You guys have overlooked Tom Cruise, who raced with SCCA for a while. He wrecked so many times his crew had shirts that said S(ee) C(ruise) C(rash) A(gain). I personally saw him take out about 10 other cars in 2 consecutive races and still chuckle at the memory of seeing him trying to leave the paddock at Summit Point in his Jaguar street car with a very upset competitor on his hood pounding on the car and trying to get to Cruise after he had just wrecked him for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. By the way as far as I know, this might be the last time Cruise raced.

 

Good point here, my wife who never is interested in racing on TV watched part of the 24 at Daytona just to see Dempsey. If Mcdreamy can bring fans to the sport who whould otherwise not be interested I'm all for it. Certainly all the celebs can't have the talent of Steve McQuenn or Paul Newman, but I'm sure Dempsey will improve given some time and coaching. Most of the drivers in events such as Koni came thru SCCA or NASA to get experience. If we can get folkes interested in road racing vs. oval track then we can gain some members in these two fine organizations.

 

Yes, Allen raced in my series for a couple of seasons then Saleen went on to Le Mans. I've run in to Dempsey a number of times at the track and he's a terrific guy, very approachable and loves racing.

 

Paul Newman is 83.........

 

Ashley van Dyke>Muniz
http://www.ashleyvandyke.com/home.html

 

Honestly, I disagree. I think "bringing fans who weren't otherwise interested in the sport" is grossly over-rated.

They bring more money, but the end result is a **** product. Contrived, made-for-tv crap with cheezy sponsor tie-ins and moron commentators explaining drafting for the umpteenth time.

I'd rather go to events with less money, and more purists frankly. The golden age of racing in the late 60's early 70's didn't have the money of todays, but it was a helluva lot more fun in many ways. I had more fun at the Watkins Glen Vintage Grand Prix last year than I did at the Canadian F1 Grand Prix.

 

James Garner, Steve McQueen, Tim Allen, all sponsored or partnered in racing teams or ventures... but when it came down to continuing to spend the kind of money that was necessary to continue racing at the levels they were at they quit after a couple of years. To them it was all just a fun "hobby", it was not a passion, racing did not define who they were. I think Paul Neuman is the exception. After decades of racing, he still does what is necessary to have a winning team. Racer magazine had a good article about just this topic a couple of months ago.

 

In a 24 hour race you can have 3, 4, 5, or maybe even more drivers, so the actual seat time of any given one isn't necessarily that much. So a rich person with moderate talent could hire a number of tallented drivers to co-drive and let them do all the hard work and just cruise to an easy finish near the front.

A high placing finish in endurance racing isn't really indicative of the talent of any one given driver.

 

I read an article that described how Steve McQueen did that in the late 60's, I do not remember all of the details, but I think it was a 9 or 12 hour race. The gist was he bought a Porsche 917 and hired Peter Revson, who drove like 70% of the race. I think they finished second, I remember Mario Andretti had some unkind words to say about McQueen after the race, something about him sharing the glory with Peter and contributing very little.

 

LOL, now THAT is funny. Was this pre- or post- Days of Thunder?

Dave

 

unless you're a girl! then he seems to be hard to find..

 

we've seen dempsey race at 2 25hours of thunderhill, and he may have gotten the ride cause of who he is, but he did hold his own on the track

 

That's fine for him... but wasn't my point. Point is, I don't think it's a good thing when efforts are made to attract the casual/non racing fan, because the product and the atmosphere suffers. I'd rather spend my time with people who love cars and love racing, and appreciate a product intended for them, not celebrity hounds.

To me, it's just like all of the "crossover" marketing attempts they make with Monday Night Football or the Superbowl by bringing in pop stars for the intro, or commentators from other mediums. I don't need Hank Williams Jr. and Brian Setzer singing a song, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake dncing, or Dennis Miller yaking in ordfer to enjoy a football game. I like football, and if you don't I'd rather you didn't watch so that I don't have to be subjected to that crap while I'm trying to enjoy the game.

 

Dave,
This was late 80's prior to Days of Thunder.

 

Funny how Carma is gonna get you in the end.

In 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mario Andretti was a co-driver with Panoz.
I remember Jan Magnussen bitching about how he and David Brabham would have to strain the car 100% to gain the time that Mario lost while he was in the seat.

 

Your joking right? Road racing in the 60-70's was dominated by the car companies, talk about sponsors dumping a bunch of money. I don't think were in any danger of road racing becoming over sponsored, more than likely the opposite is true. Most teams are self-funded, either with some sponsor money and selling rides.
I agree that I would rather go to a vintage race over an F1 anyday. I don't race in vintage but I race a vintage car

 

You know what dude? **** it! I totally agree! I have seen this happen at least 10 different times for different things within the last 7 years, and I'm beginning to NOT like it.

 

i see what you're saying, we're lucky enough to have that in reverse here. we do NASA for most of the year and its the same group of people, then in the summer you can go watch all the "famous" people run the montery historics

 

More fans = More money = More sponsors = MORE SEATS FOR DRIVERS

Sometimes you have to put up with a bit of stupidness if you want a reasonable chance at ever getting a chance to drive (at some point).

 

I was at an Atlantic series practice this week at MSR Houston and saw ol' Malcolm run. He made some quick laps but defintely wasn't the fastest either day.

I have to give him credit for handling that car around the track. He's just as good as you would expect for someone at the Atlantic series level. He made some nice saves, but also spun a couple of times (like just about everyone else).

His comment is pretty bragdacious but may have been taken out of context, I wish there was more to judge from. We were in line for lunch together and listening to him talk he seemed like a typical young man getting to live a charmed life racing cars and having fun. Most of the drivers for that series are young and appear to be of affluent backgrounds, he just happens to be semi-famous too. (nearly all of them I saw had to be under 30)

 

I saw him at Portland last year, a couple of track "hotties" were talking to him. It was obvious they were infatuated by him.

 

The Senna thing might be a bit difficult these days......

There is a guy named Bob Hahn who won the SCCA Runoffs National Championship a few years back at Mid-Ohio driving a Ford Mustang in American Sedan. Nice guy. (He might want to race you for the title of "Fastest Hahn on Earth!")

That's the funny part. Right now he's just an average guy running Atlantics without much fanfare. It makes he comments in that interview even more funny (and irritating).

Newman has raced multiple Rolex 24s and was a SCCA National Champion. Tim Allen and Craig T. Nelson raced in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Patrick Dempsey just completed the Rolex 24 2 months ago.

But 'ol Malcolm, he's the real Hollywood deal running mid-pack in Atlantics. Gotta say I think I was wrong about him all this time!

 

Wow, I didn't now Nelson ran. That's pretty cool.

-bill, who actually really liked "The Incredibles"

 

Craig Nelson ran Sport 2000 and had a team in the ACRL called Screaming Eagle Racing. As I recall, he was a pretty fair driver.

 

Didnt Tim get arrested for blowing some dude for coke when he was young?