Anyone actually met any drivers / famous racing figures in real life?

[Furinkazen]

I went to a Sky Sports event in 2006 (I think) where there was a demonstration of A1GP cars in manchester, I got the autograph and picture with then Team GB driver Robbie Kerr, and looking in the paddock I managed to catch the attention and get a hello, handshake, and pic of John Surtees! I was only 13 at the time, but I still remember this well

So... Have any of you ever met a real driver / boss / and any famous figures in real life?

 

[Liquid]

BTCC drivers only. Although I have been to an F1 demo and gotten some autographs.

This first one is from a general day at Oulton. The Cupra Cup was on, and in retrospect I now realise that Plato was there in his role advising Seat prior to 2004.

Future champion Colin Turkington. Also got snapped with Warren Hughes, but Anthony Reid wasn't around the garages. That was kind of disappointing.

Having lost the title in race 1, an early retirement for Thompson in race 2 was not what he wanted. Or me and my dad being the first members of the public to approach him. Good sport. He could have been a right knob about it.

 

[Chqr]

I've met Sir Richard Branson on a Virgin Plane after he earned his knighthood and I asked him whether or not he will venture into F1.

He smiled and said 'perhaps.'

Two weeks later, he signs a sponsorship deal with Brawn GP.

Also met Brian Lara, Tom Watson and Nick Price but not really motorsport related.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

I got Martin Brundle's autograph at a book signing in WHSmiths a long while ago, also (this one is embarrassing, I'll blame it on me being young at the time) I got Allan McNish's signature, on a picture of a Toyota F1 car, being driven by Cristiano da Matta the year after he had been fired by them! He seemed surprised but signed it anyway

 

[Pagey279]

I've met Jenson Button before, I live in his home town and went to his old school, he visited the town for a day after he won his world championship with Brawn GP. Sadly I didn't manage to get his autograph

But hopefully I will be going to the Goodwood Festival of Speed so I might have a chance to get it then, and meet so many other drivers.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Way back in the 90's I was in Budapest for holiday wiht my uncle and we saw Jean Alesi, he wasnt really famous at that time, just a young driver starting in formula 1. He was walking in the street and since I speak french we said hello and good luck for the GP (it was the week before the Hungarian GP). I didnt really knew who he was but my uncle was a racing fan and recognized him straight away ^^.

 

[funkyDucks]

I met all the 2007 Rally Ireland competitors and have photos and autographs of almost all of them. Met the skoda irc team earlier this year.

 

[urunatural]

I met A.J. Foyt at the 12 Hours of Sebring many moons ago

 

[MagpieRacer]

I met and had a chat with Bruno Senna at last years Festival of Speed at Goodwood, before he got given a Renault race seat.

They were preparing his car in the background as well which was a nice touch to the moment.

 

[Bopop4]

Robert Wickens helped me in karting. And I met Michelle Duff, motorcycle GP winner.
Also have been in the presence of Alex/Scott Speed, it may have been both though...
There's one more too, I forget his name but he raced Indy Lights and he also helped me in karting.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

I met David Coulthard and Martin Brundle at the Mercedes Live GT5 Race event. The only communication with David was about where to sign. I did talk to Jonathan Legard though.

 

[chrisjohnson93]

got the autograph of alan mcnish at this year's autosport show

 

[Alex.]

Time to start boasting. Sorry about this.

Met in person:

Kamui Kobayashi
Felipe Massa
Nico Rosberg (twice)
Murray Walker (shook my hand as well!)
Ross Brawn
Rob Smedley
Mike Gascoyne
Sebastien Buemi
Sebastien Bourdais
Mark Webber (twice)
Jaime Alguersuari (twice)

Also have a friend who drives in LMS, but is currently driving a Corvette in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Also know Indy Car rookie Josef Newgarden (met him when I was doing a race tech course multiple times). I remain in contact with him to this day. Have to admit it feels strange that I actually know in person an Indy Car driver.

However, this is my favourite as a lot of you know

Sneaked into Silverstone on the Thursday of the GP and Seb was very kind to let this photo be taken while he was on his track walk. I always got told never meet your heroes, but Vettel is a top guy and was a pleasure to meet.

 

[TayTheDay]

Time to start boasting.

Yes, lucky boy!

Very slight resemblance here? haha

...So on my end (I never get out to race days really) I remember when I was young(ish), the father of a friend used to race Fiesta XR2s at Knockhill in Scotland and they were supporting a Touring car event... There was quite a clash coming into Duffus Dip and if I remember correctly, Plato's Vectra got rear ended coming into the turn and hit a barrier next to where we were standing. His rear wing detached and landed a few meters in front of us and we tried to 'claim' it haha ...Well anyway, a marshal took it from us quoting, "If it split in two you could have kept a half each" but it was obviously salvageable! (good times )

 

[GT_Jwolf]

At the 2009 Ojibwe Forest Rally I got to talk to Travis Pastrana and Ken Block before the rally got underway and got my picture taken.

Later that night I ended up talking to Pastrana at the service area as he was getting ready to check out and had to explain to him that Block had rolled and totaled his car in SS2. He knew Block was out but nobody had really talked about what happened, and at that moment a pick up truck drove into the service area with the pieces of Block's front end and tires. Pastrana ended up winning the rally by 9 minutes.

