My Garda: Jonathan Williams

“I only raced at Garda once, in that final year when I won in the de Sanctis, but I remember it as one of the most romantic places of northern Italy. It was a beautiful track and had every sort of corner you could think of. You went through the town, and then when you went up the hill to Tormini it got progressively quicker until you got to the plateau where you’d do about 2km without lifting. If you made a single mistake you were history. Then you had all the Zette hairpins back to town. Something for everyone.

“It certainly sorted out the good drivers from the ordinary ones: a lot of people would not take those risks, but if you were sure of yourself it did not matter. What was difficult, and crucial, was getting your gear ratios right. In my heat I was second to Carlo Facetti’s Brabham, but my gears were too low. I learned, and changed them for the final — we finished the job on the grid — and won comfortably. It was classic Italy: practically every town would have a road race once a year — throw down some straw bales and there you go.”