Quote:
Originally Posted by Poiseuille
A few years later having breakfast in one of the hotels near Pocono, it's a NASCAR race near the end of Patrick's professional career. Patrick is trying to get a bagel toaster to work with little success. So as I watch my wife walks up behind him and starts this animated conversation about the rubbish bagel toasters, Patrick chimes right in complete with Gallic hand and arm gestures. This goes on for about 10 minutes until Patrick goes back to the table where his wife and kid are and my wife comes over to where my son and I are. Patrick is a prince in my book. Poiseuille Jr says " hey mom, do you know who that is?" Of course she doesn't. So I go into the whole story about Patrick and Greg and Forsyth and CART and Lolas and how Tony George was a complete villain. Got quite long winded I did, and a little misty for those days. Still do, looks like.
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I miss those days too. With the split in the series, things have never been the same. Yes, there have been some good drivers come up through the IRL, but the feel has never been the same. The guys like the one we're honoring here, Greg Moore, just are not present in the IRL now. It could just be me though.
I regret I never had a chance to attend a race in person where Greg was racing. I did manage to attend a couple of races with some great CART drivers. Gil de Ferran is just a class act. At the Mid Ohio race, CART had set up a time slot where fans could meet the drivers and get autographs. At the end of the scheduled slot, people were being turned away from the various lines for other drivers. Gil on the other hand told the organizers (I was near him to hear him say this) to continue to let people cycle through as he'll talk and autograph every fan that wants to come through the line. That is a class act.
I also had another situation where I was walking through the pit area and stopped between two trailers along with a couple of other strangers. We both were staring at who we saw sitting on a bench talking to each other. The drivers were Kenny Brack and Max Papis. We looked at each other and debated whether to walk up to them. One of the guys decided to approach them and asked if they would be so kind to autograph some stuff. They both said sure without any attitude. Really nice guys.