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Canadian GP 2006

Telstar
in ForzaMinardi.com Forum -- The Pub
Anyone going to the Canadian Grand Prix that will be around on Thursday the pit walk is from 9-1 PM and you have to get tickets from a Quebec area Bridgestone dealer or on the Canadien GP web stie they have a Bridgestone phone number and email address for non-Quebec residents.

Comments

  • bernie
    telstar, yes, I'm going! Bringing my 7 year old son and my sister ( in college for automotive design) We're staying at Camp Oka and doing some camping ( at tent without the wife) It was going to be a father son thing but my sister just told me "Well YEA! I wanna go, so she's in. Let's try to hook up. send me an email.
  • Telstar
    need your email address or heres mine, mikekilpat at gmail.
  • bernie
    I sent you an email to both .net and .com
  • bernie
    did u get my email? any idea what the weather is supposed to be like next week? let me know when you get a moment.:)
  • Telstar
    Ya I got your email and sent a reply to your earthlink address, mine is gmail.com.

    Looks like the weather will be in the high 70's to mid 80's for the high and the lowest it should be is 59. Mostly sunny and partly cloudy except for Thursday has a 60% chance of scattered T-storms. Hope those storms are later in the afternoon and not during the pitwalk.
  • bernie
    I got's me tickets! I gots me truck packed and locked down, all me gots to do is fill the cooler, drive 10 hours, set up our campsite, and wake up early for the pit walk. Should be there by 9am in front of Toro Rosso. I'm going to try to hook up with Phil from Minardi Montreal as well. Hope to finally meet ya and shake your hand!;)
  • Telstar
    I attempted to go to Montreal this morning, forgot some very important things, so attempt two will be soon. I will probably have on my ForzaMinardi.com shirt on so I should be easy to spot at the pitwalk.
  • minardimontreal
    I will be keeping an eye out for you guys. Pray for sunshine, for there is a small chance it will rain tomorrow (Thur), but will then be nice for the remainder of the weekend!
    Ciao
    Phil
  • MCSF
    Any MCM events organized? Not for STR of course but for our friends that still work in Faenza - like the karting event?
  • Telstar
    It was pretty cool at the pit walk, a little humid but Massimo let Bernie, Joblo, and myself into the STR pits. He did get talked to by his boss for a couple of us wearing Minardi shirts. Had to turn my shirt inside out at his request. Rather do that than get kicked out or get him in any trouble.

    Also met up with Phil and some other members of MCM which was great meeting you all.

    Heres to a great race!

    [Edited on 23-6-0606 by Telstar]
  • MCSF
    [i]
    Massimo let Bernie, Joblo, and myself into the STR pits.
    You're welcome.
  • Telstar
    Thank you very much MCSF. I had not expected being able to get into any pits so that was really cool.
  • MCSF
    Not a problem - Bernie wanted to get his son in and so I set him up. I am just so glad that you got in as well - same for the MCM. I understnad it that they actually pulled off a kart event for the Faenza boys!
  • Telstar
    I had luckily just met up with Bernie just about 5 or 10 minutes before Massimo came out and got him.
  • bernie
    I had a nice conversation with some of the mechanics right before Massimo came out and welcomed us in. He is a very very great guy! In any event, the mechanics and I where talking and I enquired about how things where going at the factory and what plans or changes had been made as I knwo the machining equipment is past old age. The told me that hey have been told that they are going to get a brand new factory within 20km radius of the present location within the next two years. This will probably be old news soons as i heard that Jim & Calvin did an interview today in Indy for Road & Track magazine and this was discussed in that interview as well.

    It was a real pleasure meeting telstar and Phil up at the race. We were looking for some shirts prior to the race to support the guys we know in their new colors of STR. Unfortunately the nice irish dude who had the vending liscense for the Race said alot of his stuff was held up in customs and we should come back after the pit walk. We did and Ian, my 7 year old son, got his Scott Speed shirt. They didn't have the shirts I wanted...jeez some of the fabric is like 100% synthetic and just FELT like I would sweat my ass off. So I opted to wait for the next race. It was.

    As Phil and I discussed it seemed appropriate that we should not wear the Minardi shirts as it was a new team name and new ownership. My sister, however, wore the Minardi shirt I got her under her fleece and we didn't realize she had it on until it warmed up. ALthough I'm sure all the guys would have like her to take her shirt off completely I could not really condone that. I only hope we did not cause too much of a stir.

    It was interesting talking to some ofthe newer mechanics at the race who have recently joined the crew. One nice chap I spoke wiht had worked for TOIT for a couple of years and said that the unspoken truth of the matter was amongst all the garages is the the Minardi team (oops, STR) was one of the STRONGEST TEAMS and one of the best places to work in all of F1. He indicated that TOIT is all very corporate and has a lot of turnover. McClaren pays the best and Williams is also very good. Not sure what to make of the body language he expressed as we spoke of Toyota.

