4 wheeled heroes

Jenson
DC
Webber
Irvine
Mcnish
Biela
Pirro
Minnasian (an alledged former "Stig" he didn't deny it)
David Brabham
Johnny Mowlem
Tim Harvey
Most of the BTCC grid from the last 10 years
Many stars in the making in lower formula

2 wheeled heroes

Carl Fogarty
Tony Elais
Jorge Lorenzo
Aaron Slight (while playing at being a tin top driver)

Have also met Richard Noble and disagree with the never meet a hero statement as he was brilliant really nice experience.

Oh and for real bragging rights I have sat in the Jag XJR9 1988 Le Mans winner.

Just thought I'd drop that in at the end.

Met Vettel, Alonso, and a few others.......but highlight was being on TV with Rosy!

I've stood in queues for autographs for a whole load of drivers but most surreal experience?

Garfunkels in Cambridge when I was about 15 (1996) and on holiday with my mum and dad. We had finished eating and my mum turned round to scowl at the fairly large group of noisy foreign lads ready to order as we were heading out of the restaurant, I approved of one of them as I saw one of them had a Spa Francorchamps t-shirt on as they'd come in, so turned to have a look at who it was; Rubens Barrichello and chums. My dad egged me on and I went with an old restaurant tab, a broken pen and a Cambridge A-Z to lean on over to them and he was very polite and gave me his autograph, couldn't get the pen to work so have RB scribbles all over the back of my A-Z and a signed Garfunkels Bill.

2 bizarre things were a) the bill was see through and was for a table 17 in loopy handwriting so when glanced from the other side it says 'F1', and b) we'd been in Oxfordshire in the morning and we'd driven to Cambridge via Silverstone and my brother and I had been brave and had gone into the Jordan factory just to gush and lie and say we were big fans and so although I only got a bill signed, at the B+B we were staying in we had 2 full press packs the receptionist had given us!

I walked away chuffed that he had been so nice and friendly, as had his friends, junior racing drivers I didn't know ...with one exception, I'd been too busy looking at Rubens Barrichello to notice Mr in the Spa t-shirt was Ricardo Rosset!

I still have the autograph and I still have the press pack. My brother had stayed at the B+B and didn't believe me when I got back. Didn't sleep a wink that night. Was a brilliant holiday!

(PS totally agree with the comment about Andy Green, the land speed record pilot, possibly the nicest celebrity I've had the pleasure of meeting).

I want to meet Vettel. Now. Lovely lad. A few words with him now please... 2010 is gonna be serious.

Got a few autographs from various V8SC drivers at the Clipsal 500 a few years back - Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards. Also had a chat with Victor Bray and Ben Bray about their doorslammer burnout car they had there, Ben was saying it was more fun than the drag car! The highlight though was walking with the late Peter Brock from his corporate box to the Holden Heaven area, it probably would have taken him half an hour to get there since he was nice enough to sign so many autographs for fans on the way.

I've also had the pleasure of meeting Ron Tauranac, ex-Brabham designer and Ralt founder/designer. It was at Formula SAE Australasia 2008 where Ron and Pat Clarke were going around talking to all the teams about their cars. Hopefully he was impressed by ours! He's a bottomless pit of information that guy.

Alan Jones - total wanker

Chris Vermeulen - top bloke

I've met Jean Marie Balestre and Senna together

Really ?????? Weird.

I met Aguri Suzuki, Olivier Panis, Cristiano da Matta.

I bumped into Cristiano da Matta at the 2008 Grand-Am race at VIR, where he was hanging around with his new team and getting ready for his racing comeback at Laguna Seca two weeks later. I waited patiently for him to finish his conversation with Ricardo Zonta, and when a mechanic grabbed Zonta to go get breakfast, I took my chance to talk to Cristiano. He was very friendly, open, and excited about returning to racing.

