[JRyan]

WELL, It wasn't ALWAYS that way. Back before many of you were born (1979), Uncle Charlie Koppien and I went to INDY. In fact we took a weeks tour by going to Cordova, Kil-Kare, Muncie and INDY. The story involves Cordova.

Since Chuck and I were on tour, we started a week early at Cordova. The race was their World Series of Drag Racing and they had some "booked-in" people for the weekend, one of which was Don Prudomme. For those of you familiar with Cordova at that time, there was a cement pad straight off of the staging area that was rather small, but had a water spicket. We were the first ones there (Wednesday) and decided it would be a great place to park my ramp truck and car, and Chuck's trailer and car.

All was well until Don P. and his group arrived on (I believe) Friday. His driver drove to the cement pad, and Don P. got out and told us to move. If you know Chuck, you know his immediate answer was "F--K YOU!!!!!" So Prudomme said it again and received the same response, and then said, "We'll see about this", and headed to the tower.

A few minutes later he was back with the track manager who asked us what the problem was. Now we've been talking with this guy for three day and we weren't strangers anymore, so when we explained that we were there first and we wanted that spot, he simply turned to Prudomme and said, "Looks like you'll have to find another spot". Don started arguing about being the booked in show and all that crap, and that he deserved the space, and the manager just told him that if he didn't like it, he could just GO HOME, but he wasn't GETTING PAID. They moved just far enough away in the GRAVEL to sneer at us all week, and we returned the favor by pointing at them and telling the story to anyone who would come by and listen. So it's little guys 1, Pros 10,000, unless some of you can come up with similar stories.

And to think that some people don't long for the "Good ole days". Well, maybe Don Prudomme doesn't.

Jerry