A Somewhat Intra-squad ‘Scrum

One past French racing name is returning to Le Mans  while a somewhat arch-rival Malaysian concern will be making its debut this year, as the names of Alpine and Caterham will do battle in the LMP2 category, having already noted Caterham’s entry, their “rival” Alpine competitor will be running under the auspices of Signatech with one of ‘R’s (Robin Miller) favourite past Champ Cars drivers who he nicknamed “Christian Comedy,” aka Tristan Gommendy having been named as the team’s third driver for Le Mans..

As the Alpine brand name has been resurrected by the Renault Car Company, with Caterham jointly developing a new car for production by the two brands in 2016... As who’ll get the upper hand in this year’s competition? Stay tuned!

Renault taking Alpine EnduranceRacing, enters 2013 Lemans

Caterham unveils Driver Academy program

Although not overly original, as most of the top Formula 1 teams have had some sort of aspiring race drivers apprentice program in place  over the years, nevertheless, I suppose this could be construed as Caterham attempting to take the necessary steps to join F1’s elite Constructors in its quest to move up the ranks and hopefully will propel Alexander Rossi into a Formula 1 seat fulltime in the near future...

Caterham launches Driver Academy program for aspiring drivers

INDY 500: Legends Day Doce, Autograph session 2012 - The Sequel...

2011 Centennial Program magazine signed back with eleven signatures...

This year’s session ultimately was far more entertaining than the previous years - Thanxs solely to the virtual “NO NAMES” Drivers being so outgoing, energetic and willing to interact with Mwah, as I still marvel over how AWESOME Adrian Fernandez & Didier Theys were, (1yr later) while Billy Roe will forever be ingrained in my memory for asking a blind person: “How Many Fingers am I holding UP?” Which was absolutely priceless?

This year’s B-I-G GAME Hunting included three solo winners at the Speedway, before we schmoozed our way down a veritable ‘Congo-line of some eleven diverse drivers, who were far more engaging than the overly stuffy ‘Brackster and Super Mario who’s been doing this for how many years of his life now?

Although to his credit, as Donald Davidson pointed out afterwards; Mario was advertised to only be staying for thirty minutes - but looking at the line said I better stay a little while longer and wound-up staying for 50mins before going to his next event, which was getting comfortable with the 1922 ‘Duezy (Duesenberg) he’d be piloting during Pre-race festivities.

Davidson noted how there were approximately 53-drivers attending and were surprised to get any winners, as the session I attended actually offered six split into two groupings of three, which after Mario left early, the remaining five: ‘Lone Star J.R., (Johnny Rutherford) the only three-time winner along with Kenny Brack, Gil de Ferran, Buddy Lazier and Tom Sneva all shook hands with each other afterwards...

Even more surprising was the advent of ‘gordie, aka Gordon Johncock showing up virtually at the last moment, as he needed to be credentialed race morning; as Davidson claims that ‘gordie is adverse to signing autographs and thus he very secretly corralled him into going to the museum and signing the John Andretti “Stinger” car - which reportedly John has taken to attempting to getting as many living drivers autographs upon I-T! (Think it goes to the Hall of Fame museo?) As Davidson snuck Gordon into ‘N out of the museum without anybody knowing, while Johncock was ready to go home after three laps of the race but his employees talked him into staying a little longer! (May be it was the H-E-A-T?)

And lastly, Donald said upon the 5/29 Trackside with Kevin & Cavin show that one of his most enjoyable moments was seeing twelve former winners taking pre-race Parade laps on the back of various convertibles and the corresponding ROAR of appreciation they each received from the crowd! As I’d like to get my ‘Mitts upon the photograph taken of the twelve drivers standing together at somewhere along IMS’s Pit lane.

And without further adu, I present my 2012 class of Autographees...

Mario Andretti

DOB: 2/28/40; USA

Age: 73

I500 Starts: 29

Best Finish: 1969 Indy 500 Winner

Years: 1965-94

Career Wins: 54 (2^nd Most Overall)

Fun Fact

Donald Davidson told a great ‘lil Yarn (story) about trying to hustle Mario over to the museum to let him check out the 1922 Duesenberg he’d drive the next morning, hustling him via a golf cart to an awaiting car, Davidson said as they passed “Millionaire’s Row” and came to a halt, a spectator recognized him and said aloud: Donald Davison You Are the Man! To which Davidson coolly replied “check My Driver...” As apparently NOBODY had noticed Mario Andretti playing chauffer!

The Andretti’s have the dubious distinction of  leading most laps in seven Indy 500’s and only winning once; with Mario having achieved this four times, son “Mikey” twice and grandson Marco once...

