Drivers I have met...

[t6dpilot]

Bob Akin (god rest his soul) was a very good friend of the family until his unfortunate accident at Road Atlanta.

I spent a lot of time with Augie Pabst in the mid 90's. I even had martinis and dinner at his house in Oconomowauk, WI. During the garage and house tour, I noticed a somewhat dusty trophy case. I sauntered over to see many of his trophies and old race photographs. That was very cool since I was a huge fan of his. In the presence of greatness... Very unassuming man and extremely kind, but a hell of a driver.

Brian Redman
John Fitch
David Hobbs

Eddie Wachs (Raced against Mark Donahue) - worked for him recently

Cliff Hansen (Raced Formula Atlantic in the 70's) - my uncle

Not that the last two are famous or anything, but they are "vintage" drivers.

[adam912]

When I was a kid in the Hollywood hills, my folks were good friends with Ken Miles and family. I remember playing cowboys-and-indians with his son Peter, who is my age (56 now). We lost touch after his Dad was killed at Riverside and they moved back to Jolly Old. Will never forget how envious I was at age 7 or so to see checkered flags (real ones!) in Peter's bedroom.

Adam912.out.

[Flätsix]

Hans Stuck at the Del mar Grand Prix when I was a lad. This race made quite an impression on me being next to all the 962s, Jags, and Nissians.

Randy Pobst at California Speedway for a Grand-Am race. He autographed my helmet and HE wanted to talk about MY racing. Cool guy. Actually at the same event (PCA/Grand-Am) Symbolic brought a 996 GT3RS, 962C, and Martini 917k to the PCA dinner. I tried to squeeze into the 917 but me being a 250lb Portuguese tank I could see it wasn't going to happen. My fiance got to sit in it though. I did manage to shoehorn myself into the Kenwood 962. With that door shut it's a little on the intimate side. Good times.

[pu911rsr]

Emerson Fitipaldi
Teo Fabi
John Andretti
Mario Andretti
Bobby Rahal
Pat Patrick - Not a race car driver but sure employeed a hell of a lot of good drivers over the years.
Phil

[LongRanger]

Never met any drivers 'up-close'

Had Phil Hill brush by me one time, at Pebble. But no exchange


But. There was one this one time . . .

Think it must've been the early '80s? I was cruising South on The 5 heading to San Diego, to Exposition Park, down by the zoo, there

Anyway, nice day, Springish, sunny, not hot. Traffic was kinda poking along on the stretch that I was on, so I was just easing my way through . . . signal-left + signal-right + speed-up on the open stretches, slowing down when I came up on anybody . . . having fun + making pretty good progress

At some point, I check the rear-views and see this Porsche --- coming up, moving through traffic just like me . . . signal-left + signal-right + etc, except . . . a whole lot faster on the open stretches. BIG flairs and I know: Turbo

Well, as long as he's faster, I just eased over, waited for him to pass, then formed-up behind him, on his right --- staying clear of his blind-spot . . . and let him take us through traffic

We cruise along, and for a good while, too --- Turbo up front, me behind . . .

So, at some point we get caught-up in a cluster of slower-moving cars, and I end up along-side of the Turbo . . . glance over


Big shoulders. Long black-super-wavy hair, combed straight back. White T-shirt. Left arm draped over the wheel, right arm down low, at the console

Then the Guy looks over, smiles . . . cruises-off . . .


Hey! --- I know tha- . . . .



It's Danny Ongais. Interscope Racing. The 'Flyin' Hawaiian' back when he was drag racing

Thanks for the tow . . .

[laneranch]

I had a chance to talk to Alain DeCadenet at the Goodwood Revival several years ago. It happened because a collector friend had a collection of vintage Ferraris, and also a 1950-51 F1 car -open car - type 625, that he said was rumored to be salvaged by De Cadanet from Argentina many year ago. My wife and I were wandering the paddock on race sunday and there 10 feet away was Alain De Cadanet. I intoduced myself and asked him if the story was true. The story was basically true and he took 10 minutes to explain how the car come into his possession. Even gave me his e-mail address in case I or the owner had a followup question.

Many of the older drivers show up for Goodwood and I often saw Derek Bell, Bobby Rahal and orther drivers from the 60's and 70's in the paddock.

[Veronica87911]

Derek and Justin Bell
Emerson Fittipaldi
Dominick Dobson
Emanuele Pirro
Gianni Bruni
Allan McNish
Gunnar Jeanette (and his dad)
Guy Smith
Adrian Fernandez
Brian Johnson of AC/DC
Andrea Robinson
John Paul Jr.
Paul Newman
Randy Pobst
Joey Hand
and not a driver>>> Barry Meguiar

[ts rennsport]

Dr. Ferry Porsche - 1973 PCA Monterey Porsche Parade.
Darin Brassfield - we went to HS together and 'practiced' all the time around Saratoga.
Hans Stuck - had a nice long talk at Sears Point.
John Buffum - signed my illustrated prints of his S2 quattro.
Stig Blomquist - drank beers together :-)

I'm sure there were more growing up.

Cheers, Thompson

[Xavier PJB]

Cool thread.

Rene Metge - July 2011 - had champagne together
Gerard Larousse - July 2011 - long talk
Henri Pescarolo - Goodwood 2013 - hello
Derek Bell - Goodwood 2013 - quick words
Sir Stirling Moss - GoodWood 2013 - quick words
Christophe Tinseau many talks- driving lessons
Sebastien Crubile - many many talks

Over the phone, long chat.
Romain Dumas
Sean Edwards
Soheil Ayari

And all of them were nice, kind and passionate.

Xavier

[StephenAcworth]

Great idea for a thread...

In my time I bumped into a few GP drivers and said "hello" in the days when the pits were open to the public... Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, etc... but they were not real meetings, though I did meet Sir Jackie once later in London.

I was at a formal dinner with Gordon Murray of Brabham fame one time and managed a few quick words... not a driver, but a pretty cool guy...

But I was fortunate to spend a day with Kees Nierop (factory driver) at a Porsche event and he drove me around a race circuit and an autocross course before letting me drive him whilst he was telling me what I was doing wrong!!!.

For those of you who don't know him, here is a video of him at LeMans in 1981: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On4N1odNZX8 and another showing what you can do with a Cayenne... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAesLqWm5Hw

It was a fun day...

I also had some autocross training from Mohammed bin Sulayem when I was living in the Gulf...

Not that any of that makes me a better driver

And my best friend and car buddy was at school with Dario Franchitti: he and I were supposed to go together to an indycar race in Mexico City in 2001 to spend the weekend in Dario's pit watching the race but family circumstances got in the way, and when the offer was rescheduled the next season, I couldn't make it as I was in Europe...