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| Fresh roses to go with breakfast! Corse Cliente treats its guests well! |
Having had the pleasure of
being guests of Ferrari Corse Cliente during a recent Petit Le Mans
(yes, they spell it Petit Le Mans) at Road Atlanta, I came to two
conclusions: First, there are no fat Ferrari owners - especially no
overweight wives or girlfriends – and secondly, the absolute
height of tackiness is wearing a Lamborghini T-shirt to the Ferrari
VIP Hospitality Suite. Yes, a woman actually wore a black Lambo
T-shirt, oblivious to the odd glances she received from the staff and
other guests!
Corse
Cliente is the part of the Ferrari organization that supports their
clients’ motorsport activities in the Grand Touring championships,
among other things. That means fresh roses on the breakfast table
along with fine white linen tablecloths. And of course a breakfast of
the same caliber to match. |
| Ooh! A Horsey! |
Our
daughter and her husband arranged for my wife and me to be included
in the guest list for the Ferrari hospitality suite overlooking the
main strait at Road Atlanta. Quite a change from when we first came
to this race track in 1977 when our daughter was just six years old.
We drove up from Miami in our semi-customized Dodge van just to watch
the old IMSA Camel GT 100 mile race. That
was back when Al Holbert drove his blue and yellow Chevrolet Monza to
the overall win for the IMSA race. We sat on blankets on the grassy
hillside and got sunburned in the early April Georgia sunshine
watching the Porsches and BMWs battle it out for whatever positions
were left over.
We
actually left that very first race early so the van wouldn't boil
over while stuck in traffic leaving the race. That didn't work out.
We were only thirty miles from the track before we got sidelined with
the temperature gauge going off the scale and steam rolling out from
under the hood! A trip to remember as we had to have the radiator
replaced just outside Stone Mountain. That solved the problem for
about two hundred miles and we boiled over again!
We
limped into Miami at four in the morning as the cool night air was
the only way we could do over 40 miles an hour and not overheat! But
it was the start of our love affair with Road Atlanta, and especially
the international twelve hours of endurance racing known as the Petit
Le Mans. The full 24 Heures du Mans is of course in France, and is
the famous 24 hours the epitomizes sports car road racing.
Fast
forward to my 65th birthday when my daughter, who now lives in
Georgia, arranged for the both of us to take the Skip Barber driving
training class at Road Atlanta. After a morning of having my daughter
blow my doors off in Miatas, RX-8s and even the lane-changing
exercise with the MX-3s, we got to do 30 laps of the full track in
two-liter Formula Dodge race cars during the afternoon driving
session. Driving the formula race car was a thrill for me, finally
getting to use my old VW driving habits of driving with
non-synchronized, straight-cut gears and double clutching on
downshifts. My daughter was raised on automatic transmissions
so here I finally had an advantage. Great stuff! Yes, we
are very familiar with Road Atlanta.
We
enjoyed the courteous and friendly service of Corse Cliente, and we
certainly enjoyed the food! The location was marvelous to watch the
pit action as well as the racing from the famous downhill turn twelve
and into uphill turn one. It was nice to have a real porcelain
toilet, in the appropriate Ferrari black, of course, rather than the
odoriferous fiberglass porta-potty that has always seen too many
users.
Still,
sitting in the grass and having the ability to move from corner to
corner has its appeal. After all, sports car racing is about
different lines and different techniques, different viewing angles,
and best yet, getting close to the noise and smell of fast racing
cars.
All
in all it was a marvelous experience, certainly one to be remembered.
The last time I was at the Petit Le Mans, I burst my appendix just
after the race and spent several days in a hospital bed. But, aaah,
the racing was great!
We'll be back again next year.
Maybe we'll be lucky enough to be guests of Corse Cliente, but if
not, we'll be found on the hill overlooking turn five.
