Bernie Ecclestone visiting Estonia in 1982

"KnowsAboutCars" (knowsaboutcars) 02/09/2015 at 09:12 • Filed to: f1, history

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Did you know there almost was an F1 race in Estonia in 1983? Neither did I before this day!

There were talks about having an F1 race in Soviet Union in the early 80's. At first it was proposed that the track would be built on Red Square in Moscow but Leonid Brezhnev, despite being a fan of motorsport, didn't accept it. Estonians suggested they could make the race happen and so a track was built in Pirita neighborhood in Tallinn.

The whole project fell apart on the last minute after Bernie had green lighted it. After Ecclestone's visit Estonians sent a film clip showcasing what they'd achieved to Moscow for the final approval only to find that Brezhnev had died few days earlier. And so the ''Grand Prix of the Soviet Union'' as it was supposed to be named never happened.

The car Bernie Ecclestone is sitting on in that picture is a Estonia 21 by the way, one of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! built behind the Iron Curtain.

McMike > KnowsAboutCars 02/09/2015 at 09:29

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Are we sure that a photo of him? Dude looks a little old to be vintage 1982 Bernie.

KnowsAboutCars > McMike 02/09/2015 at 09:39

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This is a screencap from a film clip from Eesti Reklaamfilm archives.

What I wrote here comes from one of the old employees of Eesti Reklaamfilm. I had difficulties to find much information about this whole thing apart from copy pastes from Wikipedia.

Edit: Yes, after looking at few pictures of him that guy does seem a little older. Hmm....

McMike > KnowsAboutCars 02/09/2015 at 10:12

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Ah, the screen capture explains why that photo didn't show any GIS results.

Maybe it's the angle, maybe it's his posture, maybe it's because I don't think Bernie's feet would touch the ground sitting on a tire...... but I'm not 100% convinced it's him.

(here are two images from 82-83)