Webber off to Sports Car-land Mates!

As has been widely speculated for some time now, ‘Aussie Grand Primo Piloto Mark Webber has announced his intentions to walk away from Formula 1 at the end of this season, as I cannot help but presume TWINKIE BOYZ (Seb Vettel) ANTICS in Malaysia tipped the scales, eh? Leaving one of the coveted Red Bull F1 Racing seats vacant for 2014 as the soon-to-be37-year old Webber will instead turn his attention to his next racing chapter as a Porsche “Factory” driver for its 2014 return to Sports Car racing with its new LMP1 project.

Webber Made Porsche decision a longtime ago

Obviously the speculation now shifts towards whether or not thee original ‘Iceman, nee Kimi Raikkonen will move to Red Bull or not, while thy ‘Kimster in his typical coolness has said “Leave Me Alone, I haven’t made a Decision Yet!” Although you’d have to surmise it’s a foregone conclusion, right?

Raikkonen: The Decision will not bean Easy one

Thus, if Kimi leaves, which I’d expect him to, this would potentially elevate the oft-maligned Romain Grosjean to team leader at Lotus F1; WTF? As I’m hard pressed at the moment to guess who’d fill the vacant Lotus seat? As it seems that Red bull has too many drivers on its books - as I’d personally like to see Daniel Ricciardo or Juels Bianchi move there, albeit I cannot see Lotus becoming all French unless Renault wishes so?

And perhaps the not-so momentarily Incredible Hulk, aka Nico Hulkenberg is salivating at jumping from the flagging Sauber F1 Team? Or would Force India’s Paul di Resta make the switch as he’s currently having a tough time with his current employer? Whilst I’d also surmise the long shot possibilities of young Up ‘N comers Robin Frijns,Antonio Felix da Costa or even Alexander Rossi? While I just don’t see the seat going to current “Simulator Jockey” Jerome d'Ambrosio.

As unfortunately, Grosjean has only made one list of late, being the basis for the feature rant Top-10 F1 Bad boys, Y’all know; Bad Boyz, Bad Boyz what’s Yuh gonna do? Although the names of Rene Arnoux, Carlos Reutmann, Didier Pironi, Gerhard Berger and Fernando Alonso come to mind also for Mwah...

Top-10 F1 Bad Boys

Other Personnel Changes...

And while the F1 Driver market will now definitely heat up, Speed’s (remember them? As they’ll be GONE in less than 2mos) Marshall Pruett gives us the skinny on some behind the scenes personnel changes in the IndyCar paddock...

INDYCAR: Engineering Changescontinue

Sir Frank adds another “Franklin” to his collection...

While A-L-L of the media - including us wanna be Cut ‘N Paste “Newsmakers,” clever how I skipped the word ‘Journo right Messer Saward; Hya! Will be Ablowin’ over the “shock” announcement of Mark Webber’s decision to leave Red Bull, I’ve yet to see anything substantive upon Team Willy cracking the 600 barrier this Sunday at Bloody Silverstone, as it doesn’t seem that long ago that I scribbled somme-thun ‘bout Williams Grand Prix Engineering making its 500^th Grand Prix start...

Williams Hits 500

As according to Grizzled ‘Journo Joe Saward, the team will pay homage to Lady Ginny along with running a special 600^th tribute scheme celebrating all 691 current  employees - and here I thought there was some sorta  resources restriction, eh? (RRA)

Looking Back for a Moment

Way to GO Team Willy!

Do Car Numbers really matter?

1990 Alan Kulwicki 7 - STOCK CAR RacersReunion. (Source: stockcar.racersreunion.com)

Awhile ago, ‘Whale Otay, apparently it was several years ago, as Holy Black Holes Batman! Alas, I was surfing le internetz as always in pursuit of the next superlative No Fenders ‘BLOB story... When I came across a poll taken upon whether or not Gran Primo Piloto’s should be allowed to keep their preferred car number instead of having it dictated by the finishing order of the participating F1 Constructors from the previous season...

Formula 1 Car Numbers

As the topic isn’t new, as I know I’ve read similar topics on Oil Pressure along with having touched upon numerology myself from time-2-time...

