Craig Pollock to announce team next week

[DNQ]

Twenty is enough to put on a decent show. Ideally I'd like to see 26 cars, but that isn't going to happen this year.

[BobbyB]

Originally posted by Snrub

Isn't Blue the #1 imported beer in the US?

Never heard of it. Who makes it? Leading imports here are Heineken, Becks, Dos Equis, Corona, and a number of lesser known brewers from Germany, Holland, Mexico & Argentina (maybe Fosters too). Canadian beer is almost unknown here in California.

[BobbyB]

Originally posted by DavidStHubbins
I hope Darren Manning gets a drive this year - top bloke and can drive a bit too!

Wasn't Manning's short lead at Rockingham due to his staying on the track while his competitors were pitting? I seem to recall that his lead was "artificial", and he was soon gobbled up when the others came back out and he had to go in for a pit stop, thereby equalizing any advantage.

[Jay]

yeah....but so was Michel Jourdain in Mexico...and the fans loved that, so whatever...

He's deserves a ride in the series as much as some of the others...more so than Lemarie I'd say...

[Jellybabe]

Originally posted by Tiresmoke
why not? jacques may not be wanted for an F1 race drive in 2004. is he ready to retire- heck no. would he want to compete in the states again with his friend's new and promising team- why not?

I don't see him doing it. If he isn't in F1 in 2004 then I can see him doing Le Mans instead, but not CART. He said last year that he'd like to win the Le Mans 24h.

[StuiE]

Originally posted by BobbyB
Wasn't Manning's short lead at Rockingham due to his staying on the track while his competitors were pitting? I seem to recall that his lead was "artificial", and he was soon gobbled up when the others came back out and he had to go in for a pit stop, thereby equalizing any advantage.

He was racing pretty well for most of the race, in the top ten wasn't he? (before getting out-of-sequence), and racing without the rear wing endplate was top stuff.

I think he deserves a ride.

[Liz]

Jacques hates the fans and PR. Why on earth would he want to be in Champ Cars (or ALMS or NASCAR or Touring Cars for that matter) where interaction with the fans and PR are mandatory?

[Jellybabe]

Jacques doesn't hate the fans, he just doesn't like distractions from the racing.

[macdaddy]

And the "distractions from the racing" are...
The fans.

[Jay]

He won't come back racing, but I still wouldn't be surprised to see him around the Cart paddock in the future in the same way we see Mario Andretti, or possibly even as a part owner of Craigs team... I think he could stand the fans. He just has to pull a Mikey if he doesn't feel like talking.

[Jellybabe]

Originally posted by macdaddy
And the "distractions from the racing" are...
The fans.

That depends who the fans are, what they're like and how they treat him. If they're being really aggressive then of course he doesn't want to talk to them. If it's just a few asking politely then he generally doesn't mind. The problem is that a lot of time the huge crowds of fans that gather around paddock entrances etc seem to assume that every driver has to stop and sign for them all, and if they don't then they're mean/unfair/cruel/nasty/uncaring...

An example... I was at the Autosport show with Ant Davidson (F1 driver) this weekend - it was he was due to be at an interview in five minutes and he was trying to get there but he was surrounded by people, all of whom wanted autographs, and we couldn't get past them until a couple more people from the show arrived and helped us push through. As we were leaving there were people looking very sulky because Ant hadn't signed their particular piece of paper, but, to be blunt, why should he have stopped any longer to delay his schedule which he was expected to keep to? He was due to appear for interview and an autograph signing session for a lot more than the 20 or so people who were pouting because he hadn't stopped for them, and was giving up a day to be there during which he couldn't even have a proper look around because he kept getting stopped for autographs and photos. When you look at it from that point of view you can understand why some drivers don't like doing PR events...

I should add, although what I've written is true, Ant didn't say it! I don't want you to think he's an arse...!

[macdaddy]

Hey... It's part of the job! I've never been "shunned" by the likes of Mario, Emerson, Alessandro, Gurney. Guys who were alot more famous than Jacques was. The Penske paddock always had throngs of people, but the likes of Unser Jr. and Tracy were always on hand to greet them. JV was different, as was JPM. They made sure that, any time they left the relative safety of the garage, they were full-throttle on their scooters.

[Jellybabe]

The ones who you mentioned as being better to the fans are people who've grown up with a CART mentality or in another era. JV and JPM have always aimed for F1, and that's a different mentality. You should also remember that JV has had to cope with fans/admirers/hangers-on since he was tiny so you can understand him not wanting to spend too much time talking to people he doesn't know, especially when he has the option not to! Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think the job description of a racing driver was "someone who can sign autographs for hours and talk to complete strangers who think they know them", I thought it was "someone who can drive a car very very fast". As long as JV and JPM keep doing that I'll keep being interested. I don't care about collecting autographs anyway - I don't see what's so special about getting someone to write on a piece of paper. I prefer to collect photos of people - it's much less intrusive to them and is proof that I actually met them - anyone could copy a squiggle on a piece of paper and say they'd met a star.

