Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
Gil de Ferran prepares to leave the pits during Friday practice for the 2001 CART race at Portland International Raceway. I wish it wasn’t cropped so closely but I had a tough time getting a shot of Gil all weekend and only got this one as his crew moved out of the way. Sadly I never got to see him race again as his team never returned to Portland, and while he didn’t have a great race I was happy when he won the championship for the second year in a row, as I was a fan from his rookie year.
Just a few laps from the finish, race winner Max Papis drives his Team Rahal car on a damp track at the 2001 CART race at Portland. Max was impressive all weekend, in the dry and the wet, and deserved his win from the pole. I love the look of the cars from this era.
One of my favorite portraits of the pup, taken as the sun set and a day or two before the snow finally melted.
While there are multiple homes in the neighborhood that post poetry, this one has a glass enclosure for anyone in the neighborhood to place something to share. On this day of record-breaking heat in early September, someone had placed a lost hat on top. Or perhaps a deliberately discarded hat, given the record-breaking heat.
All three of our current cats are spot stealers but nobody can hold a candle to Templeton, master of the art. On this night he was recuperating from surgery so I was in the guest room with him and when I stepped out for a moment, not long enough to bother putting his cone back on, I came back to find him sitting at my laptop.
Alex Zanardi in the Mo Nunn Racing pits watches the timing and scoring results with his helmet still on during Friday practice for the 2001 CART race at Portland International Raceway. Alex was one of my favorite drivers ever and had returned to CART after a brief stint in Formula One, so I was eager to get a photograph of him. He struggled to find speed with his new team and would qualify last and finish last in the race when contact took him out early. A few months later a savage crash would take both legs and nearly his life. In the last handful of years he’s won gold and silver medals in handcycling at the past two Summer Paralympics games, but I was most happy to see that his enthusiasm and optimism were still going strong, as it was those qualities that made me a fan more than his extensive success on the track.
Mario and Michael Andretti watch the timing and scoring results during Friday practice for the 2001 CART race at Portland International Raceway. Although both father and son had been quick at Portland in the past (each was a multiple race winner here), as you can probably guess from their expressions, Michael was having trouble finding speed on this day. Saturday wouldn’t go much better as he qualified 16th, but in the race he’d improve to finish 8th. Regardless I loved seeing them and spent quite a bit of time at the Team Motorola pits hoping for a chance at a picture.
Max Papis puts on his helmet before climbing into his Team Rahal car at the 2001 CART race at Portland International Raceway.
Max Papis of Team Rahal talks to his crew in the pits on qualifying day for the 2001 CART race at Portland International Raceway. It was quite a weekend for Max, he won the pole, won the race, set the fastest lap, and was photographed by me.
Boolie 