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"I&amp;#039;m not a fan of May 1.  I know what to do every year on my wife&amp;#039;s birthday, our wedding anniversary, on Christmas, and all the other major dates circled on the calendar. But the annual reminder of Ayrton Senna&amp;#039;s death on May 1, 1994, still leaves me confused and conflicted.  It&amp;#039;s been 21 years since his fatal crash at the San Marino Grand Prix\u2014more than enough time to make the transition from mourning his loss to celebrating his life\u2014but there are still tinges of sorrow that surface each May.  As much as I&amp;#039;m thankful for all he accomplished and left behind, I&amp;#039;m also selfish in wanting to have seen more. I feel the same way about the late Greg Moore and Dan Wheldon. Having briefly witnessed their brilliance, their absence leaves a void that, if I&amp;#039;m honest, will probably remain unfilled.   I&amp;#039;m also left to consider the role Senna played in my life. Like millions of other Formula 1 fans, I dove headfirst into the sport in the 1980s. I was immediately drawn to Senna, whose otherworldly talents were so perfectly balanced by his many flaws. He was painfully human\u2014the most relatable driver on the grid, I reckoned.  I voraciously consumed every bit of Senna-related news from magazines like Autosport, On Track, and MotorSport (during those pre-Internet days) and videotaped nearly all of his F1 races (once I was old enough to get a job and pay for cable, that is).  I spent countless hours arguing with co-workers, bosses, and drivers about his superiority to Prost, Piquet, Mansell, and the rest. He was my hero, and as the &amp;quot;Who&amp;#039;s better?&amp;quot; debates stretched into the 1990s, I added Schumacher and Hill to the losing column. I miss those heated roundtables, but  I&amp;#039;m convinced I was always right.   And then it came crashing down for me on live television. I was in a hotel near Laguna Seca. The outcome of his crash was obvious at the time, and although I was in shock, the announcement of his death over the PA system in the Monterey paddock wasn&amp;#039;t unexpected.  Following Senna was incredibly personal for me, which made his death hard to reconcile. And so, every year on May 1, I&amp;#039;m taken back by a flood of memories\u2014who I was at the time, what he meant to me, how my appreciation for him has matured.  Asif Kapadia&amp;#039;s documentary, Senna, is an enduring reminder of his positive traits\u2014more a tribute than an honest reflection of his character. I&amp;#039;m glad I experienced the fuller breadth of his time in the limelight.  Whether you grew up following Senna or learned of the three-time World Champion after his passing, it&amp;#039;s worth digging into the minutiae of what made his life so extraordinary. Senna only tells half the story. There are few proper digital resources dating back to his era, making MotorSport&amp;#039;s digital archives of the 1980s and 1990s invaluable if you want to know more about the man behind the legend. We have updated this thoughtful tribute to Ayrton Senna on the anniversary of his untimely death because it&amp;#039;s worth revisiting. It originally ran last year. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a4391/reflections-on-ayrton-senna-20-years-gone/>