On the way to Montreal, hopefully not for the last time, but time now to catch up.
YEG (Edmonton Intl airport)
Again this race, held in the land where it doesn’t get dark ‘til 10:15 and so far up north that I get nosebleeds, continues to impress, both in its organization and staffing. Rudy Van Woerkom once again put in a ton of effort as the flag chief. He planned on an assistant – the way everyone else does - but had his man drop out with just a few weeks to go, so Rudy again did the work of three!
There are not a lot of experienced marshals in this part of the world, so our crew was made up of about 40% novices and people who had never marshalled before, but it was not very apparent by us in Race Control. The corner captains and experienced people who travel great distances to help us put on this event really, really come through. Just like any efficient military unit, it’s the “non-coms” (sergeants) that hold things together and they walked the fine line of keeping their corners running while at the same time passing on their skills to the “newbies”. So we all want to express our utmost appreciation to all who attended, whether veteran, novice or newbie. Great Job! You make a great team, eh?
OPINIONS, PLEASE…
The quality of the marshalling and communicating was such this weekend that it caused Tony Cotman to comment that it was some of the best information we have received this season! Could be that several of our veteran communicators are speaking up a little more when it comes to opinions on blocking and interference, and although we won’t penalize a driver without corroborating evidence, it will often lead us in the proper direction when it comes to uncovering some complaints (which we all too often hear) from the teams. Edmonton, like Cleveland, is an airport circuit where you can see great distances both before and after your post, and in one case we were investigating the video and data on a specific complaint of interference during practice. The post that saw the incident develop asked us to check the video replay from two corners before, as that’s where it all began, and when that was brought up, Mr. Cotman was immediately convinced, and the offending driver was properly sat down.
Our rule 6.17.5G states that drivers who are not running at “full pace” should not interfere with any drivers that are, either in practice or qualifying. So remember, those of you on the posts can be the key, to keeping us fair and safe. I’ll bet that there are always at least one pair of eyes on every car at all times on all laps. Anyone noodling about out there that gets in the way, please tell us or tell your captain!
ABOVE AND BEYOND
I don’t often call out an individual’s performance, but Gail Fetterman, our communicator at turn nine, more than carried her share when our land line comm system was partially felled by a car in the wall during the Edmonton race. Again that ol’ familiar crack and buzz, followed by faint voices when the 20 car whacked the wall at the exit of turn 7, one of our busiest spots, taking the land line out from turns 3 through 8. Yeesh. And for some reason, the Palmer Audio backup radios couldn’t get through, either. So instead of flying deaf, from Gail’s post at nine, she could make out most of the action from these turns and described several incidents for us until Palmer Audio got things restored about five minutes later, which seemed like a half hour. As I tell my flag chiefs when they do assignments, It’s great to have strong people in strong places!! Thank you, Gail.
SJC (Norman Mineta San Jose Intl Airport)
Well, after last year we had a lot to be wary of for this event. Thoughts went back to 2005 when we were plagued with too-long days, too-long lines for spectator bridges, and too-high flying cars over trolley tracks. But thanks to lessons learned and hard work on the part of the organizers, we left those issues behind us. We rejoined our former Race and Circuit director Chris Kneifel who headed up the construction for this track, and it showed. Chris builds ‘em “like a race director”. The City of San Jose made good on their promise to re-build the approaches to the light rail lines that the circuit crosses, plus the track was re-routed to go straight over the worst of the crossings last year. After the much anticipated first few minutes, the tracks happily became a non-issue. Schedule-wise, Tony Cotman and Champ Car’s Operations department put their feet down at the end of last season and insisted our promoters do away with 12+ hour days, which will now keep our volunteers much sharper come race day afternoon. AAAAAAmen.
A big tip ‘o the hat to Flag Chief Mike Neff, Comm Chief Barb McLellan and all of SCCA San Francisco region for putting forth great support for this event. The 2nd pre-race party at the Rock Bottom brewery even surpasses it’s sister gathering on the day before Long Beach, and SF Region’s Social Committee really puts out some delicious and well crafted dinners at the end of every race day, only a few steps away from the action in the SJ Convention center which sits in the middle of the circuit. We could get used to it. I mean, for the first time in many years our hotel was right in the middle of the track and I was 328 steps away from my bed as I sat in Race Control. It’s tough to get it built, but ahh, the joys of urban racing… Thank you everyone, near and far for helping us out!
OUT COMES THE PANOZ
On Friday evening, we saw the long-awaited unveiling of our new Champ Car for 2007, the Panoz DP01. Shorter, narrower and nimbler than its Lola predecessor, it is designed to generate much more downforce with the underwing and sidepods, thus relying on smaller wings which should create some closer racing and more passing. As part of the event, I was asked to create an original painting which prominently featured the new car and its Troy Lee paint scheme, surrounded by some of the famous Champ Car chassis that have been used and won championships since Parnelli Jones won the first race with a rear-engine Lotus back at good ol’ Milwaukee. It was unveiled on the same evening and commemorative prints were sold. Getting this done between Cleveland and Edmonton so we could then make prints and be ready for San Jose is the big reason that the month of July went by in a blur! Yes, plenty of copies are still available, but more on the art pimping later.
Back to the car – I had certainly looked at the car in a multitude of photos over the past weeks, but I was still quite amazed to see it in person and in three dimensions. And I will have to say as an artist, that a true measure of beauty is something that looks so much better in person than any photo I have ever seen of it, period. It is beyond compare to have it there right in front of you as you all soon will see come 2007.
The original art was auctioned off the next night at a Gala benefiting the Canary Fund, one of the race’s premier sponsors, an early cancer detection research fund. Tony Cotman brought me news the next morning in Race Control that he was standing next to Champ Car President and CEO Steve Johnson, who began bidding on the piece to hang in the Champ Car offices. Good idea. As the bidding edged higher, Steve and Tony realized someone at the back of the hall was staying with them bid for bid until Tony looked around to see who it was. “Forget it Steve”, said TC with a smile, “It’s Kevin.” Apparently our man KK just had to have this piece, and I guess he has a damned good eye for fine art… The framed original netted The Canary Fund a whopping $11,000.
SLAM, BANG
The race itself was yet another violent dustup plus we had the scuffle in the pit lane between Messrs. Tagliani and Tracy. Maybe we have a marketable series now with this stuff. A pal of mine was at home that weekend and was having his cable box worked on while the race was being shown. The visiting cable guy was highly disinterested with the broadcast until the fight and he then proceeded to ask every question he could about the series, mesmerized, even though he had NEVER heard of it before…When I get back from Montreal, I’ll cover the details of said print, Denver and Montreal and hopefully Cristiano da Matta’s continuing recovery. Keep Shorty, his family and many, many friends in your thoughts!
See you at the track!
JHS
