Me

[macdaddy]

Hey...
I've been hanging around here for awhile now, and have come to know all of you only by your login names. So I'm bored, and I thought it would be interesting, even fun, to introduce ourselves a little...

My name is Greg, and I was born in 68, so you do the math. I'm married, and have been blessed with two wonderful kids. Alyssa is four in July, and Sarah two in June. Needless to say, I'm kept pretty busy. I'm a "scratch" baker by trade, specializing in breads and rolls. Been doing that for eleven years now. My college education in accounting didn't end up being anything but a waste of money. (Our fine Canadian breweries saw to it that I didn't complete the degree anyway).

I've watched every Indy 500 since I was old enough to turn on the TV. Don't really know why... neither my dad nor any of my friends took any interest at all. But every year I would mark it on my calendar. Early on I was a Mario fan, and Pancho Carter to some degree, but soon I became very much a Rick Mears fan.

But not until I went to my first live event, the Marlboro 500 at MIS in 1992, did I become a "fanatic". I had no idea at the time, but it ended up being Rick's last race, and so maybe it was fate. Anyway, I was totally enthralled. The speeds, the noise, the atmosphere, things that cannot be portrayed on TV. Since that day, I have not missed coverage of single CART event. Actually, that's not completely true. There was a power outage during the German race last season, and my VCR lost it's programming. Again, fate. I'm glad I missed it.

Been to a few races since that sunny day in 92. Been back to MIS six more times. Have been witness to victories by Goodyear (twice), Unser Jr (by .056 over Pruett), Blundell, Montoya, Andretti, and Carpentier last year. Up until the time we had our first child, my wife and I would show up early Saturday and stay until Monday, camping in a tent right across the street from the main gate. More often than not, the Saturday night proved to be as much fun as raceday! We would "steal" the advertising banners off of the fencing on those Saturday nights, and have amassed quite a collection. But not without a price. One year my wife decided to swipe one from the pedestrian overpass, not fifty feet from two police officers on horseback. I thought she was crazy. I was close... she was drunk. The knife slipped and went right into her knee. She got the banner anyway. Made our way back to our site, and one of the people beside us just happened to he Ohio EMS. Fate?

Been to the Detroit GP seven times, too. Each time armed with a paddock pass. I've had the fortune to meet most every driver and garner autographs. My wife went with me only once, and that was a particularly hot raceday. Our vantage point left much to be desired, so we went for a walk and spent a good portion of the afternoon sitting under a tree, directly behind a team's truck, and smoked a few illegals while we listened to the noise.

Sandra is quite tolerant. Over my computer desk, here in the family room, hang 24 autographed 8x10's in frames. In the living room hang two larger signed pics of Mears. One of them is a Theirey Thompson, quite large and it is the centerpiece of the room. And, of course, there is my "Goodyear-turned-coffeetable" from Unser Jr's IROC car a few years back. And a considerable collection of Penske coats, jackets, hats, Tshirts, Zippos...

Heck, my dog's name is Penske.

All-time favourite driver? Zanardi. Has been since before his championships, before his accident. Closely followed by Mears, Castroneves, and Villeneuve. Also a big fan of Fernandez and Servia. Mario, Andre Ribeiro, Franchitti, Moore... Everybody but Andretti Jr.

I'm also a fan, albeit on a smaller scale, of the Detroit Tigers in baseball and the Red Wings in hockey. No, not Toronto, although I am an Ontarian. And lest I forget to mention the Canadian men's Olympic hockey team!

A few other things to get to know me better. Fave band is ZZTop, but Supertramp, Genesis, Santana, Who, and old Elton get honourable mention. Fave song is "Driving the Last Spike" by Genesis. An avid fan of Canadian-brewed Budweiser. (Trust me... much superior to the original American recipe). Don't have any real hobbies other than Bud. Take that word in either sense. And 10Tenths.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you. At least, not too much. I'm just an average Joe, but one who looks forward to getting home from work every night and checking out our forum before I do much of anything else.

I hope that the rest of you add to this thread.
Take care.

[Liz]

Very interesting reading!

