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Love this event, high speed auto show. all weekend. Featured marque-Mustang. I'll be having lunch with this guy tomorrow, I'll shoot some pics. I'm stoked, can't wait to meet him.
What a fantastic man! He and his wife. Norma are so down to earth and normal. We talked about Penske’s engine collaboration w MBZ for the ‘94 Indy which Al won; his racing and hitting a woodchuck at the Glen in a Formuka Vee; Can-Am/ IROC, speeds at Indy; his relationships with other drivers (Andrettis, Foyt, his Dad and Uncle) and on. He was really in to it. We talked about Andretti’s failed bid to purchase Sauber and on. A really cool 1&1/2 hours practically one on one as there were only 5 of us. 👍👍
Met this guy walking thru the Grand Prix Fest yday He knew my brother and stopped us to say hi. Hilarious. He still had an “8” on his chest which he proudly showed us. “Google Watkins Glen Sunburn guy” he sez . . .
So yesterday (Saturday) I'm in the Jack Daniels Club eating lunch at a table with some friends and I hear "Hey Scott, can I join you guys?" It was Al. Of course I said yes and he sat down and we chatted for at least another hour. So free and willing to share his out of this world experiences as a driver which I had never heard from any of the myriad of drivers I've spent extended time with. Today he repeated this episode and started regaling us with talk about when he tested a 93 Williams in Estoril (non-active car) while Damon and Patrese were intermittently running the non/active cars. After a number of laps over 5 days, Al was half a second quicker than Damon in the non-active car. He asked Frank when he could jump in the active car and Frank said "after Damon's last run." Damon beached the car at very nearly the end of their time at the track and thus Al was told "there's no time for you to run the car, sorry." I said "do you think he was asked to beach it in the gravel trap so you couldn't get in and beat their drivers?" He smiled, looked down and said "absolutely," Patrick Head was a DICK! He didn't believe any driver born on this side of the Atlantic should be in one of his cars and at the end of the test after proving I was better than both of them I asked where do we go from here?" Head said, "we aren't interested in your services, thank you." I said, you spent 5 days proving your worth and they said sorry? "Yes they did, Emerson told me, F1 will knife you in the back, front, side, doesn't matter and that's your own team. You'll hate it Al" but he thought WTH. Talk about intense convos about engines, cars, owners, teams, F1, Tony George, Penske, France, Williams, he had so much to say it was absolutely incredible. His wife hugged me today and said "Thank you for having us we had so much fun." I said "thank you for coming and I would love to see you both again, please come back or we will come see you." What a absolute riot this weekend was, one I will never, ever forget.
Last edited by Chief F1 Fan; 09-11-2022 at 05:53 PM.
09-08-2022, 04:37 PM
Love this event, high speed auto show. all weekend. Featured marque-Mustang. I'll be having lunch with this guy tomorrow, I'll shoot some pics. I'm stoked, can't wait to meet him.
He knew my brother and stopped us to say hi. Hilarious. He still had an “8” on his chest which he proudly showed us. 
