Sunday June 8 will go down in the diary as one of those special motor racing days.

Breakfast with Stefan Johansson, surely one of the truly great guys in the sport. He’s back in Sweden to drive a March 761 in the Ronnie Peterson Historic Grand Prix.

“I just love driving still,” he tells me, “ and I’m so lucky to be doing what I’m doing and still to be on the pace. I wanted to break Niki Lauda’s lap record this weekend but we don’t have any new tyres. Hey, but I’m pretty close to Ronnie’s times from 1976.” They’re all the same, these drivers, always so damn competitive. But they’re not all as friendly and lucid as Stefan.

A blast through the forests in the sunshine to Anderstorp, villages waking up to another unseasonably warm day in Smaland.

Into the pitlane, where Cosworths are being warmed up in preparation for the second of the weekend’s F1 races. Johansson won the first, easily, the man still as sharp and tidy as ever.

Along comes the King of Sweden (above). We chat about Ronnie, about what he did for his country, and about His Majesty’s love of motor racing. He is the most charming of men, totally relaxed in this environment, and clearly loves his motor racing. He has quite a collection of cars, among them a Porsche 911, Ferrari 456, and a real AC Cobra. He arrived at Anderstorp, as a King should, in a white Rolls Royce of the type that is made at Goodwood these days.

Alongside the King, with a beaming smile, is Nina – Ronnie and Barbro Peterson’s daughter – who has come with her family to present the prizes.

Dave Brodie is here. He was best man at Ronnie’s wedding and Ronnie best man at his. “Oh, he was such a great guy, a real star in every way,” says Brodie, “we had some great times and of course he was a wonderful race driver. Losing him was an absolute tragedy.”

Historic racers who have opted to go to Monza for the TGP race are missing a great event. Swedes who have gone to the beach – it is unusually warm for early June – are missing a wonderful tribute to a sportsman who put their country on the international motor racing map.

Out comes the black and gold Lotus 79, chassis three, to be driven today by Mr Johansson who has already been out in Ronnie’s little yellow Tecno in which he won the F3 race at Monaco. “The vibration was so bad I had to lift on the straight,” laughed Stefan.

Almost best of all, the Lotus is being prepared by the old boys from Hethel. Rex Hart and Bobby Clark, who were looking after Ronnie in 1978, are back with their car. Bobby is 73 years old now, though he looks years younger. “ All that racing,” he says, “ kept me young.” And he’s not an inch taller than he was, standing just above the big black rear wing as he fits the air starter. “It won’t start if we leave it sitting out in the heat much longer,” says Rex, who reckons Peterson was by far the fastest man never to win a championship in modern times. “Quicker than Mario, quicker than Emerson, but maybe not as well managed,” says Rex. Helping out is little Ake Strandberg, the Swedish mechanic who worked with Ronnie in karting before moving to England and joining his driver at March and at Lotus. Everybody wants this picture.

Along comes Neil Trundle, wearing a grey Stetson made specially to celebrate McLaren’s 1988 world championship year. A band around the hat proclaims that extraordinary season. “I made him wear it,” says Neil’s wife, “ he never wears it these days.

“What a great event,” says Neil, “ and all the old guys here, fantastic. And Lewis on the pole in Montreal, what a lap, we saw it on TV in the paddock last night. He’s a star alright.” Shame it all ended in the pitlane. I missed all that as the TV in my hotel did not receive the one channel that broadcasts the Grands Prix. This morning’s newspaper had just five paragraphs on the race. And five pages of football.

And that reminds me of one Pontus Wedlund, a Peterson fan who insisted on showing me the tattoos on his legs. On the right, a Peterson helmet and autograph and on the left, the badge of Stockholm’s AIK Solna, his favourite football club. Seemed like a pretty fair division of loyalties. Let’s hope AIK remains in his favour as tattoos are, well, for ever.

So, a truly superb weekend of motor racing at Anderstorp, the track itself untouched since last the Grand Prix cars were here. We need more days like these.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Wow, what a week! And, as one of our bloggers remarked, wow, what a speech! The week in Bahrain was, as you might expect, dominated by revelations in the News of the World. As I was parking my car at Heathrow on March 30 I was blissfully unaware of this venerable publication’s ‘shock-horror’ expose of the FIA president. But not for long. As I dragged my suitcase to the bus stop I heard a shout. “Hey, Rob have you see the News of the World?” I looked up to find A1GP Team India boss Mike Earle, on his way to Delhi, with a rolled up newspaper under his arm. Now, looking at the front page and the double-page spread inside, this was shock and awe. Surely even the president would struggle to survive this one?

Touching down in Bahrain at 5am on the Monday it was already hot. In more ways than one. Emerging from immigration and customs into the sultry warmth of the early morning I heard a shout. “Hey, Rob, have you seen the News of the World?” Looking up, I see David Tremayne of the Independent, this time clutching print-outs from the News International website. Before long, the paddock at Sakhir would be humming with reactions, opinions and suggestions of how these activities came to the notice of the best-selling newspaper in Britain. Not until the racing cars came out on Friday morning did the sound of speculation finally give way to spectating. Max Mosley himself, unsurprisingly, was nowhere to be seen.

Very much in view, however, was Ron Dennis, chairman of the McLaren Group. Immaculate as ever, despite the heat, Ron made a quite exceptional speech to the Bahrain Motorsport Business Forum last Wednesday, a copy of which I immediately sent to my editor. With permission from Matt Bishop, the new head of communications and public relations at McLaren, of course. The former editor of F1 Racing is doing a fine job by all accounts. Later in the day I spoke to Ron and that interview, along with a full report on the first forum to be held in the Middle East, will apppear in next month’s Motor Sport.

Common sense, and a little cowardice, prevents me from commenting any further on the problems facing Mosley. Everybody will have their opinion. I will be interested to see how the sport’s organising body deals with what is undoubtedly some kind of crisis.

Then, refreshingly, there were the old boys. A fine sprinkling of anciens pilotes, who had come to the Gulf to race in the Dubai-based Speedcar Series. The what, I hear you ask? To be brief, the cars are based on NASCAR but are less sophisticated. Big V8 engine, four-speed manual gearbox, and not much in the way of an ‘aero package’. For those who like a bit of detail, the cars weigh in at 1300 kilograms while the 6-litre V8 produces 620bhp at 7500rpm – so they’re heavy, and only quite powerful. More intriguingly, the Speedcar series was germinated, created and delivered to the circuits of the Middle East in just under a year. Impressive. But, yes, the drivers. In a tent in the paddock I find Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert, Stefan Johansson, Jacques Villeneuve (above) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, refugees all from the F1 paddock. And a nicer bunch of blokes you couldn’t expect to meet – well, JV didn’t want to talk much, but what’s new? I do like the man all the same. He’s bright, feisty and he still ambles around in absurdly baggy overalls.

“The racing is fun,” says Johnny, “and it’s good to be with your old mates. The cars are not easy to drive on the limit and the brakes are pretty non-existent. I mean you want to be thinking about braking all the way down the straight. And the prize money isn’t bad either.” German touring car veteran and Le Mans winner Uwe Alzen has done much of the winning, and Alesi has won twice. “Why should I stop racing?”, says Jean. “I still love it – the atmosphere, the friendships, the driving. The races are a good show, the fans love it, and I love my life now – my job is my passion, you know?” More racing drivers should be like Alesi, at least I reckon so.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine