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Formula 1 Dallas Grand Prix 1984


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Formula 1 came to Dallas TX in 1984, thirty years ago next month. Excessive heat and deteriorating track conditions made it a one time event, as the drivers were unhappy and wanted to cancel the race. I was a corner worker at the infamous chicane where the pavement was torn up by the combination of heat and tires. My job was to keep the many photographers in check and out of harm's way. Of course that didn't stop me from taking my own photos. I also had unrestricted access to the pits and the garage areas. I recently found my photos but, sadly, not my negatives. These are scans of 30 year old 4x6 prints from a one-hour photo hut so they aren't the best quality. I was shooting with a Canon AT-1 and a couple of cheap Vivitar lenses.

 

edit: all images rehosted on imgur - no more blurred watermarked fauxtobucket crapola and some more photos appended to the thread. 👍

 

Enjoy.

 

ABC sportscaster Chris Economaki describing alternate nosecones for the Brabham-BMWs

 

3VrAsjR.jpg

 

Patrick Tambay in his Renault. Note the camera rig mounted on the rollbar. 

 

ZGze0Mz.jpg

 

Eddie Cheever's Benneton-Alfa Romeo

 

8P1DYQI.jpg

 

Andrea de Cesaris' Ligier-Renault in the pits

 

MkOYmup.jpg

 

RAM-BMW engine/transaxle in the garage

 

GKKPa5f.jpg

 

Rear wing of Rene Arnoux's Ferrari

 

Wg0hVZ9.jpg

 

Niki Lauda walking thru the pit area before the race

 

mF4H2if.jpg

 

 

Edited by habu2
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Nelson Piquet, Brabham-BMW

 

zDnvtJl.jpg

 

Corrado Fabi, Brabham-BMW

 

VtGqKdB.jpg

 

no pics of Martin Brundle or his Tyrrell-Ford, he DNQ'd... 😞

 

Stefan Bellof, Tyrrell-Ford

 

bUgHJHf.jpg

 

Jacques Laffite, Williams-Honda

 

AbC67kp.jpg

 

Race winner Keke Rosberg, Williams-Honda

 

yjUbHXK.jpg

 

Alain Prost, McLaren-TAG

 

Jrv0FOS.jpg

 

Niki Lauda, McLaren-TAG

 

Ia4BdvE.jpg

Edited by habu2
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no pics of Philippe Alliot or his RAM-Hart, he was DNS for the race 😞

 

Jonathan Palmer, RAM-Hart

 

6TpRRpc.jpg

 

Elio de Angelis, Lotus-Renault

 

PwH3ITi.jpg

 

Nigel Mansell, Lotus-Renault

 

m9B90lu.jpg

 

Manfred Winkelhock, ATS-BMW

 

rjqe2gQ.jpg

 

Patrick Tambay, Renault

 

sna6zDY.jpg

 

Derek Warwick, Renault

 

tBfp9KF.jpg

 

no pics of Marc Surer or his Arrows-BMW... 😞

 

Thierry Boutsen, Arrows-BMW

 

IeVrXgu.jpg

Edited by habu2
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Ayrton Senna, Toleman-Hart (in his first season in F1)

 

KyZW7VN.jpg

 

Johnny Cecotto, Toleman-Hart

 

PHuhtpX.jpg

 

no pics of Huub Rothengatter or his Spirit-Hart... 😞

 

Riccardo Patrese, Benneton-Alfa Romeo

 

vUoZMG9.jpg

 

Eddie Cheever, Benneton-Alfa Romeo

 

fD1DLET.jpg

 

no pics of Piercarlo Ghinzani, Osella-Alfa Romeo or Francois Hesnault, Ligier-Renault... 😞

 

Andrea de Cesaris, Ligier-Renault

 

N1GoAG6.jpg

 

Michele Alboreto, Ferrari

 

qJE9Xqv.jpg

 

Rene Arnoux, Ferrari

 

dFiDSlp.jpg

Edited by habu2
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Up the hill after the chicane

 

tatGLMB.jpg

.

COwhCBx.jpg
.

The appalling track conditions at the chicane

 

UQxr8ON.jpg
.

Get off the line and you're in the marbles and into the wall...

 

Ga2ptc7.jpg

 

...like this

 

YXBpTr9.jpg

.

r1Un26o.jpg

 

Alain Prost and Niki Lauda catch a ride on Jacques Laffite's Williams-Honda after the race, 
Derek Warwick's Renault went into the tires at the chicane on lap 10 and the car sat there the rest of the race !!!

 

WnzVUR7.jpg


As you can see, I was right down there in the thick of things, such access would be impossible today. I still have a piece of Tambay's Renault after he hit the wall, just a piece of brake duct but hey, it's quite the momento. It was certainly a weekend to remember. 

Edited by habu2
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Alain Prost and Niki Lauda catch a ride on Jacques Laffite's Williams-Honda after the race,

Derek Warwick's Renault went into the tires at the chicane on lap 10 and the car sat there the rest of the race !!!

DGP84__0076_zps8e4fe587.jpg

As you can see, I was right down there in the thick of things, such access would be impossible today. I still have a piece of Tambay's Renault after he hit the wall, just a piece of brake duct but hey, it's quite the momento. It was certainly a weekend to remember.

Wow; Niki Lauda's signature haircut!

Your pics brings back some serious memories of the day.

Thanks for sharing.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Well I guess it’s not enough for BlottoBucket to obscure my photos with their watermarks, now they have to blur them too. I will try to rehost the pics on a better site in the near future. 

