46 replies to this topic

[100cc]

Well I finally got to see an f1 driver up-close for the first time, two of them actually, nick and kimi, as they had a short signing session at a cafe at the petronas twin towers, they were both really busy and kimi only responded when I said something in finnish, "hi, and thanks" Otherwise they would just look down at the cards they were signing. I also asked kimi why he had changed his helmet from stand 21 to arai, he just said cause this ones better(typical).
I would have loved to stay and talk for longer, but there was a long line behind me, so I got a card from nick as well and ran off.
I'll try to ask some more questions tommorow, as they have another signing session at there.

So give me some very interesting questions I could ask kimi(or nick).

What are other people's experiences?? I know some people here have the got just about all the current(and many x)drivers to sign something for them, have people here had more than a few seconds to talk to the drivers?

[green-blood]

ask Heidfeld what it feels like to pilot a McLaren up the hill at goodwood in the rain - he was phenomenal by the way, the car was never straight for the mile and a half.

[Ray Bell]

A number of them many years ago. Bruce McLaren, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Tim Mayer, John Surtees, Dave Walker, Frank Gardner, Paul Hawkins, Alan Jones, Tim Schenken, Larry Perkins. Warwick Brown was a fairly close friend of mine for a time, but only drove one GP.

Perhaps the closest one was Derek Bell.

As for ex-drivers, I encountered the duo of Phil Hill and Stirling Moss at Adelaide the weekend of the 1986 AGP, spent a few minutes with them discussing their drives in the AGPs of 1956 and 1965 (Phil's greatest drive, he says), and I'm sure there've been others. Funnily enough, I don't recall talking to Phil when he was driving.

Oh, I forgot Paul England.

[magic]

i once explained lauda in '84 how to handle prost.

a few years before that i used to interrupt conversations between drivers like reutemann and andretti, just get their bloody autograph.

the worst case of not minding my own business was harassing alan jones. all had signed, gilles, nelson etc, only jones turning his cold shoulder. jones in a rush to leave the paddock. jones jumping in his rent-a-car, sir frank prior to his accident, sitting next to him.
only knocking on his windowscreen and blocking a free exit made him surrender. man, jonesy hated magic's guts more than all ms-fans today .

[magic]

i also witnessed in '80, diana de koning, a dutch penthouse model and later pornactress, flirting and later leaving the circuit with jean pierre jarier. i never went that far for an autograph myself.

[pRy]

I was at the TOCA shootout, the year Mansell took part. During a paddock walk about, I saw a crowd waiting at the bottom of the stairs to the stewards office (A drivers meeting was taking place). I jointed the scrum, and made my way to the front, near a guard fence they had placed there. After waiting around 20 minutes, a man came along and gave us all Mansell helmet pin badges, worth £10 each. Then Nigel came down and signed everyones programme, he was wearing a cap and didnt mind spending 15 minutes or so with us, but had to leave to do another task.

[5319]

I personally have never seen a formula1 driver but had a great chance to see Mika Hakkinen when he was in Moscow in 1999.The problem was that I knew that he was in the city when he had already left

But I know a person who had a great F-1 experience.
My older brother owns a formula-1 site,nothing speacial.Actually it's a Russian version of atlasf1.
It is not his way of earning money.To my mind, he just does it for fun.But ,as it turned out,quite successfully.

Now he has lots of friends,whoes lives are very close to F-1.And somehow he got an invitation to Ferrari box last year on Belgium GP (not very good option for Schumacher fan,concidering last year's result).But my ediotic brother didn't go there!Instead his friend (another owner of the web-site) went there.My bro refused to give me a clear explanation for this phenomenon.

Anyway,whether it is my bro or his friend,it doesn't matter either for you or for me;)
The problem is that this so called brother's friend had not much to say.At least I expected more from the person who had such unbelievable,to my mind,experience.

He was definitely impressed.But,as I have already mentioned,wasn't free to speak about it.He said that Jean Todt was the champion in giving autographs,while Schumacher sighned only two caps,which I didn't get of course :mad:He gave me only with Todt's signature.

ABout Schuamcher he said that he was the same as I we see him on the podium in front of cameras: very funny

That's all

[Darren Galpin]

I managed to have a good chat with Ian Ashley a couple of years ago, and wrote an article as a result for the 8W page (http://www.racer.dem.../8w/ashley.html. He couldn't have been more helpful.