Thus, I came across this long lost linkage casting adrift in the No Fenders Wormhole Vortex when looking for ‘Somme-thun riveting to post upon Ye ‘BLOB thingy in order to be able to try catching up upon the hours ‘N hours of television waiting in thy queue after returning from Oregon - whilst your humble scribe tries poondin’ away upon the keyboard without my stubby ‘lil nucel’s getting’ in duh ways - as my brain seems to be in ADHD mode upon trying to decide what story to tackle first?

AnyHoo, two current thought bubbles occurred from finding this long lost gem. One, obviously Indy Cars most recent winner, thee Mayor ‘O Hinchtown, aka James Hinchcliffe or simply ‘Hinch, who’s having truly a breakout season, now having won his third race this year, car number is in homage to the late, great ‘Kuhnaidiun driver Gilles Villeneuve, eh? As I’m not sure, but seem to think that son Jacques also ran I-T in CART?

As ‘Hinch’s current form makes me think of another (CART) racing driver who ultimately won an IndyCar championship after his immortal Spin ‘N Win victory at Mother Speedway! As ‘Ol Hollywood, nee Danny Sullivan scored an impressive three wins in his formative days as a Doug Shierson racing driver whilst piloting the Domino’s pizza-mobile...

The second tiny thought bubble, did somebody say tiny Bubbles? Oh Never Mind! As although he’s definitely NOT my first choice for IndyCar champion, nevertheless you’ve gotta be impressed by the job current Champ’ Ryan  Hunter-Reay’s doing, right?

As I’m guessing that he could become the first defending champion running the exalted No. 1 on his racecar to win consecutive titles since Rick Mears did so back in the early 1980’s?

As I can only think of the last two consecutive title winners being Sam ‘I AM Hornish, Jr. (2001-02) and El Zorro, nee Alex Zanardi; (1997-98) who both ironically ran the No. 4, albeit not sure ‘bout Zanardi’s ’98 campaign, while Hornish kept the No. 4 plate in deference to Panther Racing’s co-owner Jimmy ‘WHAH!  Harbaugh’s NFL jersey number...

OOPS! May be Gil de Ferran actually won consecutive Vanderbilt Cups for The Captain (Roger Penske) wearing the No. 1 plate between 2000-01?

And for reasons unknown, whilst trying to find a decent image of Hinch’s No. 27 the number seven of the late, great Alan Kulwicki popped into mind - as I suppose IndyCar could have the best of both worlds by having drivers keep their respective chosen numbers with the ability to run the Numero Uno plate before reverting back to said number?

Alan Kulwicki: Doing It His Way

And BTW Randall, thy Moniker King; NO! I was an H-U-G-E FAN of the No. 7 ‘Wayback in the Kulwicki Days long before Queen Danicker came along! As who couldn’t be a fan of somebody who did Polish victory laps, eh? Although I suppose Danica’s better looking, right? Hya!

Tragedy Strikes this Year’s Le Mans race

Heard about this Sunday evening on Wind Tunnel, as I was away from Zed ‘Telie all weekend long - as 34-year old Danish Tin-top racer Allan Simonsen’s Aston Martin GTE Vantage slammed head first into the barriers at Circuit de la Sarthe’s famous Tertre Rouge corner - which cost the ‘Dane his life only some ten minutes into the race...

Tragedy Mars the 24hrs Le Mans race

LE MANS: Time for the running of the 81st Classic this weekend

‘Ol School ’98 Viper GTSR at Le Mans. (Source: motortrend.com)

It’s that time again, already! As hopefully I’ll be back “Justin-time” to catch I-T “live” on thee ‘Telie? As I’ll be returning from another very enjoyable outing to the Sand Dunes in Florence, Oregon and hence, in what has become a common practice, hopefully I’ve “Back-timed” this correctly to land upon your virtual Doorsteps before the great race begins, which I believe will be aired upon the soon departing SPEED channel, so check your local listings for more info on that...

As it’ll be another Audi v Toyota scrum for top honours, with the LMP2 category hosting the most competitors while I’m hoping that the Dodge Viper will be successful in its return.

