I heard the terrible news on May 1, 1994, while attending a vintage racing event at Road Atlanta. I was standing in a line at a concession stand, and overheard a conversation about what had happened at Imola.

Three other times / places that I remember as vividly -- President John F. Kennedy (in school, waiting to return to our third grade classroom, from the lunchroom); Elvis Presley (in traffic in Birmingham, Alabama, where cars had pulled over and people were crying); and Bear Bryant (in a hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wondering why they were running a TV special on his life, a month after the end of the football season).

Jeff

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: it is hard to be objective about the best, personal preferences
: will always impinge.
: The sad days I remember

: 7 April 1968 sitting at a small table in the Midlands eating Sunday
: dinner and hearing the news on the BBC radio. At the time I was
: 8 and the super speedy tadpole in our fish tank by the table was
: named Jim Clark because, just because.

: 29th November 1975. Maybe he wasn't the fastest or the outright
: best but Graham had Charisma in spades and he got results. Once
: I had read Life at the Limit I was a complete fan.

: 11th September 1978. From the moment Ronnie stepped into a March
: 711, I was hooked. I followed that 1971 season so closely,
: without Jackie he would have got his first win, somewhere,
: somehow. I forget how many second places there were but second
: in the championship wasn't bad for your first season in a proper
: team. Silverstone 1973 watching his Lotus 72 on full opposite
: lock through Woodcote during practice, that image is seared in
: my memory.

: Different eras, different drivers, different viewpoints. Senna was
: an awesome talent and to you the best. At the end of the day
: anyone who gets into a Grand Prix car and drives it
: competitively deserves respect, without the rest of the field
: you will never know how good your hero is.

: Tony