Man, this three week break is killing me! We need to get back to racing....

 

I got a chance to talk with Bob Varsha this weekend in Monterey. He spent a good 20 minutes talking my wife and I. I picked his brain on the F1 breakaway, F1's return to the US, Rick DeBruhl's crap announcing when they didn't use Varsha, etc. Really cool guy - VERY bright.

He also gave me some cool insight into working with David Hobbs and Steve Matchett. It will change how I listen to the F1 races in the future...

 

Wow Chris! That is awesome!

I really like Matchett. He was a great mechanic with Benetton during their World Championship runs. I also liked both of his books "A Mechanic's Tale" and "Chariot Makers." I am not a big Hobbs fan. I keep hearing him say "Lewis is dead now - there is no way he can catch up" during the German GP.

Varsha is cool. He does a fine job. Elaborate a bit on what he shared with you. I am very curious.

 

Barrister, you will enjoy this book.

Amazon.com: To Finish First: My years inside Formula One, Can-Am and Indy 500 racing with Cooper, Brabham and McLaren: Phil Kerr, Jack Brabham: Books

Written by Bruce McLarens lifelong best friend ( childhood buddies ) whom became director at McLaren during the early years through to their sale to Murray and co. Amazing history lesson. Especially the French Grand Prix and Bernie Eccelstone...

Let me know if you want my copy.

 

Thanks for the book referral! That looks very interesting. I will try to hunt down a copy. If I can't find one, I may take you up on that offer to borrow yours.

 

Basically he said the races on Fox in mid-season were an appeasement to Bernie since Bernie doesn't think satellite/cable/non-broadcast TV is "real" TV. So SPEED just bought time on Fox and kept the same lineup. The two-hour format was a requirement from Fox.

He said Hobbs is an AWESOME guy. Hobbs has raced EVERYTHING and won most of them. They've worked together for 25+ years, so they have great chemistry. As for Matchett, he said he was a real "alone time" type of guy. Not a bad thing (and VERY typical of engineers). Varsha said Matchett is very knowledgeable, but only in F1. When the Varsha/Hobbs/Matchett team went to LeMans, Matchett said, "I don't know about these cars! What will I say?"

Varsha was just a very personable guy. I'm sure he'd be a great dinner party guest, speaker at a conference, etc. BTW, all the drivers I met there (Derek Bell, Johnny Herbert, Alain de Cadenet, Danny Sullivan, Eddie Cheever, John Watson, etc.) were all total gentlemen and very gracious.