It is time to give an American open wheel driver some respect

[Joe Fan]

Last year's IRL champion, Buddy Lazier. He has won the Indy 500 and came close to winning it again last year against Juan Montoya (note: It would have been interesting to see what he would have done if his crew pitted him in the same time as the Target Chip Ganassi crew did Juan). Buddy is also going to be one of the few open wheelers competing in the Daytona 24 Hours endurance race this weekend as well as in the IROC series this year. I say Buddy deserves some respect as a driving talent.

P.S. Have you seen Buddy's wife? She is a hottie. That should bring some respect to him if nothing else.

[KC]

I do respect Lazier. He was the only guy with anything for Montoya at last year's Indy. The problem with Lazier is his indifferent testing performances on road courses. this has kept him out at most CART teams. If he was bringing a huge sponsor he would probably be racing in CART, but that is also required and is almost impossible to find for an American in the "I'd rather not qualify for a NASCAR race than be in any other form of racing" mentality most corporates subscribe to.

[marcus]

Ok now were talkin..

Buddy Lazier is probably one of my favorite drivers..I dont remember when i first saw buddy race (must have been 92 i think) we were sitting watching the race and we all picked a driver to watch and see how he was doing (it was our first cart race so we didnt know anybody) I picked Buddy..he didnt do to well but I have followed his career since then with a great deal of interest.
he never really shone in CART but then again he never had the best of machinery..but I stilll followed ..then he went to the IRL and wasan instant sucess..then the crash at Pheonix in 96..most would have never returned to racing after breaking their back like that..but Buddy showed amazing courage to come back and win the Indy 500 just a few months later..and i was totally hooked.
visiting a market one day i came across a stand selling car models and there right at the back was a model of his Indy winning car from 1996..and a pretty big one as well..I snapped it up as quick as possible and talked the guy down from $55 to $40 and got out of there ..havent taken it out of the box either..great looking car.

Buddy has overcome many things in his life..he suffered a learning disability as a child and took quite some time to learn to read and then of course the crash i mentioned.

the guy is a true gentleman and a complete legend in my books and wish him all the success in the world for 2001 especially if he can win Indy again would just b perfect for him.

I would like to see him in CART full time but as KC pointed out his road racing hasnt been all that impressive and now without doing much of it for the last 4 years would need alot of work..but hes used to doing that.

and yes his wife is beautifull

GO BUDDY GO !!!!!!

[wallbanger]

Gentleman. Yes.
Overcomer of personal/mental/physical ostacles. Yes.
Hot-lookin' wife. Yes.
Able to beat guys like undera-Cheever, unsera-Cheever. Yes
Biggest CART guaranteed crasher of all times. Yes.