Alex Tagliani podcast..

I have a new podcast for you to hear. CLICK HERE to listen to my conversation with Alex Tagliani. Alex is a Champ Car racer and is here to race in the West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix. I got the chance to talk to him at West Edmonton Mall. He was not amused with some of my questions but was very amused with one. So much that his answer to my question made the Edmonton Journal the next day. The question? "If someone offered you a billion dollars would you go three rounds with a bear?"

Have a listen.

Shoot something other than Hockey? No!

Today I shot something other than Hockey. NO! Say it ain't so? Really, I did. Champ Car had an event today at the city center airport. It was the media go cart challenge. They had Sebastian Bourdais come in to race the fast carts on a makeshift course and the media was challenged to beat his time. Nice.



Now I would like to tell you that I got in that cart and wiped the street with that Bourdais chump, but I can't. He is quite good. He is leading the Champ Car standings right now and was the champion last year. He took the track and did it in 15.1 seconds. Very fast. Almost like he knows how to drive.

So I get out there and give it a go. First thing, my ass was too big for the seat, so I had to sit on the front edge of the seat. I know you can only imagine me in one of those stupid carts. Well you won't, because Brad Reid shot my laps. I will get it put up here as soon as I can. Next, my knees were around my ears. Oh and that Bourdais kid only ways a quarter of what I do. Now these are not excuses, just qualifications.

I did the lap at a blazing 20.88 seconds. I know I suck. I used to pride myself on being a champion go cart guy. I have run kids off of tracks in Wisconsin just to be the best. No I really have.



As you can see in the pic above, I even ran Donna into the rail just to get that win. Needless to say I was not allowed back on that track in Door County. David Peltier, a damn figure skater, was the winner of the amatuers there. He had a time just over 16 seconds. Cheater.

Anyway, I will from now on be in training for the race next year. No one, not even a Champ Car Champion is going to beat me on the go cart track.



While we were ther the Bell Blimp flew over our heads. Nice pic...

Have a nice Day...

Here we go, I actually do work....

The newest members of the Forsythe Racing team, Goggles Weidman and The Intimidator Peterson


Okay, so I have been taking heat from a lot of you about how I NEVER work. Included in the generalization is Donna. I hear "Since you never work" followed usually by a "you could clean or cook or fix or solve world peace". Now, I do work, and yes I do cook and clean, on occasion. Weiser just last night on the phone gave me grief for not working. I will admit that I do have extra time on my hands but I am productive with my time. Like this blog for example...

So I decided to take pictures of a week where Jordi and I worked a lot. Just to prove to you naysayers that I am not the couch potato that you think I am.


Weidman in between shoots.

We will start on a Wednesday.

8am Eskimos hold a avail for the coach and players in preparation for their game on Friday with the Blue bombers of Winnipeg. Usually there is food at these. Nice subs from Mr. Sub.


Corey B's record for subs ate at a Esks presser is I believe six. He is my hero.


Coach telling us all the cliche's we need for our story


Kelly Wiltshire doing the same.

A wise reporter once told me "A fed photog is a happy photog'. Words to live by.
I failed to take any digi-pics of this because it was early and we were in a hurry because we had a noon with George Laraque to talk about the lockout. After that we also caught up with Ryan Smyth and the Oilers brass to discuss the imminent ending of the labor dispute. I did not get pics of this because we were in a hurry. You will just have to believe me.




Feed tape at Rexall, done by about 4pm.



Alex Tagliani tears out of pit row.

Thursday
10am All the champ car drivers held a media presser at the big mall and some of them rode the roller coaster. This was a cluster and a pain to shoot. Too many cameras and not enough space. Andrew Ranger who is 18 years old and a driver did not ride the coaster. Drives a car at about 300mph but did not ride the coaster. Probably a good idea since people have died on the coaster.


Drivers posing for pics.


Here is the coaster not too far from the place where people died riding it.


