Zeltweg, Spielberg, A1 Ring, Österreichring or Red Bull Ring… Call this circuit what you want, the only driver who will show up there tomorrow having already participated in at least one Grand Prix is called Valentino Rossi. It was 1997 and he finished his (second) 125cc race there, second, 4 thousandths of a second behind Noboru “Nobby” Ueda.
If you consult the rankings of this last Grand Prix in Austria before this year's return, you will notice that many participants are still in the paddock today, starting with Luca Cadalora, Tadayuki Okada, Alberto Puig or Loris Capirossi, without forgetting of course some French like Hervé Poncharal, Guy Coulon or Fred Petit.
Among these, our photographer, Christian Bourget, was already in his second decade of Grands Prix and brought back around 500 negatives from this last race in Styria; thanks to him !
For your pleasure, we have digitized a tenth of them, or a good fifty, which we have tried to caption to take full advantage of the crackle of the 2-strokes and the smell of castor oil that emerges...
Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to comment or share!