It was actually my second time spending time with da Matta, but my first on a one-to-one basis. I was at Portland when he won the 2005 Champ Car race, and after the race ended I went down to the hospitality area and saw team owner Kevin Kalkhoven sitting up front and greeting his guests. I congratulated Kevin on the win and mentioned that I had flown in from the east coast specifically for the race. He gave me a beer and invited me inside to join in the celebration. I got to listen to the victory speeches, sip champagne, and got the T-shirt I had bought that day autographed. It was terrific, and everybody was very gracious.

The only other ex-F1 driver I was able to spend a decent amount of time talking to was Christian Danner. This was in Cleveland in his first year in CART. He was very pleasant and amicable, and we talked for a good five minutes or so.

Other former and future F1 drivers I've "met" through asking for a moment to take a photo (or in my earliest races, an autograph): Dan Gurney, Jim Hall, Mario & Michael Andretti, Emerson & Christian Fittipaldi, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Roberto Guerrero, Jacques Villeneuve, Teo Fabi, Roberto Moreno, Eddie Cheever, Derek Daly, Raul Boesel, Fabrizio Barbazza, Mark Blundell, Mauricio Gugelmin, Max Papis, Alex Zanardi, Andrea Montermini, Stefan Johansson, Johnny Herbert, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Shinji Nakano, Tora Takagi, Sebastien Bourdais, Timo Glock, Tiago Monteiro, Justin Wilson, Franck Montagny, Antonio Pizzonia, Enrique Bernoldi, Eric van de Poele, Christian Klien, Allan McNish, Emanuele Pirro, David Brabham, Jan Magnussen, Stephan Sarrazin, Olivier Beretta, Mika Salo, Pedro Lamy, and perhaps one or two others.

I've also met dozens of drivers who never made it to F1 (most through a hello and a request for a photo, and some at autograph signings), including most of the CART drivers in the late '80s and early '90s, Richard Petty, Buddy Baker, at least a dozen other NASCAR drivers, and various sports car and touring car drivers. Drivers that I've been able to spend at least a couple of minutes talking to include Jimmy Vasser (Portland 2005), Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mario Dominguez (at a party near Mid-Ohio), Joey Hand, Guy Cosmo, Randy Pobst (at a pre-Petit Le Mans in downtown Atlanta as we watched guys tackle a race sim, Patrick Long (same event), Joel Camathias (at a party in St. Petersburg, Florida - he recognized me at another race later in the season), and Lake Speed (at a historics event at VIR - we talked about his karting days and why he chose NASCAR).

It was at opening of Chaparral wing at Petroleum Museum in Midland, TX which housed all of his Chaparral cars. He and his wife Sandy are down to earth like Gil. The opening of the wing along with a tour at the Rattlesnake test track will always be one of greatest moments in my life. I met Pocabella, who is a mechanic of the cars, at the tour track.

I met Lewis Hamilton on the St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne this year.

I verify that! He even invited me to sit on his bike and say what everything was. Great experiance.

This was when he still drove Superbike though, at the Ten Kate team (I'm Dutch so)

I have a few F1 driver autographs such as Johhny Herbert and Aguri Suzuki but I'm not sure that qualifies as 'meeting' them. I did briefly talk to and get Murray Walker's autograph at the 1997 Bathurst 1000. My Dad told me he was walking around near the grandstand we were in so I went down and asked him who he thought would win the race, he rightly predicted the BMW's! Was a nice moment for a major F1 fan and 16 year old at the time!

Met Lewis Hamilton, got his number... impossible to get any inside info from him though

Lewis Hamilton
Takuma Sato
David Coulthard
Allan McNish
Jason Plato
Andy Priaulx
Matt Neal
Yvan Muller
Stephen Jelley
Colin Turkington

Eddie Jordan (1998)
Gerhard Berger (2007)
Lewis Hamilton (2007)
Vettel (2006)

Oh yeah... and Nick Heidfeld stood next to me once... but didn't noticed him first in a public area at Spa-Francorchamps F1 tests (2007)

Only Dutch drivers F1-drivers, I fear.

Jos Verstappen
Jan Lammers
Huub Rothengatter
Gijs van Lennep
Michel Bleekemolen

Phil Hill - I had the pleasure of spending a week (via GP Tours) in Italy for the 98 GP, Ferrari & Lambo Factory. I have never met a better story teller and a great guy.

