Luc Ghys from Belgium tells the origin of his enthusiasm for Pedro Rodriguez and Formula 1. Great stuff to read!
Early 1968, a new friend at school and his brother introduced me to the racing world that they’d discovered living in the U.S. Soon we were racing our Dinky and Corgi toys in the attic or, weather permitting, in the streets. I had to find me a leading driver for my team to join my friend’s favorites Chris Amon and Jochen Rindt. In a French magazine called “Champion”, I saw a portrait of a driver with a determined look in his eyes that fascinated me enormously, his name was Pedro Rodriguez ….. Then we were joined by their neighbors and in came Piers Courage and Graham Hill, also a cousin dropped in and he picked Jackie Stewart. We bought magazines, cut them to pieces and shared the pictures of our heroes for our scrapbooks. We organized our F1 World Championship and “raced” the Grand Prix races that were on the calendar, albeit with different and really surprising results . Our Teams expanded rapidly and so we had to find more and more drivers, learning all the names in motorsport in the process. Cars were transformed (a Corgi Lotus 25 was painted red and got a Cooper-Maserati engine + suspension to become a Ferrari), nothing could really stop our ingenuity and soon we attacked the sports car races, creating endless possibilities. Growing older, we started to race Scalextric and continued to transform cars, creating and building our own bodyworks etc.
Pedro was a part of my everyday life and his name was everywhere on my personal belongings, the headlamp on my Peugeot bike even supported the Yardley-BRM colors and we were issuing our own magazines with “our” race reports, illustrated with our own drawings. Then we lost Bruce, Piers, Jochen…. facing the cruelty of the sport but, in true friendship, comforted each other. Still we loved it, saw our first races at Zolder and Spa. Meeting Pedro at Spa in 1971 and getting an autograph and a flower from his wreath was one of the highlights in my life, unforgettable! When Pedro was killed, only 2 months later, I was heartbroken and lost. I couldn’t let him go and started wearing a deerstalker like he used to do, bought my first Honda 50cc and painted my helmet in Pedro’s livery too. Our racing “gang” moved on and more friends at school joined us and went further, starting to race go-karts and even formula cars, winning National Championships too. I followed their progress with great interest, supported and helped them where possible, enjoying every minute of it and am thankful for so many great adventures and memories. Although I never considered myself to be a racer, I really am a true lover!
Over the last two decades, I’ve been enjoying going back in time while photographing Historic Racing events and getting in contact with many of my childhood heroes that I can now call friends. Since 1968, I collected everything I could find on Pedro (and his brother Ricardo too) and today, have gathered some 8.000 pictures and memorabilia. Keeping his memory alive is my life’s goal and finding new stuff can make me happy as a child, it’s a passion I still enjoy enormously and like to share with you, especially on this day. Here's to you Pedro!
(All photocredit Luc Ghys and his archive.)
