F1 flashback: The Prost-Senna battle in the rain-shortened 1984 Monaco GP (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

It’s widely hailed as “Ayrton Senna’s arrival race” in Formula One. This year, it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

“It” is the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, where a then-unheralded Brazilian rookie driving a Toleman ran down and nearly caught the McLaren of Alain Prost, before conditions were deemed too wet and too unsafe to continue.

Prost won from Senna in what were a pair of firsts. The win marked Prost’s first of four wins in the Monaco principality and of course, Senna’s first ever podium finish.

Prost’s last Monaco win came in 1988, where Senna’s rare unforced error after a weekend spent trying to not just beat his teammate but pummel him into submission got the better of him.

In the above video clip, live commentary from the BBC counts down as the 1984 race came to its ultimate, rain-shortened conclusion.

You can see all this weekend’s Formula One action from Monaco across the networks of NBC, beginning with Practice 1 live streamed Thursday at 4 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Live Extra. Practice 2 is at 8 a.m. ET on NBCSN.

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

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