 

[Prince.M5]

I've met many drivers before in Sepang and many other shows. Jenson Button, Pedro De La Rosa, Narain Karthikeyan, Jean Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Lewis Hamilton, Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel, Fairuz Fauzy, Alex Yoong, David Coulthard, Felipe Massa, Chris Atkinson, Bill Hayes, Ho-Pin Tung and many, many more. All of them are awesome to just say "Hello!" and some hand shake. Perhaps the most unfriendliest was Michael who only gave me a hand shake and.. Kept his mouth quiet!

There are not so many famous figures I've met but I can recall 2 of them which are Tony Fernandes and Sanjeev Palar. Yep, that's all...

 

[astrosdude91]

The only big name I've ever met is Mario Andretti:

That was a cool experience. He was signing autographs at a Firestone Service Center grand opening. I chatted with him about F1 for about a minute. Top notch guy! I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has met Andretti. He does Firestone grand openings a lot. He must have a contract with Firestone that he has to do so many a year.

And then there were these guys with Krohn Racing ALMS Team. They were at a Ferrari Festival here in Houston.

Tracy Khron:

Nic Johnson:

Lol Vettel finger. Yes I did wear my Red Bull shirt to a Ferrari Festival.

That's about it for me.

 

[Tesla]

I've met Casey Stoner a few times, my dad sells bike parts to him.

 

[Matthew77258]

I've only met some v8 Supercar drivers ( Murphy, Tander, Canto, Todd and Rick Kelly and a few other's ) and Will Power when I was young.

 

[enj014]

Meet most of the V8 Supercar grid at various years Bathurst & NSW events,
Also got to meet Alain Menu, Jason Plato, Rykard Rydell, John Cleland and various other BTCC drivers when out here for the 2 Litre Bathurst in 1997 (if I remember correctly).

Also have meet all the Australian Touring Car Legends - Peter Brock (RIP), Dick Johnson, Allan Moffart etc

 

[daan]

I met David Coulthard and Martin Brundle at the Mercedes Live GT5 Race event. The only communication with David was about where to sign. I did talk to Jonathan Legard though.

Likewise. I chatted to DC about his museum, his plans to extend it and what cars were coming in to it, whilst he was signing his autobiography for me.

DC Museum (well worth visit if you're in the area. They do great rolls n sausage too...)

P1010195 by GTRdaan, on Flickr

I also got my photo taken with Martin Brundle.


Martin Brundle meets me! by GTRdaan, on Flickr

I've also met Jackie Stewart at a book signing.

 

[magic_town]

A fair few V8 drivers and their signatures, but the best are the photos with Peter Brock, Dick Johnson and Glen Seton at Bathurst. Was Jonhnsons last race before he retired too IIRC

 

[XPOWER180]

I've met Tiff Needel at Silverstone after he won a Lamborghini race in 2002, Andy Wallace, Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton at Le Mans when they were driving for RML (we used to get annual hospitality and factory visits with them!) but in 2003 I had a great year as I managed to work for the MG works team in the BTCC so nearly every fortnight I would be sharing hotels and work spaces with Warren Hughes, Anthony Reid and future champ' Colin Turkington. Naturaly in that environment you get to meet the other drivers too and I think I met practicaly all the grid as well as commentator and past master Tim Harvey.

 

[homeforsummer]

Most famous chap I've met, completely unexpectedly, was Damon Hill, at the Croft BTCC event back in 2008. He was watching his son racing in the Ginetta Juniors. As you can see, he was just sitting amongst the other people on one of the grass banks - though suspect many didn't recognise him from his F1 days:

Other notables are all BTCC. Had a conversation with Colin Turkington just before he moved to Vauxhall back in the mid 2000s at the Autosport Show (he was looking a bit lonely on the empty stand!), and in a much more surreal scenario, chatted to James Thompson at a bar in Marbella last year when I was down there doing a banger rally. Properly nice chap and seemed very happy to meet a fan miles away from the UK.

 

[JK83]

I'v been couple times sametime on Pub with Kimi Räikkönen and changed couple words 👍
And he realy show how to spend money and party hard

 

[TheBook]

I met Dale Earnhardt Jr. after a Q&A session at Michigan Speedway last August. I found out that despite his popularity, he's pretty shy about getting up in front of people. We ended up chatting for a bit about iRacing, which he was slightly surprised to find that I play.

 

[Ra1kkoneN]

The most notable moment was when I met Kimi Raikkonen at the 2009 Belgian GP and shook his hand. I have had personal contact with Alvaro Parente for a while back in 2007 I believe. I don't know if it counts, but I also celebrated Bottas' victory at the Masters of Formula 3 in Zandvoort in the pits, in front of the podium.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuNFs8eqwjQ

 

[zedextreme8177]

None!

Apart from an Aussie sprint car racer.

 

[Clark]

To list them all, this isn't just walking past, this is stopping and chatting to them.

Nigel Mansell
Stirling Moss
Murray Walker
Andy Jordan
Jean Alesi
Giancarlo Fisichella
Nicolas Prost
Jean Christophe-Boullion
Ant Davidson
David Brabham
Henri Pescarolo ( )

 

[Lizard]

I'v been couple times sametime on Pub with Kimi Räikkönen and changed couple words 👍
And he realy show how to spend money and party hard

You got Kimi to talk??????

Tv stations round the world need you.