Paddock Postcard from Montreal 13 Jun 2010
One of the great things about the Canadian Grand Prix is that it always attracts plenty of famous racing faces.
Double world championship, double CART champion and double Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi was a steward, while Sir Jackie Stewart celebrated his 71st birthday at Queue de Cheval restaurant on Friday evening, together with childhood friend John Lindsay who was 70 the day before. F1 star Derek Daly was there with racing son Conor, who has three Star Mazda wins on the trot behind him this season and is looking for a GP3 or GP2 ride in Europe next year.
Fellow young lions James Hincliffe (a TW Steel ambassador) and GP3 racer Rob Wickens checked things out, together with recuperating NASCAR star Brian Vickers who was a guest at Red Bull.
Former racers included former Coloni, Jordan and Larrousse driver Bertrand Gachot, now vigorously marketing an energy drink; Tyler Alexander of McLaren who happily recalled the great days of the ‘Bruce and Denny Show’ in the Canadian American Challenge Cup series in the Sixties ahead of the story he is preparing of his life in racing; Ron Dennis, who checked out how McLaren is doing on track; former Champcar team owner Derrick Walker; Indy racer and sponsorship guru Townsend Bell and his in-laws Rod and Sandra Campbell; and US racing scene stalwarts Gordon Kirby and Gary Gold wrote and took photographs just like they always have.
Non-racing celebrities included actor Anthony Edwards and Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil.
On-track action included some delectable historic F1 cars, among them the ex-John Watson Penske PC4 helmed by rising star JR Hildebrand, Dan Marvin’s Brabham BT44, James King’s March 761, sundry Shadows from DN9 through DN8 to DN1, an ex-Villeneuve Ferrari T4 and the Pedro Rodriguez NART V12 312 from 1969, a Yardley BRM P160 and Williams of FW07 and FW08 variety. Saturday’s race was won by Marvin, as Hildebrand quit early with mechanical gremlins.
