My Celebrity Test Day Experience

[Mark Gray]

I went to Road Atlanta yesterday for a 1/2 day test and tune to "break-in the new engine. I got to the track late, but in time for the afternoon sessions. The paddock marshall told me to park in front of the Road Atlanta Office since I was only there for the afternoon. I didn't really pay attention to who I parked next to but they were running a Mazda RX8.

The schedule had me running my ITS BMW in Group D with all the BIG CARS (GT1, GT2, GTA etc.) kind of scary! I noticed the RX8 pulled out and headed to the grid just ahead of me. We pulled out on the track and I did a great job of following him until he hit the back straight! He hit the GO PEDAL and TOOK OFF! I think he lapped me about 10 minutes later!

I stayed out for the whole session and when I returned to my paddock area the driver was getting out of the Mazda. It was John Andretti getting out of a current GrandAM GT RX8! His son Jarett was also "suited up" with him in his paddock area.

[Simon T.]

Nice! That car sounded amazing!

[CRallo]

Not a big 2nd or 3rd gen Andretti fan, but that is pretty cool nontheless... and those Rx8's are simply amazing!!!

[JeffYoung]

Mark, how could you see him? I thought he was like 3'4" tall.

Seriously, Crash Andretti as us Petty fans called him was a good guy with a load of talent. Won one race for Petty (the last the 43 ever won) but should have won quite a few more if he had been able to keep it off the wall.

Glad to see he is still kicking it on the race track. Must be in his late 50s now I think.

[Cobrar05]

i think john was keeping the 43 alive far more than holding it back. john was born march 12, 1963. late 50's is overshooting by a good ten years.

[JeffYoung]

Have to disagree on that one.

Before John, Bobby Hamilton/Robbie Loomis/Dale Inman had that car just outside the top ten and a threat to win at Marty, Pocono, Richmond, NWilkesboro, Phoenix, Loudon, Dover and Rockingham. Bobby leaving was the beginning of the end of PE.

John had some good runs in the car in 98 and 99, but there was a lot of crashin' while leadin' and then things really started to go downhill in 02-03.

Fact he didn't pick up another good ride kind of sums it up.

Good guy though, met him at Marty in 99 (the race they didn't win) and he was as nice as could be. Albeit tiny.

[Cobrar05]

Fact he didn't pick up another good ride kind of sums it up..

friends in nascartown always passed the fresh john info to me over the years. john was too loyal to petty and made some very poor decisions when it came to choosing a ride when he had some clout.

the ride i recall clearest was dei offered him the 15 car before they went with mikey. john said no because of petty. then loomis left.

[JeffYoung]

We (Petty fans) heard that a lot.

I think the one he turned down was the 31 at RCR when Skinner got fired.

That was back when I was watching NASCAR a lot, too much, bouyed by what Hamilton/Loomis/Inman had been able to do.

The fact of it was John was often fast out of the box and qualled well, but had trouble with the feedback side of things. Whereas Bobby and Robbie could make the car better, and did, John always seemed to have a problem or go backwards.

By 2002-03 it was pretty comical and both sides needed to part. Still, Kyle and John were close and Kyle didn't want to let him go. Richard finally had to step in and make the call to try and keep sponsorship.

Liked John a lot as a person and recognize he had some talent. Also recognize that PE in the 2000-2003 time period was not the strongest out there by far.

But where I got a bit frustrated was watching the upward arc of Hamilton/Loomis/Inman trend downward strongly after 99.

All split milk though. John's a good guy and obviously has a lto of driving talent.

friends in nascartown always passed the fresh john info to me over the years. john was too loyal to petty and made some very poor decisions when it came to choosing a ride when he had some clout.

the ride i recall clearest was dei offered him the 15 car before they went with mikey. john said no because of petty. then loomis left.

[ITA_honda]

I remember back two years ago I was testing a T1 Corvette at Mid-Ohio on a Friday. Well the Nonnamaker's showed up with both their Grand Am GT RX8's. The noise from those rotary engines shook the Corvette on the grid. I went out before them and had a lot of fun dicing it up for a few laps until their insane horsepower, ear deafening, screaming, flame throwing cars blasted past me on the backstraight. I did everything I could to keep up but I would have been sideways, upside down and on fire if I tried. As they went past I just smiled and enjoyed the sounds. AMAZING!