Some of you are old enough to remember when video arcades were a new phenomenon (back in the late 80's/early 90's). Lucas and Spielberg were shadow partners for a series of high-end, Dave & Buster type arcades, featuring banks of "immersion type" games. These included series of pods, where gamers would play against other gamers from within a surround video/sound pod - typically these were space war or tank war types of shoot-'em up units. But they also had the "sit-in" type of racing games, where there would be a bank of four to eight cars with large screen video displays, and even larger displays overhead for spectators (lines behind the games were long, they were very popular). Even by today's standards, these games were a good deal of fun, pitting you against seven other drivers for relatively long races (usually about 5 minutes, although some were set-up for longer races).

--------------------------- -------------------------------

A couple of buddies and I had gotten pretty good at an open wheeled version of the game, featuring both road courses and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We would usually choose a course allegedly set up along the California coast - a pretty challenging course in the scheme of things in this game. As we got to the front of our lines, ready to take the next race, we're chatting it up with the current group of drivers - and notice they're on the same course we prefer and doing very well. And they're talking some serious trash amongst themselves. The race ends, and the guy in front of me has narrowly beaten the guy two seats to the right. As they get up, I notice it's Robbie Gordon. And Jimmy Vasser's the guy he's just narrowly defeated. A couple of us started talking to both of them, asking them to stay in their seats and let the rest of us race against them - we'd pay for their races (like they needed to have us pay for them, ... but we desperately wanted to race them and really weren't thinking things through in this regard ...). Everyone else in the lines agreed, and Robbie and Jimmy stayed for about an hour playing the game over and over with a couple dozen of their closest friends living out their Walter Mitty-esque fantasies.

I don't think any of us ever came close to beating them, regardless of the track (these games were not set to artificially keep contestants close to one another, a setting that is usually engaged at most arcades). These guys were a lot of fun. Robbie is VERY personable and was quick to give advice as to how to drive faster - generally, easier on the throttle and focus more on entering and exiting turns smoothly. (I've done some entry-level racing in non-shifting carts and 1.9L sports cars, and knew a bit about how to race, but still couldn't touch these guys). Neither guy had an apparent ego, readily engaging anyone in conversation and seeming to have a good time themselves. This was the first week in May, and both drivers were there taking a break from the track (it was raining all day). They'd talk about Indy and the other race teams with us while they drove and humored us when we strategized to have two drivers focus on taking each of them out, while the remaining two raced as fast as they could in an attempt to actually take a win from them - no dice. We had a blast, until their entourages finally pried them out of the building to head back to the Speedway.

I've since thoroughly enjoyed watching Robby's escapades in a variety of racing series. His short-lived reality series was one of the more interesting yet produced. The program featured Robby and his life as a racer and team owner warts and all, but never seemed to catch on with the public - at least not in sufficient quantities to sustain network interest in picking the show up for another season.

I believe he's really a great guy, but also an INCREDIBLY competitive person as well. Sure, when he's in the competitive mode, he crosses the line more than a few times, particularly in NASCAR sanctioned events. I find this to be an endearing quality, but know others have been repulsed by some of his behavior. There is no denying he's fast as hell in whatever car he climbs into, whether it's his native off-road series, an IndyCar, a sports car/GT, or a Cup car; and, once the green flag drops, he'll be one of the most aggressive drivers on the circuit. He has won off-road series championships more than ten times, has numerous IndyCar and sports car wins as well, including four 24 Hours of Daytona class wins in a row in the late 90's. His rep as a reckless driver only exists in NASCAR - I'm thinking he takes "rubbin' is racin'" quite literally and does not shy away from contact in that series. This is NOT characteristic of him in IndyCar, off-road, or sports car racing.

I'll keep pullin' for Robby, and will hope that he and Marcos team up and spin the entire field off the track in their march to the front this weekend at Watkins Glen - and then finish their unfinished business from last Saturday at Montreal.