Alex Tagliani on the mic

The presser was in the mall by the HMV where they introduced the sponsors and the drivers. Alex tagliani came out in a new Ford GT. Killer car I might add. But no one knew it was coming so it did not make it on anybodies show because we were all caugth off guard. Note to media flaks, tell us about grand entrance so we can get said grand entrance on tape.


The new Ford GT

Side note: Fabulous buffet at this conference. Food is always a plus. I will try to put up a still from the footage soon.
12:30pm Winnipeg players avail at the hotel. We had to rush from the champ car presser, which did I mention had an incredible buffet? To the player and coach avail at the hotel. Not much to see here just football players who did not want to talk to us talking to us.


Feed tape at Rexall and done by about 3:30pm.


Friday

noon We head to the track for the first day of qualifing for the Race. I am informed that I can have a vest so I can go out on the track at pit row. My response to the media guy for Camp Car "Yeah right". After the initial shock of the thought of stepping on a track where the cars go in excess of 200 mph I thought about it and decided that I have done dumber things than this. I after all did go to a Tiffany concert once. That was pretty stupid. So I decide to go for it...


On our way to the track Paulie tells us about his ride in the Ford GT at about 130mph, uh, he liked it.


Andrew Ranger's pit crew works on his car. As you can see this pic was taken with my back to the cars. I am not smart.

The media guy told me just to make sure that I was always facing the cars. Do not turn your back on the cars. Okay, sounds good. Did I mention these cars go fast? A couple of times they would peel out and head to the track and go by me about three feet away. You feel the car go by you don't just hear it.


As you can see they are fast.

Well they had a presser at the end to show who was doing the best time and Paul Tracy was third and AJ Almandinger was first. Not a bad bit of work. Very cool thing to cover.


Here they are one, two, three.


Jordi here is paying close attention to the presser.


After we were done with that we went to Rexall and fed. Rexall was set up for Willie Nelson concert.

But my day was not over. After this we still had to cover the football Game that evening. Winnipeg versus Edmonton. We arrive at the game about 6:30pm and help ourselves to the fab pre game meal.


Nice spread at the game.


Press Box at Commonwealth Stadium


Jordi discussing the game with his colleagues.


View from my seat

We find our seats up front on the glass and watch the game. Free soda, I might add. After the game is over we run down to the locker room and get the quotes we need for the report then feed it all to Toronto. Yes from Rexall Place.


Paul Tracy plays the waiting game durning time trials on Saturday.

Saturday

Same as early friday, where we went to time trials for the Champ Car Race and filed a story.


Me taking time to pose for a pic on pit row. AGAIN with my back to the car. Stupid, is as...

Sunday

Race day. At about noon we went down to the race because we were not allowed on pit row during the race. All we had to do on this day was watch the race, and if there was a wreck run down to the paddock area and get interviews. Then of course get the post race comments. The paddock area is where the teams work on their cars. So we got a good spot in front of the TV's...


Media types watching the race.

Did I mention that they had food a pop for us at this one also. I don't know if you know how IMPORTANT this is.


Nice selection of Pepsi products.

Well we watched the race and with about 10 laps to go we made our way to pit row and got ready for the post game. We talked to Tagliani, Almandinger, and the best of all REG DUNLAP. That's right, Paul Freaking Newman.


"Old Time Hockey"

I wanted to try to get some Slapshot quotes out of him but Jordi did not go for it. I just wanted to hear him give the pregame 'we got a lot of losses' speech. Oh well maybe next time.


Reg on his moped. They all drove mopeds back and forth from their paddocks. Some were quite flashy. I saw one with 'spinbacks' for rims. Nice.


Post race presser.

They held a presser with the three winners again and we got what we needed from that. We got our stuff and headed to Rexall and fed. Not a bad day at the office.


So as you can see we do do a lot of work and get fed while we do it. Did I mention how important that is? Anyway, the next time you get the urge to blast me for not working please refer to this blog and remember again, "A fed photog is a happy photog." Oh and since that week where we worked 6 out of the seven days, well, uh, the average work week has been about, uh, three days? Okay, but when hockey starts up again, we will be working a lot more, get off my back.

HAVE A NICE DAY, AND GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!!