Who even remembers how a driver becomes your favourite. It’s like asking someone why they drink Corona of smoke Lucky Strike. You don’t know why you do; you just do.
Was it Will Power’s phony sounding name? Or all the times he almost clinched the championship before being foiled by the oval-tracks? One way or another, IndyCar driver Will Power was ‘our‘ driver.
It’s been exciting following the career of Towoomba’s favourite son.
Power mastered the ovals. He became a series champion…twice. He even won the biggest race in the world. All while maintaining his ‘no filter’ attitude. This won him a lot of fans!
During the IndyCar race in Toronto a couple weekends ago, the series organized a meet-and-greet with the drivers on Friday. It should be no surprise, but the line was insane! People waited hours to get an autograph from their racing heroes. Those of us at the back of the line were advised to just leave.
No problem. We just went over to the IndyCar paddock area to get a look at all the cars and their race teams. Then we stopped off at Team Penske and chilled out for a bit. It’s impressive to see how well organized the top-tier teams are.
A few minutes later, Will Power stepped out of his trailer and just came over to chit-chat.
We asked him to sign the number plate from the No. 12 Formula 1200 car, and Daniel translated that into the Australian name, Formula Vee. Will commented that he sometimes drives the F-Vee on the iRacing simulator. Turns out our racing hero is just a perfectly normal guy.
As he headed back to his trailer, Will said to Daniel “Good luck in your next race.” which just seemed like we’d entered bizzarro world.
We spent three days at the Toronto Indy race cheering on our favourite driver, who had a challenging race. When the race was over, we were walking back to the parking lot through the National Trade Centre when we saw Will’s wife Liz Power and her parents. She was heading back to Hotel X where the drivers all stay.
We said a quick hello to Liz, apologized for the interruption, and made her laugh when we said that she’s been a great source of entertainment to our family for years. Nobody gets as nervous trackside as Liz Power when Will is leading! She literally chews water bottles until they’re flat.
She loved that we all had our Power gear on, and stopped for a quick photo. Nice lady.
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