And according to Grizzled ‘Journo Joe Saward, once again there will be a bevy ‘O ex-Formula 1 Boyz in the show, with the likes of the following;

Joe Saward:

Preparations for Le Mans are in full swing with a swathe of former (and hopeful) F1 drivers lining up for this year’s event, which will be held on June 22-23.

The entry includes Audi Sport Team Joest’s Allan McNish, Marc Gené and Lucas di Grassi; Toyota Racing’s running Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi; while Rebellion Racing has a Lola-Toyota with Nick Heidfeld as one of its drivers. In LMP2 one can find the likes of Shinji Nakano and Karun Chandhok while in GTs there is Jan Magnussen, Olivier Beretta, Kamui Kobayashi, Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, Pedro Lamy and Bruno Senna.

2013 24 Heurs du Mans Entry list

Gascoyne Sets Sail

 ’Psyche! Actually Caterham’s Chief Technology Officer isn’t going anywhere specifically other than now setting sail upon his ambitions to go sailing around the world aboard his own sailing yacht, which I’m ARSE-sumin’ he’s involved in its design, which makes me think of when supposedly Adrian Newey was going to quit F1 in order to design America’s Cup racing class sailboats instead...

Gascoyne enters Ocean Racing world

‘Razzle-Dassel Seeking another Class win

Ex-Champ Car driver and Bonafied Sports Car Ace Ryan “Razzle-Dazzle” Dalziel will once again attack le Circuit de la Sarthe June 22-23 in his bid to add another victory to his dossier of Sports Car wins, this time attempting to capture the LMGTE Pro category aboard the No. 51 Dodge Viper GTSR with co-drivers Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goosens as part of Dodge’s two car assault upon Le Mans...

Ryan Dalziel looking for repeat class win in Le Mans

Caterham goes Sports Car racing...

Sorta, as while the ever expanding empire of Caterham Cars continues to grow with their debutant assault upon the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, this year’s entry is simply a branding exercise, as their colours will be applied to the No. 41 Greaves Motorsport LMP2 entry, albeit Caterham F1 test/reserve and GP2 team driver Alexander Rossi will be behind the wheel when making his inaugural outing at Le Mans this weekend...

GOOD LUCK ALEXANDER!

Caterham to enter Le Mans 24hrs

Dodge Viper Boss goes on the Record

Although this is a ‘Wee bit late, nevertheless, I thought I’d throw it out there since after all the iconic Dodge Viper is  set to make its Circuit de la Sarthe comeback this June 22-23 at Le Mans when contesting the LMGTE Pro class...

Interview with SRT’s Ralph Gilles

A Somewhat Intra-squad ‘Scrum

One past French racing name is returning to Le Mans  while a somewhat arch-rival Malaysian concern will be making its debut this year, as the names of Alpine and Caterham will do battle in the LMP2 category, having already noted Caterham’s entry, their “rival” Alpine competitor will be running under the auspices of Signatech with one of ‘R’s (Robin Miller) favourite past Champ Cars drivers who he nicknamed “Christian Comedy,” aka Tristan Gommendy having been named as the team’s third driver for Le Mans..

As the Alpine brand name has been resurrected by the Renault Car Company, with Caterham jointly developing a new car for production by the two brands in 2016... As who’ll get the upper hand in this year’s competition? Stay tuned!

Renault taking Alpine EnduranceRacing, enters 2013 Lemans

Caterham unveils Driver Academy program

Although not overly original, as most of the top Formula 1 teams have had some sort of aspiring race drivers apprentice program in place  over the years, nevertheless, I suppose this could be construed as Caterham attempting to take the necessary steps to join F1’s elite Constructors in its quest to move up the ranks and hopefully will propel Alexander Rossi into a Formula 1 seat fulltime in the near future...

Caterham launches Driver Academy program for aspiring drivers

INDY 500: Legends Day Doce, Autograph session 2012 - The Sequel...

2011 Centennial Program magazine signed back with eleven signatures...

This year’s session ultimately was far more entertaining than the previous years - Thanxs solely to the virtual “NO NAMES” Drivers being so outgoing, energetic and willing to interact with Mwah, as I still marvel over how AWESOME Adrian Fernandez & Didier Theys were, (1yr later) while Billy Roe will forever be ingrained in my memory for asking a blind person: “How Many Fingers am I holding UP?” Which was absolutely priceless?