[Jay]

Fully agree Jellybabe!

I think fans should be more understanding of the drivers time on a race weekend. In a series like Cart or F1 their schedules are usually filled to the minute, and they just don't have the time to stop and sign autographs for a hundred fans as it will delay their entire day.

I know Nascar has the biggest problem with it, but it does exist in Cart. Pushy fans that think the drivers owe them autographs! They don't even say bloody 'thanks' after getting it! I remember Christiano Da Matta commenting that the fans were much more polite and understanding at the Montreal Cart race than the other races.

That said, when drivers do have some spare time (and I know they do have some), many of the nice ones will chose to go sign autographs. I know Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani do this... not sure about the rest. Even if they don't have time to sign autographs, I some drivers (JPM) could at least politely say "sorry don't have time", rather than "No time for ****ing autographs" and resume standing there chatting up (or down) women... In retrospect that was pretty funny.

[macdaddy]

"F1 mentality"? What's that? "I am better than thou"?

No, I guess the job description of a racing driver isn't "someone who can sign autographs for hours". But according to Pook, it is a job description to be driving in CART. As well it should be. "Someone who can sign autographs" is something that might be of some importance to the sponsors, I might guess.

[macdaddy]

Don't get me wrong. I totally agree with "fans should be more understanding of the drivers time on a race weekend." There's no questioning that. But some of the drivers mentioned above wouldn't even appear out of their hiding places early on Friday mornings. Meanwhile, Rick Mears would gladly sit and have a coffee with you.

[Jellybabe]

Jacques and Monty aren't in CART! And no, F1 mentality isn't "better than thou". CART is essentially American (by that I mean US, not the continent), and that's a lot more relaxed than the European attitude. Even the USGP is different to the European races - not more lax, but more laid back with less people worrying about stopping people going near to the paddock and things like that. I don't think any F1 driver has ever completely refused to ever sign and autigraph, but some are less tolerant than others.

Jay, interesting comment about Canadian fans. I asked Craig Pollock about fan attitudes several years ago and he said he had always thought Canadian fans were the easiest to cope with. He said Germans were the most difficult, but said it didn't have anything to do with the JV/Schumacher rivalry, it was just the way they are. And that goes back to what I said at the top of this post - the European fans can be a lot more pushy than North American fans, so the drivers are less keen to deal with them. They don't refuse completely, they just don't like doing it for long periods of time.

[Jay]

F1 mentality is that the only place a fan can be is behind three layers of catch fencing, or in the case of the paddock at least two security checkpoints. The first one for non-millionaires, and the second one for people worth less than nine figures. (at least this is the case in Montreal)

All drivers should definately have to sign autographs in an organized session on Friday or something - that should be part of the job. Cart does this, which is one of the big reason a lot of people consider it fan friendly.

Jellybabe, if European fans are much worse than North Americans... I know it's true, but that must be scary!

[Jellybabe]

Originally posted by Jay
F1 mentality is that the only place a fan can be is behind three layers of catch fencing, or in the case of the paddock at least two security checkpoints. The first one for non-millionaires, and the second one for people worth less than nine figures.

All drivers should definately have to sign autographs in an organized session on Friday or something - that should be part of the job. Cart does this, which is one of the big reason a lot of people consider it fan friendly.

That would be great, but how would you organise it? How do you decide which fans get to go to the autograph sessions? In CART it's different because the majority of races take place in one country, and the majority of fans are from one continent, and the races are fairly cheap to get in to - all of which means most fans are in a position to be able to get to more than one race a year if they're really devoted. And the autograph sessions are fairly open.

F1 fans are spread all over the world with races all over the place, and yes, if you're slap bang in the middle of Europe you could get to more than one race a year, but they're so expensive you couldn't afford to get anything more than general admission if you did go to more than one. If you opened the paddock or the pitlane up to everyone you'd have chaos, and if any of the cars got damaged because of having fans all over the place it's a lot more difficult to replace it than just to call Lola for one of their stock chassis.

It would be good, but I don't see it happening.

[Liz]

When we were at a test session at Silverstone, and there were only six of us standing outside the BAR paddock where Jacques and Pollock were chatting, Jacques refused to turn around and be photographed. You can't tell me that spending less than 10 seconds with his head facing west instead of north would have ruined his career.

