My good friend Randy Steyer just sent me a note concerning the latest “record” from Coast to Coast. Some total dickhead thought it would be clever to take advantage of the corona virus epidemic and dash to the Portofino Inn in under 27 hours. Big wow. Brock and Dan would have done it in 25 but being decent human beings would never have contemplated doing it whilst thousand were dying along the route. Bravo imbeciles!
Another old friend and veteran cross country driver Alex Roy agrees. This is no time for idiotic shenanigans. Had they been delivering badly needed masks to LA or to Amarillo it still would have been foolhardy but the way they did it was reprehensible and not in the true spirit of Cannonball.
Did John Hitchins and I race in a Ford Transit imported from Britain for the occaison back in 1979-the last one organized by Brock and his lovely wife-Lady Pam? Of course. Especially when we were driving past Three Mile Island. Yes, the one which was having a partial meltdown at the time.
There was a certain romance to driving with just a CB radio to help us and even the truly quick cars didn’t have all the fancy stuff that you can buy in the local Staples store today.
These guys were lucky, in fact all Cannonballers have been lucky to escape a monumental crash to date. Clearly I can’t stop anyone from having a go but I have a horrible feeling that as the times come down the chances of a big crash are rapidly increasing. A lot of newspapers would like nothing more, in fact they’ve been waiting ever since 1971 for the headline : Cannonball racers in fiery crash. Guys-give it a rest. Let’s not besmirch Brock’s memory. Thank you.
Moving on to the sad state of F1 racing or Indy racing or the Kentucky Derby or Wimbledon for matter nobody could have predicted a pandemic .
So I am afraid those of us who-hopefully-will come out of it unscathed it is a matter of waiting.
The organizers of Wimbledon have been particularly lucky as they didn't have any sponsorship
deals apart from Rolex.
Liberty Media are not so lucky as they-understandably-signed deals for the whole season.
Not just with the big sponsors such as Heineken but with the TV stations as well. My spies tell me that moves are afoot to start the season behind closed doors in July/August. That would make sense, checking temperatures of say 500 people is easy, 100 thousand would be a very different proposition. And also. For the time being can you see fans jostling for Hamilton’s autograph? Neither can I.
My prediction is that the first race will either be Silverstone where it all started back in 1950 in the presence of King George VI or maybe Hungary in early August. There is talk of having one or two (!) races in Austria which Red Bull-who own the circuit certainly would not be too upset about. As most FORZA readers live in the United States their chances of seeing the US GP in Austin are pretty good as the race is not until 25th October. Handshakes and hugs? I doubt it.
Finally a few words about my Ferrari California which still exists but in someone else’s hands.
Five years ago it was a great idea and I enjoyed the car nearly as much as my 328GTS back in the UK which I had for 17 years. Never missed a beat, not even on the track at Fiorano. The California didn’t miss a beat either, cruising up to Lake Tahoe will always be memorable. The annoying bits were things like windows getting stuck hallfway up. Or the peeling leather under the windscreen. “Oh, it must be from the Sun!” No. It was a bad design. The guy who fixed it goes to Hawaii twice a year on holiday as these happen with monotonous regularity. As for the dealership-Ferrari of SF what can I say? Like all marriages it started well, the divorce which followed five years later was acrimonious.
Luckily my son Nicholas has a 355 in LA which runs like a dream so I can have my Ferrari fix there or at the factory. In fact I was due to drive the F8 Tributo after the Monaco Grand Prix.
Just like the Olympics and Wimbledon..there is always next year!