Tom Sneva

DOB: 6/1/48; USA

Age: 65

I500 Starts: 18

Best Finish: 1983 Indy 500 Winner

Years: 1974-90, 1992

Fun Fact

Sneva was the only one of the B-I-G three name Drivers who was having any fun that afternoon; resplendent in pink polo shirt Sneva was laughing, joking, smiling and just having an overall rip-roarin’ good time, while Brack was the sourpuss of the bunch, with Mario being steadfastly stoic the whole time, albeit ‘CARPETS said he saw him actually laugh once while we stood for some 30mins plus to get his John Hancock...

Johnny Parsons Jr.

DOB: 8/26/44; USA

Age: 68

I500 Starts: 12

Best Finish: 5^th (twice)

Years: 1974-80, 1982-83, 1985-86, 1996

Fun Fact

Parsons is the son of 1950 Indy 500 winner Johnny Parsons and the half-brother of Dana and Pancho Carter and was elected to the National Midget Hall of Fame in 1994...

Stephan Gregoire

DOB: 5/14/69; France

Age: 43

I500 Starts: 7

Best Finish: 8^th

Years: 1993, 1996-98, 2000-01, 2006

(Team Scandia Alumni)

Fun Fact

Guess it must be  an inside joke, but I’ve taken to calling him Steven George, due to his being a Carmel, Indiana resident along  with being one of the Indy Racing Experience’s 2X seater pilots...

Kenny Brack

DOB: 3/21/66; Sweden

Age: 47

I500 Starts: 6

Best Finish: 1999 Indy 500 Winner

Years: 1997-99, 2002-03, 2005

Fun Fact

NO word on whether or not Kenny & The Rockers - his band loosely employing the letters RPM in their name will be the Back up band for Brett Michael’s this year at Indy on Carb Day?

Buzz Calkins

DOB: 5/2/71; USA

Age: 42

I500 Starts: 6

Best Finish: 10^th

Years: 1996-2001

Fun Fact

Bradley “Buzz” Calkins won the Indy Racing League’s inaugural event at Walt Disney Speedway in Florida in 1996 - which would be his one and only win, while he also would be the series inaugural co-champion with Scott Sharp that season...

Adrian Fernandez

DOB: 4/20/65; Mexico

Age: 48

I500 Starts: 4

Best Finish: 7^th

Years: 1994-95, 2004-05

Fun Fact

Adrian is probably the most winning Mexicali Open Wheel Piloto in history? Although I suppose we could debate forever which is more noteworthy, winning a Formula 1 race or IndyCar event? Nevertheless, ‘YO ADRIAN won an impressive seven/eight? Times in CART along with a lone Champ Car win plus a further three victories in the IRL before switching over to thee ‘DARK side, i.e.; ‘RASSCAR Busch series and then ultimately Sports Cars, while Adrian is now apparently focusing upon being rising Mexican F1 star Sergio Perez’s manager...

Sergio in Good Hands

Didier Theys

DOB: 10/19/56; Belgium

Age: 56

I500 Starts: 3

Best Finish: 11^th

Years: 1989-90, 1993

Fun Fact

Theys subsequent Sports Car career largely overshadowed his Open Wheel Racing career for Mwah, albeit Didier won the 1986 Super Vee and 1987 American Racing Series (ARS) championships, as the ARS was the forbearer to today’s Indy Lights.

Yet I remember Theys fondly for driving those ultra BAD ARSE and super sharp looking Ferrari 333SP’s - most notably as part of the 1998 Rolex 24 winning MOMO entry shared with Arie Luyendyk, Mauro Baldi and the late Giampiero Moretti. As Theys also racked up victory at the 12hrs of Sebring that year chauffeuring the beautiful Ferrari Sports Prototype; with Theys going onto capture a second Rolex timepiece at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2002 alongside Baldi, Fredy Lienhard and “MAD MAX” Papis, this time aboard a Kevin Doran prepared Lista Dallara Judd, while also taking multiple Poles and finishing on the podium at Le Mans. And fittingly Theys holds the distinction of most (Professional) wins aboard a Ferrari 333SP! 

Phil Kruger

DOB: 6/22/51; USA

Age: 61

I500 Starts: 2

Best Finish: 8^th

Years: 1986, 1988

Fun Fact

Phil is probably best known for his mechanical expertise as a Chief Mechanic, having won the Clint Brawner Mechanical Excellence Award in 1988 for wrenching his two year old March-Cosworth into an eighth place finish as both its driver & chief mechanic at Indianapolis...