Well, my name is, er, Liz. I was born in 1948, and I'd rather not do the math, but I am the same age as Israel, whose natal day this is, and I am a Jew, which is becoming more and more important to me every day. I'm an American living in Canada, in Toronto, because I like living in an international community where things are not quite so black and white as they were in Atlanta and where I can get major motor sports on television and watch the New Zealand All Blacks on the big screen down the pub. Although I have brought up one child and assisted in the upbringing of three others, I am and shall likely remain a spinster.

I started watching racing when my Dad drove a stock car, and switched to F1 when Mario Andretti did -- he is my idol and is the most complete racer of the modern era (only Jim Clark comes close to matching him) and he drove the most perfect car ever made, the Lotus 79. One wall of my dining room is covered with photos of Gilles Villeneuve, and I have a beautiful model of his 1979 Ferrari which shows what F1 cars should look like. I will always be a Prost Girl and believe that Senna was unbalanced. I pretty much stopped watching F1 with any real interest when Prost retired and the turbo era ended.

Currently I have both IMSA and Trans Am "hard cards" and am carving out a career for myself as a sports car journalist, in preparation for the end of the turbos in Champ Cars which will end my interest in that series (said end of interest began when Gil retired). This year I plan to really enjoy Champ Cars and my favourite Brazilian drivers and not think about the end of it all until the last race is run.

In sports cars and Trans Am I am an enthusiastic fan of the Alex Job Racing Team, Kyser Racing, Revolution Motorsports, and Extreme Fixx Wired Pirhana Racing. I'll be travelling to 12 races this year and hope to have lots of good material to share with everybody. And I can't wait for Le Mans!

[mac]

Well, seeing as everything's getting it all off their chest .....

My name is Mark, and macdaddy is not really my father. I live in a small city called Penrith, which is about 45 minutes north-west of Sydney. I absolutely love the place. And I love my beloved Penrith Panthers (rugby league side). Frankly, we stink at the moment, but we'll come good.

I was born in '81, and that looks pretty good next to you two.

I have one younger brother, and currently live with him and my parents.


I was the captain of my high school and my primary school and absolutely loved it.

I am attending university and am doing a Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations). Who knows where that will lead me, or even if I'll end up doing PR?

I currently have a part-time retail job in a memorabilia shop.

I am not married, however I have been seeing somebody for 6 months today.

My favourite band is Aerosmith. I love rock n roll mostly, but a fair bit of other stuff also. Though, I'm not a huge fan of techno, or real heavy "rock".

I currently play Sydney Grade Cricket, and am currently looking for a new club as I have had a gutful of my current club. I am a wicketkeeper, and thoroughly enjoy that.

I have also raced go-karts (that ended when I ran out of money) quite well, played soccer, representative basketball (I'm looking at getting back into basketball), tennis, rugby league, rugby union, hockey, volleyball and squash at some competitive level.

I love playing cricket, watching motorsport, and watching Australia kick butt in rugby union, cricket, rugby league, tennis (Lleyton Hewitt), and anything else that we do well in.

As far as racing is concerned, my absolute hero is Alex Zanardi. Ever since April 1996, I have always looked for him in races. I loved his aggression, never-say-die attitude and his remarkable personality (not all racing drivers have to be morons). I was ****ed off with the way Williams and the media ripped him off in F1, and I am thoroughly grateful that he survived that horrific crash. I even copied his helmet design when I raced. Except I changed the colours of the stripes to green and gold (just in case!).

As for current drivers, Servia and Kanaan are my favourites. In F1, Mark Webber and Giancarlo Fisichella are my favourites. I love to see Australian drivers doing well because I know how tough it is for them and their skinny wallets. Guys like James Courtney (who is also from Penrith), Ryan Briscoe (who I raced a couple of times in karts and got soundly beaten), Rob Nguyen and Will Davison.

That's all I can think of for now.

[Lee Janotta]

Well, this'll be the most boring profile you'll ever read, but here goes!