[Gemini]

I met Mika and DC on West promo event. The were really nice to everybody and presented patience answering some stupid questions of local jurnos (sort of: how does it feel to be travelling at 330kph). I got my GP programs signed

[magic]

in '91 a nobody lotus driver was in amsterdam to open a lotus-stuff-only-shop, 200 metres from the studio where i lived.

why bother, i thought, and got on with my life.

too bad i missed the opportunity to meet what turned out to be 2xwdc mh, i always wanted to ask him how it feels how to travel at 330 kmph.

[ray b]

in 84 at the time of first miami GP A EX-ats
DRIVER WAS IN MY LOCAL bar !!!!
the TALL THIN latin was in town to drive
in the GTP lites under 3.0 class for an italian
team.he stayed in town and hung at the bar
after the race for two weeks. we called him pete
as we couldnot pronounce his name
pete spoke of sennia as unrealy fast but
thought alan prost was god himself.
sadly pete died in crash later that year.
anyone know his real name????

[JJ]

He was not F-1 driver, but I Believed that he was on his way to be one...If he had lived...

I saw Greg Moore at the 1998 Vancouver Molson Indy.
It was at the local restaurant in Vancouver downtown, he was there. Having a lunch with whom seem to be his girlfriend, yet he didn't mind signing a few autographs with his fans.

I approached him as I was passing by and said in a loud voice:
"Zarnardi really sucks, eh?"

Then he had a big smile on his face and gave me a thumbs up...
and said "Oh Yeah~~~"


I miss #99.

RIP Greg.

[BT 44]

I've met Nelson Piquet once, by the Sao Paulo Auto Show, we shook hands, he smiled, tap me on the back and move on.
A guy that works with me had the same personnal trainner as Barichello (he was a ferrari driver already). They were at the same runnig event at Parque do Ibirapuera (our Central Park), and the personnal trainner introduced them. At the end of the race, Rubens came chat to my friend, still remembering his name. That shows that the guy is a nice normal chap, not full of himself.
Ayrton Senna studied at the same high school that i did. He was 5 years ahead, so i never met him.

Best regards

BT

[P1 Pyrsol]

Great thread.

In Indianapolis last September I bumped into Frentzen while strolling downtown on Friday night. There were a lot of people on the streets that night, and Frentzen was just walking alone like a tourist.

I stopped, and greeted him in German, though my German is extremely limited. We then had a quiet conversation about the upcoming weekend, and I asked him about his expectations. He felt that although the year was going very poorly he was hoping for a good result as there had been a few new bits added to improve the car.

I wished him well and headed into the pub. As I walked off I turned round to have another look and he was just standing there staring after me in amazement. I wonder how many people talk to him (or any celebrity) without asking for an autograph.

I have never been interested in obtaining autographs, as it does not make me feel any closer to anyone or anything. I did, however, retain my ticket and every time I see it I recall that wonderful weekend. I understand autographs can do the same.

[magic]

i also met two would-be f1 drivers.

the german f3 & formula nippon champ tom coronel took me round the damp zandvoort circuit, side-ways, on a saab fleetowners day.
every turn we approached he pulled the handbrakes, forcing the sluggish frontwheeldriven 95 car into a 180 degree spin, as it seemed, only to power away drifting.

when i mussled myself into his car for the second time later that day , he drove very diff, as in 'normal' or 'slow'.
he was told by the saab-people to take it easy, a seemingly unstable and badhandling car made bad publicity.

the other would be f1 driver was donny crevels, former karting wdc and italian f3 champ.
i once asked him to set a time in my kart on his father's track.
i never got closer than 2 secs of his best.
nothic magic.

[george baird]

Met DC in Edinburgh 96 and asked him, if he was DH should he take out JV in Portugal the next race as DH was leaving at the end of the season his reply was "I would race him fair and square" not the answer I was wanting to hear.

[magic]

that maybe explains why dc still isn't a wdc.

[Frank Grimes]

I never met a driver, but I talked to some to mechanics from Jordan and Benneton (Montreal '97). They had come into the Hotel's lounge around 9pm on Saturday night. They methodically worked through 1 beer and a couple of cigs (not quite as quick a pit stop, but close!), chatted with me and my friends, and went up to their rooms. Cool Folks.

