F1

In 1975, at the age of 19, and before the first Long Beach Grand Prix, I joined the “Committee of 300” as a Founding Member. For the following twelve races, I co-hosted the world’s top motorsports journalists as volunteer coordinator in the Deadline & Working Press Room for the inaugural Formula 5000 race in 1975, followed by eight World Championship Formula One events and seven Indy Car races. Along the way, I collected a few leftovers after each race. Here are a few items that have been hidden away in the workshop.

I left the C-300 after the 1986 race after redirecting my shrinking free-time to promoting another legendary Long Beach race, the annual Catalina Ski Race.

Joining “The Circus” at the F1 United States Grand Prix

October 22, 2018July 19, 2019 editor

I had an opportunity to spend this very rain-soaked past week behind the scenes at the F1 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas where I found myself quite impressed – and picking up more than a few tips – at the ability of the organizing body and venue to coordinate the set-up and execution of this international mega-event.

The USGP was attended by over 150,000 sometimes mud-soaked spectators and viewed by an early estimated worldwide media audience of approximately 3 million people. Even before the checkered flag flew, the F1 organizers began disassembling the entire “circus” for the 1200 kilometer flight to Mexico City for next weekend’s championship-deciding #F1 race.

As my iPhone snapshot shows, within an hour, the Circuit of the Americas paddock was transformed from a race track to a massive logistics staging area.