Players' Run 2004 Photos

[ Note most the pics in this thread were lost in the disk crash... but they are now available here. ]

Okay, let's see how fast I can post a bunch of photos with the new software...

These are my 78 still camera photos... at least the ones that are appropriate to post. I still need to go back through my 2 hours of in-car video to pull out shots to post here. Those will come later.

If any of the rest of you have photos, feel free to add them here as well. There was certainly lots of eye candy.

 

After checking into the Brown Palace in Denver, we drove our cars (in the rain) over to the Lotus bar. Pulling into the parking lot, we felt like movie stars arriving at the Academy Awards... winding through a huge crowd of people with cameras flashing like mad and video rolling... cheers even.

Of course, that feeling ended when we got out of the car to walk to the bar. Nobody paid a bit of attention to us, just gathered around the car, looking in the windows, etc. Oh well... it was fun.

 

Leaving the Brown Palace in downtown Denver, we got a police escort to the major highway... at which point we could pick up the pace. Seriously, getting out of downtown as a group would have been a major pain without Denver's finest stopping traffic and letting us flow through... very nice way to travel. The line-up in the street was definitely a photo-op:

 

Some bizarro directions led to a number of us getting quite separated from others of us. But we all made it to Estes Park and then the beautiful drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. A bunch of us pulled off here allowing a bigger group to form... and allowed a few pics to be taken...

 

We ran a little further into the park and stopped again for more photo ops and conversation... and then we were off again... some stopped for pizza... but some of us didn't stop again until Aspen...

 

The parking lot at Hotel Jerome in Aspen was a bit like a car museum... well, except that the cars were filthy, and had just been run hard for 2000 miles or so in the last few days!! I made a few passes down there.

I finally caught a peak at Roland's F40 out front of the hotel... and then later finally got to meet Roland face-to-face down in the garage.

I think the favorite activity down in the garage was to ponder which was each of our favorites... which is yours?

 

The drive through Utah wasn't near as interesting as the drive through Colorado, but it did have its high points... and is certainly more interesting than north or west Texas. The canyon drive on 15 through Arizona was fabulous. But after the long drive, I think everyone was thrilled to see the hotel... or should I say "THEhotel at Mandalay Bay"... which, by the way, is a damn nice hotel... note the plasma TV on the wall in the separate living room... and the third TV on the wall in the bathroom. If only they had SPEEDTV so that I could catch the F1 replays... arrgh!

 

Others will have to fill in photos of the legs prior to Denver and of the last leg to LA. We chose to stay another day & night in Vegas, allowing me to attend the ESPN Russell Performance Track Day at Las Vegas Speedway, which I'll post about in another thread. Then we proceeded back to Texas via Santa Fe.

For discussion about my Stradale in particular or pics outside the Players' Run proper, see this thread.

The extra night in Vegas we chose to eat Italian at The Venetian... where we spotted this replica of a 1952 Ferrari 500 F2. It is 1/3 size; made by Stefano Allegretti, one of a few still practicing Batti-lastra (the art of metal hammering). His father, Mario Allegretti, was partnered with Piero Drogo in ownership of such a shop that built cars for Enzo.

It is a working vehicle with 500cc motor capable of going 60mph.

Pretty cool... but for the $75,000 price tag, I'd rather a working Dino 246 (or any number of other real Ferraris).

[ Note most the pics in this thread were lost in the disk crash... but they are now available here. ]

 

I'd have done a much better job had I known a bit better what to expect... kept getting surprised by things... it was fun, but I missed capturing some great shots. For example, pulling into Lotus parking lot, I wish I'd have been rolling film and had my camera out... I'd have loved capturing all the people taking pictures and video of me as I pulled in... too cool.

I wish the track visits in Denver and Aspen had not been cancelled or so late in the morning and instead made earlier in the day and optional... I'd have loved to hit both tracks!

Same for the Stradale... Ferrari makes great road cars! But the poor thing is filthy... and the stickers need to come off before I take it autocrossing this weekend (those numbers would never pass SCCA rules).

Likewise, on all three. On my todo-list is to schedule a time to drive the Stradale up to Mead for a track day with you... so, I'm sure you'll see us again! Maybe in July, if you're around... we'll be dying to get out of Texas heat by then... or maybe in August on the way to Monterey... not sure how that schedule's going to work out yet...

 

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! I hope you'll post them once you get them developed!! I didn't get enough pics of people taking pics of my car at that... maybe you did better than me!

 

I don't recall the exact number, but a little over 4500 miles... if the rest of this week goes as planned (two track days and an autocross), then I should end the week with over 5000 miles. That's in less than two months of ownership... not too bad... 30K miles in the first year? Probably not... but my 10K goal for the first year should be achieved in the first six months without problem.