BLAKESLEE, PA.- - The annual Jeff Gordon Fan Club meeting in the Poconos was held on Friday, June 7. Robin Kauffman attended the event and sent in pictures and a report.

By Robin Kauffman

While waiting for Jeff to arrive, door prizes were given out. The ultimate prize was a life size cardboard stand up of Jeff Gordon which he autographed upon his arrival. Jeff seemed really relaxed and laid back during the whole thing. He wasn't wearing a sponsor shirt or hat which was quite unusual.

Jeff participated in a Q&A session with the audience. He was asked about his faith and talked about how it was important to him. The subject of Jimmie Johnson also came up. He made some jokes about it, but discussed how his setups were similar to last year while the Lowe's team has been more aggressive with Jimmie's setups. Despite the slow start, he feels that he's still very much in the thick of the battle for his 5th championship.

Jeff discussed his leisure activities-- including scuba diving. He said he was in the Florida Keys during the off week for Easter and got to do some diving there. He was also asked why he shaved his goatee after The Winston. He said about half of the people he talked to liked it and about half of the people hated it. The main reason for growing it was just plain vacation laziness, but then said one of the members of his crew had one and told him he should grow one. He said he had to shave it off for his sister's wedding though because he was in the wedding and didn't think it would be fair to his sister if every time people looked at the pictures they'd say "Who's that?"

After the Q&A session, Jeff sat down for autographs with everyone in attendance. He didn't rush through signing the autographs at all, speaking to everyone and shaking hands before signing their items. After that he thanked everyone and left. He would have stayed longer, but he had to go to a surprise birthday party for Robbie Loomis. As a side note, Sports Illustrated had a photographer at the event. Look for a Jeff Gordon piece in a future issue of SI.

Copyright ©2002 Jeff Gordon Online. All images ©2002 Robin Kauffman. Use of the photos for copying, redestribution, or other archival methods is prohibited without permission from the photographer. All rights reserved.