In contrast, Jean Alesi who was lounging at his ease in the Prost Hospitality, was overjoyed that my cousin and I came right up to him to congratulate him on his stunning drive in Montreal (which we had both seen in person) and willingly posed for photos, taking no more than 3 or 4 minutes -- we were very clear that we didn't expect him to take us in and bccome our new best friend, but were no more or less polite to him than we were in trying to get a mere photograph of Jacques' face.

I also have a photograph of Eddie Irvine running away from having his picture taken. He had not been working and was not obviously in a hurry until he saw people with cameras, when he broke into a run down the paddock!

Now I can understand people who are clearly working or within hours or even half-hours of going onto the track, not wanting to be harassed. And I don't expect any driver to take me out to dinner and kiss my hand. But as a minor actor I used to date was told by none other than George C. Scott, when you decide to pursue a career that depends on the good will of the public, you've got no business treating that public as if it had leprosy!

[Jay]

Jellybabe, F1 and Cart aren't quite as different as you'd think... Ticket prices are anywhere from half to a two-thirds of the price of F1 tickets and GA tickets prices are exactly the same, so it's not as if Cart races are cheap. Cheaper than F1 yes... And the teams all make changes to their chassis to suit them at the shop, so calling Lola or Reynard on a raceweekend wouldn't do much good. Due to strict budgets, teams would send guys out with taped up wings towards the end of last year (and I'm not just talking about Dominguez). That said, I've never seen or heard of fans doing any damage to race equipment in Cart paddocks - then again, I haven't been to any races outside of Canada .

I think it would be possible for F1 to have a Cart style autograph session (people line up in anticipation of it, sometimes an hour or two before). The driver would just sit there and sign autographs for an hour - not that complicated. Having access to the paddock is another question. If not giving them complete access to the paddock, the least they could do is rope off an area and path for the teams to work and move equipment, which the fans can look on from the outside - aparently this is what they used to do in the 60s and 70s. I know this sort of setup would be very possible in Montreal.

[Jellybabe]

Originally posted by Liz
When we were at a test session at Silverstone, and there were only six of us standing outside the BAR paddock where Jacques and Pollock were chatting, Jacques refused to turn around and be photographed. You can't tell me that spending less than 10 seconds with his head facing west instead of north would have ruined his career.

Irvine and Alesi are the two extremes. But couldn't you have walked around Jacques? He's a very private person and doesn't like having to include strange people in his sphere - up until this year's USGP he wouldn't even have a conversation with Ant unless it was about the car, so that's just the kind of person he is.

[evo]

I was at the CART race in Vancouver last year and I found the best time to see drivers or ask for autographs or whatever was the Thursday before the race weekend in the paddock. I saw Papis, Bruno, Tags, Carpentier, and Dario. I spoke to Patrick very breifly and actually had quite a long conversation with Tommy Kendall.

I've never really been interested in getting autographs from racing drivers, I've always prefered to shake thier hands and talk to them. Even if there is no picture, at least I did get the chance to interact with them, and I've found most of them to be very good and polite about it. TK even seemed to be enjoying talking to me.

But having said this, it was Thursday afternoon, so the drivers (and TV guys) weren't too busy. During the race weekend they are and would never thinking of keeping them from doing thier job. But I agree that people who make thier living entertaining normal people should make time for those normal people, because we are the ones that pay the bills.

[Liz]

No, we couldn't walk around to the other side of Jacques; he made a point of turning to keep the back of his bald head toward us if we walked around! "That's just the way he is" is the exact point I was trying to make. And that is exactly the kind of person who would NOT be suitable for CWS, where a certain degree of access is mandatory.

At the ALMS races before last year, the drivers were arranged in a square with their backs to one another, and the fans were moved along in front of them and out the back when they had been round the square ONCE in ONE direction. It took me 12 minutes to traverse that square and get every autograph I wanted. There was no lingering, no backtracking, no chitchat after the pen went down, and no having your photo taken with the driver; you just kept moving. And one autograph per person (or two at the most depending on who the driver was.) There was a firm start and end time, and ALL drivers were REQUIRED to be there. If you wanted an autograph, you got in line and if the time was up before you got there, you were SOL.

I can't imagine that accommodating a group of people who had paid something like $1,500 to attend the only Formula One race they would get to that year, which could easily be a month's salary for some people, would cause any particular driver to keel over from anxiety and exhaustion.

============

If Jacques wants to race in a series without any fans to face, I could point him in the right direction. However, if things continue as they are, F1 will be like that in another year.

[Valve Bounce]

Originally posted by Jellybabe
He's a very private person and doesn't like having to include strange people in his sphere - up until this year's USGP he wouldn't even have a conversation with Ant unless it was about the car, so that's just the kind of person he is.

As Jack Nicholson would say: Jacques needs a good stiff drink of gin to drown the bug up his ass.