¡MUCHO MONTERREY!

Como nuestro héroe Bart Simpson usualmente exclama “Ay Caramba!” Amen! Nueve Banderas amarillas, el Pace Car lidero mas vueltas que cualquier piloto, y ese resulto ser Nelson Philippe!! Nada paso mas allá de lo ordinario, pero solo el puro VOLUMEN de lo que todos tuvimos que hacer para pasar por esta carrera, hizo que escribiera en mi libreta de apuntes al finalizar “HIJA DE LA …….” Amen. Ustedes pueden preguntarle a Fritz, esto es verdad!

As our hero Bart Simpson often exclaims, “Ay Carumba!” Amen! Nine full course yellows, the pace car led more laps than any other single driver, and that happened to be Nelson Philippe!! Nothing was too far out of the ordinary, but just the sheer VOLUME of what we all had to do to get through this one made me write in big bold letters in my note book at the end of the race: “SONOFABITCH.” Amen. You can ask Fritz, it’s true!

De vez en cuando tenemos una de estas, pero usualmente suceden en los canijos circuitos callejeros. Me imagino que esto también debería de pasar. Espero que haya sido un buen show de TV, aunque todavía no he tenido tiempo de ver mi video de la carrera.

Every once in a while we have one of these, but they usually happen on mean-ass street courses. I guess this too shall pass. Hope it made a good TV show, but I haven’t paused yet to look at my copy…

Mis mas profundos pensamientos van nuevamente a otro esfuerzo maravilloso de OPM, nuestro grupo de oficiales Mexicanos, que todavía es el único grupo de oficiales que cubre DOS de nuestras carreras al año. Ellos siempre nos dan un gran apoyo y esta vez respondieron bien a pesar de todos los retos y las temperaturas de mas de 40° C. Los dramas del viernes regresaron otra vez, pero esta vez no fue la “Land Line”.

My utmost thanks goes out again to another sterling effort by OPM, our Mexico City marshaling group, which still is the only Marshaling organization that does TWO of our races. They put up with a lot and responded well despite all the challenges and 100+ degree weather. The Friday dramas were back again, but this time not the land line.

Como algunos de ustedes saben, el área de Monterrey tiene MUY POCOS oficiales de pista, así es que se contratan varios autobuses para traer como a noventa valientes y adoradas almas, desde las alturas de la Ciudad de México y Puebla. Los primeros autobuses llegaron el Jueves por la tarde y no hubo ningún problema., pero el ultimo autobús que trae a los que no pueden salir de sus trabajos, sino hasta el Jueves por la noche, se retraso 5 horas en su salida y arribo a mediodía del Viernes! Eso nos dejo un “esqueleto” de oficiales como del 60% para cubrir toda la pista. Champ Car quiere agradecer profundamente a todos aquellos que mantuvieron las piezas unidas del rompecabezas hasta que los refuerzos llegaron. Muchas, Muchas gracias, mis Buenos Amigos.

As some of you know, there are VERY FEW Marshals in the Monterrey area, so two buses are hired to bring over ninety brave and loving souls “down” from the high altitudes of Mexico City. The first bus that arrived on Thursday afternoon was no problem, but the second bus that carries up those who cannot leave work until Thursday evening was about 5 hours late and arrived around noon on Friday!
That left us with a “skeleton” crew of about 60%, and Champ car would deeply like to thank all of those who kept all the pieces glued together until reinforcements could arrive! ¡Muchas, Muchas gracias, mis Buenos amigos!

HABEMUS PINES DE PARTICIPANTES

Otra de los detalles mas importantes del fin de semana, fue la primera visita del Reverendo Phil DeRea, que asistió a la junta de oficiales del Domingo por la Mañana para impartir su Bendición, naturalmente en Español y para la Bendición Tradicional de los Pines de participantes de Champ Car. Para los que no lo saben, el Padre Phil creció en Nazareth, Pensilvania junto a Mario Andretti y por muchos años fue el Capellán Católico Romano de los ministerios de la Champ Car. En el 2004 acepto un puesto en EL VATICANO como el pastor de la parroquia de Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón, que es el lugar donde van todos los que trabajan en el Vaticano. El dice que adora Roma y que se la esta pasando muy bien, pero para los que lo recuerden entenderán, que a los sacerdotes Italianos les debe de estar hablando con su estilo rápido de decir las cosas tirando sin desenfundar. Esto me recuerda, para todo el que tenga curiosidad de saber como estuvo la votación, para que el Cardenal Ratzinger fuera elegido Papa tan rápidamente, que solo me lo tienen que preguntar algún día.

