Lewis' Lunch

As many of you know and as some of you will know now, it was only a few years ago that Formula 1 mega star Lewis Hamilton was employed at Palmer Sport. The same company I have the fortune to be a part of now.

As you can understand there is a very strong support for Lewis around the company since he was and still is friends with many of the members of the company. Naturally when working around an environment like Palmer Sport a guy like Lewis fit in very well from what I understand. He is a good guy to be around, works hard, and can be trusted on the race track (although apparently not as much in pit lane!!!!).

A few weeks ago I heard a story about Lewis which made me laugh and I thought you would enjoy reading about, that took place over one of Lewis' lunch breaks.

On this particular day Lewis was instructing on the karting event. During this event the guests do 10 minute session on the kart track where all of their times are recorded by a computer data system. There are three different instructors who work the event, so Lewis had a chance to slip away to use the gentleman's room.

On Lewis' return one of his colleagues was looking dumbfounded at the computer. "Lewis' take a look at this, one of the students did a 28.8 lap time!" Not only did the computer in fact show a 28.8 lap time, which quite frankly is off-the-charts fast, but it showed a few similar lap times from the same driver.

Lewis couldn't believe the time was so quick, especially considering his quickest time was a 29.2 almost half a second slower. Lewis decided the kart must be in especially tip top condition today and the weather conditions had aligned perfectly to create such a phenomenal lap time. Furthemore, the fact he was a McLaren-Mercedes sponsored racing driver and multi-time karting champion he should be able to soundly beat the time of any student.

Off Lewis set in the same kart the computer recorded the lap time. Lewis being incredibly talented got on to a blistering pace. He was at a 29.3 only a tenth off his personal all time best and he kept going and going until finally he had gotten down to a 29.2 matching his personal best, however still .4 tenths tardy of the other drivers time. He came in to check the computer time but his colleagues were heading out on their lunch break.

Lewis said he would stay behind and he wanted to beat the drivers time. According the other instructors let him be and left for their lunch break. An hour or so later the instructors turned back up and Lewis was still on track pounding around, lap after lap after lap. Lewis had managed to take another .1 second off his all time best lap but still was no where near the 28.8 second mark set by one of the guests as reported by the computer.

As Lewis pulled off the track the instructors were laughing their heads off. With the greatest sympathy they invited Lewis to come into the computer room and see with the magic of modern day computing technology which allows you to select, edit, an create immaginary lap times. The 28.8 was complete fictional and Lewis was one hungry driving instructor having missed lunch!

In the end Lewis is still a good friend of Palmer Sport and I am told is trying to get a few free minutes to come visit. Apparently his life is a bit 'mental' in his own words and he simply does not have any free time away from sponsor, team, and media commitments.

This week has been going really good for me. Yesterday I had a chance to run in one of the Cateram's which was good for about 3 hours of full out driving in the afternoon. The little cars are phenomenal, but very sensitive to the throttle. Even the slightest ammount of over acceleration out of a coner and the back end steps right out. The balance becomes then getting the car to turn into the corner while carrying maximum speed.

Today however my good fortune took an exciting turn back on the race track. This time with a paint and brush! A Thursday inspection from Dr. Palmer means that everything must be perfect including the curbing, so I was busy re-painting the red/white paint on the curbs I was busy destroying the day before!

Wish you the best!

Michael