1 Mar 2001, 20:48 (Ref:67448)
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#1
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 Race Official Veteran
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 10,993
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Quote:
Twenty years ago today a young Brazilian took his first step on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming a racing driver.
Just over 10 years later, Ayrton Senna was a triple world champion whose skills invited comparisons with the likes of Fangio, Clark and Stewart.
Senna seemed such a natural behind the wheel that it sometimes seems strange to realise that he had to learn the ropes like everyone else. Even legends have to start somewhere.
Senna was just three weeks away from his 21st birthday when he competed in his first car race, the first round of the P & O Formula Ford 1600 Championship at Brands Hatch. He finished fifth.
Of course, Senna had not come from nowhere. Known then by his full name, Ayrton Senna Da Silva, he had been a regular on the kart circuit in South America and Europe for seven years.
He won his first kart race at Interlagos in 1973 and had rapidly graduated through the sport, accumulating title after title along the way. It was a habit he would never lose.
After finishing second in the world championship at Estoril in 1979, Senna and father Milton decided he should make the jump to car racing the following year.
Senna moved across to England with his young bride Liliane. The couple lived in Norfolk with fellow Brazilian hopeful Mauricio Gugelmin and his wife Stella.
He was to race for Van Diemen racing, which was run by Ralph Firmin. The veteran boss had known about Senna for two years, having been tipped off by another Brazilian driver he was running at the time.
Firmin had seen hundreds of drivers come and go from Formula Ford and was not about to be bowled over by this young upstart. But as the season got underway, Senna soon won him over.
He said: "I did not realise how special he was after his first run. We had been running young drivers from karting for many years. But as we got into the season it became clear how good he was."
Although he only finished fifth in his first race, Senna quickly hit his stride and was soon dicing with the frontrunners. He racked up his first podium finish a week later at Thruxton and took his first win back at Brands Hatch on March 15.
According to Firmin, many of Senna's legendary attributes were obvious even then.
He explained: "His strengths were his determination, his intelligence and his dedication.
"His perfectionism was evident right from the start. After winning a race at the weekend, he would be in the factory on Monday morning to see how he could improve."
Away from the track, Senna was no different to any other 21-year-old. He had befriended a young photographer Keith Sutton, who covered Formula Ford for a Brazilian magazine. Sutton remembers the time fondly.
He said: "I would often stay at his home which he shared with Mauricio Gugelmin and his wife Stella. We used to talk about music, movies, girls, ambitions, Brazil, and then sit down to eat one of Stella's speciality Brazilian dishes.
"In return, Senna used to stay at my home when he was visiting Oulton Park. I had a lot of good times and memories from 1981."
Following his breakthrough at Brands Hatch, the wins started to come thick and fast for Senna. Between July and September, he went on a run of six successive victories.
But while results were going his way out on the racetrack, things were not running so smoothly at home. Liliane was getting homesick and the couple's relationship was being stretched to breaking point.
After finishing fourth in another race at Brands Hatch on September 29, Senna announced that he was retiring from racing to return home to Brazil.
Sutton was amazed by his decision.
He said: "I was put into a state of shock when he announced that he was retiring from racing because
his father needed help on his farm in Brazil and through lack of sponsorship.
"However, I had a feeling that the real reason was that his wife Liliane, whom he had married in February, did not like being away from Brazil and became very nervous when he was racing."
Senna had already wrapped up two of the three championships he had taken part in that year -claiming the Townsend Thoresen and RAC titles.
Senna may have tried to put his marriage ahead of his career, but it couldn't last and he was soon back in Britain, minus Liliane, to step up to Formula Ford 2000. Needless to say, he won.
The collapse of his marriage suggests that Senna was totally obsessed by his racing to the exclusion of everything else. Firmin and Sutton disagree - both stayed in contact with Senna until his death and remember him as friendly and caring.
Sutton recalls how Senna would always spare a moment for a 12-year-old girl from Stockport whenever he visited Oulton Park.
Even then, the most charismatic driver of his generation had no difficulty attracting fans. It was something he would have to get used to.
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Peter: I agree wholeheartedly...
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