After watching Alan McNish's spin on the pace lap at Road Atlanta, I would like to propose a new verb, to "Guererro:"

Guererro (V): To do something stupid on the pace lap, crashing and taking your car out of the race before it has even begun.

Etymology: >Roberto Guererro, who had the fastest qualifying lap ever at the Indy 500, then spun out and crashed while warming the tyres.

Example: "Alan McNish guererroed his way into the fences at Road Atlanta, necessitating 45 minutes of repair, which put him two laps behind before starting the race."

Too bad though that he didn't take his car out of the race.

GreyWolf74 - 06 October 2008 12:37 PM

Guererro (V): To do something stupid on the pace lap, crashing and taking your car out of the race before it has even begun.

Etymology: >Pedro Guererro, who had the fastest qualifying lap ever at the Indy 500, then spun out and crashed while warming the tyres.

Pedro?????????? How bout Roberto?

Maybe he means Coganed...ask Mario about it...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Cogan

Lets face it, people screw up on cold tires...its not all that unusual...Kudos to McNish for making it right

And it wasn't the pace lap either...

GreyWolf74 - 06 October 2008 12:37 PM

After watching Alan McNish's spin on the pace lap at Road Atlanta, I would like to propose a new verb, to "Guererro:"

Guererro (V): To do something stupid on the pace lap, crashing and taking your car out of the race before it has even begun.

Etymology: >Pedro Guererro, who had the fastest qualifying lap ever at the Indy 500, then spun out and crashed while warming the tyres.

Example: "Alan McNish guererroed his way into the fences at Road Atlanta, necessitating 45 minutes of repair, which put him two laps behind before starting the race."

1) It's Roberto Guererro.

2) Guererro had the pole at Indy and spun out on the back stretch on the pace lap while he was merely warming up the tires. He slid across the wet grass and wrecked the car against the inside wall, and never even took the green flag. It was Kenny Bernstein's Quaker State CART team, and it folded at the end of the season. You had to feel for Kenny as a car owner: What can you do better than giving your guy the car and the team to put you on the pole?

3) McNish was doing his pre-race practice and was at speed when the cold tires failed him on a corner. 'Nothing like Guererro wiping out at pace speed on the back straight.

4) That was also the coldest temperature that Indy ever started under, and another example of bad management at Indy: Those cars should not have been on the track.

I still think "to Guererro" is a great verb, but it has nothing to do with McNish. The win also proves what a team sport motor racing is, because McNish made the race, was two laps down, and was in first place at the end. I'm sure glad that Toyota's F1 circus dumped him for a home-boy who immediately went out and won a Grand Prix. No, wait a minute . . .

McNish was on his recon lap, not practice.

GulfPorsche - 06 October 2008 11:26 PM

GreyWolf74 - 06 October 2008 12:37 PM

After watching Alan McNish's spin on the pace lap at Road Atlanta, I would like to propose a new verb, to "Guererro:"

Guererro (V): To do something stupid on the pace lap, crashing and taking your car out of the race before it has even begun.

Etymology: >Pedro Guererro, who had the fastest qualifying lap ever at the Indy 500, then spun out and crashed while warming the tyres.

Example: "Alan McNish guererroed his way into the fences at Road Atlanta, necessitating 45 minutes of repair, which put him two laps behind before starting the race."

1) It's Roberto Guererro.

2) Guererro had the pole at Indy and spun out on the back stretch on the pace lap while he was merely warming up the tires. He slid across the wet grass and wrecked the car against the inside wall, and never even took the green flag. It was Kenny Bernstein's Quaker State CART team, and it folded at the end of the season. You had to feel for Kenny as a car owner: What can you do better than giving your guy the car and the team to put you on the pole?

3) McNish was doing his pre-race practice and was at speed when the cold tires failed him on a corner. 'Nothing like Guererro wiping out at pace speed on the back straight.

4) That was also the coldest temperature that Indy ever started under, and another example of bad management at Indy: Those cars should not have been on the track.

I still think "to Guererro" is a great verb, but it has nothing to do with McNish. The win also proves what a team sport motor racing is, because McNish made the race, was two laps down, and was in first place at the end. I'm sure glad that Toyota's F1 circus dumped him for a home-boy who immediately went out and won a Grand Prix. No, wait a minute . . .

Hey guys, thanks for the corrections. I remember watching Roberto Guerrero (can't remember where "Pedro" came from, must be a baseball name) crashing on the pace lap at Indy. That must have been awful for the team, having the fastest car ever go out before the race even started. As Graham Hill once said, "From a gentleman to a twit in a tenth of a second."

Regards MacNish -- I didn't get to see the race. All I saw was a film clip on the SPEED front page, showing him going into the barriers, and the commentator saying something about "a pre-race crash."

I still maintain "Guerrero" is a good verb for doing something stupid before the race. I was at a Vintage Race at Lime Rock, once and watched Bob Brown do something similar -- spun while warming his tyres. That was bad enough. Then he compounded the mistake by trying to re-gain his front-row starting spot in the space of one pace lap of a 1.5 mile circuit. He pushed at least two cars off in the esses, as I recall. Needless to say, the race officials "had a word or two" with him after that.

ceejayT - 06 October 2008 08:53 PM

Maybe he means Coganed...ask Mario about it...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Cogan

Lets face it, people screw up on cold tires...its not all that unusual...Kudos to McNish for making it right

I remember Kevin Kogan's incident at Indy. That happened at the start of the race, not on the pace or parade lap, but it still looked bad. There was considerable speculation as to what happened. I've heard all sorts of things, including a half shaft breaking when he gave it full torque. Although Roger Ward's guess of an overheated brake locking is also a possibility.

McNish's saving grace was that the crew had time to work on the car before the race started. Cogan's and Guerrero's crews didn't. Otherwise, they might have been able to get back in the race and post a decent result.

I still think though that your new verb isn't right for this instance as the car wasn't knocked out of the race like the other examples were.

fyi... All cars can start an ALMS race up to 1 hour after the green flag.

hugewally - 08 October 2008 12:10 PM

I still think though that your new verb isn't right for this instance as the car wasn't knocked out of the race like the other examples were.

fyi... All cars can start an ALMS race up to 1 hour after the green flag.

Do I detect a "ribnudge" here?

You're right about the misapplication of the verb, "guerrero," of course. When I made the citation, I was going on a misunderstanding of limited information. My fault.

You do have to admit, McNish made a superlative run to come back from a 45 minute deficite to win! (wink)