For those of you who do not know who A.J. Foyt is...he is a well known race car driver who is the only driver to win the Indy 500, Daytona 500, and the 24 hours of Le Mans. This is the story of when I met him as a young kid, I thought it is kinda funny.
First off, I am not a driver fan...I am a racing fan, I could care less about the driver's.
I don't remember the exact year, it was the early or mid 80's. This took place in Riverside Ca. at Riverside International raceway. Riverside was closed in 1987 or 1988, I was thier for the 1987 race and it was suppose to be the last race but I think they ran one more. Riverside was taken over by the California Speedway in Fontana Ca.
My uncle used to race the Winston cup back in the day and ran a few race's at Riverside and Ontario Speedway which closed and Riverside took it's place. But I don't think my uncle was racing, we where just there because we wanted to be at the last race at Riverside.
I was with my Dad and Grandparent's camping out in the motorhome for the whole week of racing. We had got there so early we had a prime spot right next to the race track.
Back then, they did not have the huge chain link fence's and concrete walls to protect the fan's like they do now.
It was Sunday morning the day of the big race. I had woken up before everybody else. The sun was barely up, still a little dark out. The track was so quite I did not see one person. All thier was between are camping spot and the race track was a four foot concrete barrier. I thought here's my chance to walk on the track and see a true racing track up close.
I jumped over the barrier and walked to the middle of the track..got on my knee's and touched the race track with both palms of my hand's.. I was such a fool. I thought there was something special about the track surface. I was very disapointed to realize it was no different then any street I had ever seen.
I decided to walk the track a little way's when I saw a man walking the track also. I stopped, turned around and started to walk back. I was afraid to get into trouble.
Just then, they guy yelled out " Hey boy!" I stopped for a second, not sure what to do... I wanted to run. He yelled out again, "Hey boy!, come here". I thought, oh no!! I'm in trouble for being on the track. I thought he was a track official or security. All I could think about was how mad my Grandmother would be. My Dad and Grandfather I knew would not be mad, they would understand. But my Granmother, she was old school..."A young man should alway's behave" is what she alway's told me and I was afraid of her. She almost choked me to death with a bar of soap for saying a bad word one time.
So as afraid as I was to get in trouble, I started to walk towards the man.
As I got closer, I reconized him...it was A.J. Foyt
As we got to each other he say's "Boy, what are you doing up so early?" I said "Well Mr. Foyt, I was so excited about the race today, I could not sleep. And I wanted to check the track out."
Mr. Foyt said " Call me A.J., you know you are not suppose to be out here". I said " I know, but I just could not help myself."
So then I asked " What are you doing A.J.? Looking for better line's for the race today?" A.J. said "Nope! I can't take a crap in the morning unless I go for a long walk"
He used the "S" word but I'll keep it clean for the forum. Well, I went running back to the motorhome to tell everyone I talked to A.J. Foyt
The first thing my Grandfather said was " Did you get his autograph?" I paused for a second because I never tought about it. I said "No" Grandpa said " Well what did you talk about" I said (mind you my Grandmother was right next to us) " I asked if he was looking for good lines on the track" Grandfather " Well was he?" I said "No he said he could not take a crap unless he went for a walk"
Well, my grandmother immedetly ran into the motorhome and came out with a bar of soap. I was screaming "No grandma no, I was telling what Mr. Foyt said to me." I still got a mouth full of soap.