[RedFever]

so Magic is thanks to you that Lauda won the 1984 title.......;)

[magic]

yep, just like that brasilian i met in '85.

[magic]

btw redf. i'm kind of jalouse of you meeting el lole.
he was my big hero in '79, too bad the lotus was in decline when he stepped in.
i don't recall much of meeting him, only that i, after waiting a few minutes partycrashed his conversation with a few other drivers behind the pits.

from '79 up untill '85 i always managed to sneak into the pits.
in those days it was do-able to get in and stay there.

my bluffing guide:

zandvoort innercircuit consisted of dunes and some private gardens on which the locals grew vegatables.
one time i took a hike with some old zandvoortfolks, got through the gates and was in.
i slept under the bushes in a small tent.
then i got my wake-up call at 5 o'clock in the morning, security.
they gave me a lap of honour on the track and kicked me out. i went back later, climbing through a hole in the fence and went up on a tv-cameratower to shoot some pix. too bad i couldn't afford a zoomlens those days..

another trick; i knew an oca-guy, tracksafety, who always stood, year after year, in front of nelson piquet's brabham pit.
he looked the other way a few times.

another year i just walked in side by side with a then famous jap photographer, akura mase, chatting all the way.
he was carrying loads of huge white lenses and i complimented him on his still great book "great drivers".
he was surprised and kind of flattered, and all the while all gates opened.
thank god he only asked who the hell i was when we were in, i confessed i was just a clown happy to be in thanx to him.

the other times i just got in there early or walked in with some vips.
always acting i belonged there, in the worst case just starting a conversation with drivers, like niki.
giving him those vital tips.

one time bernie himself asking me to show my pitpass and unfortunately the little rat couldn't resist to force me out himself.

[911]

I've had numerous conversations w/ Emerson Fittipaldi. I used to work in the same shopping gallery where his Hugo Boss store was located (Bal Harbour, Florida). Very nice person. We'd talk for at least 10 minutes a session about F1 & CART. I think he appreciated the fact that I could actually converse with him about both series (not the typical generic American question/topic, "what's it like going 200?"). I once asked him (1993) who thought of the gamble for his victory in Portland (changing conditions from wet to dry). He gave me a thorough explanation (about 5-6 minutes). I was really impressed with the fact that he took the time to explain the whole situation.

He drove a nice silver Mercedes, too. Everytime I saw it in the parking lot I would go to his store to have a few words with him. In the fall of '94, I asked him what Christian was going to do for the following season. He told me Christian was coming to CART, but it wouldn't be announced for a few more weeks.

Besides Emmo, I've met David Hobbs, JJ Lehto and had a phone conversation with Vic Elford. As I was talking to Vic, it turned out that we used to live in the same housing complex in Miami Lakes! Small world.

911

[Elspeth]

Former F-1 drivers who went to CART: Mark Blundell, Mauricio Gugelmin, Roberto Moreno, Christian Fittipaldi, Alessandro Zanardi.

Met Derek Bell when I went to the 1999 GP in Montreal.

Met Dan Gurney at Long Beach CART race a few years ago.

When I was in high school met Richie Ginther in the local ice cream shop as we lived in the same town.

[JB]

I met Jacques Villeneuve at the Miami GP back in '95.He signed a few autographs but wasn't very talkative. It was the first and only race I've ever been to so far and he ended up winning it so I was very happy.

[Juliane]

I met Zanardi and Vasser in the paddock area at the Cleveland race. They were sitting at a table near the Target motorhome and we just chatted about qualifying. Then Zanardi grabbed one of their publicity photos and drew a silly face on Jimmy, then Jimmy grabbed it and defaced Zanardi, they both signed it and gave it to me...I still haven't framed it yet, but it's really funny.

I've also talked to Pruett a couple of times. Very intelligent guy. Moore also was incredibly nice - I ran into him after he'd crashed out at Cleveland. I just told him I'd been rooting for him and he'd win the next one. He was very gracious and thanked me. On another occasion he had an in-depth discussion with my fiance about the lack of good beer in the US (served too cold here).

[Ricardo F1]

On a couple of occasions I've had the pleasure of meeting Hakkinen and Coulthard. The first was a Make-A-Wish Foundation go-karting day at Bracknell. McLaren being local boys entered a team of MH, DC, RD and Jonathan Palmer and they were immensely friendly all day to anyone who wished to talk to them or ask them questions.

