I ran into Jeff Altenburg (he was on his way to Sears Point) at the Wendover ProSolo a few years ago... seems he knows me from the Sapp brothers, Neal and Dean. Got to talking to him in the State Line Casino... he asked me if I thought Curt Ormiston would let him drive the Ferrari 360 Modena for some fun runs, and if Howard Duncan would let him do it too. I was like, "Jeff, of course! I mean, c'mon, you're Jeff Altenburg, in contention for TransAm rookie of the year!" So, we went looking for Ormiston, and sure enough, Jeff got to take some fun runs during the lunch break. Then he has the gall to tell me he's staying in Wendover on Sunday night too and asks me if I want to "hang out"! Yikes... Anyway, I am proud to say that I now have the Jeff Altenburg on my IM block list!

Karen

 

I know Frank Lin.

 

I met the international ghettoDEer frank Lin one time. It was an experience, I needed medical attention afterwards I almost passed out omghi2ubbqwtfkthx!!!!

Edit: ************, scott beat me to it

 

I once participated in a fantasy football league with Scott Giles. He was good enough to qualify for a trip to race in Vegas... or something. Sadly he came in first and I came in last so it's clear I shouldn't be racing with the likes of him.

 

I have slept with Karen Kraus.

Many times.

 

oh yeah? Well, I know Scott Giles - I met him one day close to Road Atlanta, and he unloaded some Civic shell thing on my trailer. And then, as I was buying a drink at the gas station, the cashier girl was, like, hitting on us and stuff - and she even had ALL her teeth in her mouth. But Scott, he's DA man: he's slept with both Ashlee and Jessica Simpson. At the same time!
If I'm really lucky, Scott might even crew for me at Roebling Road, so I've got ya'll beat.

Seriously though , I know Dolly Parton's cousin - Julia Parton. She's a stripper, **** actress, country singer chick - she gave me a guided tour of LA/Hollywood. Very nice lady.

 

Ooh ooh, I beat one '04 Runoffs champ on Xbox Live and another '04 Runoffs champ in an 8 lap session at an indoor karting track!

That means I'm so international I need a passport y0!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CamaroFS34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am proud to say that I now have the Jeff Altenburg on my IM block list! </TD></TR></TABLE>


ah, now we know what gets your panties in a bunch karen.....

 

I know that kid Jesse Naughton, who took *the* Ryan Thompson Civic Si to STS and whooped up on the likes of Tommy Hoppe and Courtney Cormier with at least 100 less hp y0


and the Karen Kraus bought me a lap dance...

 

I cussed out a Skip Barber instructor who I worked with at mazda rev it up last year.
Apparently he was some ex-pro driver. He was also an ***.



Modified by elgorey at 2:09 PM 1/5/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CamaroFS34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I ran into Jeff Altenburg (he was on his way to Sears Point) at the Wendover ProSolo a few years ago... seems he knows me from the Sapp brothers, Neal and Dean. Got to talking to him in the State Line Casino...
Karen</TD></TR></TABLE>

More of the same story: I was there, too. Jeff says he just "happened" to be stopping for gas there and just "happened" to see all the Pro Solo stickered cars. I'm guessing it had more to do with Jeff hunting a ride and wanting to chat with Craig Nagler of Tri-Point or the Fordahls.

Another Jeff story: I got Jeff/Dean/Neal thrown out of one of their first autocrosses for overtly drinking beer (Corvette club event in Columbia). "Whaddya mean we can't drink out here?". It was a classic moment.

And then there were the 100 MPH conveys down I95 to the Sebring Pro Solo every year. Only one ticket ever (Georgia). And we all chipped in to pay for it.

And bump-drafting "trains" up to Harrisburg from B-more once a month. Did you know that a Ford Fiesta can top 120 when pushed by a Mustang 5.0?

Ah yes, those were the days...

--Andy "now just an old fart..."

 

Save Ferris.

 

Andy, tell us more! I love hearing stories from veteran autocrossers!!

Claim to Internationizzle-ess:

At a 2003 ProSolo I put the hurt on the entire D Stock field by 1.6 seconds, sadly my tires died after the first session and I feel to 6th, but still, I beat the Matt Grainger!

