Great coverage, some thoughts on Mark Donahue...
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OT: My Nascar Pit Crew story in WSJ *LINK*
Posted By: avincent52 (c-68-36-4-243.hsd1.nj.comcast.net)
Date: 5/9/08 13:56:48 GMT
Sorry for the tangent, but I know that some of you are racing guys.
I spent a couple of days at Penske to do a story about their pit crew. Fun piece. Most are not racing guys at all, and never ever turn a wrench.
Feel free to share the link with your friends. Allen, the story was excellent. I have become a pretty big NASCAR fan the past four years and I enjoy these behind the scenes stories.
Also my first shot at shooting video. Not exactly Le Mans, but not bad. (Anyone catch Grand Prix on TCM last night? Turned it on while my kids were around and we had great fun mocking the Scott Stoddard on his death bed scene. Jessica Walter was really hot...and that voice.) I missed Grand Prix, but your camera work was exceedingly professional.
In the Penske shop, they have a huge portrait of the late lamented Mark Donahue, and a pic of the Trans Am camaro. That was almost the highlight of the trip. Mark Donahue... [Chuck's eyes well up...]
The first Indianapolis Time Trial, the first Indy 500 I saw was in 1972, the year Mark Donahue won. He was A GREAT champion. His exploits with the L&M and later Sunoco Porsche 917-10 and 917-30 as well as the world closed course speed record was still ahead of him.
It's a damn shame he came back from retirement.
I remember reading an interview with Mario Andretti about 15 years ago and he was asked about other drivers, and he singled out Mark... He said something like ,,... not only was Mark a great and couragious driver, he also had a degree in engineering. So not only did one have to be "on their game" when competing against him, not only did he understand how to set up a car and how to improve it's handling via adjustments, he could also come up with better ways to accomplish the same goal... ,, or some such.
Pretty strong praise. Such a great loss to all, especially Roger Penske. I'm sure if asked, RP would probably say that most [if not all] of the driver's he's had since have been pale shadows of Mr. Donahue [with the possible exception of Rick Mears]...
best
allen Thanks for sharing! |
