the dorm on the night one of my friends said he had a radio and said something had happened in the Grand Prix.
Because he wasn't a fan and his radio wasn't getting the best reception he told me he was sure Nigel Mansell had been hurt in a crash.
I assumed maybe he'd hurt himself in America (not having heard anything of him after he'd left F1) and thought nothing more of it.

Upon returning on Bank Holiday Monday after all the usual questions about my trip had been asked, I then asked if anything had happened during the F1 race (I'd asked my dad to record it for me on VHS so I could watch it when I got back)

My dad explained there'd been a bad crash and Senna had died.
I asked if I could watch the video and he said no. He'd stopped recording during the red flag as it was too sad and he said it wasn't appropriate to watch for someone who was only in single digits, age wise.

To date it's the only F1 race I've missed completely since I started watching amid "Mansell Mania" in 91/92

It felt bad enough I was being cut off from one of my favourite things for an entire weekend, but due to circumstances Imola felt like a black hole, an entire event that never happened from my perspective.
As I grew up I came to realise the terrible significance of those events but even so now I have a horrible disconnect with that weekend.

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

9 years old then. Can´t remember the actual crashes happening, just the ominous feeling of waiting on the living room floor in front of the telly, and hearing the announcement later that evening. The first of very few sporting moments that has made me cry because of sadness.

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/amjayes2

another special feature was just broadcasted, when they show Ayrton with the people in Interlagos 93 and the tributes by the national team in the World Cup I can't avoid, that was for me the greatest sporting moments in the history

_________________
Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

I was 18 then. I didn't see the Barrichello or Ratzenberger crash, as I don't think the BBC were showing showing all of it and I was out when Ratzenberger crashed. I remember my Dad letting me drive his car down the lane to cheer me up about his death.

I remember Ratzenberger racing Roland Rat, a morning UK kids TV puppet, a few years before, so I was more aware of him than other drivers.

As for the race, I watched it live, thought Senna would be okay as he was moving, then they cut away so we missed the rest of the more gory close ups.

I was checking Teletext for news as the race went on, and afterwards, and just had a sense of numbness about it all, awaiting the inevitable. Terrible times. I made a badge the next week to wear to college with Senna's helmet on, although I was more of a Mansell fan. As an aside, I once drew a picture of Senna crashed in a gravel trap with Mansell driving by, saying "Senna will not always win!", but I think that was more from when he beat Mansell at Japan to win the championship in 1991, which was on my birthday!

14 years old. Been watching f1 for years. Seen some nasty crashes but never really with serious injuries. Can recall Berger at imola and Zanardi at spa. Hadn't seen Rubens crash live but come Saturday I was at a grinds house playing Nintendo and watching qualifying.

When Roland crashed we thought not much of it. Young and innocent we thought he was simply K.O'ed by the crash. When they started CPR reality hit us. Didn't know Roland but the simtek was an instant favorite from the moment I laid eyes on it.

Sunday I watched the race. The start crash was bad. Then Senna went off. At the time I couldn't see th blood everyone was taking about and to me it was impossible that 2 people could get killed in 1 weekend.
The incident in the pit topped the crazy weekend off.
I recall Roland's crash better as it was the first death in racing I saw and that probably left a bigger impression or maybe I was still numb on Sunday.

Up to today I get pissed when someone claims f1 is so save that a death is impossible.
Up to imola f1 was considered saver than ever. We had big shunts before. Berger, Zanardi but also Warwick during the hockenheim warmup in horrid rain.
F1 is saver than before but unless you take away actual drivers, pitcrew, trackside marchals and spectators there will always be that moment no one prepared for. That's my personal lesson of imola 1994

As a 5 year old, all I knew about racing was that I liked racing cars. If there were cars of some sort on one of the 3-4 channels we had on our TV, especially if they were racing cars, I was all over it. I'm not sure who had the rights to F1 in Norway back in those days, but it is possible that it would have been available to watch on either NRK1 or TV2 (two of the channels we had in addition to TV Norge and NRK2). But since I was an absent-minded little child, I never thought to check the TV listings and figure out when to watch the races, so I'm fairly sure I didn't see the tragic events unfold as they happened, instead living my life blissfully unaware of them. I do, however, remember seeing what I now recognise as footage of Senna's crash in what was probably the evening news.

I'm definitely a part of a small minority as one of Norway's hardcore motorsports enthusiasts. One of few people who kept on thinking racing cars were cool, long after most kids stopped playing with their matchbox cars. I remember buying a copy of F1 Racing in 1997 shortly after a 1-year spell of living in England (1995-1996) where I was able to follow with great excitement the exploits of Damon Hill thanks to the BBC and Murray Walker. I remember being intrigued by the headline "SENNA - Sensational new evidence" and soon realising what had happened only a few years earlier. I didn't learn about the other incidents (including Barrichello and Ratzenberger) until I'd read this article.

One of my dad's mates (and new-wave punk-rock band colleague from the 80's) came over to Norway to visit some time shortly after this, and offered to paint something cool on the wall of my newly-painted room. Obviously it was going to be a racing car, and I showed him a photo of Senna in this issue of F1 Racing. The result was quite minimalistic but to this day it's still there, and is a piece of art I've spent a lot of time staring and pondering at. You could even say that it's one of the first things I see when I wake up in my room. Senna never affected me much while we were both alive, but the legend surrounding this great man following his death has most certainly left a great impression on me.

I know I'm not alone in thinking; there's something about his iconic yellow helmet, inside the glorious blue Williams FW16, that just looks so right.

p.s. - Yes, my walls really are that green. It's awesome