Jacques Villeneuve - Corporate dinner... seemed nice, but he didn't say very much.

Derek Bell
Nigel Mansell
David Coulthard
Damon Hill
Jacques Villeneuve (and Dannii Minogue)
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Ricardo Zonta
Mika Salo
Olivier Panis
Takuma Sato
Jenson Button
Anthony Davidson
Gil de Ferran
Rubens Barrichello
Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton
Mika Hakkinen
Heikki Kovalinen
Pedro De La Rosa
Gary Paffett

Frank Williams
Patrick Head
Geoff Willis
Adrian Reynard
Malcolm Oastler
Nick Fry
Peter Sauber
Willi Rampf
Jean Claude Migeot
Jorg Zander
Jock Clear
Ron Dennis
Martin Whitmarsh
etc....

..... but it's a lot easier when you're working in F1!

those were the days...

Luigi Chinetti - 'Uncle Luigi'
Coco Chinetti - living a life of dreams
Nino Vaccarella - the Flying Professor', and the greatest of gentlemen
Sam Posey - like a big brother. ..."without belts, and at racing speed - you would have been ejected at the esses!"
Jacky Ickx - ... orange groves = free oranges!
Mike Parkes - ... " you're letting him steer what???"
Tony Adamowicz - ditto, but kinder
Mario Andretti - doused with champagne and sweat... and we should have kept the magnum
Vic Elford - most polite
David Piper - few words
Nanni Galli - a genuine loving person, never a bad word
Peter Gregg - riveting dinner conversations
Rolf Stommelen - "... Toine is going to get us in trouble"
Toine Hezemans - an absolute crazy man - and the most fun
Arturo Merzario - fun and friendly
Bob Grossman - ..."don't sell the GTO!"
Helmut Marko - a serious master of the game
Paul Newman - quiet, reserved, but will give you the time
Masten Gregory - gentleman racer at its best
Milt Minter - at twelve, I had a crush on his wife
Ronnie Bucknum - gave my dad his ride in the 512S
Charlie Kolb - very friendly, never complained about having his knees in his chest while driving the Dino
Hurley Haywood - dinner with PG
Pedro Rodriguez - could really make the Dino go
Chuck Parsons - ..."who's the kid in my car?"
Derek Bell - ..." not sure who this kid is, but click away"
Gijs van Lennep - relaxed
Peter Revson - okay, try to be cool... it's Revson!
Dan Gurney - another true gentleman

Aurelio Lampredi - an engineering god, and a most polite house guest
Franco Cornacchia - ..." the electric go-kart is a gift for your son, and thank you for your hospitality"

Johansson
Lauda
Piquet
Senna
Brundle
etc etc...loads more from the 1980's.

Had a good chat with Murray Walker at a motor show once too.

Nigel Mansell - monster hand shake, put his arm round me and almost squeezed me to death. A strong strong man. A very nice guy too, anyone who says otherwise is a twat.
Johnny Herbert
Juan Pablo Montoya - several times
Mario Dominguez
Shinji Nakano
Justin Wilson and Jonathan Palmer (at the same time)
Darren Manning
Michael Andretti
Kimi Raikkonen
Jason Plato - another really nice guy
Enrique Bernoldi
Jenson Button (held a toilet door open for him as I was coming out and he was going in)
Tom Chilton
Colin McRae - with Jason Plato walking through the tunnel under the oval at Rockingham
Murray Walker
Chris Pook - perhaps embarrasingly I have his autograph...
Relatives of Jim Clark (as close as I can get besides the visit to his grave I did)
Possibly the flimsiest brag ever: Had my haircut by the girl who cuts Warren Hughes hair (brother of Autosport's very own Mark Hughes)
Several short-lived F1 drivers and touring car drivers, their names forgotten so inconsequential where they as drivers...

The biggest one is the one that never happened. I was supposed to meet Alex Zanardi on September 15 2001, but he of course had his accident the weekend before. Me not meeting him of course pales into comparison, but I had been looking forward to it for some time having corresponded by email with him several times in preceding years. I do however have a letter from Alex that I will treasure forever. Who knows maybe one day I will meet him, but no matter how many also-rans you meet they may never add up to just one person like Zanardi.

