Famous & Notable Sayings & Fun Quotes! (Merged)

[Davhut]

1.
"Loads of overtaking is boring. You go fishing and you catch a fish every
ten minute it's boring. But if you sit there all day, and you catch one mega
fish, you come back with stories that you caught a fish this big (indicates
a big fish), intead of this size (indicating a small fish)"
- Eddie Irvine on the lack of overtaking in F1.

2.
"You know you're in trouble when the first person to get to you after a
wreck is carrying a beer"
- NASCAR driver, Jimmy Horton, speaking of his accident at Talladega in
1993.

3.
"The car is such a dog we should have tied it to the fence"
- Dick Johnson, former Australian Touring Car Champion, discusses an
obviously less than brilliant vehicle....

4.
"F1 won't change me"
- Jenson Button, just weeks before dumping his girlfriend of five years and
buying a Ferrari.

5.
"Give me a few bits of wool to stick on the car, a good gust of mistral
wind, and I could come up with a better aerodynamic package on the bridge at Avignon"
- Jean Alesi on the dreadfully inefficient Prost AP02.

6.
"He's just a total bloody idiot. Always was, always will be"
- Derek Warwick on Rene Arnoux.

7.
"Oh, we're just looking for the ear"
- Niki Lauda replying to somebody asking what the former world champion was doing back at the site of the 1976 accident that nearly killed him at the
Norschleife circuit.

8.
"I am a non discriminating driver. I want to kick everybody's ass"
- Greg Ray, IRL.

9.
"The track is my canvas. My car is my pencil"
- Graham Hill.

10.
"Ukyo Katayama is undoubtedly the best formula 1 driver that grand prix
racing has ever produced"
- A questionable quote from commentating legend, Murray Walker.

11.
"Anyone who doesn't speak English isn't worth speaking to"
- Bernie Ecclestone.

12.
"Clark came through at the end of the first lap of the race so far ahead
that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been
wiped out in an accident"
- An onlooker describing Jim Clark's incredible first lap speed at the 1967
Belgian GP at Spa.

13.
"My game is going wrong - the star is setting" - Ascari speaking to Fangio
in 1955 - just four days before his death at the wheel of a sportscar.

14.
"Jimmy ranked with, perhaps even out-ranked, Nuvolari, Fangio and Moss and I think we all thought that he was in a way invincible. To be killed in an
accident with a Formula 2 car is almost unacceptable"
- Bruce McLaren speaking of the great late-Jim Clark.

15.
"Drivers are just interchangeable light bulbs - you plug them in and they do
the job"
- Teddy Mayer, McLaren.

16.
"And that is Ralf Schumacher - son of Michael"
-Who else but Murray Walker, ITV commentator?

17.
"I think I've proved that, in equal cars, if I want someone to stay behind
me... well, I think he stays behind..."
- Gilles Villeneuve.

18.
"Break a leg"
- Grid Girl at 1999 British GP offering some 'advice' to Michael Schumacer
pre-race. A few hours later Michael was in a hospital and his leg was in
plaster, following an early race shunt.

19.
"Christ - I used to complain that this thing was underpowered, I must have
been mad"
- Chris Amon after driving a 1970's F1 car up the hill at Goodwood.

20.
"Aerodynamics is for those who cannot manufacture good engines"
- Enzo Ferrari prior to the advent of the Daytona Cobras.

21.
"I'm fine, but I'm going to need to change my shorts when this race is over"
- Greg Moore over the car to pit radio after a spin in the Michigan 500.

22.
"It's been 2000 years since a Good Friday was this bad"
- Benetton tech boss, Pat Symonds speaking at the 2000 British GP, the site
of another dismal performance.

23.
"No, it will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end
of the straightaway in high gear"
- Too much power is never enough....Mark Donohue on the Can Am Porsche 917.

24.
"Are you here to race or to crash?"
- Chico Landi addressing drivers safety concerns in Brazil in the 1980's.

25.
"You might think that's not cricket, and it's not, it's motor racing"
- Yep. Murray again.

26.
"It's almost worth retiring just so I can speak to you..."
- Alex Zanardi speaking to Louise Goodman on TV during the former's awful
1999 Grand Prix season.

27.
"F--k off"
- Yvan Muller to Peter Cox, during the postrace press conference at the 1999
Snetterton British Touring Car Championship night race.

28.
"Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is
the action, which it is"
- Murray Walker.

