The annual Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC) dinner that precedes each Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has become a must-go event on Thursday night, before quiet turns to engine screams in downtown Long Beach, Calif.
The appearance of this year’s 14th annual honoree, Sir Jackie Stewart, brought racers out of the woodworks to celebrate the racing career of the Scottish icon who stopped driving in 1973 and then concentrated on making the sport safer for drivers and all ancillary community members.
The Scot’s activities on behalf of the sport, which included team ownership, have made him a pinnacle in racing and someone everyone in racing admires. Stewart, while he’s active at age 84 and exceptionally ambulatory, still ventures, although not as often from the United Kingdom as he has in the past; his primary thrust these days is to stop others from suffering from the dementia that has taken his wife Helen, the former television star whom he married in 1962.
Well over 400 RRDC members and guests gathered at the Hilton Hotel for the April 18 RRDC Evening with Sir Jackie Stewart, presented by Firestone. There were plenty of current and former drivers, team owners, industry leaders, representatives of sanctioning groups for the race about to be at hand as well as other icons of the racing world who gathered to listen to Stewart regale them with his stories of racing, of safety and of the horrors of losing his wife to dementia.
All proceeds from the banquet, including live and silent auctions, benefit Stewart’s Race Against Dementia, the Team USA Scholarship and the Mark Donohue Foundation, which supports the RRDC’s SAFEisFAST initiative.
RRDC president Bobby Rahal, the traditional emcee for these banquets, was effusive in his delight to have Sir Jackie Stewart on hand for the group’s tributes. RRDC has, in the past honored such influential leaders as Long Beach race founder Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Roger Penske, Jim Hall, Brian Redman Maario Andretti, Bobby Unser, George Follmer, Emerson Fittipaldi, Johnny Rutherford, David Hobbs, Rick Mears and Jacky Ickx.
“Tonight,” Rahal said at the start of the banquet, “we’re honoring Sir Jackie Stewart, dubbed the ‘Flying Scot’ for good reason. His incredible list of accomplishments includes thee Formula One World Championships – where he held the record for the most wins by an F1 driver for 14 years – and Rookie of the Year honors at the 1966 Indianapolis 500 – a race he almost won, but was denied by a mechanical failure with eight laps to go.
“Alongside his numerous career milestones,” Rahal continued, “Sir Jackie was and is an outspoken advocate for safety in racing, as well as for those battling dyslexia and dementia, funding the global charity Race Against Dementia.”
During the banquet and prior to Rahal’s sit-down with the honoree, a short video, written and narrated by NBC Sports commentator Leigh Diffey, chronicled Stewart’s career. There was also a vintage clip from the Ed Sullivan show, featuring a staged slot-car race among F1 racers of the ‘60s, including Stewart 1966 Indy 500 winner Graham Hill, Dan Gurney and Stirling Moss. Of that quintet, only Stewart is still around. A music video, featuring Stewart’s son Paul as well as Eric Clapton, Nick Mason and Simon Le Bon, chronicled Stewart’s life. Sir Jackie Stewart was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972; he was knighted in 2001.
Following dinner, Rahal and Sir Jackie sat on the dais as the honoree shared stories of his years with F1 teams BRM and Tyrrell, as well as other teams with whom he worked. Stewart and Rahal recounted tales of Stewart’s many encounters with other internationally-recognized and outstanding drives, in particular his good friend, Mario Andretti, who was called to the stage.
The duo bantered about their on- and off-track relationships over the years. “Well, Jackie is Jackie,” Andretti stated. “We’ve known each other for eternity. He’s one of the individuals in my life that has inspired me to be a better driver. But our friendship was there from the beginning and it got stronger and stronger as individuals. We both look back and reflect on our time together, and it brings smiles to our faces. And he has a great sense of humor,” Andretti said. “He showed that tonight beautifully.”
Andretti commended his former competitor and constant friend for his work after retirement. “For him to come forward and spend so much time to try to address the dementia situation is a credit to him,” Andretti continued. “We try to participate in our own way to help that aspect. Jackie is a mover and shaker. We talked about the safety aspect of the sport and how important that was. And now he wants to battle something that’s affecting him personally. Good for him.”
Stewart, ever humble said, “I’m very proud that I was invited in the first place and I’m really so happy to have this financial commitment in our fight to Race Against Dementia. It’s such an important thing for my whole family, for the world. It’s very important. Very big. Thank you for the honor.” As he spoke those words, Stewart held the book of memories signed by all in attendance at the banquet; he also held a glass of bubbly, poured so that the gathering could toast its honoree. Not a drop spilled.
Before the formal banquet got underway, Sir Jackie was mobbed by everyone in attendance, wanting to get that enviable photo with the honoree. And before the crowd sat down to dinner, muralist Bill Patterson had already begun a live painting, using two of Stewart’s race cars to depict his 1965 to 1973 Formula 1 career.
The painting featured his 1965 BRM and 1973 Tyrrell F1 cars, was signed by Stewart and then live-auctioned. A bidding war between two individuals allowed auctioneer Diffey to ask the artist if a second painting could be done, to which Patterson agreed. This upped the bid for two paintings to $52,000. The winning bidders: Mario Andretti and Scott Borchetta, the latter CEO of Big Machine Records, a big supporter of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES!
The backdrop for the gathering was a stage banner created by artist Paul Laguette, whose work is familiar to readers of Racer magazine. Laguette’s mother-in-law suffers from dementia, making his donation copacetic to everyone involved.
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