HABEMUS PARTICIPANT PINS

Another one of the highlights of the marshaling weekend was a first-time visit by Rev. Phil DeRea to the Sunday AM briefing to give the invocation, in Spanish naturally, and for the traditional Blessing of the participant pins. For those who do not know, Father Phil grew up in Nazareth PA along with Mario Andretti, and for many years he was the Roman Catholic Chaplain of Champ Car Ministries. In 2004 he accepted a posting at THE VATICAN as the pastor of Nostra Donna del Sacro Cuore, the “official” parish of all those who are employed by the Vatican. He says he loves Rome and he’s having a great time, but those of you who remember him will understand that he is giving all the Italian priests fits with his "shoot-from-the-hip" style. That reminds me – anyone who is curious as to how the voting went down, and why Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope so quickly, just ask me some time, I got some inside info...

¡Viva Champ Car y Viva Mexico!

También conocido en el bajo mundo del automovilismo como:

Jaime Enrique Santos

JHS

GLENN MILLER

A LOSS TO OUR FAMILY...

I'm sure that many of you have now heard that Lake Erie Communications Marshal Glenn Miller was killed in an accident at Nelson Ledges earlier this month. This tragedy hit home particularly close to our race control staff, as his daughter Candi had been our RC "Recorder" the past two seasons at Mid-Ohio and Cleveland.

This loss was heavy on our minds down in Monterrey, and our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to his wife Carol, and his daughters Mindy and Candi, his son Doug and all his family and friends throughout Lake Erie Communications.

Those who volunteer for the love of our sport give a lot, but when a sacrifice like this comes along, it leaves a lump in your throat and a scar on your heart that only time and a lot of God -given strength can ease. Thank you Glenn, for all your time and talent given to our series, and to your family for all the support they have also shown.

God bless you and keep you Glenn, and all your family and friends.

LBGP NEWS AND MANDATORY READING

Hello Everyone:

Back from Monterrey. While I collect my thoughts on that slam-banger, let me assign some reading in the meantime. Champ Car WILL be back at Long Beach in 2006, having basically purchased the event from Dover entertainment:

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=9029

And please, whether you are a technically oriented gearhead or not, look at what the engineers are saying about our plans for a new chassis in 2007. Great stuff!

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=9022

Toodles,

Señor JHS

IN BETWEEN...

Hi everyone:

Two items got sent over here and have already gathered dust, so I will share them with you to tide you over until we are back from Monterrey. Maurice Pijpers, who resides in the City of Eindhoven in the Netherlands has done a few of our events here over the years and also helped us out with some local English skills when we raced at the Lausitzring in 2003. He has some very nice photos from his trip to LB posted here:

http://orangemen.demon.nl/

Included are a lot of Drifting shots that you are all gonna learn to love (or else) as they will be featured at many of our events this year and are a key attraction to the younger demographic market (good deal!) Enjoy them , Nice work Maurice!

For those of you who use and enjoy Bob Griffith's work on the "verbal" Spotter's Guide for each race, you can access an updated version before each race at his website:
(pssst! Hey Bob! Monterrey - 52 - PKV - Jorge Goeters - all white car...you heard it here first!)

http://home.columbus.rr.com/ragriffithsr/index.html

Talks continue here and there between Champ Car and the IRL for a common chassis formula for 2007, but don't hold your breath for right now, and no word just yet on Long Beach in 2006. Enjoy the race from your easy chairs and please say a little prayer en español for your Hermanos en blanco before the race... We'll do our best!

JHS

CCWS FLAG CHIEFS FOR 2005

FEEL LIKE HITTIN’ THE ROAD?

Below is a revised list of Flag Chiefs/Contacts for all of you who are considering traveling to one of our road or street races. Ovals are severely limited on Observers and are essentially full right now for the upcoming season. If you absolutely, gotta, hafta work an oval this season, drop me a note at Swintal@cox.net and I’ll see what can be done, no promises!

See you at the track!

JHS

CHAMP CAR FLAG CHIEFS - 2OO5

Long Beach: Ceci Smith
race.flaggers@Verizon.net

Monterrey: Fritz Herrmann
fritzipaldi@yahoo.com
Héctor Gómez
hgomez@dutymexico.com

Portland: Ken Killam
orsccaf-c@comcast.net

Cleveland: Dale Strimple
rubberchicken74@msn.com

Toronto: Peter Corley
gavia.paradox@sympatico.ca

Edmonton: Rudy van Woerkom
Rudy@vanwoerkom.net

San Jose: Mike Neff
proraly@inetmail.att.net

Denver: Stan McLaughlin
stan@ucar.edu
(I like him already - "laugh" is in the middle of his name!)

Montreal: Claude-Olivier Malepart
com@asrq.com

Korea: Still no clue... oh boy.

Gold Coast: Margo Jones
jjmsm01@hotmail.com

Mexico City: Fritz Herrmann
fritzipaldi@yahoo.com
Héctor Gómez
hgomez@dutymexico.com