29.
"The man's an animal"
- John Cleland speaking about Steve Soper, at Silverstone BTCC race, 1992.

30.
"...if they have any more drive-throughs, they're going to have to start
selling burgers and fries in the pit lane"
- Charlie Cox commentating on a drive through penatly for Laurent Aiello at
Silverstone BTCC round, 1999.

31.
"Racing drivers have balls, unfortunantly, none of them are crystal"
- David Coulthard.

32.
"You're a pack of ********s"
- Race winner Jim Richards responds to a booing crowd on the podium of the controversial 1992 Bathurst 1000.

33.
"You're a pack of lovely, lovely people"
Jim Richards makes up for his 1992 speech after winning the 2002 event.

34.
"The litte Mexican ******* tried to kill me!"
- Jo Siffert on Pedro Rodriguez.

35.
"Unless I am very much mistaken...I AM very much mistaken!"
- Murray Walker.

36.
"The passport changes but the blood doesn't"
- Italian-American, Mario Andretti on the lure to drive at Ferrari.

37.
"I knew I'd been beaten by the best driver in the world"
- Rene Arnoux on his epic last lap battle with Gilles Villeneuve at Dijon
1979.

38.
"When the flag drops, the bull**** stops"
- Anonymous

39.
"Finishing second means you are the first person to lose"
- Gilles Villeneuve.

40.
"In my day the drivers were fat and the tires were skinny"
- Unknown.

41.
"I want to stay in F1 but things have to get better for me to have a chance.
No disrespect, but I won't go to Minardi"
- Johnny Herbert, 2000.

42.
"We'll be looking to give McLaren and Ferrari a run for their money"
- Craig Pollock, BAR Team Principle, speaking prior to the team's 1999 race
debut. As it turned out, BAR wasn't even able to give Minardi a walk for
their money, failing to score a single point.

43.
"There's a bit of debris there, Rouse hits it, Oh, nice header from Menu!"
- Murray Walker, Brands Hatch BTCC, 1994.

44.
"Why did I take up racing? I was too lazy to work and too chicken to steal"
- Kyle Petty, Stock Car driver.

45.
"It was a Ford, so it didn't really matter"
- Mark Skaife answering a question about a car fire in a touring car race at
Barbagallo.

46.
"I already tried that. Something heavy metal like. And sunglasses. But it
didn't work; I went to the gas station and when I left the guy at the
counter said, 'bye Mr Schumacher".
- Michael Schumacher on trying not be recognised...

47.
"He's broken our camera lens; that'll be six grand please Derek!"
- Murray Walker after Derek Warwick crashed into the remote TV camera during a BTCC race.

48.
"Presumably it's vitamin C they put in that Orange Arrows, Murray..."
- Commentator Martin Brundle shows why he isn't a comedian.

49.
"I want to win a couple of Indy Car Championships and I want people to say
that Greg Moore was one of the best CART drivers that was ever around."
- Greg Moore, speaking in 1997. In October 1999, Moore was killed in an
accident at Fontana.

50.
"Rene Arnoux is coming into the pits ... lets stop the startwatch"
- Murray Walker, BBC commentator.

[John Turner]

Thanks for sharing these. Some extremely funny, but one or two rather poignant ones, as well.

[JFW]

"The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical"
- Murray Walker
________________________________________
"You win some, lose some, and wreck some."
- Dale Earnhardt Sr.
________________________________________
"It's basically the same, just darker."
- Alan Kulwicki, on racing Saturday nights as opposed to Sunday afternoons.
________________________________________
"Race fans, I had inferred from my one trip to the Brickyard 400, fell into one of two categories: tattooed, shirtless, sewer-mouthed drunks, and their husbands."
- Steve Ruchin
________________________________________
"... the lead is now 6.9 seconds. In fact it's just under 7 seconds."
- Murray Walker
________________________________________
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari."
- Gilles Villeneuve
________________________________________
"And now, excuse me while I interrupt myself."
- Murray Walker
________________________________________
"It don't mean **** right now... Daddy's won here 10 times."
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
________________________________________
“If I died right now, my life would be complete.”
- Tony Stewart, after winning the Allstate 400.
________________________________________
"There are seven winners of the Monaco Grand Prix on the starting line today, and four of them are Michael Schumacher."
- Murray Walker
________________________________________
"With two laps to go then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."
- Murray Walker
________________________________________
" Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games."
- Earnest Hemingway
________________________________________
"I'd like to say I'm ready to kick ass and show the guys how it's done. But I'm not here to prove anything about being a woman. I'm here to drive a race car and try to win a race."
- Lyn St. James
________________________________________
"Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second."
- Bobby Unser
________________________________________
"Aerodynamics is for those who cannot manufacture good engines"
- Enzo Ferrari
________________________________________
“You're not a racing driver, you're a f***ing idiot!”
- Ayrton Senna yelling at Jordan’s Eddie Irvine after the 1993 Japanese Grad Prix
________________________________________
“When I raced a car last it was at a time when sex was safe and racing was dangerous. Now, it’s the other way round.”
- Hans Stuck
________________________________________

