The ONE and ONLY Happy Birthday Thread!

[Moxie]

Happy Birthday and R.I.P. to Juan Manuel Fangio, certainly one of the few greatest and perhaps the greatest road racer of all time, born 24 June 1911.

From Wikipedia --

Juan Manuel Fangio (June 24, 1911 – July 17, 1995), nicknamed El Chueco ("the bowlegged one") or El Maestro ("The Master"), was a racing car driver from Argentina, who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing.

As a child, he abandoned academic studies to pursue auto mechanics. In 1938, he debuted in Turismo Carretera, competing in a Ford V8. In 1940, he competed with Chevrolet, winning the Grand Prix International Championship and devoted his time to the Argentine Turismo Carretera becoming its champion, a title he successfully defended a year later. Fangio then competed in Europe between 1947 to 1949 where he achieved further success.

He won five Formula One World Drivers' Championships—a record which stood for 46 years until beaten by Michael Schumacher—with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati), a feat that has not been repeated. A member of the Formula 1 Hall of Fame, he is regarded by many as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time and holds the highest winning percentage in Formula One, 46%, winning 24 of 52 Formula One races he entered. Fangio is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, having won it four times in his career—the most of any driver.

After retirement, Fangio presided as the honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina from 1987, a year after the inauguration of his museum, until his death in 1995. In 2011, on the centenary of his birth, Fangio was remembered around the world and various activities were held on the occasion of his birthday.

[Moxie]

Happy 26th birthday to world champion Sebastian Vettel, born 3 July 1987. Vettel is the youngest triple world champion in F1 history and is currently leading the 2013 standings after nine races.

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday Paul! Hope you have a great day!

[dalyduo]

I'll second that...

Happy Birthday OldRedRacer!

Hope you had a great day and thanks for all your contributions here!

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday Chris! Hope you have a great day!

[Tireman]

Happy Birthday Chris !!!!!! Come on back to the RT ranks in 2014 !

Viz

[LimeRockRacer]

Thank you all for the kind wishes!

[dalyduo]

Late to the party... But your Austin brethren missed you at the F1 race!

Happy Birthday Chris

[cheekychica]

Even though it was yesterday and many of us wished him well on Facebook...

Happy Birthday Peter! Hope you had a fun day! Stay warm, and enjoy those new skis.

[dalyduo]

Happy Birthday Moxie!

[Tireman]

Happy Birthday Moxie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Viz

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday Leland!And Happy Birthday Rob!

[dalyduo]

Happy Birthday Rob Slonaker!

[Tireman]

Hey Rob, Happy Birthday !

Viz

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday, Pat!

Hope you have a great day! Warm (for January), sunny weather, birthday festivities, and the NFL playoffs and Golden Globes (if you're into that sort of thing): sounds like a good day! Enjoy!

[Tireman]

Happy Birthday Pat ! Enjoy your day. Coming to Sebring for the 12 Hours?

Viz

[dalyduo]

Thanks Cheeky and Tireman. I'm a lucky dog and happy to have a low key birthday this year. Julia made a salmon/caper/cheese omelet that was wonderful and after a workout we'll have a nice dinner out and then watch some of the Golden Globes with a glass of champagne.

Probably will be at Sebring for the 12hour as I"ve got that Mazda Pro Challenge race weekend to use up and can't think of a better place to use it. :-)

[cdh]

Have a Happy Birthday Pat!!!

(btw, here you get 3 happy b-days...on FB you get 300)

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday, Roger!

[dalyduo]

Late to the party...

Happy Birthday Roger! :-)

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Hope you have a great day! Good to see you over the holiday weekend, and thanks for documenting my first "official" LRP pic of the season.

[dalyduo]

Late again!

Happy Birthday Paul!

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday, LRR! Hope you have a great birthday!

[Tireman]

Hey Chris, hope you're having a great birthday Buddy !!!!!!!

Viz

[dalyduo]

Happy Birthday Chris... Try as you might... that's one race you'll never catch me in. :-)

Have a great day.

Pat

[cheekychica]

Happy, Happy Birthday, Pat!

Have a wonderful day and stay warm!

[dalyduo]

Thanks!

In Indianapolis working out at RaceCraft1 and PitFit in preparation for racing the F3 cars at Laguna next week. We are in a massive ice storm. Freezing ground, temps at or just below freezing and a long rain storm. Everything is covered with ice. Main roads are salted and passable but local roads and sidewalks are hockey rink slippery. The hardest part of getting back from dinner last night was walking from the parking lot to the hotel entrance.

There is snow just north of us and rain just south of us so we are in the icy sweet spot.

