I just had the pleasure to meet Gary Wheeler last weekend at the Washington Good Guys car show. What a neat gentleman. He told me some of his stories working for Dan Gurney.
I saw Jan Magnussen drive it at Lime Rock in '99. Leitzinger and Weaver were driving Dyson Riley and Scotts and Wayne Taylor was in a Ferrari 333SP. I thought it was pretty ugly though and I was rooting for Butch .😬
In 1972, while attending an extended management program at General Motors Institute (Flint, Michigan) our group traveled to Anderson Indiana to attend the Delco Training Seminar for a week. Coincidentally the Indy 500 time trials were going on that week. On the last day of qualifying we went to see the show. There are too many stories associated with this trip, but the most significant of them is Bobby Unser. While brother Al had a competitive car and made the show he was not among the fastest qualifiers. With time running out, Bobby came on the track and began turning average laps at 195 mph. An atmosphere of electricity came over the fans (numbering in the 10's of thousands). Once Bobby turned a lap at 197 mph, we all stood up and began yelling in anticipation that he might turn the 1st 200 mph lap in history. Bobby's last lap was slightly over 198 mph and we were going berserk in the stands. When he pitted we were all still standing and gave him our best effort of applause in recognition of his accomplishment.
Great video! Don't ask me how I remember this, but EJ Viso is the second member of the double-birdie club (2012 at Iowa, Power ultimately took blame for the incident but at first thought it was EJ's fault). Video timestamped here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uQnTnghZVLE.htmlsi=jeayWaEjxJzGg86P&t=6278
I love how you're a connector, Marshall. You bring people together for impactful, sentimental (or sometimes just mental) and fun moments that connect race fans even more deeply to participants and each other. It's a sprinkle of magic that life desperately needs. Mad props to the Iron Hand of Justice and the Original Angry Birds for playing along.