Right.
I have not met any drivers.2010 is a good chance.

Connie Montoya

4 wheels

Peter Dumbreck


Other Sports:

Alberto Tomba
Anja Paerson
Michaela Dorfmeister



Music:

Arturo Sandoval
Ed Calle
Jozef Zawinul

... and lot more, but I wrote only those whom I talked to, or spend some time with, they are not friends by any means but acquiantants

I've only met face to face Mika Salo. That was on my way to Monza -97 in Frankfurt airport. He was waiting Noriko outside a parfumeria and was looking guite pissed (must have waited for long ) I had to stop and ask his autograf to my ticket cover...

Martin Brundle, Christian Klien and Derrick Warwick.

Been within touching distance of Michael Schumacer, Ross Brawn and Rubens at Silverstone 2005.

Also been to McLaren HQ after a vodafone prize win and Lewis was there

Can I ask the people who have met a good number of drivers, how did you meet all these people?

Gabrielle Richens
Kate Moss
Patricia Arquette

oh and James Hunt, thats me sitting in his car on your left!

Wow, I can almost contribute something to this...

If by 'met', we mean coming within talking vicinity of (as I'm not the most talkative type in the company of anyone, celebrity or otherwise, and don't collect photos or autographs etc.), I could count among the car and motorsport related people I've met the three Top Gear presenters (Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May), at a filming in my home town just a few weeks ago, where Jeremy was effectively our exhibition guide; Rob Smedley (again, incredibly recently - he comes from my home town and was there as an honorary graduate of my university. To my surprise as a massive F1 fan, I found myself a few feet away from him at the buffet all-you-can-scoff bit afterwards); Fabrizio Giovanardi and Tom Chilton (at a 2006 BTCC round signing autographs - again, I'm stretching the definition of 'met' here again, as I wasn't in the queue so would've just been an un-noticed face in the crowd to them...).

Non-motorsport related: The artists Gavin Turk and Richard Long (who I spoke to on the phone once as I needed permission from him to create a self-made image of one of his works in a Leeds gallery for a dissertation) and some others I've temporarily forgotten.

Spencer Pumpelly was my driving instructor at Skip Barber and we are friends on Facebook.

I met Randy Tolsma at a Mazda driver thing, he was also kind of an instructor type guy.

Both are super cool. If you even know who these people are, you are, too.

As a 14 or 15 y.o., I karted with a 9 or 10 yo Ryan Brisco. Was overtaken a lot!

hung out with brendon hartley at a red bull event last christmas . . other than that - does greg murphy count?

would love to have a beer with Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Vettel and . . maybe Alonso

Sorry, cannot tell that or you guys will be so jealous.

Seriously: I never met any F1 driver yet, but I met George Cloony ones. Does that count?
Really would like to meet Lewis and Sebas this year at the German GP!

Have met, in no particular order:

Martin Brundle and son Alex - both really nice guys
Mario Andretti - I was too awe inspired to have anything intelligent to say
Stirling Moss - Super professional
Tony Brooks - Absolutely charming guy, has a lot of interesting views on modern F1
David Piper - Smashing fella

Was also within spitting distance of Jackie Oliver earlier this year, but didn't approach, he was rather p**sed off having just retired from a race he was leading very comfortably because the wheel was becoming detached from the BMW touring car he was racing............

In a meet-and-greet autograph sorta way:
Allan McNish; Fernando Alonso; Michael Schumacher

Interviewed when I worked at Laguna:
Colin Edwards; Adrian Fernandez; Ivan "Ironman" Stewart

Chatted with in media centers and garages at some length (anything from "Hello, nice to meet you" to an actual conversation) when glomming off my spouse:
Jonny Rea; Max Neukirchner; Ben Bostrom; Reg O'Rourke (Mat Mladin's crew chief at Yosh); Roger Hayden; Nicky Hayden; Tommy Hayden; Eugene Laverty; Jorge Lorenzo; Carlos Checa; Herve Poncharal; Chris Vermeulen (he *is* really nice!!); Kenny Roberts Sr.; Marco Melandri; Tom Sykes; Cal Crutchlow; Stevie Bonsey; Ant West; Jake Zemke; Gary Mason; Alessio "Uccio" Salucci (Valentino Rossi's friend/assistant); Ruben Xaus; Nick Harris