My name's Lee M. Janotta, I'm a lifelong resident of Cleveland, Ohio (an industrial port city on the south shore of lake Erie, if you're not from north American, in the general area of Pittsburg, Toronto, and Detroit), and I've basically been watching racing all my life. Born in July of 1981. My dad used to work for Chevrolet as a regional manager, was _always_ into racing, made it a point to watch the Indy 500, Daytona, and the NHRA whenever he could. He started watching CART more when it's deal with ESPN came about. I grew up watching Danny Sullivan, Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, and my hero in those days, Bobby Rahal, who I guess is still my all-time favorite, not least because he's the closest we have to a home town hero in racing.

I gravitated towards road racing from the start. I totally fell in love when IMSA GTP came along, though. By the time the Nissans began their dominant run, I was totally hooked. I also fell in love with F1, and was a big Senna fan, though the format was a little over my head at that time.

My interest wained a bit after GTP ended, and then Senna died, but I always at least watched a few CART races a year, especially following Villeneuve and Zanardi. I went to see CART at Burke Lakefront in '89, got Michael Andretti's autograph on my program.

I got _really_ back into racing when Montoya got into CART. Now I'm an addict!

As for me personally... Well, I'm a journalism major, applying to transfer to Kent State University. I'm woefully unattached and uninteresting. My biggest claim to fame is that Speedvision petition I did last summer. I'm _hoping_ that'll get me a good internship somewhere, along with my strength in writing.

I've not raced myself, it's purely a financial thing. There's no karting here, and it's hard to justify prepping a race car when you bought your daily driver for $500. My family's financially secure, but there's not room for anything frivolous. Hopefully, when I've got my career going, I'll be able to try my hand at club racing and rallying, though the SCCA's entry fees may be the only thing more painful than a root canal or unanesthetised vasectomy.

Any career advice you'd be willing to share, Liz?

[Raoul Duke]

Well I would rather not say my real name. But I was born, and grew up, in Ontario not to far away from Toronto, but I'm currently living/studying in Montreal.


My 2 big passions in life are music and auto racinr. That's all you ever really need to know about me.


And I happen to be Jewish as well(well from my mom's side anyway).

Oh yeah, and I can't stand TGF(aka Michael Schumacher) and as time goes by I start to feel more and more the same way about his fans.

[f1manoz]

Well, as everyone else is spilling their guts, I'll have a go:

G'day

My name is Ben, I'm 20 years old (born 29th December 1981) and currently reside in Winston Hills, New South Wales, Australia!

I live with my mum (Dawn), step-father to be (Michael) (they are getting married in October), sister (Nicole) and grandparents (Ann and John). We also have two cats, named Looney and Munchkin. I was the second of twins, but unfortunately my brother, Cheyne, passed away before his first birthday.

I attened Parramatta West Primary, Northmead Primary and Northmead High Schools. I completed Year 12 and completed my Higher School Certificate, and currently attend the University of Western Sydney, studying Bachelor of Arts/Humanities, with a major in History and Politics. It's my final year, and am currently deciding whether to do one year honours or not.

I work part-time in a fast food restaurant, but am hoping to get the hell out of there soon.

I am currently single and not looking for anything. I just enjoy my own life. Favourite drink is bourbon and coke.

I watch Formula One, my favourite driver of the current crop is Nick Heidfeld. I watched my first Formula One race in 1989 (Australian GP) but only watched my first entire season in 1992. Over the years, I've supported Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen and have always liked Pierluigi Martini and Jean Alesi. I own every Formula One season review from 1982-1999 plus own nearly every video released by Nigel Mansell (except his 1991 Mansell & Williams video.)

I only watched my first CART race in 1995 but immediately took interest after that. I supported Jimmy Vasser from the outset but I've always been a big fan of Roberto, and must admit even I had a tear when he cross the line in Cleveland 2000. The only time I've seen a happier winner was Jean in Canada 1995. I also support Cristiano da Matta.

Of the other motorsports, I watch MotoGP (support Barros), WSB (Bayliss), Rally (Burns) and the Australian V8s (Ingall).

I used to support North Sydney in the NRL, but since their disbandment, I support Parramatta. I support Sunderland in the English Premier, Kaiserslautern in Germany, Barcelona in Spain, Juventus in Italy and Germany in the World Cup, for lack of an Australian side.

