Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari Digest, Vol 91, Issue 29

[A.J. (newgent2tx]

George,

I and the (thank-God-ex)wife were also piled on that cart, thank you for that great memory.

Speaking of great memories, one of my most vivid from the USGP in 2000 was walking through the vendor tents with the (in)famous Steve Jenkins as he screamed at the top of his lungs,"this stuff is too expensive! Where's the bootlegs? Who has bootlegs to sell?" I was convinced we'd get asked to leave, but luckily we survived. LOL

- A.J.

On Wednesday, February 12, 2014, George <ygpz4re [at] hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Remember Indy 2002?
>
> Clyde Romero

Well, I wasn't at Indy in 2002, but I did make it to the List party in 2000, and to the race in 2001 (not sure if there was a List party in '01 or not....).
 
2000 (MS' "spin and win" year), was the first year of the USGP at Indy, and we arrived on Thursday.  After doing the team grocery shopping (my wife was FoW's race team hospitality hostess), our crew chief took us for a lap of the track on one of the utility carts.  We have pictures of us standing on the Indy 500 Turn 2 banking, and on the yard of bricks.  My wife continually plied the gate guards with coffee and hot chocolate, as it was downright chilly then.  When Charles Perry et al came by, the guards told us that as long as they were on our team cart, they (the guards) would look the other way and assume they were team members.  So I drove our flat top pit cart out and about 12 or 15 of you piled on!  Charles, Lashdeep, and....  ??  There was a bunch!
 
That was also when we met Mario Andretti there in the garage area.  I think my wife even served him a hot beverage in our garage.  And if anyone remembers the big yellow driver signs above each garage stall, I now have one of them hanging in *my* garage (with my name on it now, of course).
 
In '01, the team brought my ex-Steve Cook 308 out to Indy on the race truck.  That was fun.  Ken R coordinated a TV interview and invited me to it, but unfortunately, once we were in the garage area (at 0530), we pretty much had to stay - once again, the gate guards were kind to us (letting me drive the car in at all)!  I still have a pic of the car parked in the Gasoline Alley garages hanging on my garage wall.
 
Early in the weekend (mid-day Thursday or so), one of my teammates (and best friends) and I were driving the pit cart somewhere, and an official stopped us asking if he could catch a ride.  He was going right into the pit lane and we told him we weren't sure we could get in there.  He told us, "Don't worry....." - we drove right in!  He thanked us for the lift, but in reality, it was us thanking him!  We got to stand right next to the Jordan (I believe) pit as they practiced pit stops.  One of the guys dropped a wheel nut and it rolled right to our feet - we could have picked it right up, but didn't want to be seen as trying to swipe something.  That wheel nut probably cost the team a thousand bucks!
 
We also managed to, uh, "secure" (yeah, that's it, nudge nudge wink wink...) some extra team passes for a couple of good friends of mine, and they came into pit lane with us for the Sunday morning race.  After the race, we took our time leaving the pit lane, and bumped into a few notables - Jean Todt, Tony George, David Coulthard, Jarno Trulli, and MS hisownself.
 
So, how did our team do at these two races?  Ok, I think (we didn't win), but frankly, the race results were the least memorable part of these weekends!
 
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Rick!
 
gp