I've been close enough to talk to drivers at Watkins Glen, Daytona and Indianapolis but never had the guts to do so.
I may have spun this tale before, if you recognize it, please head to the next post.
I was at Daytona Bike Week with my buddy one year, watching the BOTT (Battle of the Twins) and it was when John Britten was campaigning his home-built 1,000 cc V-twins, which were his own design, and are probably some of the most-valuable modern motorcycles today.
I was in the pits, but not the 'hot pits,' where the bikes were coming & going on/off the track. It was a great place to spectate, because as the bikes wound up their time on the track, they would come through a chain-link gate to their work stations in the designated area for them in the infield.
One of the Brittens was done on the track, and the crew member was wheeling it past me, headed to their truck/work area. I asked to take some pictures, and he obligingly halted so I could get some Kodacolor shots with my Olympus OM-2. I was a bit nervous as I walked around the bike, snapping away, and thanked the bike's handler for the time. I returned to the fence, peering through it and watching the bikes head towards the high banking of Turn 1.
I looked to my left, and standing on the other side of the hot pit gate, was an older fellow, doing the same thing as me, watching the bikes being worked-upon, and then running on the track. I took a closer-look, and summoning-up all the gumption I could muster at the moment, I walked across the path to the hot pits, and I approached the older gentleman.
"Pardon me, sir," I asked him, "but aren't you John Surtees?"
Held dead to rights, he admitted that it was he who was also watching the pits action and the bikes climbing the banking.
"I saw you race for Ferrari, and Luigi Chinetti's NART team, at Watkins Glen during the 1960's," I said. He was gracious enough to speak with me about that time in his life, what it was like on the F1 circuits, and how Mr. Ferrari behaved. He said that the F1 Ferraris were usually destroyed at the end of the season, so no independent team could embarrass Ferrari by beating the factory team with a prior season's car, if it had been sold to someone, that was a possibility. It also kept development secrets made and discovered, from other teams.
He said he was very fortunate to have survived when so-many of his competitors had died along the way.
All in all, it was a very memorable time in my attendance at Daytona, where I met world roadracing champions, and AMA champions too, over the nearly 40 years my buddy and I have been attending.
