What time did you get home Matt?

[Fax]

I posted this out here as we're not supposed to reply to the race reports.  Looked like a hell of a show, stayed up way past my bed time to catch the finish.  Jesus that would've been a long drunk night.  Tony had them covered, led 151 of the 160 laps.  They interviewed all of the top five finishers after the race and all had the same answer, "we had a car good enough to finish second but we had nothing for that 20 car.  Agreed about Tony Stewart, probably the finest and most versitile racing driver the US has produced in two decades, easily our best bet to have gone to Europe and challenged for the World Championship.  But why the hell go race in a series where if your not in one of two or three cars, your nowhere when he can stay at home, know he's going to be in competitive equipment right away and not have to dick around with jerk-offs like Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Ron Dennis?  And make more money to boot...
I have some great memories of watching Tony Stewart, riding the high line on the high banks at Winchester Speedway in a USAC sprinter back in the early-mid-ninties, or standing with Matt in the cold rain in the middle of the night in the pits at the 2004 Rolex 24 looking at Tony's steely eyes through the windshield of his Crawford prototype, ready to go out for another stint.
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[Matt Harper]

Hey John,
Yes it was a late drive home - got back to O'town at around 4.00am.
The rain delay would have been a major problem had it not been for the very agreeable hospitality of UPS. We were right over the start/finish in the Nextel Tower Suites and I felt it incumbant upon me to make as severe a dent in their Budweiser cache as possible - and I feel I gave a fairly good account of myself. Trish (the old boiler) was suitably disgusted with my gluttony, so that's a pretty good indicator.
The race was great - you get to see the whole speedway from up there in the rarified air and I was well chuffed because Stewart is almost universally despised by the NASCAR rank and file, who tend to be Dale Jnr automatons. Little E did very well, if truth be told fighting his way to a podium finish from a starting position close to the back of the grid.
For the aviation fans who contribute here, we got a good pre-race flyover from 4 F18's that took off from the airport immediately behind the superstretch and went almost vertical (full afterburn) within seconds of clearing the runway. They 'buzzed' the sppedway a couple of times, executing ridiculously tight turns above us, before swooping back into Daytona Int Airport. If that wasn't enough, half an hour later two sinister looking B1 Lancers came thumping over the speedway and away into the gathering gloom - again with very impressive firey exhaust/burn. The Americans do know how to make an occasion like this.
I was also impressed by how patiently the huge crowd sat-out the shitty weather, with no apparent unrest - there was lots of good-humoured banter, which I didn't expect to see. Needless to say, it was a full house when the race finally got under way - and there wasn't an empty seat in the place when the gargantuan firework display rouned the whole show off at gone 2.00am.
NASCAR is not my favorite form of motorsport - but these big races at the Superspeedways are pretty special and a world away from dull processional formulae that I've sat through on the assumption that I'm watching the highest form of the sport. Gimme a close finish with the crowd on it's feet, screaming for their man, every time.
Snagged you a few momento's John - see you soon.

[Fax]

Excellent Matt,
Sounds like a great time.  Can't beat free booze & grub to pass the time sitting out a rain delay.  Home at 4:00 AM huh?  Sounds like our Sebring trips.  Never breaks my heart to see Little E fans have a case of the sulks, as you said, they've never really taken much of a liking to Tony, they tend to view him as an Indy car driver who happens to be racing stock cars at the moment.  Looking forward to seeing you soon Matt.
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