Saturday, June 16, 2007

The Heat is on

Well, I guess things aren’t so bad here in the Pacific Northwest as it’s cloudy and the temperature has surged to 59… Which should make esteemed Indiana Bureau Chief Danny B. feel a whole lot better?

Having just checked the weather in Speedway, Indiana I had to laugh upon hearing the comment: HEAT! For today & tomorrow. You see its 91+ today with a high of 94+ expected for tomorrow at IMS. And that’s with a major dose of Indiana humidity. Which I for one a not particularly fond of. Having endured 97+ at last years USGP!

And why all the blather about weather? Well as you’re aware of, there’s this little race known as the USGP occurring in Tony George’s backyard. And I’ve just finished getting an excellent day’s report from Danny about the joys of lugging RF Antenna’s around for a full day in a nomex fire suit, complete with balaclava, crash helmet and goggles. Which is apparently the price one must pay for admittance onto the grid at Indianapolis when you’re a working stiff.

Danny has been hanging out all day with none other than my favourite (NOT!) pit lane reporter… Messer Daily. And speaking of Double D, I thoroughly enjoyed the interview he had with Heikki Kovalainen immediately following final qualifying.

DD (Derek Daly) Heikki, are you happy with your results?
HK (Heikki Kovalainen) Yeah it was Ok.
DD: Were you running light fuel:
HK: NO!
DD: Were you running heavy fuel?
HK: NO!

This caused me to break out in laughter as Double D started laughing when he figured out he wasn’t going to get anything from Kovalainen.

And although Danny is forced to deal with some pretty miserable temperatures in order to be up close ‘N personal with the coolest cars on the planet! There does appear to be some advantages as he waxed elegantly about having to eat in the Formula 1 kitchen. Which is all first class dining, with real china plates, crystal glasses along with proper silver wear and linen napkins. And I’m told the food wasn’t too bad either. NO Tenderloin sandwiches for Danny today, who claims Mario (Andretti) was seated nearby with some of the Williams boys during the lunch break. Guess the food isn’t too terrible if Mario is schlepping a free meal there, eh?

Now hopefully Dan won’t get too distracted while following Mr. Daily on his grid walk past the grid girls…

(Excellent picture captions Danny!)

Danny's Open Wheel Report