“If you don't cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don't get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope. Put me where I belong.”
- Darrell Waltrip

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by JFW

"Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second."
- Bobby Unser

Mostly true, but what about Dijon, 1979 and Hungary, 1997, to name just a couple? Ooops, sorry, taking this all far too seriously!

[JFW]

He couldn't drive a greasy stick up a dog's arse - anon

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by JFW

He couldn't drive a greasy stick up a dog's arse - anon

Gordon Streeter I think

maybe not the first but he used in reference to a driver a few weeks back

[Ralf's Girl]

Reading some of the Murray quotes in this thread reminded me of one of my favourite 'Murray moments' when he interviewed Bernie Ecclestone:

Murray: It's been seventeen years since you bought McLaren. You've had some good times and some bad times - what do you remember most?
Bernie: I don't remember buying McLaren!

Fantastic.

[chunterer]

One of the best!!!

Top post RG!!

[Vitesse]

"When the flag drops, the bull**** stops" is usually attributed to Sir Jack Brabham. The first part of that phrase was the title of his autobiography.

[Sheila M]

"Frankly Murray, that's bullsh1t" James Hunt (live on the BBC in the 1980s - subsequently edited from the recorded highlights!)

[SidewaysFeltham]

Thought it might be a good idea to try and build up some of these.

OK, I'll kick off.

After Dan Gurney trounced everything in sight with his Ford Galaxie in 1963 at Brands and in particular the previously all-conquering Mk II Jag 3.8s, the Jaguar Racing Manager, "Lofty" England was hear in an aside in the paddock to mutter, "Humph! 'Spose we'll have to go back to Coventry and design a 9 litre Jaguar!

[nycuk]

One of my favourite motor sport sayings is also my signature - see below. Just the look of incedulity on Nelson's face at such a (in his opinion) dumb question makes me laugh out loud!

[chunterer]

Might be a little off topic but i remember a few from the 80's from touring cars.

1/ One guy crashed his Falcon coming down 'The Dipper' at Bathurst in 1984 wiping out a concrete wall and nearly harpooning a Capri in the process. Can't recall driver's name might have been Murray Carter or someone like that?

Question from commentator: "So what caused the accident mate?"

Answer: "Dunno it was just out of control!"

2/ Kevin Bartlett circa 1977 after a collision with a backmarker:

"The guy clearly wasn't looking in his mirrors, I tell you somone could have been killed out there today. I'm gonna punch that bloke in the mouth when the race is over!" ....or words to that effect.

3/ Steve Soper in the pits at 1988 TT on hearing the Dicko Sierra had just encountered problems:

"Really? well... i'm just ever so upset"

[Henry]

Originally Posted by chunterer

2/ Kevin Bartlett circa 1977 after a collision with a backmarker:

'The guy clearly wasn't looking in his mirrors, I tell you somone could have been killed out there today. I'm gonna punch that bloke in the mouth when the race is over!' ....or words to that effect.

1981, and speaking of Ron Wanless, an ex-prizefighter... I think they sorted it out without resorting to fisticuffs.

Couple of my Aussie faves:

Recalling many years later, the legendary '72 ATCC Bathurst race on Easter Monday, when his efforts to beat Pete Geoghegan saw Allan Moffat remove his seatbelts and perch himself on the side bolster of his Mustang seat, due to the oil from the car in front rendering his windscreen opaque... and return to the pits post race with the front spoiler scarred from where the car impacted the road as it landed after cresting the second hump on Conrod at nigh-on 170mph, with a lap record under his qualifying time, set on the last lap IIRC, Moffat said: "I did things that day I never dreamed I'd do".

