My first trackside experience was in the weekend of 8 mei 1982 on
Circuit Zolder. It was the tragic weekend that Gilles Villeneuve died.
I was 12 years old. When we were at the entrance, we heard the that there was free admission up to 12 years. So i got in free. We walked to the paddock, there you needed special tickets, unless you were younger than 12.
Once we were in the paddock we went up to the pits building. Another special ticket needed, but my nephew and i got in for free. 1,5 hours later we managed to squeez to the front off the pittbuilding, just before the race started. From there we could see the start and all the pitstops below.
We watched the entire race from the best place available for free. Tickets for seats like that are now way above my pay grade.
After the race we saw a lot of people were running towards the good year trucks. So we followed.
There they were handing out the used Good Year slick tires to the public. For free.
We went home with 2 rear slicks tied on the roof of the car. Eventhough it was a tragic weekend with the dead of Gilles Villeneuve in qualifying, for us personally it was the best trackside experience a kid could ever have.