Billy Roe

DOB: 5/7/57; USA

Age: 56

I500 Starts: 2

Best Finish: 22^nd

Years: 1997-98

(Team Scandia Alumni)

Fun Fact

Not only is Billy a great practical joker, but a real gentleman too - as  he’s the only ex-IndyCar driver I’ve ever had honk at me  while passing in a golf cart which appropriately he was at the wheel of. Also apparently he’s somehow involved in electric vehicles, having become the first ever to lap IMS at over 100mph in the Brawner Hawk X11...

Electifying Racing

Denny Zimmerman

DOB: 12/14/40; USA

Age: 72

I500 Starts: 2

Best Finish: 8^th

Years: 1971-72

Honours: 1971 Indy 500 rookie Of the Year

Fun Fact

Pretty ironic that I got his autograph during the 40^th Anniversary of his final I500 start, since I’d definitely never heard of him before. Inducted into the New England‘s Auto Racers Hall of Fame in 2001...

Bill Alsup

DOB: 7/15/38; USA

Age: 74

I500 Starts: 1

Best Finish: 11^th

Year: 1981

Fun Fact

According to ‘WICKEDpedia, Alsup was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and actually tried qualifying three separate chassis for the ’79 Indy 500, which although his third try was successful aboard a Penske PC7-Cosworth DFX for Penske Racing, USAC officials DQ’ed him after claiming his engine was out of teammate Bobby Unser’s car. Allsup went onto become CART’s inaugural Rookie Of the Year...

Affonso Giaffone

DOB: 4/6/68; Brazil

Age: 55

I500 Starts: 1

Best Finish: 32^nd

Year: 1997

Entrant: Team Scandia

Fun Fact

This ex-IRL driver threw me for a total loop - and I was so puzzled by him that I ended up asking him what year he drove at indy? To which Affonso replied 1997... As hopefully this wasn’t an offensive questione to Messer Giaffone, eh?

(As unfortunately Affonso competed at the height of “the Split” and hence my having NO knowledge of this past Home team driver...)

Thus I was surprised to discover that not only is he a cousin to Felipe Giaffone, but also is a cousin-in-law to this year’s Rookie Of the Year ‘Rubino, nee Rubens Barrichello - while according to Donald Davidson his autograph was much sought after, whilst his ‘coz Felipe had fun during the weekend by standing at the entry door to the Hall of Fame museum and playing ticket taker for several minutes upon the totally unexpecting spectators who apparently didn’t recognize him...

Phil Giebler

DOB: 3/5/79; USA

Age: 34

I500 Starts: 1

Best Finish: 29^th

Year: 2007

Honours: 2007 Indy 500 rookie Of the Year

Fun Fact

I wasn’t aware that Phil had raced in International F3000 - the precursor to today’s GP2 series during the early ‘Ought’s, along with spending time as the pilot of Team USA’s A1 GP effort between 2005-07 before he graduated to the ‘B-I-G CARZ en route to winning the ’07 Rookie Of the Year honours at Indianapolis, where he beat out his fellow rookie competitor affectionately known as thee ‘Wanderin Milka, aka “Milkalicious,” nee Milka Duno, who finished P31...

And with 26 ‘John Hancock’s adorning both sides of my Centennial special program, I’d really like to manage to squeeze in seven more in order to make them number 33 - as I have NO idea who’ll be the 2013 lucky recipient’s. Just not sure if there’s enough room? (Nope! As I switched to the official 2011 Centennial program instead for 2013...)

Kudos to Dave ‘CARPETS O’Brien for shepparding me thru the various Autograph lines and telling me who each driver was!

Happy Portland Day!

Thank You Very Little IndyCar for taking away our beloved Portland race six years ago; as Father’s Day weekend will forever be indelibly linked with the now long forgotten annual Indy Cars passage at Portland International Raceway on Father’s Day weekend.

As I’m happy for Milwaukee, but a la the Sacramento Kings-Seattle Supersonics debacle; NOT at Portland’s expense!

As betcha Y’all never thought you’d be pining for an NBCSN IndyCar broadcast, eh? As I’m guessing it’ll be infinitely BETTER than that Prime Time Abomination ABC CRAPPED A-L-L OVER US last weekend, right?

Hey IndyCar, I think Portland’s Still Available!

Portland’s Centennial

Ode to Portland: Can it already be 5-Years GONE?

Jason Leffler

By now Y’all have heard of the unfortunate death of racing driver Jason Leffler who perished at the age of 37 during a Sprint Car race at Bridgeport Speedway, New Jersey on Wednesday June 12^th.

