13 replies to this topic

[Gil Bouffard]

OK, Bobbo, Here it is...

An earlier thread got off track for a while and then somone posted something that got my attention.

The comments related to Aussie driver Dick Johnson's NASCAR race at Sears Point and his in car comments. Famous or infamous as they may be, I had to add the below..

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa,Whoa!

Dick Johnson was NOT, "wired for sound," at Sears Point! The in car camera had a mike attached to it to catch the sounds of the car. Johnson forgot about or didn't realize the sensitivity of the microphone.

His comments were (as the say on "Law & Order). "Excited utterances."

I was in the press area for that race covering it for "FASTLINES."

Now, we listen in on radio conversations between drivers and crews. Guess what? They curse also!

Stick a microphone in front of a racing driver in the heat of battle and take your chances!

I know that I and many others who have experience some contretemps on the circuit have released, "excited utterances." You just can't hear them from inside a full face helmet.

The Gilster

(New Stuff)

I remember the first GP of Miami when the Univision Pit reporter tried to get in the Interscope Lola with Danny Ongias, during a pit stop.

Melted the little plastic muffler off the microphone, did Danny.

There have been many AJ Foyt incidents. One, when he was prepared to turn Chris Economaki into a tripod.

[FLB]

Buddy Lazier is another who's had memorable media moments:

1. At Loudon in 1996, he was rammed by Tony Stewart: "That SOB.... He just effing hit me in the back!"

2. This year, at Atlanta (?), struggling with a ill-handling car: "It's funny... It's funny... Oh s*/*!"

[Rob G]

Immediately after winning the 1986 Detroit GP, Ayrton Senna was being interviewed by Chris Economaki on CBS. After Senna was asked about a punctured tire, he sighed and casually said, "Oooohhh, eet **** ehvrryteeng ahp". Economaki didn't even flinch.

[Pikachu Racing]

Another one was at Houston two years ago. I don't know who was it, but both Dario and Paul Tracy was running close. Out of nowhere one of them said "What the ****?" when he was trying to pass one another.

[Joe Fan]

Jeff Gordon has the squeeky clean Christian image off the track but I have heard from fans who have scanners that he will cuss like a sailor during the race when things aren't going well.

[Darren Galpin]

The same for Emerson Fittipaldi when racing for Penske. When things were going bad he would turn the airwaves blue, and you could see the Penske race engineers rotate their headsets so that they didn't have to listen......

[William Dale Jr]

Originally posted by Gil Bouffard
Dick Johnson was NOT, "wired for sound," at Sears Point! The in car camera had a mike attached to it to catch the sounds of the car. Johnson forgot about or didn't realize the sensitivity of the microphone.

(edit)

I was in the press area for that race covering it for "FASTLINES."

I don't know about that, Gil. I'm sure I have Johnson on tape somewhere talking to the TV commentators on an incar shot as his Thunderbird sat atop a tyre wall.

However, with you being in the press area at the race, and myself being three years old and half a world away at the time, I'll take your word for it

Just out of interest, how did the press area react to his, erm, 'excited utterances'?

P.S. I also apologise for getting the Jo Schlesser topic so off-topic

[Buford]

Emmo coined the name the Japanese driver was called. Hiro Matishusa (Spelling?) who was a moving chicane for several years was called "King Hiro" and the name stuck.

The nickname came from the radio transmissions Emmo often made everytime he came up behind Hiro and got balked. Emmon would shout into the radio but never got the button down fast enough to get the first part of his statement out so all they would hear all the time was "....king Hiro."

[Gil Bouffard]

Mr. Junior.....

We all laughed. Especially when TV Commentator Benny Parsons said something like. "I think that's Australian for whoops!"

The Gilinator:rolleyes:

[404KF2]

I guess you were not watching Le Mans on Speedvision last weekend.

A French driver (I forget his name at the moment), having just finished a long stint, was asked about the conditions at night when it was raining. He told the Speedvision pit reporter "Eet is ze fueking sheet out zere..." David Hobbs laughed about it but Bob Varsha made a most humble, grovelling apology a minute or two later.

It was hilarious - I love it when this sort of thing happens.

[William Dale Jr]

Recently in Australia there was a small controversy about the comments made by a member of the pitcrew during a V8 Supercar race, it seems that Network Ten (who cover the championship) have also taken the route of monitoring radio transmissions.

In this case, the long awaited battle between Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes had just ended in tears. While watching a shot out of Lowndes' in-car camera, viewers around Australia were treated to hearing a pitcrew member utter the words "don't worry, he's out of the f****** championship". I presumed this was said by a HRT crew member to Mark Skaife, seeing as Lowndes was the one who was in the barriers.


But perhaps the most famous incident involving blue language occured at the Tooheys 1000 in 1992. The race had ended in controversy on lap 144 of 161 after a brief rainstorm caused a crash on Conrod Straight. Included in this accident was the leading Nissan GTR of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife. As the race was red flagged, the results were taken one lap before the stoppage, leaving the GTR first, Dick Johnson and John Bowe in a Ford Sierra in second, and Neil Crompton and Anders Olofsson (sp?) in the sister GTR to the winner in third. The crowd, many of whom hated the Nissan team following events from earlier in the year, were not best pleased. And they showed it during the podium ceremony.

First onto the podium was Crompton and Olofsson. They were greeted by jeers and booing. Crompton showed his feelings by giving them the finger as he left the podium, but Anders seemed to be enjoying himself. He said he was happy that the crowd was showing it's support and backing their favourites, perhaps he didn't know what they were saying...

Next up was Johnson and Bowe, who were treated to a hero's reception by the crowd. They were both disappointed that they could be "beaten by a crashed car".

Finally came the victors, Richards and Skaife. The jeering given to their teammates wasn't half of what they received. This, against the grief of the tragic death of Denis Hulme earlier in the race, only served to anger Jim, "...I thought Australian motor racing had a lot more to go for it than this, this is bloody disgraceful. I'll keep racing, but this is going to stay with me for a long time. You're a pack of a***holes". All shown live around Australia. It even made the headlines on the nightly news, with the censoring of certain words, of course.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured that some of the background needed to be told.

[MrAerodynamicist]

Ralf swore on an ITV interview a few years ago. IIRC, he commented that "We f****ed up"

[Yelnats]

In one of David Coulthards first podium interviews he suddenly said that "he hoped the interview was over because he was leaving for a Piss" and got up and left!!

[SennasCat]

I remember seeing Stefan Johansson in a tape some years ago (I think it was one of the Havoc series)

There was a huge accident - I think in F3 at Brands Hatch. Usual startline stuff, cars flying etc. They interviewed a few drivers and then got to Johansson. The interviewer said - "were you in the accident?"
Johanson looked a bit glazed over and said "What accident?? "oh yeah yeah, my car is f****d. I got a wheel in the head"

So there you go