 

I figure I am also about four degrees of separation from being a Formula 1 driver. I have raced (autocrossing is racing .... just ask your insurance agent!) against Neal Sapp, who has raced against Boris Said, who has raced against Christian Fittipaldi who used to be in F1. Frank Williams will be calling any minute for that testing spot.

Here are some pictures of me driving wrecklessly in cars I don't own:






I think I've spun everyone of those and also hit inantimate objects!!

Also, one day back in 1996 or so, I was in the same room as George Lucas, Mike Wallace, Rosa Parks, Tom Selleck, Chuck Yeager, Tom Osborne (ex-Nebraska football coach), Mike Kriezewzxzxwzwski (aka "Coach K"), Herschel Walker, That Assclown Michael Bolton, Naomi Judd and the reigning (at the time) Miss America (can't remember her name, but she was deaf) ... there were probably a few others ... I'm just so mack daddy and full of myself, I can't remember them all!

Pat

 

I know it's no international frank, but I went to undergrad with nelson piquet's nephew.

 

Awww... You guys really like me.
I feel like Sally Field. &lt;sniffle&gt;

I've actually met and talked with many motorsports folks, but they tend to either fall into the idle banter category or people I've met and spoken with so many times it doesn't seem like a big deal anymore.
So heres my best one that doesn't fall into either of those categories...

Back in about 1997 (I think) a buddy of mine and I were hanging out at The Walter Mitty Challenge at Road Atlanta. It was raining and we'd just watched a bunch of really nice cars get wrecked in a small bore race. We wandered over near where Brian Johnson (yes, of AC/DC) was unloading his very wrecked Cortina off the flatbed when he looked at us and said "Can ya give us a hand?"
Well... Sure. It took quite a few of us to wrestle the thing into its paddock spot as it was rolling none too well. Brian was actually very personable and talked with us for a while about his car, his racing, etc. Everything but Rock and Roll. It was extra surprising that he was so easy to get talk to given that... well... he'd just badly crashed his car.
He graciously took a few pictures with us, offered us a beer if we came by later (which we unfortunately didn't... Dammit), and we were on our way while they went to work on the car.
Nice car too. Maybe I should have taken a picture of it. And the hauler.

 

I am pretty lucky in my local region I have had the opportunity to observe some of the following:

Chuck Sample (multiple time Solo champion) ( look him up)... including fastest person at solo II nationals 2004 in a borrowed AM car!!!

the Obenours, (husband/wife) national CP winners.

Larry Dent. Ex-trans-am racer.

and many many other up and comers in the sport. it is hard to catch up, let along keep up.

 

I was working the black flag station at a TCRA event at Willow Springs when Paul Tracy got busted for passing in a non passing zone. That was awkward.

 

I stepped on P.L. Newman's foot, sneaking into a TransAm drivers meeting at SIR back in the mid-'80s. He's really short. We had a good conversation about the stop sign at the end of the runoff at the bottom of the hill:

Him: "If you overshoot because you lose your brakes, how do you stop?"
Me: "Good question - I've only seen it happen once and the guy with the sign had to jump out of the way."
Him: "Well I sure hope he's quick..."

K

 

I know people who know people... ya know what I mean?

 

Ahhh... back in the day.....

To know Jeffy and Neal and Dean circa late 80's early 90's, as well as being part of that gang with my co-driver Homey, and still being alive to tell about it.....

Andy already beat me to the tale of the Turd getting pushed by the 5.0 to a buck twenty...but wait, there's more...lots more.

Mr. Hollis and I doing trailer drags in our wimpy tow rigs: 2.9 Bronco II and Ranger respectively. I got smacked 'cause I was a little too hasty leaving the line and got the clutch slipping and smoking, with out any forward movement. Oops. Once it did grab it was fine. Drove the truck to 150k on that same clutch.

Little Rock Pro Solo 1991 (?) Got there early Friday afternoon; this was way before practice starts, so nothing to do but start drinking. On an Air Force Base apron. The access road was a straight about a mile long, still on base property, ending at a 90 degree turn, then a short distance to the guard house. I was riding along with my co-driver in the Instantaneous Racing Civic, when all of a sudden he goes from 5th to 3rd and stands on it. We were -almost- getting overhauled by Dean's Parisienne tow vehicle (350 4 bolt main, worked quadrajet, some Corvette cam, etc.). We walked 'em, but then there was that turn we were doing about a 100 heading towards. We made it. I don't know how Dean did in that boat. Still consider myself lucky not to have ended up in Stockade for that, and many other similar adventures that trip.

