6-16-2007 - Blog #3 - The Parade in town

With his 24hr debut just around the corner, Braun's poised to add to his impressive career. (Photo: Risi)

Colin's Comments as the Race Comes Close
Yesterday (Friday) was a real easy day as there was no running on the track and the biggest thing we had to do was the Drivers’ Parade in town. I’d heard lots about it from Tracy and Nic and it was really neat. You get to feel like a rock star for a little while!

I was here last year as a spectator but it was definitely better being part of it. Riding around in that old car and giving out thousands of autograph cards was kind of crazy. We were all giving them out and Nic said, “we haven’t even started yet, we haven’t even gotten half way yet!” Just after starting off we went up onto a podium and were presented to the crowds and there was loads of cheering and all that kind of thing. I’m officially the youngest driver in the race this year so that got mentioned once or twice. Lots of fans seemed to know my name and asked for my autograph.

There were so many people all around the town and we had to get out of the car for the last 500 feet and sign whatever people gave us. Before that, the guy who owned the car didn’t seem to like driving it much so we would coast down whatever kind of hills we could, he’d push it, but not drive it. It was pretty funny.

We had to do some of the parade in coats and with umbrellas as it doesn’t seem to have stopped raining for more than an hour at a time for a couple of days now. It was a shame for all the people watching but the fans didn’t seem to care so I guess that’s the main thing.

After the parade we had an American barbecue dinner which was great. It was an early night for everyone as warm up was at 9am this morning so we had to try and get as much sleep as possible before it all kicks off.

I can’t wait to get going.