At Interlagos on Oct. 15, amid the fanfare befitting a seven- time World Champion, Michael Schumacher retired from the sport that had been his life for some three decades.
That same weekend, 10,000 miles north of Sao Paulo at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, in a low-key announcement befitting a man who earned more than 100 wins from Formula Ford and Touring Cars to Group C, Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series - and did so as a consummate sportsman - James Weaver retired from the sport that had been his life since 1975.
Unlike Schumacher, Weaver caught the racing community unawares with his retirement. He was such a fixture on the American sports car scene over the past 20 years that it seemed his career might be timeless. But at 51, after three decades of racing, two-thirds of which was spent driving with and for team owner Rob Dyson, Weaver had to yield to the march of time.