After more than a decade in Adelaide, the Australian Grand Prix returned to Melbourne's Albert Park in 1996, on the same lakeside streets that had hosted F1 races in 1953, 1956 and 1958. Nine Network's Wide World of Sports covered the weekend and used the occasion to do some serious looking back. They could have welcomed the Grand Prix home with a montage and Murray Walker voice-over. Instead, the broadcast lets the people who were there in the 1950s tell us themselves what it was actually like, placing us as the audience firmly in the passenger seat and along for the drive (with just a lap belt in the early cars!).

Speaking to camera about the early Albert Park meetings are 1950s chief scrutineer Arnold Terdich, commentator Cam McLaren, owner-driver Gib Barrett and course marshal Patrick Pender, who was hit by a car at the 1956 race and was on crutches for seven years afterwards. Their recollections bring an intimate look into the birth of the sport no commentator could match. When asked if they were ‘daring young men’, Barrett corrects the interviewer flatly. ‘No, we did it because we absolutely loved it.’

The clip throws us into reverse and into the past, with riotous colour footage of the progression of the sport from its humble 300 horsepower engines to the jet speed engines of the modern day. The first-hand memories of the men who were there in the early F1 days gives a real weight and adds a personal touch to the history of the track, where legendary names like Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss wrestled their wheels to victory and defeat before screaming crowds of fans. The broadcast makes the case that Albert Park was always the right home for the Grand Prix, and that the new circuit is simply part of an older Australian tradition.

The 1996 race was won by Damon Hill in a Williams-Renault (the same driver who had won the final Adelaide GP four months earlier). Commentary came from Murray Walker and Jackie Stewart, with Eddie McGuire, Barry Sheene and Ken Sutcliffe on the local desk.