This year’s B-I-G GAME Hunting included three solo winners at the Speedway, before we schmoozed our way down a veritable ‘Congo-line of some eleven diverse drivers, who were far more engaging than the overly stuffy ‘Brackster and Super Mario who’s been doing this for how many years of his life now?

Although to his credit, as Donald Davidson pointed out afterwards; Mario was advertised to only be staying for thirty minutes - but looking at the line said I better stay a little while longer and wound-up staying for 50mins before going to his next event, which was getting comfortable with the 1922 ‘Duezy (Duesenberg) he’d be piloting during Pre-race festivities.

Davidson noted how there were approximately 53-drivers attending and were surprised to get any winners, as the session I attended actually offered six split into two groupings of three, which after Mario left early, the remaining five: ‘Lone Star J.R., (Johnny Rutherford) the only three-time winner along with Kenny Brack, Gil de Ferran, Buddy Lazier and Tom Sneva all shook hands with each other afterwards...

Even more surprising was the advent of ‘gordie, aka Gordon Johncock showing up virtually at the last moment, as he needed to be credentialed race morning; as Davidson claims that ‘gordie is adverse to signing autographs and thus he very secretly corralled him into going to the museum and signing the John Andretti “Stinger” car - which reportedly John has taken to attempting to getting as many living drivers autographs upon I-T! (Think it goes to the Hall of Fame museo?) As Davidson snuck Gordon into ‘N out of the museum without anybody knowing, while Johncock was ready to go home after three laps of the race but his employees talked him into staying a little longer! (May be it was the H-E-A-T?)

And lastly, Donald said upon the 5/29 Trackside with Kevin & Cavin show that one of his most enjoyable moments was seeing twelve former winners taking pre-race Parade laps on the back of various convertibles and the corresponding ROAR of appreciation they each received from the crowd! As I’d like to get my ‘Mitts upon the photograph taken of the twelve drivers standing together at somewhere along IMS’s Pit lane.

And without further adu, I present my 2012 class of Autographees...

Mario Andretti

DOB: 2/28/40; USA

Age: 73

I500 Starts: 29

Best Finish: 1969 Indy 500 Winner

Years: 1965-94

Career Wins: 54 (2^nd Most Overall)

Fun Fact

Donald Davidson told a great ‘lil Yarn (story) about trying to hustle Mario over to the museum to let him check out the 1922 Duesenberg he’d drive the next morning, hustling him via a golf cart to an awaiting car, Davidson said as they passed “Millionaire’s Row” and came to a halt, a spectator recognized him and said aloud: Donald Davison You Are the Man! To which Davidson coolly replied “check My Driver...” As apparently NOBODY had noticed Mario Andretti playing chauffer!

The Andretti’s have the dubious distinction of  leading most laps in seven Indy 500’s and only winning once; with Mario having achieved this four times, son “Mikey” twice and grandson Marco once...

Tom Sneva

DOB: 6/1/48; USA

Age: 65

I500 Starts: 18

Best Finish: 1983 Indy 500 Winner

Years: 1974-90, 1992

Fun Fact

Sneva was the only one of the B-I-G three name Drivers who was having any fun that afternoon; resplendent in pink polo shirt Sneva was laughing, joking, smiling and just having an overall rip-roarin’ good time, while Brack was the sourpuss of the bunch, with Mario being steadfastly stoic the whole time, albeit ‘CARPETS said he saw him actually laugh once while we stood for some 30mins plus to get his John Hancock...

Johnny Parsons Jr.

DOB: 8/26/44; USA

Age: 68

I500 Starts: 12

Best Finish: 5^th (twice)

Years: 1974-80, 1982-83, 1985-86, 1996

Fun Fact

Parsons is the son of 1950 Indy 500 winner Johnny Parsons and the half-brother of Dana and Pancho Carter and was elected to the National Midget Hall of Fame in 1994...

Stephan Gregoire

DOB: 5/14/69; France

Age: 43

I500 Starts: 7

Best Finish: 8^th

Years: 1993, 1996-98, 2000-01, 2006

(Team Scandia Alumni)

Fun Fact

Guess it must be  an inside joke, but I’ve taken to calling him Steven George, due to his being a Carmel, Indiana resident along  with being one of the Indy Racing Experience’s 2X seater pilots...