I used to play rugby league and soccer, but now my main interest is tennis, though I am learning to ice skate so I can play ice hockey. I support the Dallas Stars in the NHL.

Music tastes are rock only. Bands like Creed, Live and plenty of Australian rock like Hunters and Collectors, Hoodoo Gurus, Australian Crawl, Cold Chisel, Paul Kelly plus some of the new bands like Silverchair, Jebediah etc. I don't mind some real heavy rock, like Rammstein. I hate rap, dance and techno.

I am a big fan of comedian George Carlin. I own all his albums from Carlin on Campus to his latest one Complaints and Grievances and am currently being sent his first paperback 'Braindroppings.'

That's basically all I can think of at the moment.

PS - Mac, the Penrith Panthers DO STINK!!

[Crash Test]

Does this belong in the Champ Car forum? Oh well, pffffffttt to that, it's staying here

Well Hullo. My name is Mark Walker, I'm 20 from Brisbane Australia.

My life has been fairly uninteresting for the most part. I went to school, did a year of Engineering and decided that it wasn't me, then I moved over to the Queensland University of Technology and enrolled in a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Banking and Finance.

Sports wise, I think I've tried just about everything, but at the moment I'm hooked on Indoor Cricket (the team I captain is leading our comp by a few games, wooo hooo!). I also try and play a bit of indoor soccer (I dislike soccer with a pleasure, but this indoor stuff is pretty good) and golf (would probably be a half decent player if I had the time for it).

I've been all up and down the east coast of Australia, visited the west coast of America/Mexico, Hong Kong, and in January went to New Zealand. Next stop Europe, but we just need to find a gap in our time table... sometime in the next 5 years.

I've been following motorsport since I was a wee kid. The first race meeting I ever attended would have been in about 1987, and my first CART event would have been on the Gold Coast in 1992 (haven't missed one since- easily the best weekend on the local calendar). I've been to most race tracks in QLD, NSW, TAS, and have flown over Albert Park, Sandown, and Calder in a plane . The one place I want to visit before I croak is the IMS... gawd I love that place.

I started to become a hardcore fan in 1998- I started attending every possible race meeting I could, and have missed very few since then. I started writing reports and interviews in about '98, and that has proven to be a good career move. I formerly used to work in various pharmacies, but now write for a few magazines like Australian Auto Action, Sports Car and Racer, the Oily Rag (etc) after starting out writing for Australasian Motorsport News. I also edit a few magazines for local clubs such as the Queensland Racing Drivers Association, and the Queensland Improved Production Racing Association, and contribute for anyone else that wants someting (QLD Mini Owners Club, Historic Racing Car Club QLD, QLD HQ Racing Association etc etc and blahdy blah).

And that is my life story up until the moment I sat down at this computer

[tanalised]

Hi, my name is Alistair, tanalised was my rugby nickname at high school. Liz I'm thrilled to see you support the ALL BLACKS of NZ, we are in a rebuilding stage at the moment. I live in a small rural town in Northland NZ where I own my own business, a pharmacy.I was born in 1969 , am married and have a 3 year old son whoo I am trying to interest in the "very noisy silly cars on television, can we change to cartoon network now Dad"
I enjoy watching the CART racing since Scott Dixon got an oppurtunity to race in the USA starting with Indy Lights, and have been thrilled to see exciting racing compared to the ever increasing farce of F1 racing. However I still watch f1, also Aussie v8 supercars (go Murph) and World rally championship, which i get to visit a few stages of every year as it usually visits road just 20 minutes from where i live
I enjoy the music of Pearl Jam, foo fighters and much more
I've just bought a palm pda machine, which is very hard to put down and very addictive
I hope that the Nz and Aussie rugby unions can work out their differences to co host the world cup
Thanks

[Crash Test]

Tanalised- to be honest, we don't care if you host half the matches...

And yay for the Foo Fighters, Powderfinger, The Super Jesus, but I'd listen to most types of music.

