Have you ever dreamed of being crew chief on the grid at the Indy 500, in the middle of 33 cars and crews, waiting for those famous words ? I did just that this weekend ! The 100th aniversary celebration of the Indy 500 held at the Festival of Speed involved the whole grid line up on the track in front of Goodwood house, the full high school marching band, the singing of "Back home in Indiana " and a terrible rendition og the US national anthem, all the time being announced by the voice we only here on the TV coverage over here. Then came those words " Gentlemen - start your engines " at which my small crew of 3 , together with the other 32 teams, all went into action and fired up together. I had Al Unser Junior in the seat, just as excited as we were, waiting for my instructions on the firing procedure, remote Boeing B17 starter pushed into the gearbox and push the button. Al gently drove down to the start line, but a little signal from him to me said that it was not always going to be like that. Down at the turn around point beyond the the start line he booted the car into a massive doughnut, and when I reached the car to prepare it for the start he had the biggest grin on his face, called me over and said he had been waiting 28 years to do that. Chuck, the owner arrived to instruct Al to do a slow drive through of the start, to preserve the drive train and new engine, which he had redlined at 8000 rpm. Again, a little wink and brief shake of the head to me showed Al had not much intention of complying with that one ! At the line, the car stopped, was lined up by the marshals, and then disappeared in a haze of burning rubber, very very sideways until he went out of our site. As we have to restart the car externally every time, our crew were vaned up the hill with all of our gear, and while the boys were getting the gear unloaded I went straight across to the car to check it was all OK. Al junior was like his young self when he did his rooky 500 in this very car, he was so excited and delighted with the car and gave us all a great thrill that such an important driver still could do that, and justify all of our efforts, for which he thanks us roundly. Checking the car before the return I saw that the tell tale on the rev counter now showed 11000 rpm ! What a great experience, once in a lifetime no doubt, but I will never forget that one.
"Gentlemen - start your engines "
- Thread starter wealdenengineer
- Start date
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
Brilliant Frank. I will definitely be there next FOS.
Great stuff Frank,
I see you even dressed in your new WE shirt for the occasion! :thumbsup:
I see you even dressed in your new WE shirt for the occasion! :thumbsup:
Dom, that one was driven by Bobby Unser over weekend
Pat Buckley
GT40s Supporter
Fantastic!
Jack Houpe
GT40s Supporter
Frank you lucky dog!
