Detroit, circa 1994

[macdaddy]

1994... The year Paul Tracy punted teammate Little Al into the tires to take the win.

Here's another vidbit to help us through the offseason...

3:42 min, 6159KB, in WMV format.

1994 Detroit Grand Prix

This video encompasses all three days of the GP. Not much ontrack action, but one of the few times that I had a pitpass instead of just a paddockpass. And the guy you'll see strapped in to a Celebrity Neon is Frank Beard - drummer for my favourite band ZZTop.

Hope you enjoy - this is the oldest homevid that I have. In fact, the camera was rented for the weekend!

[Jordi]

Very good macdaddy

I can't help but resort to the old joke... Frank Beard, the only one in ZZTop to not have a beard...

[Down F0rce]

Great vid

[Snrub]

Gimpy arm was acting up again eh?

[Ac.]

I'm not sure that video meets the "family" standards of the forum...there were plenty of chassie shots.....

[ElScOrChO]

That video meets my standard

nice one! keep 'em coming!

[macdaddy]

My apologies, Ac! But it's not really my fault - Snrub knows all about my gimpy arm!

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you folks enjoyed it... I thought it would be like a breath of fresh air around here.

Like I warned, there was little in the way of ontrack action in the vid. The first two days I went solo, but when I brought my (soon to be) wife on raceday, it didn't take long before she was tired of walking. So we found a nice shadetree behind the paddock, along a stream, and enjoyed a couple of beers (ect) while watching the people and listening to the cars. And, although we enjoyed a fantastic afternoon together, it was her last GP with me. (I'd have much preferred to watch the racing!)

ElScOrChO suggests, "Keep 'em coming!"... but I'm running thin on home video now. I've kinda covered the 3 GP's that I had a camera for, and all that's left now are the MIS races. But my FTP is so small, I cannot upload any long videos. And that's too bad, because I did alot of work on a revised MIS2000 video that I've been unable to share with any of you. (Only Adam Ashmore has seen it). And IMHO it turned out pretty darned good!

But don't fret, I'll scavenge through some old VHS tapes some day and put something together. It's gonna be a long offseason, afterall!

[macdaddy]

{That's a hint, by-the-way... If anyone has a decent FTP and would like to volunteer to make the MIS vid available, let me know!)

[racerkeke]

Frank Beard, eh? Does that ever bring back memories. I was working at what was then turn 9 (90 degree left, runoff used for paddock entry for Neons -- hey, and Barber Saabs too) that year. Mostly I'm a communicator but it's nice to get off the headset and flag once in awhile. So my buds at the corner decide they're gonna give me a blue flag workout, and tell me I'm going to blue the Neons. Funny joke, because most of them are the same colour.

The blue flag station there is actually just AFTER the station, in the short chute, driver's right. Behind me are a couple of small hospitality areas under the trees.

What I discover, during Saturday practice, is that this flagging hole is actually at the impact point should the drivers run wide in the corner. I find this out when Tiff Needell clips the end of the tire wall in 9 and nearly takes my flag -- apparently he was trying to drive with one hand and wave with the other. The good thing is that he leaves a nice rubber mark on the track about five inches off the wall that I can use to gauge "incoming".

Yes, you guessed it. Frank hits the flagging hole. HARD. I do the little dance back when he goes over Tiff's rubber mark, and he whacks the wall hard enough to crack the cement block, and wobbles off down the short chute. Leaving the entire brake assembly, pad melting into the pavement, in front of the flag hole.

I hear applause behind me. And whose hospitality is directly behind my blue flag spot? You're right. ZZ Top's. The bearded ones are clapping madly from their lawn chairs, grinning from ear to ear. And then they offer me a beer, which I have to refuse.

One of my favourite Detroit memories. That and the donut in the middle of the track, but that's for another day.

keke

[macdaddy]

Tres cool, hombre!

[Hazza]

Donut, Keke? Do tell!


Hey, by the way, I don't want to sound dodgy or nothing, but if Cart goes bust, who will own the rights to Champ Car "pictures"?

[Hazza]

(Sorry for double post)
And as for the movie - brilliant!
Captures the spirit of being at a race, when I grow old im' going tell my grandkids i'm going to die and goto the first chicane at surfers with a hotdog in my hand watching the Dayle Coyne cars get loose out of the chicane - cos man, that was my idea of heaven...

<-- that will be a little cheeper at the track though.

[racerkeke]

Hazza, you asked for it.

One morning at Detroit (1996?) a worker friend from Texas asked me when Wally would be doing his track inspection. Wally did one every morning, driving slowly and looking for tire walls out of place, asphalt coming up, etc. Since 11 entry featured about four transitions from concrete to asphalt and concrete again, we had to keep a good eye out for Wally in case we were working on track cleaning etc. when he came around.

When I heard over the headset that Wally was in 9 (from 10 to 11 is very short) I called it out, and my friend carefully picked up a package from the barrier, walked out to the centre of the track and left it there. It was the world's largest donut, with white icing and multicoloured sprinkles, nestled in a clean white napkin.

The two of us sat down next to the barrier. Wally's car came up to the donut, slowed, and stopped. From our vantage point all we could see were the car tires. The door opened, a hand came out, carefully scooped up the donut and drove away.

A few minutes later Race Control called and said they had a message for us from the Series Steward (normally this makes you shake in your shoes). Control's voice was puzzled as he read out, "Offering accepted." (And boy, did we get asked about this later -- remember, the land line is open to all corners and all parts of Race Control.)

Later I asked my friend why he did that, and he said it's always appropriate to offer to the gods before an important event. "But why the sprinkles," I asked. "Does he like sprinkles?" "No," my friend answered. "They were for visibility -- he's an old guy, ya know."

See, now you know what kind of dumb stuff corner workers get up to between sessions.

keke

[Hazza]

CLASSIC!

[djb]

I should be asleep, but great story!

sorry father of Mac, no windows media thing here so can't watch the film.