When I was 10-years-old I recall racing out of my bed one November morning and rushing downstairs to the Lepkowski family TV - a massive 32 inch Nordmende from Lewis's no less -and typing in that magic number on Ceefax. It was the three digit number for the motor sport page.
The headline, and it was 21-years ago so bear with me for any minor inaccuracies, was something about 'Mansell', 'tyre', 'blow-out' and 'Prost'.
Alain Prost had won the title he should never have won.
It was 1986. And I was absorbed by a Formula One season - involving a last race shoot-out between three drivers - which would lead to me watching each race religiously during my teens, wanting a Nigel Mansell moustache, mourning the death of my hero Ayrton Senna and wondering whether Michael Schumacher was a robot or just a cocky German who was rather good. I was even privileged enough to work as a journalist in motor sport in the late 1990s but by then my interest was on the wane. All of a sudden F1 became as interesting as an episode of Countryfile.
And then along came Lewis Hamilton.
Now I admit now that I'm not always the best judge of a racing driver. Jacques Villeneuve was going to be as good as his dad Gilles - he wasn't even close. Jenson Button would be a world champion - he won't be. Jean Alesi was a rational kind of driver - a passionate lunatic would be a better description.
I also predicted Lewis Hamilton would be the next British world champion. He isn't.
But, I can tell you now, he will be.
2007 was just like 1986. And it underlined one thing - if you're a racing driver then don't fall out with your team-mate because somebody else will be waiting to pounce.
Back then the Williams duo of Mansell and Nelson Piquet were going at it hammer and tongs and both entered the final race as likely winners of the title. Mansell hated Piquet. Piquet hated Mansell. Sound familiar?
The result? Alain Prost, an outsider for the title, drove his McLaren to success and an unlikely title as Mansell's tyre blew up and Piquet floundered.
This year Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso have been at each other's throats. The result? Kimi Raikkonen wins the title from behind the wheel of his inferior Ferrari.
Yet Hamilton has restored the pride and interest into what had become a flagging sport. By the time he's driven his final race in F1, Britain will be looking at their most successful-ever Formula One racing driver. Mark my words. And he's already won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Nailed on.
I thank him personally, for giving Formula One some much-needed purpose following a barren few years. I'm hooked again.