Yeah, I remember that day! HARF(Hoosier Auto Racing Fans)had a meeting at the 500 Hotel, next door to the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After the meeting they were going to drive a couple of laps around the track. Most had had a few drinks
so the safety workers set the pace car at 20 mph. Well, the Yenko doesn't like to run so "slow", so when we came out of turn 2 I pulled to inside of the track and waited until everybody had gone into turn 3. I brought it out to the middle of the track and just whipped that baby all the way down the back stretch. Man was it GREAT
I look over in the infield and I see the "yellow shirts"(safety) pointing at me and talking on the radios. I slow it down to 20 mph and when I come out of turn 4 the "yellow shirts" had formed a human chain across the track with one guy out in front, PISSED AS HELL, and pointing me to the pits. This "gentleman"...lets call him Mr.Bad Breath, proceeds to get in my face and just ream my ass. He tells me to leave.
As I was driving down pit road I saw AJ Foyts pit stall. The track always paint the drivers name on his pit stalls wall. I think that it had been AJ's last Indy 500 and I wanted a pic of the Yenko in AJ's stall. I take a couple of pics and I hear old Bad Breath screaming at me to LEAVE. I jump in and peel out..he is steaming now. Then I see Al Jr's pit (I always liked Al Jr too) so I needed a pic in his stall too. Now Bad Breath is in his golf cart and coming at me like a one man calvary. So I peel out again and leave. Some of my friends had seen me pull to the side of the track and knew what I was going to do. On their second lap they see the rubber I had laid down. When they get back to the pits they hear Bad Breath screaming about the guy in the Yenko. "That's a very rare car and if he ever comes back I'll remember him!"
Fast forward a few years and the Camaro Nats are at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I enter in the driver class, which means we can go out and drive around the track. When the time came to drive, guess who appeared standing in front of my car...YES..MR bad Breath himself. Telling me in a loud voice that he remembered me and my antics and I wasn't going on the track. The photographers had talked to me about getting some shots of my car as I drove under the famous "Gasoline Alley" sign but Bad Breath had his way and I wasn't allowed to take another "spin"
around the track.
Ironically, the next time I took a lap around the track was when Steve came to Indy to look at the Yenko before he bought it. Steve wanted to visit the track and we took a tour ride around the track....wasn't NEARLY as much fun.
Steve, if you ever take it to "INDY", look out for a big guy with bad breath!!
Like I said I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!
Chris