Juan Pablo Montoya Wins Indy 500

Good for him.

I actually met him once a long time ago over in Portland when he was first starting out. He was pretty young and didn't say too much, I was bullshitting with a crew guy right at the end of the  cross bridge that goes into the pits and he was standing there like he didn't quite know what to do. Not very tall I remember but a nice enough kid, I remember the crew guy introducing us and I shook his hand and he had quite the brilliant smile. I am trying to remember that the crew guy told me that Juan Pablo didn't even have a place to stay in Portland and was bunking in someones trailer. Damn that was a long time ago now.

Good on him, it was quite the race there at the end.
 Crazy bastards going tire to tire at 200 miles an hour, I was right on the edge of my seat.

I don't know what the heck is wrong with me lately, I don't remember seeing one single mention of the 500 coming up this year.

Not one.
I woke up and there wasn't too much left of the race, they had just starting cleaning up the debris from the last wreck.

There was a time that I followed the Indy circuit pretty closely and you risked physical violence if you bothered me while the race was on. This of course gave my younger brother a good excuse to mess with me and he started making a point every year to call me right in the middle of the race.

I have met some of the biggest names in racing over in Portland when they used to come here every year.
Two all time favorites are AJ Foyt and Arie Lyundyk. AJ because he is so fucking ornery and Arie because the guy is just a cool dude.Very nice guy but he takes no shit, the only driver in history who was filmed on national television flipping off another driver.

It took me five years to get Mario Andretti's autograph, the little dude was always swarmed by people or hiding in the trailer.
I finally found him one day with a gaggle of people he was trying to get away from and I literally trapped him between the front of a car hauler and the crowd he was trying to get away from so he had no where to go.

I met Rick Mears once, he wasn't in a good mood that day but he was still civil.
No telling what was up, you never know what has been going on.
The first time I got to meet AJ was after he had gotten in a horrible wreck earlier in the season and the poor guy had two broken legs.

I sat and talked to him for about ten minutes.

A true American that guy.

I have met several more of these legends and it will always mean a great deal to me to have been  able to sit and talk to them without the media hype and to find out that they are just regular guys who have a serious need for speed.

My congratulation to Juan Pablo Montoya and just so you know, I thought of Zoomie right off the bat and was wondering if he got to see the race in person.
It's on my bucket list.

Maybe someday.........