This brings a few thoughts to my mind...
The coverage was great. Flat out the best coverage of a vintage event that
I can imagine, with lots of really quite well done vignettes to fill in the
inevitable down time associated with live coverage of a delay filled event.
The extended the coverage to account for the inevitable delays. Total
coverage was about 7 hours - quite amazing!
Far too many drivers of the incredibly rich variety driving in what seemed
to be every session, in cars that they had either bought for the event or
had never driven before. Even in the land of the capitalist excess, this
seemed a tad over the top to me.
I wonder how many of the cars were, like David Hobbs unfortunate BMW, oh so
shiny and oh so unprepared mechanically. I mean, I *expect* my car to
break occasionally, but I'd be terribly mortified if I'd lent it to Phil
Hill and he couldn't get it up the hill even once!
None of the cars I saw injured, bar the Dusenberg, had much more than
cosmetic damage. The Aston that Sterling rearranged was on it's third body
(rebodied twice since Le Mans, according to de Cadenet). So I won't worry
too much about the bill someone will get - a lucky vintage car restorer
will get to have a nice Christmas this year!
Cheers, Brian
I loved it when the Morgan beat the Vette
Brian
At 09:58 AM 08/30/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>I suppose a basic "rule of thumb" would be "if you race-it -- be prepared to
>lose-it". If your pockets are deep anything can be run,repaired, and run
>again. I'm sure the Aston, Lister Corvette and Ol yaller will be
>meticulously repaired and on the track again. Some restoration shop will
>take intense pride in landing the job and will be paid handsomely to do so.
>Eventually the cars will be on the track again for all to see and
>appreciate. My original email did not include names of drivers ( it was not
>that important to me.) I may have gotten the cars confused but I'm no
>expert.
>
>I must say though that the coverage that SV had was just outstanding. The
>vicarious thrill was worth it in its own right. Toward the end of the
>program on Sunday -I enjoyed the petty banter and lovely commentary between
>the commentators (Hobbs vs. Redman....). Poor Hobbs, to be sat in a less
>than optimally prepared BMW...
>
>Mordy
Brian Evans
Director, Global Sales
UUNET, An MCI WorldCom Company
|