Kenny Brack

DOB: 3/21/66; Sweden

Age: 47

I500 Starts: 6

Best Finish: 1999 Indy 500 Winner

Years: 1997-99, 2002-03, 2005

Fun Fact

NO word on whether or not Kenny & The Rockers - his band loosely employing the letters RPM in their name will be the Back up band for Brett Michael’s this year at Indy on Carb Day?

Buzz Calkins

DOB: 5/2/71; USA

Age: 42

I500 Starts: 6

Best Finish: 10^th

Years: 1996-2001

Fun Fact

Bradley “Buzz” Calkins won the Indy Racing League’s inaugural event at Walt Disney Speedway in Florida in 1996 - which would be his one and only win, while he also would be the series inaugural co-champion with Scott Sharp that season...

Adrian Fernandez

DOB: 4/20/65; Mexico

Age: 48

I500 Starts: 4

Best Finish: 7^th

Years: 1994-95, 2004-05

Fun Fact

Adrian is probably the most winning Mexicali Open Wheel Piloto in history? Although I suppose we could debate forever which is more noteworthy, winning a Formula 1 race or IndyCar event? Nevertheless, ‘YO ADRIAN won an impressive seven/eight? Times in CART along with a lone Champ Car win plus a further three victories in the IRL before switching over to thee ‘DARK side, i.e.; ‘RASSCAR Busch series and then ultimately Sports Cars, while Adrian is now apparently focusing upon being rising Mexican F1 star Sergio Perez’s manager...

Sergio in Good Hands

Didier Theys

DOB: 10/19/56; Belgium

Age: 56

I500 Starts: 3

Best Finish: 11^th

Years: 1989-90, 1993

Fun Fact

Theys subsequent Sports Car career largely overshadowed his Open Wheel Racing career for Mwah, albeit Didier won the 1986 Super Vee and 1987 American Racing Series (ARS) championships, as the ARS was the forbearer to today’s Indy Lights.

Yet I remember Theys fondly for driving those ultra BAD ARSE and super sharp looking Ferrari 333SP’s - most notably as part of the 1998 Rolex 24 winning MOMO entry shared with Arie Luyendyk, Mauro Baldi and the late Giampiero Moretti. As Theys also racked up victory at the 12hrs of Sebring that year chauffeuring the beautiful Ferrari Sports Prototype; with Theys going onto capture a second Rolex timepiece at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2002 alongside Baldi, Fredy Lienhard and “MAD MAX” Papis, this time aboard a Kevin Doran prepared Lista Dallara Judd, while also taking multiple Poles and finishing on the podium at Le Mans. And fittingly Theys holds the distinction of most (Professional) wins aboard a Ferrari 333SP! 

Phil Kruger

DOB: 6/22/51; USA

Age: 61

I500 Starts: 2

Best Finish: 8^th

Years: 1986, 1988

Fun Fact

Phil is probably best known for his mechanical expertise as a Chief Mechanic, having won the Clint Brawner Mechanical Excellence Award in 1988 for wrenching his two year old March-Cosworth into an eighth place finish as both its driver & chief mechanic at Indianapolis...

Billy Roe

DOB: 5/7/57; USA

Age: 56

I500 Starts: 2

Best Finish: 22^nd

Years: 1997-98

(Team Scandia Alumni)

Fun Fact

Not only is Billy a great practical joker, but a real gentleman too - as  he’s the only ex-IndyCar driver I’ve ever had honk at me  while passing in a golf cart which appropriately he was at the wheel of. Also apparently he’s somehow involved in electric vehicles, having become the first ever to lap IMS at over 100mph in the Brawner Hawk X11...

Electifying Racing

Denny Zimmerman

DOB: 12/14/40; USA

Age: 72

I500 Starts: 2

Best Finish: 8^th

Years: 1971-72

Honours: 1971 Indy 500 rookie Of the Year

Fun Fact

Pretty ironic that I got his autograph during the 40^th Anniversary of his final I500 start, since I’d definitely never heard of him before. Inducted into the New England‘s Auto Racers Hall of Fame in 2001...