Also, a bit more about me, I started commentating at the local tracks at the start of last year, and the highlight was commentating in the pit lane at the QLD 500 last year in front of 30,000 punters. Also (how on earth could I forget this?) I'm engaged to 10-10ths member Barbiegirl

[StuiE]

Me, ok then,


My name is Stuart Crooks (ever wondered y me fantasy racing team is called Crooks Motorsport?)and I was born on the 24th of December 1986 (yes, thats right Christmas Eve) and im 15 and go to Greenwood SHS


I love Modified jap cars, Drift, Street Racing, and all the rest that goes with that stuff.

I used to play Soccer and support Middlesbrough,


MUsic: i like alternative and Punk stuff, likr he Offspring, 1200 techniques, Foo Fighters, Moby, Millencolin, Unwritten LAw, and yardi, yardi yar


RAcing? i like just about every type, even if we dont get the coverage esp CART, WRC, F1.


Fav Drivers?

CART - Tora Takagi - MIchel Jordain Jr. - Micheal Andretti (o, guess what?, thats all the drivers in my fantasy racing team)
F1 - Minardi - Webber - Heidfeld - Toyota - Button
NASCAR - Jeremy MAyfield - MArk MArtin - All the Chevs
DTM - Alain Menu
BTCC - James Thompson - Tim HArvey
V8 Supercars - Anyone but HRT/TWR



saw my first CART race on TV in 1997 and imediatly went for Walker RAcing/Gil de Ferran, man that car was butiful



Wel lthat s me

[SevenGrain]

Well, I guess it's my turn now...

My real name is Frank and I was born in 1967 in New Jersey. I run a Marketing/PR firm (Seven Grain Marketing) I am currently based in Lexington, KY, but I have lived in New Jersey, Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. When my lovely wife of five years completes the Master's Degree she is working on at the University of Eastern Kentucky, we plan to relocate back to Bethlehem PA (the best place we have ever lived)

I also have a journalistic career in the works, For three years I covered CART and NASCAR for an Allentown, PA daily newspaper and I have also written for Autoweek, Champ Car, Winston Cup Scene as well as developing web content for Adrian Fernandez, Marlboro Team Penske
and the now-defunct Forsythe Championship Racing. The outlet for a lot of my writing is cartpages.com, a web site that I run. Unfortunately, since I left the newspaper, the "real job" is consuming a lot of time and currently my site has a lot of press releases, but is a bit light on original content. Hopefully I will find more time as the season progresses.

The first race I ever watched was the 1978 Grand Prix of Monaco, won by Patrick Depallier, who along with Mario Andretti became my first two favorite drivers.

At first I followed F1 exclusively, the only other race I would watch was the Indy 500, but then, I really didn't care that much for Indy Racing. I shunned NASCAR, referring to them as the "roundy-round sunshine boys"

A budding artist, I would spend hours drawing F1 cars, and I developed an appreciation for the history of the sport. At the age of 11, I could name all of the World Driving Champions, what car they drove, and I could draw their helmet design.I have held on to the artwork as a hobby and Jimmy Vasser, Michael Andretti, and Al Unser, Jr. all own originals of mine.

I attended my first races in 1979. An IMSA race at Lime Rock Park (won by Peter Gregg), an early CART event at Watkins Glen (Bobby Unser), and the USGP at Watkins Glen (Gilles Villenuve). I have now been to too many races to list. These days I spend more time with PR guys setting up driver interviews and milling about the Media Center that I don't really have the time to enjoy the racing as much. Life was simpler (and more fun) when I was a kid.

I started following CART in earnest in the middle 80's and by 1989, CART had replaced F1 as my favorite series. I have only missed watching two CART races since 1989. I still continued to follow F1 closely until abount 1996 when I decided that I did not like what F-1 had become; a two-team show with no real passing on the track. I still keep up with the F1 news, but I don't go out of my way to watch every race like I once did.

In 1982,(high school) my family moved from N.J. to Virginia I gradually began to warm up to NASCAR. Actually is took about eight years (1990) to get me to actually go to a NASCAR race, but I now see it as an important racing series. I still say that the only way I can watch a NASCAR race is to set an alarm clock as they almost always put me to sleep. They really should look at shortening race distances.