Gus Doppes connecting flight from Chicago was cancelled and John Schauerman's flight from Phoenix was cancelled as well. Gus rented a car and is driving down. John's trying to get a flight out today so he only misses one of our 3 days.

Hotel is less than a mile from the facility so not worried about getting there. Birthday Adventure!

[knightrider]

Happy Birthday to Pat!
Be safe in the ice storm!!

72 degrees and sunny in Phoenix if anyone wants a warm stop over before or after Laguna!

[dalyduo]

Tempting... Very tempting. If my red eye return flight wasn't locked in I'd be knocking' at your door.

Had a great first day in the simulators with Gus. John Schauerman's flight from Phoenix was cancelled so he's bailed out. Gus arrived at 2a Monday morning and did a full pull in the simulators before taking a nap while I went for a 6p killer workout at PitFit. A hardworking birthday in my racing happy place.
Lots to be thankful for.
Wish you were here. :-)

Originally Posted by knightrider

Happy Birthday to Pat!
Be safe in the ice storm!!

72 degrees and sunny in Phoenix if anyone wants a warm stop over before or after Laguna!

[Tireman]

Happy belated birthday Pat, sorry I missed it but best wishes all the way regardless. Looking forward to your next F3 race report.

Viz

[cheekychica]

Thanks Ali...
Received many birthday E-mails on my day... half of which from rental car companies, airlines and hotel chains that had my birthday in their database. Loved celebrating the day in a racing simulator and then getting my ass kicked in a workout at PitFit where earlier in the day Scott Dixon had done the same. :-)
Posted an update about the F3 event. All the training made a difference!

Glad to hear you're having a fun birthday week, Pat! Have fun at the F3 event!

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday, Doug! Hope you have a great day and that you've been dug out (at least we weren't in the eastern part of the state)!

[dalyduo]

Happy Birthday CDH! Enjoy your day

[Tireman]

Happy Birthday Doug !!!!!!! Come to Florida, it's much warmer

Viz

[Gerardo]

Happy Birthday Doug!

[cheekychica]

Happy belated Birthday, Gerardo!

Hope you had a fun day!

[dalyduo]

Happy Birthday Moxie!

[cheekychica]

Happy Birthday, Pat!

Hope you have a great day! Maybe you'll get some birthday snow.

[dalyduo]

Thanks Ali,

No snow but spent my birthday driving the new Lucas Oil cars at Sebring with Jeff Stern, Gary Vizioli, Gus Doppes and a bunch of other guys. It was in the 40's in the morning at Sebring but warmed each day into the 60's.

Had a birthday celebration at Divi's with your dad and Vicky, Paul Brand and his wife, Gerardo, Kelly Jones, Gary Vizioli and Susan and Jeff Stern. We celebrated on the evening of the 11th as I was flying back on the 12th.

Great seeing everyone! :-)

Originally Posted by cheekychica

Happy Birthday, Pat!

Hope you have a great day! Maybe you'll get some birthday snow.

[cheekychica]

Hi everyone!

I know this post isn't a birthday message, but since most of the members are subscribed to this thread, I thought it would reach the most people if I posted it here.

Has anyone heard from Mike Marino since the end of October? We E-mailed then, but I haven't been able to get in touch with him since. His E-mail is now bouncing back with an error that the Inbox is full. His Facebook page seems to have disappeared.

Since he's living abroad, I just want to make sure everything is OK. His Inbox has never bounced back as full before, and it's been doing so for over a month (that I know of).

Thanks,
Ali

[sydude]

From Paul Balich:

"We correspond very irregularly. Last I have are some hang gliding videos from last spring. If you do make contact please keep us posted?

Paul B."

Originally Posted by cheekychica

Hi everyone!

I know this post isn't a birthday message, but since most of the members are subscribed to this thread, I thought it would reach the most people if I posted it here.

Has anyone heard from Mike Marino since the end of October? We E-mailed then, but I haven't been able to get in touch with him since. His E-mail is now bouncing back with an error that the Inbox is full. His Facebook page seems to have disappeared.

Since he's living abroad, I just want to make sure everything is OK. His Inbox has never bounced back as full before, and it's been doing so for over a month (that I know of).

Thanks,
Ali

[cheekychica]

Thanks, for forwarding Paul's message, Sy. I'll let you know if I can get through, but my methods of contacting him (E-mail and Facebook) aren't working.

I just know he had plans to go SCUBA diving in November, but found out it wasn't possible where he was going to go, so he was going to try to find another spot but hadn't scheduled anything yet.

[cheekychica]

Good news! I tried E-mailing Mike again, it went through (finally), and I heard back! He's fine, still overseas, and was having server issues.