
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 16, 1995                   TAG: 9508160097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By KEN KAYE FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL
DATELINE: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.                                  LENGTH: Medium

JUST FOR THE RECORD: COORS PITCHES A HIGH, FAST ONE

AN AIR FRANCE CONCORDE took from New York, trying to make history - and a big name for Coors. Griff Siegel of Sunrise, Fla., took a little trip Tuesday - 25,448 miles around the world. He will be gone only a day or so.

Siegel, 36, is one of 98 passengers flying on an Air France Concorde attempting to circle the globe in a record time of 32 hours and 44 minutes. That includes more than seven hours of sitting at gates.

The supersonic transport, dubbed the Coors Light Concorde after the trip's major sponsor, took off from Kennedy International Airport in New York City at 11:49 a.m. The plane climbed to 60,000 feet and headed east at 1,350 mph; about twice as high and fast as your average transatlantic jet.

The Coors Light Concorde will make six refueling stops in France; the Middle East; Thailand; Guam; Honolulu; and Acapulco, Mexico, before landing back in New York at 8:35 p.m. today.

Siegel got to go because he is vice president of NatCom Marketing of Miami, which along with Concorde Spirit Tours, another Miami firm, put the trip together.

His parents, Jim and Ginger Siegel, are jealous.

``We're just happy as blazes for him,'' Jim Siegel said. ``But we'd sure love to be on it. Old Dad tried to get on, but I don't have anything to do with his company.''

The couple commemorated their son's trip by putting a big blowup model of an SST in their front yard.

Of the 98 people on board, none had to pay for the trip. Forty-eight were winners of the Coors Light Memorial Day Sweepstakes, and 50 were VIPs of the various companies behind the trip.

Also on board: Race car driver Kyle Petty and Apollo 10 Commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford, who will be making his slowest trip around the Earth.

David Taylor, Coors spokesman in Golden, Colo., would not say what it is costing his company to sponsor the trip. But he said passengers paid $24,000 apiece for a 1992 Coors-sponsored record-breaking flight.

``Let's just say this is one of our mega-promotions,'' he said. ``It is a unique once-in-lifetime opportunity.''

Passengers making the current voyage will feast on caviar, lobster, salmon and foie gras. ``They will be given the superdeluxe treatment,'' said Vincent Coste, Air France marketing manager in New York.

by CNB