Edited by habu2
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Okay, images rehosted on imgur.  And here are some additional pics I found:

 

Course map

 

rbSGAtY.jpg

 

de Dion rear suspension on Arnoux's Ferrari

 

jkaWTMN.jpg

 

Front brake & suspension of Arrows BMW

 

McVzpAc.jpg

 

Composite brake rotor - in 1984 !!!

 

FEjPasa.jpg

 

Rosberg's Williams Honda

 

NOSTiCU.jpg

 

Rosberg's Williams Honda

 

IYHdwx9.jpg

 

Arnoux's Ferrari

 

xea72iX.jpg

 

Palmer's RAM-Hart

 

LSYNter.jpg

 

Prost's McLaren-TAG

 

cRBaIYW.jpg

 

Official patch

 

ITs1tH8.jpg

Edited by habu2
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  • 2 weeks later...

Whoa how did I miss this thread for the last five years?? Honestly! Thanks to habu2 for sending me the link via PM. Awesome photos and a true trip down memory lane. This is gold stuff. As a fan of F1 it never ceases to amaze me just how small those 80's cars were compared to todays. The colors and paint schemes back then were pretty eye catching too (love the Marlboro and black/gold John Players Special cars). And I completely forgot about the Skoal Bandit car in F1 (I always think of NASCAR and Harry Gant when I think of Skoal). 

 

Speaking of F1 cars, not sure if anyone here has seen them yet or even follows F1, but this is what the 2021 F1 cars are supposed to look like:

Image result for F1 future cars

Compare that ^^^ with habu2's photos above. Wow!

 

Oh... and as a fan...

Related image

Congrats on SIX CHAMPIONSHIPS for Lewis Hamilton!!!

 

Good stuff thanks habu2!

 

Happy modeling all!

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Had missed this too but I'm so happy that you happened to bring it up, Don! 

 

Great stuff here! I still remember this race, not from TV (it wasn't necessarily broadcast here at the time) but I remember the magazine article covering this race on our local motor sport magazine that my father was subscribing for decades. Keke was a national hero at that time (having won the championship in -82) and I still remember every Williams and McLaren he drove. It is big shame there are no injection models of these cars, not even from the championship year. 

 

Those were the golden years. Cars were made of metal, the drivers were real men in their moustache and who smoked in the pits. And still they could handle these beasts with no power steering, no electronic aids, just raw power.

 

Thanks for posting, habu2!

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4 hours ago, janman said:

...It is big shame there are no injection models of these cars, not even from the championship year. 

 

Those were the golden years. Cars were made of metal, the drivers were real men in their moustache and who smoked in the pits. And still they could handle these beasts with no power steering, no electronic aids, just raw power...

Couldn't agree more on the models:thumbsup:. I've built some of the older F1 kits out there but they are hard to find, quite expensive, and not up to todays standard. I'd love some new kits. My son collects 1/43 scale diecast F1 cars and they are really difficult to obtain (here in North America at least) and can be very pricey.

 

I loved the sound of those 80's and 90's F1 cars! Like you wrote, no electronics (no paddle shifters... oh the horror LOL) it was man taming machine or machine biting man.

 

Good stuff fellas.

 

Happy modeling and have a great weekend all!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just so you know: I'm trying to make this track for a simulator called Assetto Corsa, I made a test portion of it for rFactor, but with updated graphics will do it for Assetto Corsa (I'm also doing Phoenix 1989-1991), any additional help from somebody that was actually in Dallas Fair Park that weekend back then is welcome!

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pRSU60s.jpg

 

 

This is a google map screen grab with a markup of the course, to the best of my memory.

 

  • The Start/Finish line was actually across a parking lot, not an existing street.
  • Immediately after the S/F was Pit Lane, which was on Coliseum Drive.  The curved track spanning Pit Lane was not on an existing road.
  • The course then followed Admiral Nimitz Rd to a sharp left onto Grand Ave.  The runoff was added, Nimitz Rd did not extend past Grand.
  • Note Grand is a boulevard, I don't recall which side of the boulevard/median the track actually ran.
  • Continuing on Grand, directly towards Big Tex (red circle) with a sharp right onto a left sweeper, a road that was either added or no longer exists.
  • A sharp right at the end of the sweeper to a left hand hairpin that connects to S 2nd Ave.
  • A long straight on 2nd Ave had a jog (at intersection w Grand) onto an adjacent parking lot, then a sharp chicane back onto 2nd. (runoff was in the adjacent parking lot)
  • Then a sharp left onto a new road adjacent to (not on) Pennsylvania Ave, this is where the roller coaster was.
  • A slight jog into another sharp chicane, this is where I was stationed during the race (red star) and where the pavement issues were.
  • Then up the hill on a road through parking lots and a short left sweeper onto Washington St.
  • A left hairpin from Washington onto McKenzie St, then a sharp right at Coliseum although the course then crosses a parking lot which is the Start/Finish line.

Note some street names are covered by my blue line markup.  If you look on google maps (search Dallas Fair Park) you can see the street names.

 

Also, not all of my pics were taken at the chicane during the race, I worked other locations during practice sessions.

 

Hope this helps.

 

.

 

Edited by habu2
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On 11/20/2019 at 2:41 AM, EKO Sim-Racing said:

Just so you know: I'm trying to make this track for a simulator called Assetto Corsa, I made a test portion of it for rFactor, but with updated graphics will do it for Assetto Corsa (I'm also doing Phoenix 1989-1991), any additional help from somebody that was actually in Dallas Fair Park that weekend back then is welcome!

 

Very impressive. Interestingly, at the time of the race I worked as a CGI modeler on military flight sims so I appreciate the work and skill that goes into building a track model such as yours.

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