I always say that the easiest place to start a story is in the beginning. I began watching NASCAR racing in 1993 at age 7. I then became interested in Indy Car (or CART - Championship Auto Racing Teams) a year later. I always liked Michael Andretti, Gil de Ferran, and Adrian Fernandez. But in 1995, this kid from Canada named Jacques Villenueve won the Indianapolis 500. I don't know why, but I took a liking to this little hoser. He had spunk and a personality, and at the time, he was a pretty clean racer. Plus, I loved his car. That bright blue and white scheme with a Ford engine, and what I thought, at the time, was a casino sponsor. It wasn't until the next year, 1996, that I found out Player's was a Canadian cigarette. That made it even cooler. It also wasn't until 1996 that Greg Moore showed up in the CART series and took Villenueve's paint scheme and sponsor with him once Jacques took his talent to F1. I had seen Greg race in Indy Lights the year before with the Player's scheme and he beat the pants off everyone. So, needless to say, I was glad to see him move up to the premier series the next year. As soon as he made it there, it quickly became apparent that he was going to be a major force to be reckoned with. It was also apparent that he was quite possibly the nicest and most humble driver in the series (and perhaps all of American and Canadian motorsports). I remember how incredibly happy he was to finish 2nd to Michael Andretti at Milwaukee in 1996, and then when he won his first CART race there in 1997. Possibly the best moment was one week later, at Detroit, when both PacWest cars of Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell ran out of fuel on the last lap and Greg zoomed by them both and won with his fist shaking in the air as he crossed the finish line. He could've legitimately won the championship in 1998, but crashes, and some bad mechanical luck squelched his chances.
This leads me to the sad part. The part I wish wouldn't have happened. But alas, to paraphrase Garth Brooks, I could've missed the pain, but that means I would've had to miss the dance.
Two weeks prior to the crash, I was in Houston for Friday practice. I got a picture of Greg Moore's car. It still haunts me. I remember the day before the crash, Greg had been hit while he was on his motor scooter by a woman who was backing out of the parking lot in the infield with her car. He fell and broke his finger. The doctors cleared him to race the next day. Every now and then, I get bad feelings about things, I had a bad feeling about him racing, despite the fact that the CART doctors were some of the best in the world.
Then the crash happened. Some said it happened because of high wind on the backstretch. Richie Hearn crashed his Budweiser car in the exact same spot on lap 3, but he didn't flip over, despite hitting the grass at the same place that Greg did. I was watching the race live on ESPN. Greg's crash was the worst crash I had ever seen at the time. I prayed he would survive, but deep down, I knew he was gone. My mom walked in and told me that the local aquarium was having a free admission day for Halloween and that we should go. I did, and I was upset the whole time, even though the aquarium was awesome. I couldn't wait to get home so I could watch the rest of the race on tape and find out the medical report. When Dr. Steve Olvey made the announcement and ESPN played the tribute package leading to commercial, all I could do was smile. Not because I was happy, but because I was too shocked to cry. And I did plenty of that in the days and weeks ahead. One of my heroes had just perished, and I had just started to have some personal issues the same week. I felt so lost.
I finally found a diecast model of Greg's car two years ago. I paid $150 dollars for it. It's the most I ever spent on a single car. My hands were shaking as I opened the box. I still can hardly look at it. If I had a shelf, I'd probably display it.
Last month, I was at Circuit of the Americas in Austin for the 6-Hour FIA Endurance Race. A vendor was selling Randy Owens merchandise. They had a set of postcards he designed for $6. I had to buy it because the one on top had a Nissan and a Mercedes from the IMSA sports car series in the late 1990s. As soon as I bought it, I noticed that one was sticking out from under the pile and it was a picture of a blue car. It couldn't possibly be Greg Moore. But it was. It was a rendering of him racing Alex Zanardi in his Target car. I was literally gleeful. That day, I saw a Chaparral from Le Mans, a Porsche made of Legos, a live Corvette engine, and a 6-hour race, but the thing that put a smile on my face and made the most lasting memory was a 50-cent postcard. I think that encapsulates how much I liked Greg Moore.
I'll end this post, what I hope is one of many more posts to come, with a quote that was on the wall at the aquarium in Galveston, TX that I first visited on the day of Greg Moore's passing. I think it's profound. It haunted me that day and it describes my feelings for Greg and for this sport.
"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught." Baba Dioum
No comments:
Post a Comment