Let me tell you all about my friend John Rogers. I swear my parents are lying to me when I ask them if I have an older brother, because JRX and I see things EXACTLY the same way. Looking at his photo album of "the big go", and the pictures he takes, the angles, the colors, the experience the entire THING... is exactly what I do when I go to a race. I was telling John on the phone that when I was younger and would head up to Pomona for the Winternationals and I ditched school on thursday morning to be there for 1st round of qualifying of Stock Eliminator, (sorry Dad...can you blame me?) I would make sure to pull up to the track before the sun came up, and I'd sneak into the track just to sit in my seat, (AT 1000' aka the Knob Hill gang) and watch the sun rise above Mount Baldy and just SOAK IT IN! I'd leave after sunrise, and have breakfast at the McDonalds off of I-10 and then pay to get in and stay until the last car had run.
Even today when I work at some races, I always show up early just to SOAK IT ALL IN, (except on Sunday at the mile highs when Joe Sherwood and I were a bit .....uh.... "RECOVERING")
John is the same guy. He goes to these races and truly APPRECIATES everything that goes with it. The Smells of the Track, the colors, the sounds of the Generators running at sunrise as the teams show up and get ready for the "SHOW". He spends an HOUR with my friend Eric at the JFR Shop in indy as the sun goes down on the US Nationals, just to say hi! Bobby Bennett described me on Competitionplus.com as "fan extraordinaire" Tim Charlet in the intro for my Blog. To be honest, I couldn't hold a candle to John Rogers! John "GETS IT" and his photo's are just an extention of his eye, and gives us a chance to live the race thru his eyes.
I have this "THING" about Indy. That's my inspiration, my Stanley Cup for lack of a better term. It's what keeps me putting out those sponsorship requests, going to meetings, looking for some kind of opportunity to drive, because I won't go to Indy unless I'm racing it. John took (2) Photo's that Really provide that "EXTRA" boost to my goals. One was on Page (1) of Monday's album....It's a pic of the Track at Sunrise. For some strange reason that struck a cord with me. That seat, is pretty much where I sit before a race that I'm driving in, where I just "Soak it in". The 2nd is the picture on the last page of Monday's album of Eric's statue holding the Wally with the sun right behind the Wally in Eric's hand! Damn! That just got the tears goin!
John, Thank you very much for providing these for us! Joe, Buzz, and so many others provide some great pic's of the races for the "MATERNATION" to enjoy, but for some reason, and perhaps it's because your my older brother, (i'm still waiting for my folks to come clean BTW) but these were Spectacular!
Well done dude! and thank you!
Timmah!
