Sebastien Bourdais takes Cosworth's 250th Champ Car victory in Edmonton
OK, more art. But I teased you two posts ago that there was a milestone a-brewin' up in Edmonton, and it was Cosworth's 250th Champ Car win, the first happening back in nineteen seventy-ought-six, as Big Al drove for Parnelli Jones to victory in that year's Pocono 500. The original art was commissioned by Champ Car and presented to Cosworth executives during the pre-race ceremonies in San Jose. Yes, we turned this one out quick, a mere nine days after the race, where I was able to get my first reference photos of the place. Seb, the skyline of Edmonton, JD, Krys Mitchell and local boy Jim on the start stand, the works. Along the top are the cars that recorded the first, fiftieth (Rutherford/Michigan/'80,) hundredth (Sullivan/Cleveland/'84,) one-hundred-fiftieth (Rahal/Laguna/'87,) and two-hundredth (C. Fittipaldi/California/'00) wins. Reproduction plans are still in the air on this one, again email me at swintal@cox.net if you are interested.
CAN YOU BELIEVE A TURNOUT OF 200,000 PEOPLE? AMAZING! We were all absolutely gob-smacked. Our product does sell well, north and south of the border!! And that includes 65,000 watching absolutely nothing on Saturday, when we had a long rain delay in the morning while maintenance workers constucted a small dam outside turn 12 to keep a river of rainwater fron flowing across the track. Circuit Director Chris Kneifel built an excellent course, one more varied in speed and texture than its counterpart down in Cleveland.
On our side of the fence, I must say that our first-time Flag Chief Rudy van Woerkom and Race Chairman Andy de Boone came up to speed quickly. They were certainly faced with the unenviable task of putting together a Champ Car-class crew of Marshals in an area that hadn't had that heavy of an event before. Yes ,there were some novices and even some first-time flaggers propping up the numbers, but you couldn't tell from inside Race Control! And most of that credit goes to the fine group of experienced Captains and Comms that came in to help - from both near and far. There were Marshals from Toronto, the Midwest, the Rockies, Vancouver, and California, and like the sergeants of an excellent military Company, the backbone of the operation out on the corners were these experienced Marshals that kept us all on the map.
On another feelgood side, we brought the map from the drivers meeting to the Sunday briefing, and we all signed it for Gordy Ensing, who contnues to improve post-hospitalization. Since Gordy couldn't be with us, we sent a small chunk of the proceedings down to him!
