Excerpt from Adam Zemke's Blog:
Wedesday, June 20, 2007
Burbank, California
After braving Los Angeles rush hour traffic, we arrived in Burbank about an hour and a half before the filming. Team members spent the extra time changing clothes, grabbing a bite to eat and performing the final cleaning on the racecar before heading to the Big Dog Garage, as Jay's place has been dubbed. Arriving at about a quarter to 6, we were greeted by Jay's head caretakers, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Juchli, as well as a host of NBC film crew members. Minutes later, the big man himself pulled up in a beautiful yellow Hudson Hornet. We unloaded our racecar and were ushered inside one of the converted airplane hangers by the NBC staff to watch some additional filming.
While the film crew set up for the first of five filmings (we were third on the list), Jay came over, introduced himself, and offered us some pizza and soda pop. We quietly watched as the first shooting took place and after just a few minutes, Jay came back over and began explaining the details of one of his pre-WW Doble Steam Cars to us. The evening continued at this sort of pace, with Jay coming over and talking with us in-between filmings and then having to be ushered back for the next one, or with Bernard and his wife showing us Jay's most impressive automotive and motorcycle collection. Let me just say that Jay, and Mr. and Mrs. Juchli, are some of the kindest people that I've ever met. Their love for the automobile shone through every word that was said during our tour of the garage. The team is truly in debt to all of them! Thanks!
After a busy hour of tours and talks with Jay, it was time for the team's turn on camera. With microphones in place, Jay introduced us and began asking questions. It was really nice talking with him; he is very laid-back and makes you feel right at home on camera. Both Bernard and Jay were in the filming and asked interesting questions, significantly more technical than we expected. This was especially a lot of fun, as we got to talk about the actual design of the racecar, something that all team members are very proud of. We started racecar 9 up and also gave NBC some video of the car in action.
Following the shoot, we hung around and talked with Bernard about his racing career in the Formula Atlantic series as well as more about Jay's collection. He is a very interesting person to talk with and we had a great time. Jay came over too and we had the chance to see the up-close details of his Arial Atom, McLaren F1 and the 1,100 HP Oldsmobile Toronado made famous on his show. We presented both Bernard and Jay with MSU Formula Racing Team polo shirts at the end of the evening.
After about 2.5 hours of tours, filming and pizza with Jay and his crew, we packed racecar 9 back into the trailer, bade farewell to the team members flying out of Las Vegas the next morning, and headed to LAX to drop off 2008 Powertrain Electrical Team Leader Eric Partlo. Heading east out of Los Angeles for our trip back to Michigan were myself, 2008 Brakes Team Leader Rick Hollern and current Project Manager Jon Luckhardt in the fantastic new Dodge Ram provided by DaimlerChrysler. Tired and weary, but equally excited about an amazing competition and the fulfulling chance of a lifetime to meet Jay Leno and show him our racecar, we were glad to finally be headed home.
On behalf of the team, thank you all for tuning in and for your nice responses to the e-mails that we've sent out. We hope that you've enjoyed the updates! A special thanks goes out to all of the staff at SAE for a tremendous job in organizing the 2007 West event, Ben Stewart of Popular Mechanics, and Jay Leno and Mr. and Mrs. Juchli of the Big Dog Garage for making this trip truly something for the Michigan State Formula Racing Team to remember. A special thanks also goes out to 9's 140 sponsors including our Platinum donors: GM, Ford Motor Company, Demmer Corporation, the MSU College of Engineering and the North American International Auto Show that helped make this year — and racecar 9 — a success! Thank you all so much, we never could have done it without you!
Please let us know if you would like any of the pictures that we've posted (or any special requests) We took approximately 1,000 pictures over the last two weeks in high-resolution versions. We'll be sure to follow up with you all about the details of our time on Jay Leno's Garage as they become available. You can access his Web site off of the NBC Tonight Show homepage or directly here. If you e-mail me at zemkeada@msu.edu, I'll do my best to fulfill any requests. It has been nice spending this most exciting journey with all of you!
Go Green. Go White. Go State, Fast in 2008!
Go State—Fast!
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