Will Power says father wrestling gunman was "just another day"
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In the first week of April, IndyCar driver Will Power's father, Bob Power, was approached by an armed gunman who attempted to steal his vehicle as part of a multi-day crime spree. After briefly wrestling with the man, law enforcement arrived on the scene and apprehended the suspect.
Power was uninjured in the encounter. On Friday, ahead of the Long Beach IndyCar race weekend, Will spoke about the incident and how he found out.
"Well, I was actually flying out to Long Beach to do promotion," Power explained when asked by Motorsport.com. "I landed, got my rental car, called Liz or Liz called me (Will's wife). And she says, 'did you hear what happened to your dad?' And I'm like, 'oh no he's died.' And she says, 'no he got held up by a gun.' I'm like, 'what!?' I was thinking the Gold Coast and it's like, no, in Toowoomba at a cafe. Some dude tried to get him to open the door, get him out of the car -- 'get the f out of the car,' and he struggled with him a bit.
"Eventually, the guy pointed the gun at him. My dad says 'don't you shoot me,' like authoritatively. (He said) he could see in the guy's eyes that he was probably going to shoot me. He was pretty crazy. So (he said) he'll get out, just let me get the dog out. The SWAT squad must have been following with a drone because he robbed a few people, and then they all swarmed. Just another day in Bob Power's life (laughs)."
Will commented that his father wasn't really fazed by any of it, later saying it "wouldn't even register now."
"If you know my dad, he is crazy," continued Power. "That is where the crazy side of me comes from. My mother was a nun in the convent for seven years, so that's the really empathetic side of me. So I have this real tug-of-war all the time with how to behave and act.
Speaking to other media members present, Power added: "It is crazy, but it's not surprising that he wrestled with him because that is my dad: 'You're not stealing my car'."
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And apparently that's just the tip of the iceberg for Bob Power, with Will saying that they could do a movie about his dad.
"There's many crazy stories like that with my dad," Power told the media scrum. "Many people have gone on racing trips with him. I was in one of them. And we're going. We're driving from Phillip Island racetrack. He's in a trailer. I've got a car in a trailer, and it's sort of wet. And the speed limit goes from 100kph to 80kph to 60kph. And then there's a busy traffic intersection. I start slowing up, and dad and a few of his mates are in that car. And he's he's not even slowing up. And suddenly, I'm like, there's a traffic light. And you see this thing locking up. And he was not going to stop. So, he starts getting on the horn. 'Beep, beep, beep.' I mean, multi-lane intersection, and he just straight through. Misses everything as per normal. And gets through. We pull up next to him in the traffic light. And his friend John is being with him on many of these trips. And these things have happened. Like, you know, typical Bob Power. -- Something crazy happens. But he just gets away with it.
"So, yeah, when he got held up with a sawed-off shotgun and kind of wrestled with it. I was like, yeah, that happens."
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