My second meeting happened in Japan last year. I was asked by the M.D. of the Ayrton Senna Foundation to the opening night of Cirque Du Soleil in Tokyo as guests of the founder, and lo and behold Mr Coulthard came and sat in front of us. We attended the after show party where he was extremely open and happy to chat - especially with lots of Japanese people around who he couldn't communicate with! Ended up talking for two hours with him, a very level headed and nice bloke.

[Zawed]

Paul Radisich (who, I hear you ask? a Kiwi touring car driver, drove for Ford in BTCC, Bathurst, Touring Car champion 1994/95) came into the lunchbar where I was working, I sold him a meat pie!! Wished him luck for the forthcoming season.

[Goofy]

Last year at the US GP I saw and chatted for a minute with Frentzen, Coulthard and Heidi; Ralph Schumacher and Gerhard Berger... I saw and was ignored by Michael Shumacher and Bernie Eclestone... and I smoked a cigarrete with Flavio Briatore...

The US GP is the best place to have a chat with these guys cause not many guys in the US know them so they stroll around downtown very freely and not with a bucnh of followers behind them. That makes them a little more accesible. It was quite an experience!!

Cheers,
Goof

[markzed]

P1,
Great story.
That sounds like me - sometimes an autograph beckons but I end up just chatting (did that with Jimmy Barnes at the Paralympics in Sydney).

At Melbourne, Marc Gene walked out of the pit area so I grabbed the opportunity to shake hands and wish him well. Short and sweet.

I had a good chat with Dick Johnson at a motor show a few years back. Ford was going through a winless period and we talked hopefully about 'after the drought comes the flood'. Sure enough he picked up a few Australian Touring Car Championships after that year. He's a nice chap.

[100cc]

any questions for nick and kimi?? I'm leaving in an hour.

[dooly]

I've never met one, but seen them out and about.

Last year's Australian GP, walked past Mika Salo on streets of Melbourne with his wife. Went to a restaurant and saw Rubens and Ralf there.

This year, went back to same restaurant and saw Jenson Button and Mark Skaife (V8 Super Cars) - they were not together but both sitting in same area as us.

On every occasion it was a social but private time, so we left them all alone.

[jma57944]

In 1990 in Montreal after Saturday's qualifying I'm walking out of the track very slowly as always on the bridge to the subway, when lo and behold to my immediate left there's Senna in the passenger seat of a Legend!!!! It struck me how small he looked. In his own language I wished him good luck for Sunday's race and he answered: "vou fazer o melhor", I'll do my best, he did, he had gotten pole and he won on Sunday. A few moments later other people on the bridge recognized who he was and it all became a short but happy mob scene.
Also in Montreal I came across Alesi having dinner with friends in the midst of a sea of Ferraris, didn't bother the man while eating. On another occasion I literally bumped on to Frentzen, sightseeing it seemed.
A couple of years back two of our group went to a different restaurant and ended having dinner with MS. Even though none of us are MS fans I must say that he was nothing but a gentleman to my friends. We may not always agree with his on track performances but will have dinner with him anytime.

[chester316]

I met Jacques and Danni Here here in Montreal about a year ago at a local Restaurant, they were really nice and talked to us for about five minutes, I never did ask him for an autograph though.

[BT 44]

Great, great, great post.

[jonpollak]

Nope...I ain't touchin this one

Great Topic though...
Thanks 100cc

Jp

[HAVG]

I met JPM while he was shooting some commercials for his Colombian sponsors back in 1999.

The session lasted for about 4 - 5 hours, so everybody had a real chance to talk and spend time with him.

The guy was really fan-friendly (specially to women ;) ), he took pictures and signed autographs all around; some young women even took pictures using his Target TCGR suit; even I took a picture with him (never been the picture-autograph kind of person), obviously without his suit, because of a little height - weight difference between the two of us.

About JPM been arrogant or cocky, I must tell that at the beginning of the session the guy was OK, we spend some time talking about subjects different from auto racing and actually got along well (maybe I'm as cocky as he is ),but after 4 ours of shooting, of repeating scenes over and over, he started to get tired and became less fan friendly, not in a bad way, but in an exhausted way.

At the end of the session, he was leaving and some people arrived, they wanted him to stay for a while but he left on a hurry; for the people who arrived at the end he was an arrogant young man, for us, which have been with the guy for a while, he was just a regular guy, who got tired and leave.

