During the years 19601962
I worked as flagman and turn marshal at every race I could reach. Saturday Mike
Houston and I were the flag team at the bend in the back straight (black line
course). Sunday we took Pat Asbill and Hilary Lind to the races with us, and arrived
just a minute before the first session hit the track. We acted as if we knew what
we were doing, drove the '55 Olds right across the racing surface and over to
the flag station, girls and all.
An MGA had a fire under the hood and
stopped up-course from us so we tossed the extinguisher in the Olds and hurried
over there. The fire wasn't that bad. We doused it with powder and left him to
the Emergency towtruck.
At the end of a formula car practice session
one of the drivers rolled up to us at the flag station. He said there was a wrench
down-track from us, that it was "...about a ¼ Whitworth." It
had been flipped up in the air and whizzed past his helmet. Mike and I went looking,
and sure enough, there it was. One-quarter Whitworth. We passed it to an Emergency
worker. I suppose the Public Address announcer paged anyone who was missing such
a wrench. I also suppose no one claimed it. They almost never do. Can you guess
why?