...press credentials!!!! NEVER ask the participants at an event for a personal autograph! You'll appear unprofessional to the participant, and every other smoking, drinking and cussing reporter (the standard profile of reporters in general)(add geek to the profile as the internet becomes more of a source of everyday information).

DO ask the famous fans of the event for their autographs. I would have brought a "Bite Night" $10 MGM chip with me to Vegas last week if I had ANY idea that I'd be talking to Mike Tyson in the pressroom at the Speedway. That encounter is a story in itself.

...there were also some WWF wrestlers there last weekend. ...some guy, 7'1", 380#, named "Kane", couldn't ask him any questions per his PR person. He was wearing a leather mask that covered his entire face, so he couldn't talk anyway. ....walking around all day in 90 degree Vegas April sunshine with that mask on, the only question I wanted to ask was "does your face smell like my shoes?". Probably a good thing that he couldn't field questions that day....not for him, but for this skinny reporter!

Bob