[Ray Bell]

Love Magic's 'bluffing guide'... I've tried and succeeded with most of those ploys at some time or other, too, but not in such exalted company.

Getting chucked out by Bernie must be the ultimate feather in the cap of a bluffer!

[thegreatone]

Once,when in Dublin my favorite Pub( The Wicked Wolf) was packed and I decided to go across the street to another pub ( I even don't remember the name). the Pub was less crowded but there were no seats empties so after a while I was able to grab a small bench and then sit down at somebody's table. Nothing special, but this "somebody" was Damon Hill ( Reigning WDC) I don't know how many people didn't realize he was there or if thas was normal in that pub ( I went there for three weeks in arow, but it was a kind of boring pub) but an italian friend of mine and my self were the two only guys who bother him.....Then I was able to spent more than three hours sitting and chatting with him.

[yucca]

I met MH in Helsinki talking in his cellphone inside black mercedes with a register plate that said FOR-1.
I was accompanied by two of my friends and we waited 'till he finished his call. He did and we had a short chat. He was polite and casual. This happened week before suzuka GP in1998 and he was genuinly glad to hear that we were going to wake up in the night to watch the GP and cheer for him. Nice guy.

[Cosworth]

100cc, ask Nicky and Kimi if they are using traction control!

[lulup]

I met RS in Macau 95 race.after he won the first leg of F3 race.
Unfortunly my english was not good enough,so I just asked him a simple question and got his signature.
And a month later,I met MS too,but It just a PR event,so nothing special.

[KinetiK]

I attended the Fontana CART race last year and was fortunate enough to talk with David Coulthard in the paddock area. He was with girlfriend in tow then, I was surprised that he even stopped for a quick word and hand shake.

And, btw, his hands are very very weathered and his handshake is quite strong as one would expect having to fight these cars all the time....

Met JPM there as well, he was no where near as friendly as DC.

During a CART radio network beer thing during the preweekend festivities Bobby Rahal showed up and spent several hours chatting with us and with the radio guys. My friend even beat Bobby in a head to head CART video game (I got it all on video as well !!! whoo hoo!)

[moody]

...at Silverstone in 71, I managed to get Siffert, Graham Hill, Reine Wisell, Ronnie Peterson and Clay Regazzoni autographs when you could still get so close to them in the paddock on the Thursday practice day, just a rope between me and that Ferrari he had put on pole so late the following day. No driver could touch Jackie in the race though. Cevert and Ken Tyrrell and another man I never recognised were in the cafe during the morning but I never had the nerve to disturb them for a signature.
Macau 76 I was at a gathering at Teddy Yip's with my sister who was working for sponsors at that time. I met Riccardo Patrese and Dan Gurney which was a huge thrill, I asked to shake Dan Gurney's hand and he obliged, also asking my name, and then to my horror he held onto my hand and started asking me about myself, I was trying to get away I was so over awed, but I quickly calmed myself and had about five minutes with him, I must have asked him 100 questions, he was a very nice man, he was part of the grid that had captured my imagination in 1962 and I am still a huge fan of Formula one now. Alan Jones was there that evening and Dave Purley, I can't remember if Vern Schuppan was there but I met him during the weekend too.
Oh also,.....at the racing car show at Earls Court in 1964 my dad picked me up stepped up onto this stage like thing and plonked me in Jim Clark's Championship winning Lotus, so cool, memories are wonderful sometimes because that moment is so vivid to me. I was 10 years old then. Man was I hooked after that,,? Five years ago my wife and I went to Donnington Museum (tis great).. and a Lotus like it was there, I was wondering if it had been the same one. and Gurneys 62 Porsche was there too, it is a great place to visit.
...take care
moody

[magic]

i almost forgot the marlboromasters '95.
right after the race i stood next to the second finisher ralf.
i recall i really wanted to dislike him, because of his brother, but then realised how unreasonable and stupid it was, so i congratulated him.
still i was happy that ralf, of whom ms used to say those days that he was even quicker than himself, was a non-winner.
the winner, who also beat ralf in german f3, proved to be not the next senna. he proved to be the next moreno.

my last major f1-gig in zandvoort was in '97, when i had laid my hands on a press-pass!!!!!!
the only thing i remember of the pressconference was a very small bored creature in a too big suit running in and out, shielded by his pressofficer.
still the pass enabled me to stand 3 metres from jv and hhf burning rubber (STANDING STARTS) to amuse the 50.000 fans who were there to witness the rothmans-day.

