Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Dear John letter to F-1 (Doug & Terri)

[Rick Moseley (ramosel]

Willow Springs F1 testing was the best kept secret in racing those days.  

I have two very memorable pit wall encounters. 1977 before I cut my hair and 
went off to Canoe U., my brother took me there.  After gawking for hours I 
grabbed a hot dog and plopped down on the pit wall to enjoy lunch.   Villeneuve 
sits down next to me with his food and asks if I am a local.  I said "sort of" 
to which he started a conversation about turn 5.  Years later, after the Navy 
with my hair long again, I plopped down on the same section of wall to have my 
lunch during an open track day.  All my friends knew my brother was a racer too 
(he and I ran a truck in CORR).   Next thing I know Vince Neil sits down and 
asks the same question Gilles had asked years before.  We had a long talk.   A 
lot of friends put 2 and 2 together, saw two long haired blondes sitting on the 
pit wall and decided Vince was the brother I often spoke of but no one ever 
met.  Took me years to squash that one.  

So, which turn at Long Beach is best represented by turn 5 at Wllows Doug?


Rick

> On Feb 1, 2016, at 5:23 AM, Doug & Terri <dnt [at] dock.net> wrote:
> 
> Hey George - those were heady times.  Even earlier, when F1 was racing on
> the streets of Long Beach (up to the early 80's) some of the teams would go
> out to Willow for LBGP practice for the race a week away.  That race track
> most simulated the tight LB course.  And for $5, to cover some insurance
> thing, you could meander thru the pits, look at all the F1 cars there, see
> the drivers two feet away and watch the teams fine tune the cars - all naked
> and RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES.  One week later - seven little days - you
> couldn't get within 50 yards of the same people - unless you were Benson
> Ford.  Heh heh.
> Ach, yer right - "The good ol' days . . . ."
> DOUG
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ferrari [mailto:ferrari-bounces+dnt=dock.net [at] ferrarilist.com] On
> Behalf Of George
> Sent: Monday, February 1, 2016 5:01 AM
> To: DOUG <dnt [at] dock.net>
> Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
> Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Dear John letter to F-1 (Doug & Terri)
> 
> Gee, I thought Doug was describing the one time I went to Willow Springs....
> We went there - I think it was in '98 - with the Ferrari Challenge series.
> There was an ex-MS F1 car as well as a very old grand prix car once driven
> by Jose' Froilan Gonzalez.  As I recall, there was at least one other GP car
> there - 70's vintage (ex-Alboreto?).  Very cool stuff!
> 
> And as a trivial aside, one of the very funny memories from that weekend was
> when we all went to a local sports bar (in Lancaster, CA, I think??) for
> dinner where only one small TV (of the 12 or 14 in the place) up over the
> bar was showing the F1 race that weekend.  By the time all the FC teams
> arrived, that TV was the only one *NOT* showing the F1 race.  The locals
> trying to watch their stick and ball games were really unhappy.  ;-)
> 
> And an even further trivial aside - at one of the FC weekend lunches, I sat
> w/ a doctor from Chicago (iirc) who had an ex-Prost F1 car.  Was having some
> software problems with it, as I recall, and all the factory would tell him
> was "ship it back and we'll fix it".  Nice.
> 
> The good ol' days.....  :-)
> 
> gp
> 
> ________________________________________
> 
> Picture this ? 1995 or 6 or someplace there ? Willow Springs Raceway in
> Rosemond, CA.  To get there ? leave Los Angeles, go north about an hour.  At
> Rosemond turn left.  If you turn right you end up at Edward AFB and NASA
> Dryden Flight Research Center
> 
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