Bill Alsup

DOB: 7/15/38; USA

Age: 74

I500 Starts: 1

Best Finish: 11^th

Year: 1981

Fun Fact

According to ‘WICKEDpedia, Alsup was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and actually tried qualifying three separate chassis for the ’79 Indy 500, which although his third try was successful aboard a Penske PC7-Cosworth DFX for Penske Racing, USAC officials DQ’ed him after claiming his engine was out of teammate Bobby Unser’s car. Allsup went onto become CART’s inaugural Rookie Of the Year...

Affonso Giaffone

DOB: 4/6/68; Brazil

Age: 55

I500 Starts: 1

Best Finish: 32^nd

Year: 1997

Entrant: Team Scandia

Fun Fact

This ex-IRL driver threw me for a total loop - and I was so puzzled by him that I ended up asking him what year he drove at indy? To which Affonso replied 1997... As hopefully this wasn’t an offensive questione to Messer Giaffone, eh?

(As unfortunately Affonso competed at the height of “the Split” and hence my having NO knowledge of this past Home team driver...)

Thus I was surprised to discover that not only is he a cousin to Felipe Giaffone, but also is a cousin-in-law to this year’s Rookie Of the Year ‘Rubino, nee Rubens Barrichello - while according to Donald Davidson his autograph was much sought after, whilst his ‘coz Felipe had fun during the weekend by standing at the entry door to the Hall of Fame museum and playing ticket taker for several minutes upon the totally unexpecting spectators who apparently didn’t recognize him...

Phil Giebler

DOB: 3/5/79; USA

Age: 34

I500 Starts: 1

Best Finish: 29^th

Year: 2007

Honours: 2007 Indy 500 rookie Of the Year

Fun Fact

I wasn’t aware that Phil had raced in International F3000 - the precursor to today’s GP2 series during the early ‘Ought’s, along with spending time as the pilot of Team USA’s A1 GP effort between 2005-07 before he graduated to the ‘B-I-G CARZ en route to winning the ’07 Rookie Of the Year honours at Indianapolis, where he beat out his fellow rookie competitor affectionately known as thee ‘Wanderin Milka, aka “Milkalicious,” nee Milka Duno, who finished P31...

And with 26 ‘John Hancock’s adorning both sides of my Centennial special program, I’d really like to manage to squeeze in seven more in order to make them number 33 - as I have NO idea who’ll be the 2013 lucky recipient’s. Just not sure if there’s enough room? (Nope! As I switched to the official 2011 Centennial program instead for 2013...)

Kudos to Dave ‘CARPETS O’Brien for shepparding me thru the various Autograph lines and telling me who each driver was!

Happy Portland Day!

Thank You Very Little IndyCar for taking away our beloved Portland race six years ago; as Father’s Day weekend will forever be indelibly linked with the now long forgotten annual Indy Cars passage at Portland International Raceway on Father’s Day weekend.

As I’m happy for Milwaukee, but a la the Sacramento Kings-Seattle Supersonics debacle; NOT at Portland’s expense!

As betcha Y’all never thought you’d be pining for an NBCSN IndyCar broadcast, eh? As I’m guessing it’ll be infinitely BETTER than that Prime Time Abomination ABC CRAPPED A-L-L OVER US last weekend, right?

Hey IndyCar, I think Portland’s Still Available!

Portland’s Centennial

Ode to Portland: Can it already be 5-Years GONE?

Jason Leffler

By now Y’all have heard of the unfortunate death of racing driver Jason Leffler who perished at the age of 37 during a Sprint Car race at Bridgeport Speedway, New Jersey on Wednesday June 12^th.

As I was unaware that the young Jason began cutting his teeth literally in the motor racing world at age 13 by working at Parnelli Jones shop in Torrance, CA - as Jones recently spoke of how he was considered family, having grown up with P.J. and Page en route to winning three consecutive USAC Midget championships from 1997-99, along with the Silver Crown title in ’98 before ultimately making the jump to thee DARK side, aka ‘RASSCAR where he amassed a staggering combined total of 423-starts in its top-three series, i.e.; Nationwide, Camping World Trucks and Sprint cup.

