If you think senior citizens live life in the slow lane you haven’t met 96-year-old Edith Pittenger. The great-great-grandmother made history last week becoming the oldest driver to ever gun it around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pittenger, an Indiana native, took the trip around the famous racetrack in a two-seater Dallara with driver Arie Luyendyk Jr. and reached speeds of nearly 200 mph.
No, she’s not trying to become the next Danica Patrick; rather the ride was part of the Indy Racing Experience–a Christmas gift Pittenger received from her children. The anything but slow senior started attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 and considers herself a lifelong racing fan.
“I like the excitement, the speed, the noise,” Pittenger told reporters who were on hand to see history being made. “I’m one of the few that like the noise.”
Pittenger showed up to the track wearing her trademark black slacks and checkered-flag blouse, but traded that outfit in for a red-and-white driver’s suit and black racing shoes, before entering the 650-horsepower racecar.
The “go-for-it” granny was accompanied by Luyendyk, a veteran of the 2006 Indy 500 and son of the two-time winner, who took her speeding around the track at 180 mph.
She may be close to 100, but Pittenger says age is not slowing her down.
No doubt.
PILOTS ASK FOR GOD’S HELP TO LAND
Was it a sign?
When two New Zealand pilots ran out of fuel while flying their microlight airplane they turned to God for help.
According to police reports, Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson were flying up a sloping valley when the engine of their plane sputtered, coughed and died.
“My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a life-threatening situation was to ask for God’s help,” Stubbs told reporters last week.
And that’s exactly what they did.
The two friends say they prayed continuously during their ill-fated flight asking God to help their tiny aircraft clear the top of a ridge and avoid the nearby sea.
After offering their prayers the pair said they were able to make an emergency landing in a field – coming to rest on a grassy strip right next to a 20-foot-tall sign that read, “Jesus is Lord”
Wilson said the pair would have been in deep trouble if their fuel had run out five minutes earlier.
“If it had to run out, that was the place to be,” Wilson said. “There was an instantaneous answer to prayer as we crossed the ridge and there was an airfield – I didn’t know it existed till then.”
The praying pilots say when they saw the sign they started laughing.
According to reports, nearby residents saw the emergency landing and provided the pair with gas to fly their home-built plane back home.
Needless to say, things worked out much better for the praying pilots than it did for the praying passenger in my previous blog.
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