A really cool thing happened to me in Long Beach at the GP yesterday. I got assigned to shoot an autograph session featuring one of my heroes, Dan Gurney. Dan showed up about 15 minutes early and while sitting in the closed room, in walks his old LeMans driving partner AJ Foyt to say howdy. I got to fire away with my camera while the old friends talked about 1967 when AJ weighed 147 pounds (nearly double that now) and fit comfortably in the new Ford GT. They talked about the risks they took in the old days when cars were not as safe. They talked about hospital stays and how it sucked to be old and beat up.

So here is my favorite old LeMans photo juxtaposed with one of the photos I took yesterday:

And if the day wasn't going well enough already, a little later out on the starting grid I got to shoot Roger Daltrey, Arie Luyendyk & Mario Andretti who looked like they were solving the problems of the world before getting into the IndyCar two seaters to lead the pre-race parade laps to start the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

JohnCote