I couldn’t quite pinpoint why, during the research and writing of this profile, that I kept hearing the Lennon/McCartney hit “Come Together” somewhere in the back of my head. I have often used the metaphor of how some of the most interesting motor racing tales are based on an almost accidental “coming together” of a number of threads, people and incidents. But this seemed different.
The 1969 Beatles hit was inspired by the drug-taking Timothy Leary and his campaign against Ronald Reagan to become California governor…Leary went to jail for possession. The song was unlike any other of the period, constructed only of verse and refrains, there were legal battles in America over it, it was considered a radical structure, it was a big hit in the USA, and everyone wanted to copy it….ah, now it’s “coming together.” I hear Max Mosley and Robin Herd “marching” in downstage left, and the Daytona drum and bugle corps strutting their stuff on a warm February morning in 1984. I hear lawyers arguing about which car is which! It’s eerie…even a bit “kreepy.”
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