In 1993, I was working with a marketing firm that got the contract for the McDonald's Racing Team,(NASCAR with the Junior Johnson Team) which I worked on for two years. At that time, Jimmy Spencer became my favorite driver in NASCAR and I still follow his career closely.

CART is still my #1 and my fovorite drivers among the current crop are Michael Andretti, Max Papis, Kenny Brack and Cristiano daMatta. I am also developing a healthy appreciation for Bruno Junquiera and Patrick Carpentier.

My favorite all time drivers in CART include Mario, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears, Gil deFerran and Scott Goodyear.

In F1, some of my favorite drivers have been Mario, Alain Prost, Riccardo Patrese, Nigel Mansell, Carlos Reutemann, Rene Arnoux, Elio deAngelis and John Watson. Currently, I like Schumacher and Montoya.

Other than racing, artwork, and writing, Rock and Roll is another of my passions. I played the drums in various bands throughout High School and College. I like a lot of different music, by my two favorite genres are Classic Rock (The Who ,Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Guess Who, Jethro Tull etc) and Heavy Metal (Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Judas Priest et. al.)

My wife and I want children very badly, but we have not yet been blessed. Our time will come I'm sure.

Wow, this post got long...

[marcus]

im just a figment of your overactive imagination

[Jordi]

Well, Here we go

Hi, I'm Jordi, I was born on July 14th, 1985, in Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia (a country trapped inside of Spain)

Have been following racing since I was 8, when I became sympathetic with Damon Hill's lack of luck at Silverstone and Hockenheim in 1993.

My heroes have been/are:
-F1: Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve (and the trio De La Rosa, Alonso, Gené)
-CART: Greg Moore forever, Patrick Carpentier, Oriol ServiÃ*
-NASCAR: Jeff Burton and the Roush Racing team
-Rally: Carlos Sainz
I try to watch all the races I can, as everything with wheels and an engine can be interesting.

Apart from racing, I'm a Barça fanatic, I like Anastacia, Suede, Garbage, Fun Lovin' Criminals on music...

My dreams never to be:

-Seeing Greg Moore and Gilles Villeneuve both alive.

[mac]

Jordi, from what I understand, you Catalans are very proud of your origin, and always insist on being known as Catalan and not Spanish. Oriol Servia always insists that he is Catalan.

Is this true?

[Wrex]

Have I walk in on an AA meeting

[Jordi]

We're very proud. We were a full-fledged country before we lost on Sept 11th, 1714 to Spain.
We commemorate that day, meaning that Catalonia can bounce back from even the hardest losses. I mean, Sept 11th was important for us way before Bin Laden was even born.

We have more than 1000 years of history, as Catalonia as a country was first mentioned in 988.
Spain has just over 500 years of history. I mean, they even took their flag colors from our flag!

It's good that people like Oriol can export Catalonia to the outside... We're similar to Scotland, but we're not allowed to play World Cup Soccer and things like that. (Although we could)

Visca Catalunya!

(thanks for letting me write this bit of history)

[Jordi]

a little more from me:

Some opinions & thoughts:

-the grounds effect cars in F1 were the most beautiful
-Damon Hill was the anti-hero, but he was my hero
-Scott Pruett should have stayed in Patrick...
-Every F1 race makes me even more proud of CART
-The Handford Superspeedway wing was the best thing in CART in many years, and subsequently, the best races ever have happened at Michigan
-I'm upset at Roger Penske leaving CART, but I hope he trashes 'em all in IRL
-Ilmor has been falling, and without Paul Morgan, the fall's been bigger
-What will Jacques do besides losin' time at BAR?
-F1 should be a spec-Ferrari F2002 championship, and then we'd see who'd be first
-Tony George is useless
-The tracks must be way safer than they are
-And why there was grass and asphalt service roads along with an unprotected inside wall at Fontana, Oct 31, 1999?


just some thoughts...

[Liz]

Jordi, that's a great idea for a new thread.

[Jordi]

well, I posted some here, and posted some more in the new topic