This happened to me a few years back at Bathurst and I swore I would never follow the factory team again, I even said this to Denny Mooney because I was sitting right outside the Holden hospitality tent while he was sitting out on the balcony just 1 meter behind me (and he offered me a VE SS stubby cooler) but its my passion and their my team so of course it didnt work. But I was dissapointed at the creek. Not with their driving, hell Ive learnt to live with the fact that the only way we can get #1 on a red car is to let one guy do it with another team then buy him and thus buy the number, but with their lack of care for fans. Ok so as usual I got to the creek before the gates opened, setup and braved the mud (and got covered in it), spent $200+ at the merchandise tent and find out of all the drivers I want to get signatures from their the 2 that arent doing it. Rick Kelly and Dumbrell are doing one, Murph and Richards are doing one, not Tander and Skaife. I was mega ****ed because I had pulled my instrument cluster (speedo/tacho) out of my car and stripped it down especially just so I could get them to sign it on the facia. I had wrapped it carefully and nursed it the whole way so nothing would happen, and for what, to be told "if you want an autograph pay $40 to get into the pit lane and you may be lucky enough to see them" This happened to me 2 years ago at Bathurst just after that Team Red BS started. with the old in house run Club 1 I was entitled to an autograph session at Bathurst, or priority signing at the track. Their only autograph session was a "public one" and I got told to join the queue, which I did. A guy then said "sorry, no more autographs from you onwards". I saw red, not Team Red, but anger red. I told him Im a paying member and have been since the clubs inception. My member number was in the mid 20's, by now they were up to 20 000 but mine was acctually member 20 something (24 or 27 or something). I was paying $300 odd to be punched in the face by the team I loved, which is when I went to the Supercheap Tent and got Murph and McConville to autograph the dash. I was tempted to get Murph to sign this one too, but I really wanted the HRT drivers. Why do they do that tho? I was able to get autographs from everyone else, Todd Kelly, Lee Holdsworth even bloody Neil Crompton, but not the HRT drivers. Otherwise, apart from Holdens crappy luck and the whole Ford winning thing, the weekend was awesome as usual :thumbsup:
To be fair, it wasn't skaife or tander telling you you can't get an autograph. You have to remember this is in the middle of their work.. They have alot to do. Especially Skaife. Skaife has to run the team as well..Not just drive. So im sure they have plenty on their plate. And they also have friends and family to spend time with, as well as contribute input to race engineers etc. Alot of the time it is not the drivers making the decisions its PR people telling them when and what they have to be doing. They can't be there all day to sign autographs when they are meant to be racing, and remember out of all the drivers in the V8 Supercar series the HRT drivers will draw the largest numbers with the most fans wanting stuff signed... But they cant please 10,000 people every day. At the end of the day at the public signing session its first in first served, and obviously others were ahead of you in the queue and were lucky enough to receive an autograph. There were plenty getting autographs at the Clipsal 500 behind the pits, and im sure some would have been lucky enough this weekend as well.
but what ****ed me off at Bathurst was that I used to pay $300 per year to guarantee an autograph session, but once they removed the in house Club1 and went to this Team Red BS they were happy to take my money and "offer so much more". I remember now too, I was also upset because that was the year Brock died and I had his autograph on the 1979 model Torana, and I wanted Jim Richards too, because he was racing the 2nd HRT car that year and in previous years that hadnt been a drama but then they cancelled the paying member signing sessions. I'm just dissapointed out of 3 days of being trackside, even being there before the gates opened (as is usual witrh me) they didnt do a proper autograph session once :bang: Not everyone can afford the extra to get behind the pits, the decent thing to do would have been at least a 20 minute session on Sunday. I'm just annoyed I put so much time and effort into this team, to the point of even applying, and continually applying for a job, and they can't even sign one thing.
ive got both of their autographs. even got a pic with skaife. if i can be arsed ill post it tomorrow when i find it
Times must have changed.I went in pit lane at bathurst and got skaife, lowndes, ingall etc. autograph and photo's, and what's more they were only too happy to do it. I even got the castrol cougars too.... woooooooohooooooo!
I got a pic of skaife and Tanders Sig only a few years back, And got the Kelly boys in pics and sigs at Highpoint some years ago. You must just be very unlucky wrong place wrong time.
Mel still looks damn fine too, was in at my work the other week for a function and had a good chat to her, she's been living and working up your way for a few years Troy....
Get over it man......your one of how many thousand people that go to the V8's?? At the end of the day, the drivers are there to do a job and unfortunately that job isn't to sign autographs.....There job is driving a race car! They all sign autographs as a good gesture, they don't get paid to do it.
