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

[George (ygpz4re]

I swear, I was born at least a decade too late.  I would have *LOVED* to have 
been there for F1 testing....

sigh.....

gp

________________________________________
From: Doug & Terri <dnt [at] dock.net>
Sent: Monday, February 1, 2016 8:23 AM
To: 'George'
Cc: 'The FerrariList'
Subject: RE: [Ferrari] Dear John letter to F-1 (Doug & Terri)

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

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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