Lotsa chats with folks I like very very much:
Ben Spies; Mary Spies; Tom Houseworth (Ben's crew chief); Maio Meregalli (Yamaha Italia team boss); Chaz Davies; Josh Hayes; Melissa Hayes; Jamie Hacking; Rachel Hacking; Tommy Aquino (and his mom); Neil Hodgson; Earl Hayden; Rose Hayden; James Ellison; Eric Bostrom; Randy Mamola; Kevin Schwantz; Toby Moody; David Emmett (motomatters.com); Don Emde; Brian Drebber; Gavin Emmett; Ian Wheeler; Julian Ryder; Jonathan Green

. . . to paraphrase golfball, it's a lot easier when you're married to someone who works in the business! It's a dreamy fangirl's dream come true. However, one name that is *glaringly* missing from this list is Valentino . . . next year's #1 goal. . . .

I truly haven't had one encounter that's been unpleasant or disappointing. Bike people rock! And even Michael Schumacher was nice, when I was digging around in my purse to find something for him to sign, the first time F1 came to Indy. He was very sweet.

The funniest story is about Neil Hodgson--at Laguna 2008, I was running around, searching for my dear photographer spouse so we could get some lunch before the bikes went out on track again. I stopped at the Honda hospitality tent to ask Neil if he'd seen him; he said "Yes," deadly serious, very knowing, nodding sagely.

"Well, where is he?" I asked.

He broke out in chuckles. "Dunno, love," he said. "It was about nine o'clock this mornin'."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks," I said. "At least I guess we know he isn't dead."

He shook his head sagely once more. "Well," he replied. "At least he wasn't at nine o'clock this mornin'."

Another funny story is from Laguna this year--the media center organized a bicycle ride for some of the AMA and GP riders with some members of the press (somehow I blagged my way in ;) ). Everything was fine; the track is quite hilly, but I cycle pretty regularly, so it was fine--until I got to the top of the Corkscrew. I stopped my bike at the top of the crest, looked down, and said to my husband and the track photographer (who was cycling with us)--"No f***ing way, am I going down there on a bicycle."

The two of them tried to cajole me, to no avail; I let them go, and then dismounted, resigned to the fact that my chickenpoop self was going to walk the thing down. Well, I'm about halfway down, and who should turn up doing his track inspection--on a scooter--but Marco Melandri. He stopped the scooter at the edge of the gravel trap and looked at me, shaking his head.

"Don't YOU start," I said (I had never met him before, but the atmosphere was very convivial.)

He started laughing. "What, you are afraid?"

"You betcha!" I answered. "I am also the only member of my household with a constant, dependable income!"

He started cracking up, and then said, "I know--I ride your bike down, you take my scooter!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Dude," I said. "I don't know how to ride one of those!"

It does to me.

they probably thought you were alonso in that shirt n hair

I was once within six feet of Jack Brabham . . .

And I have had a few chats with Alan Tomlinson, Western Australia's only Australian Grand Prix winner.

Plus a stack of local champs. But never met and exchanged words with an International.

However, back in 1992 when the Rally Championship first came to Australia, The Light Car Club of WA invited Carlos Sainz and Luis Moya to drop into the clubrooms for a chat, and blow me down, they came: along with their rally car. Can't see that happening today. Back in the day the Club used to invite visiting drivers from the distant Eastern States to drop in, and quite a few have including Bob Holden and John Harvey. I have a pic somewhere of John Harvey, stubby in hand, chatting with the fans at the clubrooms.

It's all too formalised and formularised now.

