expat wrote on May 21
st, 2008 at 5:02am:
did I ever mention I had a beer with him last christmas............What an arrogant little p#$ck, but I guess that is why he got as far as he has
Interesting, and i understand the bbc will mamby pamby towards the 'casual fan' rather than the hardcore...
But ive highlighted the Niki Lauda bit because it rang a little bell with me...
I forget the year, early 90's i think, but the hotel i worked at happened to be in the right place for the WRC teams to stay in during first the recce and then later the actual stages round and about near where i live.
As a motorpsort fan, you can only guess what it was like having firstly our carpark turned into a service area, and our hotel full of the cream of the top WRC drivers of the day. Colin McRae, Ari Vatenan, Carlos Sainz, Malcolm Wilson (when he drove) and many many others.
It was noted in the bar in the evening, Colin Mcrae (despite his legendary status) was very much a 'do you know who i am' type which saddend me no end, and this was true of quite a few of them...
However, come checkout time firstly our machine refused Colin McRaes credit card, and then Derek Ringers. So im stood there with most of the subaru team trying to sort it out. Im sure you can picture the scene.....
I desperately wanted my copy of Autosport signing by quite a few of these guys, but tensions were high, and not really my fault so i didnt get any signatures
Someone popped up with a company credit card which paid the bill.
Glorious it was however to have the sound and sights of most of the WRC teams taking cars to bits and firing them up at some silly hour in the morning!!!
Sorry to go slightly off topic