Dick Johnson, mid-race on national TV in 1983, of a car that his team hadreconstructed overnight from an unsorted donor, with the driveline from the car he'd destroyed udring qualifying the previous day: "This thing's such a dog, we should've left it chained to the fence."

Same man, of his car 12 months previous, when it glazed bores and ate rings all week, gulped a full imperial gallon of oil over the course of the race, and was ultimately excluded for an alloy inlet manifold:"...as the day went on, all the horsepower sort of dribbled out the exhaust pipe".

Frank Gardner, on the gestation of the Porsche 917:

"Late one Friday in 1969 the telephone rang. Hello Frank, this is Husche (von Hanstein). We would like you to drive our new car at the Nurburgring 1,000 kilometres this weekend. I said I was busy and recommended he call Brian Redman. 'Brian has had a crash, and is in hospital.' Jo Siffert was my next suggestion. 'Jo has had a crash and is in hospital.' 'What the bloody hell is going on there?' Our new car is not easy to drive, Frank' - and he wasn't kidding!

"Porsche came to us because there was a shortage of drivers but the money was good so David Piper and I decided to take it on.

"These first cars had alloy tubular chassis, which was gas-filled to detect cracks. There was a big guage in the cockpit, which measured the gas pressure. If the guage zeroed, they said it meant that the chassis has started to crack, and they said I should drive home 'mit care'. I told them, 'If the needle zeroes I'll park the ******* there and then and walk back, pick up my Deutschmarks and go home'.

"The chassis flexed so much that the position of the gearchange was never the same twice in a row. You'd reach out for the lever and it wasn't there anymore. I was asked to drive it at Le Mans, the money was great too, but I told them 'I never wanted to be the quickest bloke in motor racing - just the oldest- and that Porsche was going to interfere with my plans.

"Then there was the engine. You had about 300 horsepower at 5000 revs, and then between 5000 and 6000 you picked up another 300! So it was a bit of delight, really, and it was on narrow nine-inch rims all round. The computer had said that nine-inch rims would make the car very quick in a straight line, but the computer wasn't strapped in the bloody seat up in the Eifel mountains, where you tend to get the odd corner...

"David did one lap at the Nurburgring and said he was too young to die. It snowed and poured, the car was snapping sideways and aquaplaning at the same time. It was one of the few times I extended my concentration levels above and beyond what I possessed, but we finished 5th".

[D-Type]

Murray Walker "Well, Mike, how do you feel after winning your fourteenth TT?"

Mike Hailwood: "Tired"


I've no idea whether this is true - I read it somewhere

[Graz]

Originally Posted by Henry

Frank Gardner, on the gestation of the Porsche 917:

"Late one Friday in 1969 the telephone rang. Hello Frank, this is Husche (von Hanstein). We would like you to drive our new car at the Nurburgring 1,000 kilometres this weekend. I said I was busy and recommended he call Brian Redman. 'Brian has had a crash, and is in hospital.' Jo Siffert was my next suggestion. 'Jo has had a crash and is in hospital.' 'What the bloody hell is going on there?' Our new car is not easy to drive, Frank' - and he wasn't kidding!

"Porsche came to us because there was a shortage of drivers but the money was good so David Piper and I decided to take it on.

"These first cars had alloy tubular chassis, which was gas-filled to detect cracks. There was a big guage in the cockpit, which measured the gas pressure. If the guage zeroed, they said it meant that the chassis has started to crack, and they said I should drive home 'mit care'. I told them, 'If the needle zeroes I'll park the ******* there and then and walk back, pick up my Deutschmarks and go home'.

"The chassis flexed so much that the position of the gearchange was never the same twice in a row. You'd reach out for the lever and it wasn't there anymore. I was asked to drive it at Le Mans, the money was great too, but I told them 'I never wanted to be the quickest bloke in motor racing - just the oldest- and that Porsche was going to interfere with my plans.

"Then there was the engine. You had about 300 horsepower at 5000 revs, and then between 5000 and 6000 you picked up another 300! So it was a bit of delight, really, and it was on narrow nine-inch rims all round. The computer had said that nine-inch rims would make the car very quick in a straight line, but the computer wasn't strapped in the bloody seat up in the Eifel mountains, where you tend to get the odd corner...

"David did one lap at the Nurburgring and said he was too young to die. It snowed and poured, the car was snapping sideways and aquaplaning at the same time. It was one of the few times I extended my concentration levels above and beyond what I possessed, but we finished 5th".

