TAKEN FROM MOTOR SPORT JANUARY 2000

It has been 33 years since James Garner last walked on Monza’s soil. Then, as Pete Aron, he walked slowly through the final frames of John Frankenheimer’s epic Formula 1 film Grand Prix. Now he walks slowly as himself, basking in the low November sunlight. Garner has changed, but not as much as the track. His hair now is greyer and thinner, his waistline somewhat thicker. His skin bears the markings of a man never keen on the stay home option and it is no secret his 55-year romance with cigarettes has taken its toll on his arteries. Garner, whether you know him best as Aron, Maverick or Rockford, is 71 years old.

He walks slowly today because his knees give him hell and the fact irks him. During two days he never once gave the impression of a man at ease with being old. We were there at the invitation of BAR, keen to promote its Honda engine deal and therefore to film the meeting of their man Villeneuve with Garner, the last North American man to be seen in a Honda-powered grand prix car. The link is tenuous as not only do Villeneuve and Garner originate from different countries on the continent and have different languages as their native tongue, Honda wouldn’t allow its name to be used in the film, so Garner actually drove for the fictitious Yamura team.