Same Civic would do an actual 130mph, redlining 5th gear on 185/60-13 A008RS's. Did it on I-78 in PA on my way to a Farm Show event in Harrisburg. Amazing how 200,000 miles will loosen the top end of a motor up!

Roger Johnson setting up a table by the pool at the Pittsburgh Pro Solo one year it was at the VW (or by then Sony) plant in New Stanton (1990?). He also had a collection of shot glasses, bottles of Peach Shnapps, and cans of Readi-Whip. Shnapps in the shot glass topped with whipped cream, placed on the table, drinkees on the knees in front, no hands. BJ's anyone?

As for name dropping, well, I did beat Lyn St. James at a Ford Ride and Drive on the 10 second autocross course I set up there....in a Ford Contour....

That's all there's time for now......maybe some more stories later.

 

I will soon be attending a dinner with Stirling Moss.

http://www.madisonsportscarclub.com/stirling_moss

 

My working with Koni and the fringes of Valvoline have allowed some interesting opportunties to meet some interesting people.

-The SEMA trade show brings a lot of industry people together and I have been lucky enough to be invited several times to the small Autoweek dinner at a schmatzy restaurant French restaurant in Vegas and they always have some heavy hitters there. One year due to time schedules I arrived a bit unfashionably early (goob!) as the trendy opposed to fashionably late so I had a fair amount of standing around at the private bar as the room was being prepared. I was one of the first 10 or so of 40 people to arrive so there was the basic mingling and small talk. Carroll Shelby walks over to me and reaches out his hand "Hi, I'm Carroll Shelby and this is my wife XXX". Umm, no **** my head is swimming so I introduced myself. What kind of small talk do you make with "an" if not "the" living legend of American sports car racing and manufacturing? He was a really nice and personable guy and I haven't a clue as to what we talked about. Danny Sullivan came up and introduced himself as well (duh!) plus a number of other industry folks. Skip Barbour was at my table at dinner that night but was somewhat distracted and scribbling notes on his napkin all night before excusing himself early. Seems the next day he had a major presentation with the Bill France family about proposing the buyout and takeover of IMSA. This was back in the late '90s when the whole US professional sportscar racing sutiation was in total turmoil and ended up in the split that is now Grand Am and ALMS. That is the one dinner I love attending if I get the invitation.

- On my 21st birthday, I held Dave Despain by the ankles. I'll explain as it is not as it may sound. I was a budding your public relations college student eager to get into motorsports media. There was a televised IMSA race at Mid-Ohio the weekend of my 21st birthday (1985) so I went over an volunteered for any PR/media grunt work I could do. I got assigned to help the TV crew with Ken Squire and Dave Despain. I did everything from taking "race color" notes (lap times, interval times, who passed who, etc.) during the races and passing them to the guys to weave the facts into their commentary to making sure that they had their nicely crisp shirts and pressed blazers in good shape to be on camera. During the open of the show, they used a low angle shot of the two guys talking to the camera with the race control tower with flags as their background. To get the shot, they had the camera on the ground and the guys standing up on a scaffold. Despain had a severly bum knee or leg at the time and was pretty unsteady climbing and standing on the scaffold so I stood on the ground behind and below him bracing him by the calves and ankles so he wouldn't fall off during his shot.

-I met BAR F1 driver Ricardo Zonta and most of the rest of the team in the pits at Silverstone during an all teams test day. He is the only current at the time F1 driver I ever met but I was rather non-plussed because I wanted to meet Villaneuve but he wasn't driving that day.




Modified by CRX Lee at 4:46 PM 1/6/2005

 

From college, a good friend mine's father is Les Unger, Toyota's North American Motorsports Manager. Unfortunately, I wasn't into cars and racing back then, and even more unfortunately, now that I am, I didn't keep up contact with her. We always had access all areas passes, pit passes, celebrity tent passes to the Grand Prix at Long Beach, because he personally oversaw the entire event. I almost had him talked into letting me ride in the pace car in '95, but it fell through. He did, however, let us take my car on the track late at night, and do a few cruising speed laps in my old Civic, so I can say I've driven on the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit.

 

dude, we are all totally international! i didn't realize we had soo many supastahs y0!

H-T represent'n!!!