[merlyn6]

I met Phil Hill, Denny Hulme, Dan Gurney, Jack Brabham, and several lesser drivers at a small private party. They were all very polite, and easy to talk to. I also have met Sterling Moss on several occasions, and he was not that friendly. Brian Redman, and Howden Ganly have been the most fun to be around. Brian, especially, is a regular guy, not at all taken with himself.

[borsari]

I've had a quite a few encounters with F/1 drivers, actually more than just a couple. Since I lived in Long Beach for a while in the early years when security wasn't very tight, it wasn't too hard to get up close some of the drivers.
One year, I was in a station wagon with Ermanno Cuoghi, who was head Alfa mechanic and as we were cruising into the F/1 garage, we ran into Mario who jumped in with us. There were some Italian journalists and they were all talking like crazy in Italian and Mario turned around to me and said in English, "We'll get you into the garage in a little while. We have to drive over to my hotel to pick up my driver's license." I thought that was very considerate of him because he didn't have to speak at all to me.
I have talked to Dan Gurney several times, what a nice guy he is! He even called me up once to ask me about some race info I had. Back in the late 60's I was even a sneak-into-the pits crew member at the Las Vegas Can-Am race. I stayed in a hotel with the guy who was running the Eagle Club. I've seen Dan at most west coast venues. Things were so much more lax in those days.
At Riverside in the fall of 1968 at a Can Am race, I ran into Moss. He took a few moments to chat and to give a greeting to the guys in Viet Nam via the portable tape recorder I had with me. I have seen him at Monterey several times, and he sometimes is pleasant, sometimes in a hurry to be somewhere else. Can't say I blame him. He's always at the center of attention.
Riverside was a place that was easy to get to the drivers during the Can Am days. I ran into lots of famous drivers. Back in the 80's just before it closed, I tried to talk Bobby Rahal into stop smoking. Also saw lot's of USAC/CART drivers. Two years ago I had a talk with Adrian Fernandez, buen hombre! It's fairly easy at CART races as you can buy a paddock pass.
Not race drivers, but mechanics: I know quite a few of the Ferrari F/1 "ragazzi'. Back in the Long Beach days we used to go out for dinner and sometimes I showed some of them the ‘hot' spots of the Beach.
I went to a Ferrari test session at Fiorano in 1981 where Gilles was supposed to test. I was hung over from the night before at Ferrari's secretary's house where we killed several liters of the local "Dago Red". Gilles came in with Picinnini from Monte Carlo in his chopper. He did a few crowd pleasing tricks in the air before landing. Mucho impressive as the chopper landed about 20 feet from me. I had not a scintilla of fear, I was so in awe of his capabilities. I knew he wouldn't hit me!
We were right with him in the pit. I wish I would have had the guts to talk to him because we were the only ones there who spoke English. I was in the Ferrari garage right after the 1979 LBGP where he one and shook hands with him.

But if this is a can-you-top-this thread, here's my last one . . . I had a glass of wine with Enzo in his house in Fiorano! Highlight of my life.

[RedFever]

Magic -

I take it it was Zandovoort the place you used to sneak in?

El Lole: I met him, as I mentioned in Rio de Janeiro, when he drove for Ferrari during the GP weekend. He drove a great race and deservedly won. Gilles had his second Peterson meeting and it ended only slightly better than the first one.......

Lole was a nice guy, very reserved, well mannered, he almost looked out of place in an F1 paddock without his racing suit on. I managed to talk to him maybe 4 times during those three days. Only once I spent almost 20 minutes with him, there was me, my dad, a couple of Italian journalists, little chat, I had a chance to ask my 15 year old questions and he was very patient and answered. He would smile but rarely laughed, maybe he was shy, maybe just reserved. He was never my hero but I liked him a lot. However, I already had the gilles virus in me and it would soon spread out of control. I loved watching Gilles in the pit. He was shorter than I was and I was 15. He would almsot desappear in the cockpit, but when he was leaving the pits, he would never just drive away, he had to make sure he would leave burnt rubber on the surface. I knew he was nuts and talented the first time I saw him driving on Friday. By mid-season, he was my hero.