Leffler also made three Indy Racing League starts for Tredway Racing including the 2000 Indy 500 in a ride backed by Roger Penske’s United Auto Group.

Yet, the worst part of this tragedy is that Jason leaves behind a five-year old son named Charlie Dean who’ll now grow-up without a father...

Parnelli Jones Hit Hard by JasonLeffler’s Death

Dario, I Can’t Hear You Now...

Hmm? Where Art Thou Mr. Franchitti? Now that ‘HULIO’s been penalized for failing post-race inspection after winning at Texas...

I mean this time one year ago you were so vehemently screaming ‘bout Justin ‘B-I-G UNIT Wilson’s “Unfair Advantage” after winning the Texas IndyCar race that you quipped you were willing to cut off certain parts of your anatomy, which prompted me to scribble the following;

May be Ganassi should add Sawzall to its Sponsorship portfolio?

INDY 500: Legends Day Rocks!

Two-time Rolex 24 and 12hrs of Sebring winner Didier theys autographed IMS Centennial card...

For Mwah, one of the bestest thingys IMS has done recently has been the introduction of its Legends Day program with past Indy 500 competitors being invited to return to Mother Speedway for a very brief, but casual setting for fans ‘O Yesteryear to have a momentary chance to interact with past racing drivers! Which during my inaugural I500 outing in Twenty-oh-Nine there weren’t NOThIN’ going on at the Speedway on Saturday, as I’ ended up going out to lunch with ‘CARPETZ CREW to the local Union Jack’s where I got to talk smart ‘bout motor racing instead...

As I know I’ll probably be crucified for saying this, but the Legends Day autograph session is probably my favourite part of Indy, followed by Carb Day and the race taking the final step upon the podium!

And although I preferred it being “FREE,” nevertheless for Mwah, its totally worth the $10 admission price, (although I’m NOT impressed that the prices increase next year magically the same time that IMS begins taking in public funding...) as I’m really NOT after the autographs so much - with exceptions to ‘lil Stevie Johnson, (Stefan Johansson) ‘The Gasman (Tom Sneva) and thee ‘Brackster, nee Kenny Brack... NO! For me it’s the only chance I’ll ever get of meeting these past Hero’s in the flesh, and even better yet getting to crack some jokes with them plus witness their good natureness and willingness to interact with the public. Or even better yet when Adrian Fernandez and Didier Theys made me feel like I was Royalty! While Billy Roe was a priceless comedian, and like everybody in life, it just matters what type of mood Y’all catch somebody in, eh? As I was very pleased that this year Kenny Brack was in a good mood and even cracked jokes with me, as he seemed way more relaxed, even going so far to inquire to Derek Daly sitting besides him; what’s a ‘Chin-wag? Hee-hee-hee!

Thus Thanxs for letting me indulge upon the first two classes of autographs I collected during the 2011-12 sessions, as I haven’t even had a chance to ‘Poond away on this year’s class of FREAKIN’ EH RAY! Twenty-one participants; Aye Karumba! Since another really neat part of this exercise where I suppose it could appear I’m “Name Dropping,” is that by doing these reports I’ve gotten to learn a little bit more about said individuals!

As I’d say my only complaint is the lack of IMS publishing a listing of participants and which grouping they’ll be in prior to Saturday. As I understand how they may be hesitant in regards to announcing drivers that don’t show up, but it still seems like they could use that standard catch-all phrase: “subject to Change,” right? Since that way I could actually attempt getting some new John Hancock’s next year.

So a very B-I-G Thank You to EVERY driver who continues coming back yearly for this, along with any driver who’s turned out period! As my only wish now is that IMS will keep this tradition alive and somehow entice more of the past drivers to participate...

As is I-T just Mwah, or isn’t it funny how IMS was recycling the leftover Centennial cards a year later for the drivers to sign; Hmm? Perhaps another sign of the nebulous financial belt tightening Jeffrey “the Walrus” Belskus has implemented?

AnyHoo here goes the first two roster installments of what were two very enjoyable Legend Days outing which I’ve previously scribbled ‘bout in;

INDY 500: Reminiscing About the Centennial Race Weekend, Part 2

INDY 500: Revisiting the 2012 Race Weekend, Part 2