Unfortunately, I have to watch (while standing in the dust) from behind two fences and six deep worth of folks who got there before me. This is as close as I can get to the men and machines that make F1 such an incredible spectacle. Or is it?

As I stumbled on last year three days before race weekend when I went to the track to pick up my tickets, they have an "Open-house" day the Wednesday before the race! It is never much publicised here; hence I never knew they had it until last year. I couldn't believe my eyes... You can walk down pit-row and get to about 15-20 feet from the actual cars as the mechanics are busily assembling them. I never though I would get so close to Jacques Villeneuve's #6 car.

This year, my girlfriend's sister asked me if I would take her 6-year-old son to the Open-House day at the track, as he too is quickly becoming a big F1 fan. So that Wednesday came, the one he had been asking about for months, and off we went. This 6 year-old and this 32 year-old walked along pit-row in awe as all of the teams had their garages open and the nose cone and engine cover of each car on display out in front. All except Williams' whose garages were closed tight. "Where is Jacques' car?" I was asked repeatedly. "I guess they don't want anyone to see it for some reason." was the only answer I could come up with.

We happened upon the Jordan garages and my six-year-old 'Fan-in-Training' burst out "Oh man! Look at that nose with the Snake on it Andy! That is so cool!" There were the two Jordan noses with that now infamous "Snake" on them. A 6 year old into comic books and F1 racing, what could be more "Cool" than this, the perfect combination of both!

He made me take picture after picture of "The Snake" for him. He had now found his favourite car. As we approached the end of the open garages, many down the row from Jordan, I am asked "Andy, do you know what the snake's name is?" "The snake?" I reply, "Yak the one on the cars down there." "No, actually I don't." "Does he have a name?" "Well..." I reply "... let's go see if we can find out."

Standing in front of the Jordan garages, we get the attention of one of the Jordan crew impressively dressed in his bright yellow shirt, black shorts, black socks and shoes. Over he comes and I tell him "My friend here wants to ask you a question." In his strong Irish accent he looks down at my friend and asks, "What would you like to know?" Six year-old shyness quickly sets in so I rescue my friend and ask the question myself, "He would like to know if the snake has a name?"

These guys are busy, this is their job and they are "at the office" in these pit garages in far-off countries miles from home. They are highly paid professionals who are experts at what they do. Well this highly paid expert spent 15 minutes having a conversation with a six-year-old about what they should name the snake!

"So what?" you say?, So what indeed. You know, you never know who you are talking to when you meet strangers and this goes for all of us, Superstar or regular Joe. This Jordan Crew member took 15 minutes out of his busy day to talk to a 6-year-old he knew nothing about. As it turns out, this six year old's 2 year old brother had been diagnosed with leukaemia only 2 1/2 weeks earlier. This six year old was faced with a tragedy in his own life of proportions very few of us ever had to face or could even imagine at 6!

This stranger, in the impressive Yellow & Black uniform, who works on the "Snake Car", talked to ME for 15 minutes! Put yourself in the six year old's shoes. He was on 'cloud nine' for days after that, even with all his other problems. The next day he went to school clutching a bright yellow Jordan sticker with the image of the "Snake Car" on it, dying to show all his friends and tell them about his meeting "one of the guys who works on it"! To this day he asks me if the 'Snake Cars' are doing good and drools over any pictures in my F1 magazines of his heroes.

My point? My point is that with professional sports isolating itself from its fans so much these days, it was really nice to see a glimmer of "Human contact". This guy in the garage could have easily said he was too busy and continued on. We would have said "Oh well" and gone home. Instead, he took a break; he made time to talk to my 6 year-old friend. A little boy with very big and very real problems in his life right now. His 15 minutes were like gold to this boy. They will never be forgotten.

Eddie Jordan, from me to you a very sincere 'Thank You', for teaching your people well, for employing the kind of people who WILL take 15 minutes out of their hectic, race weekend schedule to talk to a 6-year-old. You have two new "Fans-for-life"! Frank Williams, you and your closed garage doors on OPEN-HOUSE DAY could learn a lot from Team Jordan. I know a 6 year-old boy who was somewhat disappointed not to have seen "Jacques car".

A little time for your fellow humans never hurt anyone and no one should ever be above that, we're all in this together you know...

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