Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 14:34:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Alex Kihurani Subject: Re: [R] My Carl Merrill Memories In 95, I went to STPr with my whole family (my dad, mom, and sister) when I saw this Ford Escort Coswoth. I didn't even think people cared about rallying that much to even spend so much money on a car! I was walking around looking at it when Carl came up to me and said "Would you like to sit it my car?" It took me a hard tenth of a second of thinking beofre I said "Sure!" I never forgot it. So happy I walked around just looking at the car, when I decided to talk to Carl about some stuff. In 96, something happend to his Ford so he had to drive an Audi and I didn't reconize him In 97 though, I saw him and said, "Is that a Ford Escort WRC?" He said, "Yep, would you like to sit in it?" I said "Sure!". He told me to give it a thumbs up. I did that and left. 98 was probably the best experience with him. I approached hi and said, "How much hoarse power do you have in your car?" Suprised because no kid asked him before he said, "About 400 hp". Trying to impress him a bit I said, "In the WRC aren't you limited to 300hp?" then, Lance and Carl said, "Their lying, they bend the rules a bit to find a way to get some extra power, maybe not directly but indirectly". I said, "Does it have split tork?" Carl said, "No just half and half, you seem to know a lot about rally cars. Do you want to sit in my car again like you did last year?" Out of every kid, he rembered me, a rich guy and a pro rally driver remembers me! I said, "Ok" very happy. Frank Sprongl came over and asked if I was his back-up driver. Carl said "Once I get old and he can see over the dash!" My spirits lightend up I got out and watched the start. Then, later at the evening service area. I talked to him the whole time. He talked to me about his anti-lag system and other stuff. (You can see Carl, my dad and I talking to him on ESPN2, it's after the first evening section.) (Also, you can't see me because the first time when their showing resaults I'm off the screen and before they interveiw Carl Merril I'm covered by the hood). On October 2, 1998 my friend asked me if I wanted to see the World of Outlaws sprint cars race at Williams Groove. I said "ok" and I went. When I was there he said, "Some guy in modifieds died in modifieds yesterday, it's weird because he got out of the car and had a hart attack." I said, "Yeah, that's odd," The next morning I found out, Carl was dead, of heart failure or heart attack. It just didn't seem right, Carl, dead, nahh. The only person I knew pretty well that died was this lady that died of cancer named Cathy Dry. But I mean, everyone new it was going to happen for months, but this time, it just was a sudden death. I still never got a picture Carl though, something I really regret. I'd like to thank Carl for all this, he also really got kids hooked on rallying. Alex