    I also had a chance to grab a quik smoke (yea, smoking is bad but you do meet a lot of people) with one of the Bridgestone guys as the Bridgestone tire mounting area was directly behind the STR garage. Interesting things he had to say about the rubber compounds... mostly wink wink nod nod stuff but a rather cool "unofficial" conversation about the firestone information that might have been passed along to the sister company after the Indy500 and before the ill fated Indy 2005 on the diamond cut track.

    Also had a nice discussion with (Jeb?) from Cosworth. Had a nice little dialogue about how the fans are permitted access in IRL and Cart, as he spent several years there, vs. F1.

    I met a guy from Australia who brought his group of 5 to the race. We got general admission tickets to the race and his comment was "I feel like I'm in a prison, the speakers and the jumbo trons only face the stands and there's a double fence to keep the "inmates" at bay. I have to say I agree on that note. When we go next year I am definitly getting some seats in the stands.... probably down at the hairpin.
  • Telstar
    Bernie, I'll post some pics I took from stand 34 at the hairpin soon. That spot has a pretty good view and no fence in the way of your view but as all stands they pack them pretty tight. Overheard one person joking that they should have bought an extra seat so they could spread out a little and then someone else added may as well buy the seat in front of you for more legroom too. After being to Indy and Montreal, I definetly prefer going to Montreal, may be a bit more expensive but even the pitwalk for Canada is better. Saw from pics at the US walkabout that they have to stand 5 ft away from the teams barrier and behind metal fences.
  • MinardiP1
    what's all this about having to take your Minardi shirts off in the STR pits? Surely you jest?
  • SuperRoo
    Yep, shirts off, and they had to paint their nipples with Tonio's nail polish. Who am I to judge.
  • Telstar
    The nail polish thing must have happened after I left, but P1 we did have to remove any clothing that had Minardi on it. I understand why they made us do it, may not like it, but Red Bull wants to create their own identity as a team and not associate with the past.
  • MinardiP1
    I think that's ridiculous. Would Williams make me take off my BMW Williams jacket if I happened to be visiting their pits?

    Quite insultive to the team's heritage, and rather petty.
  • bernie
    I think, based upon what I heard from several STR and, more importantly, other team mechanics, it's still called "Minardi" up and down pit row. I imagine it's the same problem that 3COM park had in San Francisco when people still called it Candlestick Park. It tends to infuriate the people who paid good money to change the brand name only to realize that they may have made a mistake and not appealed to previous loyalties. Always that danger in marketing I suppose. Just 'cause you got the money to buy it isn't always as easy to get the public to play along. I see both sides of the arguement. I think you just have to call it what the new owners want. it makes them happy. It supports the guys in the garages that we respect and admire. No need to make waves for our friends with their new bosses.

    I mean c'mon, we're all still here on a forza minardi site talking about it. I'm pretty sure someone from STR HAS to been stopping in to "take the temperature" so to speak. Make STR happy and call it STR... we can all still have a pint in the pub and call it minardi eh? There ain't no law against that yet.

    (hey this was my 500th post!)

    [Edited on 15-7-06 by bernie]
  • MinardiP1
    I doubt STR know this enclave of Minardi fans even exists, and they certainly couldn't care less what we think. If they did actually care, they'd have engaged us by now.
  • MCSF
    They end many of their correspondances with Forza STR...
  • MinardiP1
    Because it's being written by an Italian? ;)
  • forzaminardi

    The nail polish thing must have happened after I left, but P1 we did have to remove any clothing that had Minardi on it

    AND YOU GUYS DID???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
  • bernie
    RJ, according to Massimo it was either they remove the minardi stuff or leave the garage. He had no choice but to tell us and we had no choice but to comply. Tis the nature of being a guest in someone's house. If you visited me and you wore a shirt that said "I f... dead bodies" well, that's cool and all but it would be offensive to my family.... hence the mere mention of being a Minardi club memeber must be offensive to STR... so we comply as should any guest.
  • forzaminardi

    RJ, according to Massimo it was either they remove the minardi stuff or leave the garage.
    i would have shaken his hand and left, I guess... I'm sure the view was nice

    quite unbelievable!
  • MinardiP1
    I would have left as well. It's pretty clear.
  • bernie
    Several of us had our suspicians coming in and did not really have a ton of Minardi regalia... a hat here and there but not shirts... I really think that this is a bit out of proportion wot what actually happened. Common sense told us not to get tooo crazy given what we already knew about STR's feelings.
  • Telstar
    Finally got around to putting up some of my pictures from the Canadian GP.



    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040150&l=162df&id=37520828

    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040150&l=162df&id=37520828

    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040144&l=19b13&id=37520828

    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040140&l=89782&id=37520828

    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040081&l=a30ca&id=37520828

    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040073&l=a5d9f&id=37520828

    http://uh.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031790&l=88a54&id=37520828
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