This Weekend's Question: Did You Ever Sit in a Race Car?  

I was a gofer with Cincinnati car owner Don Mergard's Indy car efforts at Pocono in 1976 (Jan Opperman) and 1977 (Larry McCoy qualified, John Mahler raced). Car was a 1972 Eagle/Offy, an orange #42. Jan was bumped out of the 1976 Indy 500 in the car, Mahler qualified and raced (with relief from Larry Cannon) in the 1977 Indy 500 in the car. In 1977 I was thrilled to be able to slide down into the cockpit when the car was back in the garage, a car that just a month earlier had raced in the Indy 500! I do have a couple of pictures of me standing in the seat of the car. 

In 1981 I was a gofer during practice for Pocono's Indy car race with the Lyle Roberts team that was one of several Silver Crown cars that competed to help fill out the field. Bill Tyler was their driver. I got to climb in their Roberts Steel Erectors black #57 while it was sitting on pit lane.