Nigel Mansell slowly pulled himself out of the cockpit. He appeared drained. It was an image we'd seen so many times before, but now he was that little bit rounder, more laboured. "It was a tough race, very frantic. I wasn't enjoying the last couple of laps because I'd cooked my tyres," he sighed. Then the grin broadened and he punched his arms into the air. Nigel Mansell was a winner again. He had eclipsed the 1972 and '74 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi by less than half a second to claim victory in the first Altech Grand Prix Masters race in South Africa.
This was an event that followed in the tradition of golf and tennis Masters, and in which retired Formula One drivers over the age of 45 made their racing comebacks.
Two years in the making, it finally happened on November 13. It was a success too: the race had more spectators (68,000) than either of the two Formula One events at the shortened Kyalami in 1992 and '93.
