Mystery Men

Paul Drayson

Petersen/White Lightning Team 2004

Sam still hides things from me. I don't think he does it intentionally, it's just he's not a woman, and as not-being-a-woman, he just doesn't think things are interesting or as important, as say, well, me.

You see, Sam is not just a truck driver. He actually has a pretty interesting "side job." Since 2003 he has worked on a race team for the American Le Mans Series (yea, I'd never heard of it either). Boiled down, it's basically a race series that includes cars called Prototypes and Ferraris, Porsches, Corvettes, Aston Martins, etc. It's actually the premiere sports car racing of the world. In other words, the ALMS or the LMS is the Nascar for the rest of the world.

Sam drives the truck, or the tranporter that hauls the car (hence the need for a truck driver) and he's worked his way up the ranks to be the primary fueler. He got the job with the team because team's manager's sister worked for Andrus Trucking and she recommended Sam for the job. So, this is how we met team manager Dale White. This is the introduction to the first of my two "mystery men."

Dale is the team manager and is standing by the driver's side door in the above picture. All 6'5" of him can be intimidating. And it doesn't bother Dale to sit one-on-one with you in restaurant in total silence. I guess the tension can be so thick that it forces one to speak of things you normally wouldn't, according to Sam.

Every once in a while, Sam will reveal little tidbits of information about Mr. White. I knew he holds a mechanical engineering doctorate degree and has invented some auto part he still gets residuals from. Tonight, though, Sam told me Dale used to work for the government at Area 51. I asked the next most logical question (for my Dad, of course): What does Dale know about the aliens? Sam said Dale won't talk about "those days."

Apparently, though, Dale still has connections. A couple years ago, some of the team was in Africa getting ready for the Dakar race (very famous, very long, very dangerous so much they cancelled it, desert race). Dale and another team member, Nico, had their passports stolen. At the airport, Dale took one government official aside, gave him his "code" and 10 minutes later both Dale and Nico had new passports. Wow, so don't mess with Dale or he could easily have you buried alive in the desert.

The second mystery man is Lord Paul Drayson. He's so famous he has his own Wikipedia entry. The "Lord" is the owner of the team. He's a British fellow, who is currently the Minister of Science in Great Britian. Very smart man. Even all 5'5" of him is intimidating. He's in his late 40s and this is his second year touring with his family pursuing his racing teams.

He and his family are quite nice, but he won't rest until he wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France (check your local listings in June for the race on Speed Channel). Word is he plans to run for Prime Minister in a few years (whew, all the answers my Dad would also love to have from someone who knows the Queen). Also (info. Sam was holding out on me) is that Paul has been financing a car for the last two years that he plans on breaking the world land speed record. They'll test it out at the Bonneville Salt Flats next year in hopes of it going 1,000 mph. Sam will pick up all the equipment for it at the airport next year.

So, Sam works with some interesting people. Dale and Paul don't necessarily look like anyone "interesting," but everyone has a story.You'd never know the stories people have just by looking at them. That's why I like people watching, especially at the mall.