Champ Car driver Ryan Dalziel has taken the opportunity of being back in Europe to pay a visit to his home city of Glasgow – and he brought Pacific Coast Motorsport team-mate Alex Figge along for the ride.
A treat was on the cards for both of them, as Dalziel mustered a contingent of more than 40 friends and family to watch him race in Belgium. Evidently his homecoming would be a party worth attending.
Dalziel was racing again after a nasty shoulder injury left his collarbone in five pieces and held together with a mind-boggling 11 pins following a mountain biking accident that cost him the chance to compete in the San Jose Grand Prix.
He owed his presence in the car to the fact the Zolder circuit runs clockwise – otherwise he would have been forced to sit the race out.
Figge, who hails from the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado, was doubtless able to get the inside track on all sorts of attractions from this former European Capital of both culture and sport.
However, we suspect the weather may have come as something of a shock. We also hope that, whatever else he did, he was able to sample that most famous of local beverages – Irn Bru.
Before the visit Dalziel said: “I am looking forward to taking Alex to Scotland – it is certainly going to seem a lot different for a Colorado boy.
“I’ll do my best to get him to try haggis and wear a kilt but I think that might be a bit of a challenge!”
However the picturesque oatcakes-and-shortbread image that many Americans have of Scotland may be better suited to a tourist jaunt in Edinburgh than a large-scale family gathering in its neighbouring city.
Luckily Figge will have friends on hand to translate a dialect that troubles most visitors from across the border, never mind the Yanks.
And let’s just say we hope for his own sake that he is a big lad with a strong stomach and two hollow legs – and leave it right there.