I met the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir, the guy that brought F1 to Malaysia. Spoke at length with one of his bodyguards who was a serious racing fan.
Also met the Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende who is also a serious car and racing fan. We spoke at length about Spyker and Verstappen and Albers at a reception while being constantly interrupted by social climbers wanting to discuss politics while we were talking about really important stuff.
And I also met the Japanese Prime Minister Aso and Prince Akishino. Who both have a tenous link to auto racing .

WOW!

Eddie Jordan (in 1995)
Ron Dennis (also 1995, was only 11 years old and guest along with Father with Maclaren at German GP)
Mika Hakkinen (same weekend)
Mark blundell (And again)
Johnny Herbert (Few times outside NEC)
Murray Walker (Ouside NEC)
Anthony Davidson (Gave him a winners trophy to a FF event he won at brands)
Gabriele Tarquini (When Me old mans company was sponsoring Alfa in 94)
Giampiero Simone (same as above)
Martin brundle (at karting with his boy)
John Surtees (same as above)
Ray belm
Marurizio Sala
Lindsay Owen Jones
Pierre-Henri Raphanel (Above 4 when was a guest of Gulf Maclaren F1 team at a Enduro race at Monzo 95)
Tony Kanaan (sat in his F3 car)
Katherine Legge (She was dating my karting manager/mechanic)
Colin brown.

A host of Karting stars who have made it in various forms of motor racing. (Never Spoke to Ham, he used to walk around like a right big head. Di-resta's dad gave me a set of kart tyres in 98 when we started out, and loads more....)

I have been in paddock past two years so met lots of people

This one probably counts most for me: http://www.f1sports.cz/assets/galleries/9276/P1150702.JPG

but would appreciate more contact with these ;) http://www.f1sports.cz/assets/galleries/9276/P1150723.JPG

Other include as follows ;) http://www.f1sports.cz/f1sports-v-abu-zabi-2?page=2

love that Adrian Newey is wearing the Senna T!!

I've met EJ a few times,
and Eddie Irvine - twat
met most of the ALMS drivers including all audi and peugeot drivers -
McNish, TK, Capello, Werner...
pedro lamy, Nic Minassian....

oh, and don panoz.

I once met the cousin of a bloke who once ate potatoes, so I am on close terms with Irvine.

I went to the rookie test out in jerez at the start of december and after a previous visit there i thought better of staying in jerez itself due to taxi fairs and the like, so i booked up at a nice 5* hotel for the last couple of days of the test, which was right next to the track, well got to the hotel at bout 9 at night and was pretty hungry so went down to the restaurant and asked for a table for one, duly got shown to my table when straight off i looked at someone and thought, i recongise you, well i quickly realised it was mike conway, then as i sat down, on the table next to me was two blokes and i recognised one of their voices so i looked to my right and it confirmed who i thought it was, christian horner, i then stared quite badly, haha, could hear everything they where talking about, not that i was trying to evesdrop or anything , daniel ricciardo, if thats spelled right, was pretty impressive and he kept talking about who he wanted to move from the pit wall to the "racks". i know technically i didn't meet him but still was pretty wicked.

I should be meeting both Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton in the same place at the same time on Friday. Hopefully I dont cock it up!

Met and have photos with:

JM Fangio
Senna
Prost
Lauda
M. Schumacher
Mansell
Piquet
Hunt
K.Rosberg
D.Hill
Berger
Alesi
Alboreto
Patrese
Laffite
Boutsen
Panis
Coulthard
Frentzen
Vettel
Irvine
Barrichello
Fisichella
Trulli
Herbert
Nannini
Arnoux
Brundle
Blundell
Warwick
Modena
de Cesaris
...Johansson, Comas, Klien, Katayama, Palmer, Cheever, Salo, Lamy, C.Fittipaldi, Verstappen, Guglemin, Capelli, Caffi, Pirro, Larini, Tarquini, Lehto, Wendlinger, Dalmas, Bernard, Gachot, Danner, Alliot, Moreno, Martini, Morbidelli, S.Nakajima, A.Suzuki, Grouillard, Naspetti, Lagorce, Deletraz, Gounon, T.Suzuki...and I'm sure there were more


Also met at the GP:
George Harrison (Beatles)
Barry Sheene