What's that 'Ol Saying 'bout making Lemonade
outta...
Contrary to popular belief, your Racing
Scribe Tomaso here on thoust Isle 'O Nofendersville Doesn't get paid per word,
or for that matter, Uhm, what's that 'bout Brevity?
AnyHoo, I simply felt the previous Racing
Nirvana tomes (Which Y'all can find in the No Fenders voluminous
Archives, March 2019 Selection, on the Right Hand Sidebar of the No Fenders
Homepage...) that included some of Johnny O's 'lil Gems
was getting way too long, and therefore I didn't scribble the whole portion about
his good Buddy Brian Till. Having just opined the following in: Racing Nirvana:
The Clock Strikes Midnight, with another 14hrs of Motor Racing to G-O';
Yet O'Connell's always a Delight to listen to, as
he's got a Zillion Crazy, Funny and Zany Stories! As I enjoyed his Quip 'bout
Brian Till, who Johnny said "I Love the Guy!" Before telling 'bout
how Brian once got so exasperated with his race engineer, (Who O'Connell also
worked with) he said then why Don't you just have the Flippin' Computer Drive
the Car! to which said Engineer Dryly retorted that the Rules Don't Allow It!
As IMSA Radio's lead announcer John Hindhaugh
sardonically quipped Yuhs know Brian's gonna Hear this! Which caused Johnny to
quickly reply he loves the guy. To which O'Connell added I Don't Know Why they
Don't mention It more? Both Brian Till and Calvin Fish were excellent racers.
Both winning Formula Atlantic Championships.
To which Jeremy Shaw chimed in that Fish pushed
Ayrton Senna All the way to the (Formula Ford) FF1600 title. And if he'd waited
just one year, would have been a multi-times F1 World Champion!
Although I only know briefly of fish's racing
Stateside, most notably driving for Thee "Cat in The Hat," nee Jack
Roush and his Bad Arse GTO Mustang's! (And Cougars) As I seem to recall Calvin
drove with the likes 'O Dorsey Schroeder? And pretty certain he won GTO (Grand
Touring Over) Class Honours at Sebring?
As it's always
nice to know that Ye 'Ol Memorybanks are still functioning, Eh? Otay, so I had
his Co-drivers mixed up, but like one of 'em said recently. It's hard to remember
specifics 'bout a race 29 years ago! As Dorsey Schroeder and Max Jones were
piloting the Seester' #11 Cougar...
As Fish did indeed win not only the 1990 IMSA
Grand Touring Over (2.5-litres) "Saloon" category with Lyn St James
and Robby DirtMann' Gourdoun (Gordon) aboard one of Roush Racing's NASTY
Mercury XR7 Cougars!
But Calvin actually swept Florida's two Endurance
rounds that year, having won the season opening Daytona 24hrs GTO Class driving
that very same #15 Trucar Lincoln Mercury Cougar with the same Co-drivers as
the aforementioned Sebring 12hrs W'.
Brian Till, the man firmly in Johnny 'O's
Cross-hairs, is the only one of our trio to have raced in Thee B-I-G CARZ', nee
Indy Cars, albeit in the rival CART series. A long with contesting the
Indianapolis 500.
Till's "CV" included the
aforementioned winning of the 1990 Formula Atlantic East Championship along
with victory in the '91 Indy Lights Mid Ohio race, before graduating to the top
rung 'O Championship auto Racing Teams. (CART)
Till drove for four predominantly "Backmarker"
Minnowesqe' teams, beginning with the unheard of robco Racing, making their
CART series debut with the underpowered Truesports 91C Customer chassis. Before
stints with Turly Motorsports, Dale Coyne Racing and A.J. Foyt enterprises.
As Brian contested his lone Indy 500 race in
1994, driving for Dale Coyne, starting on the outside of Row 7, (21st) and finishing
a respectable 12th.
Brian then ran a season in SCCA's Pro Racing
Trans Am series, campaigning a Greg Pickett Racing Camaro to Ninth Overall, before
becoming a Pitlane Reporter and now very creditable Broadcast Announcer.
The final aspiring Driver of this trio is
well known as "The Viking!" aka Anders Krohn, who I've enjoyed
primarily via the IMS Radio Network's Indy Lights and IndyCar Radio Broadcasts,
that unfortunately I can NO longer listen too, Thanks IndyCar!
Oh yeah, I forgot,
I'm supposed to Shut Up 'N Quit Whining over Indy Cars nebulous Access Denied
404 Error Message and Pay to "listen" on NBC Sports Gold Pass
instead; SPEW!
But if you're
Blind, then accessing this Site may be impossible, whilst some Blind people
enjoy simply listening to Broadcasts instead!
Basically it sounds like Anders simply never
had the requisite Dinero to enable him graduating to Indy Cars.
After Thee Nordski' came Stateside in 2008,
he promptly won that year's F2000 Championship and graduated to the Star Mazda
series the following year, winning at the Milwaukee Mile.
Anders contested a second Star Mazda
campaign, finishing runner-up Overall to somebody named Conor Daly, who'll be
competing in this year's Indianapolis 500 for Andretti autosport. He also made
his Indy Lights debut at Watkins Glen over the 4th 'O July weekend.
For 2011, Anders contested the entire Lights
season for Belardi Auto Racing. Then made a final two starts for Brian Herta
Autosport the following season, including the Freedom 100, before ultimately
running out of funds.
As I really enjoyed listening to Anders via
Indycar.com's "Live" Timing & Scoring Webpage, which has been
neutered this year in favour of Capitalistic Greed by the Powers to Be at
Starship HC', aka Holman & Co. And Nary a Peep's been made 'bout where Yuhs
can Hear Him now...