As I was unaware that the young Jason began cutting his teeth literally in the motor racing world at age 13 by working at Parnelli Jones shop in Torrance, CA - as Jones recently spoke of how he was considered family, having grown up with P.J. and Page en route to winning three consecutive USAC Midget championships from 1997-99, along with the Silver Crown title in ’98 before ultimately making the jump to thee DARK side, aka ‘RASSCAR where he amassed a staggering combined total of 423-starts in its top-three series, i.e.; Nationwide, Camping World Trucks and Sprint cup.

Leffler also made three Indy Racing League starts for Tredway Racing including the 2000 Indy 500 in a ride backed by Roger Penske’s United Auto Group.

Yet, the worst part of this tragedy is that Jason leaves behind a five-year old son named Charlie Dean who’ll now grow-up without a father...

Parnelli Jones Hit Hard by JasonLeffler’s Death

Dario, I Can’t Hear You Now...

Hmm? Where Art Thou Mr. Franchitti? Now that ‘HULIO’s been penalized for failing post-race inspection after winning at Texas...

I mean this time one year ago you were so vehemently screaming ‘bout Justin ‘B-I-G UNIT Wilson’s “Unfair Advantage” after winning the Texas IndyCar race that you quipped you were willing to cut off certain parts of your anatomy, which prompted me to scribble the following;

May be Ganassi should add Sawzall to its Sponsorship portfolio?

INDY 500: Legends Day Rocks!

Two-time Rolex 24 and 12hrs of Sebring winner Didier theys autographed IMS Centennial card...

For Mwah, one of the bestest thingys IMS has done recently has been the introduction of its Legends Day program with past Indy 500 competitors being invited to return to Mother Speedway for a very brief, but casual setting for fans ‘O Yesteryear to have a momentary chance to interact with past racing drivers! Which during my inaugural I500 outing in Twenty-oh-Nine there weren’t NOThIN’ going on at the Speedway on Saturday, as I’ ended up going out to lunch with ‘CARPETZ CREW to the local Union Jack’s where I got to talk smart ‘bout motor racing instead...

As I know I’ll probably be crucified for saying this, but the Legends Day autograph session is probably my favourite part of Indy, followed by Carb Day and the race taking the final step upon the podium!

And although I preferred it being “FREE,” nevertheless for Mwah, its totally worth the $10 admission price, (although I’m NOT impressed that the prices increase next year magically the same time that IMS begins taking in public funding...) as I’m really NOT after the autographs so much - with exceptions to ‘lil Stevie Johnson, (Stefan Johansson) ‘The Gasman (Tom Sneva) and thee ‘Brackster, nee Kenny Brack... NO! For me it’s the only chance I’ll ever get of meeting these past Hero’s in the flesh, and even better yet getting to crack some jokes with them plus witness their good natureness and willingness to interact with the public. Or even better yet when Adrian Fernandez and Didier Theys made me feel like I was Royalty! While Billy Roe was a priceless comedian, and like everybody in life, it just matters what type of mood Y’all catch somebody in, eh? As I was very pleased that this year Kenny Brack was in a good mood and even cracked jokes with me, as he seemed way more relaxed, even going so far to inquire to Derek Daly sitting besides him; what’s a ‘Chin-wag? Hee-hee-hee!

Thus Thanxs for letting me indulge upon the first two classes of autographs I collected during the 2011-12 sessions, as I haven’t even had a chance to ‘Poond away on this year’s class of FREAKIN’ EH RAY! Twenty-one participants; Aye Karumba! Since another really neat part of this exercise where I suppose it could appear I’m “Name Dropping,” is that by doing these reports I’ve gotten to learn a little bit more about said individuals!

As I’d say my only complaint is the lack of IMS publishing a listing of participants and which grouping they’ll be in prior to Saturday. As I understand how they may be hesitant in regards to announcing drivers that don’t show up, but it still seems like they could use that standard catch-all phrase: “subject to Change,” right? Since that way I could actually attempt getting some new John Hancock’s next year.

So a very B-I-G Thank You to EVERY driver who continues coming back yearly for this, along with any driver who’s turned out period! As my only wish now is that IMS will keep this tradition alive and somehow entice more of the past drivers to participate...

As is I-T just Mwah, or isn’t it funny how IMS was recycling the leftover Centennial cards a year later for the drivers to sign; Hmm? Perhaps another sign of the nebulous financial belt tightening Jeffrey “the Walrus” Belskus has implemented?

AnyHoo here goes the first two roster installments of what were two very enjoyable Legend Days outing which I’ve previously scribbled ‘bout in;

INDY 500: Reminiscing About the Centennial Race Weekend, Part 2

INDY 500: Revisiting the 2012 Race Weekend, Part 2