One quote I remember about the early 917 was I think from Brian Redman. Echoing what Frank Gardner was saying above about how the 917 handles, the car used to weave around on the straight because the chassis was flexing so much and Redman said in an interview, cool as you like (as was the way with drivers in those days), that going down the Mulsanne at LeMans when you arrived at the kink and with the way the car was moving around down the straight, you hoped on each lap that you arrived at the kink and that the car had weaved itself onto the correct side of the road...different times eh?


Another one which raised a smile for me was by Innes Ireland describing a crash he had at Monaco in the fragile Lotus when as usual something broke causing a crash...'came out of the tunnel minus the bloody car...'

[BootsOntheSide]

Eddie Irvine:"I got punched by Ayrton Senna after my first race, crashed in my second, wrote off four cars in my third, and got banned from my fourth. People are going to think I'm some sort of nutter"

[Henry]

Whilst on the theme of testicular magnitudem I give you Johnny Rutherford, Bathurst 1977, on the topic of the Mt Panorama circuit, which he was seeing from behind the wheel of a Ron Hodgson Torana:

When you leave the pits, you've got balls like melons... when you get back down off the Mountain, they're like raisins

Another anecdote with a great line in understatement from the same race, and on the topic of the Rutherford/Guthrie Torana: the two imports complained loudly and at length during practice about the car they were given, about its lack of handling, grip and brakes... lead driver in the other team car, Bob Morris (the man who had won the previous year's Great Race in a Hollywood finish), got a bit impatient with the whole thing, and jumped into the offending vehicle to give his assessment.

He proceeded to reel off a string of quick laps, well within poofteenths of those of his own car (which was well up toward the pointy end of the timesheets) and siginifcantly faster than the best efforts of the Americans. Alighting from the vehicle, his retort was brief, and to the point: "There's not much wrong with that car".

[chunterer]

Greg Moore, Champcar, Portland 1998:

Setting: Greg, starting lower down the grid than he would've liked made a lightning start but tried to do too much too soon into the first turn:

'I got a great start but when I arrived at the first corner everyone was going a lot slower than me.'

Que several cars turning into skittles!

Another one was Dave Brodie in the pitlane during a tv recording of the BTCC at Thruxton in 1989.

Dave said something along the lines of:

'Most of the drivers in the series are turkeys, with the exception of Andy Rouse and maybe a couple of others who I have a lot of respect for, none of them know how to drive.' (He then referred to a handful of front running drivers) Brodie went on to win the race in his RS500 only to fail scrutineering for running 'jungle juice' fuel in the tank.

Classic.

[Hog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb5BTAyBfXk

[Tim Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Another one was Dave Brodie in the pitlane during a tv recording of the BTCC at Thruxton in 1989.

Dave said something along the lines of:

'Most of the drivers in the series are turkeys, with the exception of Andy Rouse and maybe a couple of others who I have a lot of respect for, none of them know how to drive.' (He then referred to a handful of front running drivers) Brodie went on to win the race in his RS500 only to fail scrutineering for running 'jungle juice' fuel in the tank.

Classic.

More Brodie - "Frank Sytner has had more rolls than Mo's corner cafe, and Mike Smith's had more spins than Rock around the Clock". (or words and drivers to that effect)

Later in the the year he gave Tim Harvey the champagne and trophy he'd inherited, along with more "turkey" references. I was next to him in the paddock at a CTCRC meet at Snetterton a couple of years back, he was still lively!

[fieldodreams79]

"O hell, I don't know...I guess Buckshot is too short to see over the steering wheel."

Jason Keller refering to Buckshot Jones when asked how he got involved in a crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a Busch Series race.

[Hesketh]

Interview to James Hunt right after his victorious British GP, Brands Hatch 1976:

"James, how much does this victory mean to you?"

JH: "Nine points, 20.000 thousand dollars and a lot of happiness"

[minimangler]

When in an F1 press conference the other week, someone asked the drivers what they were doing to help climate change. Jenson said something about driving a hybrid, Felipe does a bit of recycling.

"And Kimi, what do you do?"

"Nothing"

[tonful]

'you're not coming past me you arrogant kraut'.
Alan Jones when asked by Murray Walker what was going through Jean Alesi's mind when he shut the door on Micheal Schumacher.
The BBC susequently edited this out of the evenings highlights program and AJ wa snever invited back to co commentate. Shame really.