We have lost another great one (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Butch
- Start date
stitcherbob
Nitro Member
What a sad day.
Roland was unfortunately in poor health for the last several years, but he was still able to make the 2022 Nitro Revival at Irwindale, and also the most recent California Hot Rod Reunion/Nostalgia Nationals at Bakersfield. Drag racing fan and prolific author of many drag racing picture books - Lou Hart - got the idea to do a book about Roland's drag racing life, and was able to finish it earlier this year. At the Bakersfield event, Roland and The Snake were both seated in a tent for an hour or so where both sold and signed their recent books. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase Lou's book about Roland and have Roland sign it just as they were closing for the day. That may have been Roland's last public appearance.
I was lucky enough to work with/for Roland at Chuck Etchelles Racing in 2001...he was a funny funny mofo for sure...after spending a summer on the road working on Chucks car, my grandpa didnt want to pay to fly me from Cali back and forth to the final how ever many races were left til we got back to Pomona...so I was parked by my own grandpa...Roland was running Chuck and Shelleys second car with Epler driving and Roland had enough budget left to fly me around, so he went to Chuck and Shelley, and stood up for me and got approval to keep me going the rest of the year...we were strong til 9.11...then things like everything else back then went a bit sideways...but the stories about Roland that I got to see and be a small part of first hand are memories Ill always hold fond...Roland could take it better than he ever gave it...he had a great sense of humor, and now that im thinking about it, was the first person to introduce me to sushi...that Suzi made...I wish I could tell all the stories from that year...that was back when we could be brutally honest, and never sacrificed a good story for the laugh of the group for the feelings of a friend...the effect of putting Etchelles/Epler/Leong/Personett/ Strausbaugh/Meyer together and it was bad assery at its best...God Speed buddy
5150 mechanic
Nitro Member
Aloha & mahalo Hawaiian.
none
Nitro Member
It's not just us......
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2003 Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran dead at 56
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vegasnitro
Nitro Member
It's not just us......
2003 Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran dead at 56
I hadn’t heard about this, 56 is so young. I had the pleasure of meeting Gil in 2004 and was able to talk to him for about 20 minutes. We talked about the closed course record, where he felt he could go faster still by lengthening out the gears a little bit, but there just wasn’t time for the team to do that. He also said he was glad he didn’t have to go back to Fontana and do it again. We mostly talked about his Indy 500 win and how he felt Helio Castroneves, his Penske teammate, had the faster car, and the multitude of late cautions “shortened” the race just enough for him to hold on. I remarked that it was odd that F1 passed on a lot of talent in CART in those days, and he told me the door wasn’t closed on F1 yet. Silly me thought he meant driving, a few months later it was announced he was the team boss at BAR-Honda, a role he would hold until being replaced by Ross Brawn in 2007. He was very kind and humble, almost embarrassed that I was heaping praise upon him and his accomplishments.
He still holds the closed course record at over 241 MPH.
God Speed Gil.
