STICKY: This post will be headlined until Friday, Nov. 9. See below for current news.
Friday, November 09, 2007
#99 Linc Brown season update
Well folks I've procrastinated long enough for the final update of the 2007 season. 2007 was our best season in the past 4 years with many highlights. Winning the season opener, all the heat race wins and top 5 finishes and the hat trick at the end of August all attributed to an excellent season. In fact, until the end of July we had not finished worse than 3rd in the feature events then a 7th in August. All in all we managed to finish second in the championship title quest.
We ran radio spots, promoting our sponsors, on the WOLF 101.5 FM all summer long. Promoted our supporters at the Racing Against Drugs program for Durham region schools, Partsource store BBQs and car shows as well as AutoFest, a great car show in Oshawa, again with the Racing Against Drugs program, where the car was beside the presenting stage for the awards (huge crowd throughout the weekend).
Unfortunately the great season ended at the ACT race with a crash that destroyed the front of our Charger.
We practiced Friday night and found some problems with the car that were a result of changes we had to make to comply with the ACT rules. After remedying the problems we were surprised to find the car was almost as fast as a regular Friday night set up under the Kawartha rules. The crew noticed many of the ACT competitors would go out check our lap times and use that as a bench mark for themselves. It was a pretty good feeling knowing that the high caliber teams trying to get as fast as the top 3 Kawartha cars with us at the top of the chart.
In our heat race we started in the front row along side another Kawartha front runner so it made going into first turn not so nerve racking. We battled for the lead with Brain Mercer for nearly 6 laps door to door before we cleared him for the lead and continued on to take the checkered flag (picture on the Kawartha speedway site under gallery Sept 15). Due to the handicap scoring system, winning that race made the difference between starting 7th to Brian's 18th. Again we thought we were in pretty good shape.
The feature was scheduled to be 200 green flag laps not counting caution laps. So we had worked out a pit strategy that would allow us to get a splash of fuel and 2 right side tires to take us to the end. We figured we would just settle into a rhythm and make consistent laps until the last 60 then make a run if we had any ground to make up.
Well the race started out well and we were definitely in the hunt for a top 5. The car was a little on the pushy side but we assumed it was due to the full fuel load and the problem would correct itself as the fuel burned off. We were able to pick up a couple of positions early on and managed to get as far as fourth. But by lap 50 the push was getting worse to the point where the car didn�t want to stay on the bottom of the race track. Eventually the freight train started to go by on the bottom and we were contemplating pitting to make an adjustment. The contemplating was really a desperate delay hoping for a caution that would allow us to come in and make the adjustment, fuel up and not go down a lap.
Finally on lap 59 the real problem made itself known when the right front tire blew. It was at probably one of the worst places on the race track during full acceleration coming off turn 4. There was virtually no time to get the car slowed down before it hit the wall at about 70 mph. All the suspension components, on the right side, as well as the chassis were destroyed in the wreck. So ended the biggest race we have competed in, possibly our second place in the championship and deeply affected the whole team emotionally.
With a few weeks between the ACT race and the final points night for Kawartha, Roger and Patti Diotte offered the use of their car that had not been on the track in 2 years. Through the efforts of many people we were able to compete on the final points night and secure 2nd place in the championship race.
Regretfully, the damage on our car was the 'straw that broke the camel's back' and has left us at a point where we are not planning on racing next year. We have become used to running in the top end of the class and love the sport so much that competing at a sub-standard level, in the late model class, is not satisfying for the team. At this point it would be a struggle to get back to the track next year. With that being said we plan to sell the car as is or repaired and take some time to regroup. You'll notice the word "retire" was never uttered.
Thank you for the support you have shared with us over the years. We have faithfully done our best to promote our sponsors and represent them in a professional manner because we are a direct reflection on their business. Our sponsors have made it possible for the team to compete at such a high level and be successful in one of the most competitive classes in the country. As we walk away we feel proud of the respect we have earned from other competitors and the fans we have raced with.
Hope to see or hear from you in the near future.
Thank you ,
Linc Brown 99 & the whole L Brown Motorsports Team
Hinchcliffe Nominated for Greg Moore Legacy Award
Now in its eighth year, Champ Car honours the memory of Moore, who lost his life during the 1999 California 500, by presenting the Greg Moore Legacy Award to the driver 'who most typifies Moore's distinctive combination of on-track talent and dynamic personality', traits which led the popular Canadian racer to become a favorite among the fans, media and members of the Champ Car community.
The award winner is determined by a select board of Champ Car personnel, along with media and fan voting, with this year's list of four nominees including Hinchcliffe, as the sole pick from the 2007 Champ Car Atlantic Championship, and Champ Car World Series drivers Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud.
Hinchcliffe, who finished fourth overall in the 2007 Champ Car Atlantic Championship before returning to the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport to start his second season racing for A1 Team Canada, expressed his delight at being nominated.
"Obviously I'm really honoured to have been nominated for this award," stated the 20-year-old from Toronto. "Growing up, Greg Moore was someone I really admired, a hero, and to even be considered for an award that bares his name means more to me than most people realize. It's just such a cool feeling. I've always wanted to follow in his footsteps both as a driver and as a person. I'd like to thank the people responsible for nominating as I'm thrilled to make such a prestigious short-list."
Hinchcliffe's exploits in his sophomore season of Atlantic competition, steering the #9 NOCO/ProWorks Sierra Sierra Enterprises entry to five podiums from six front-row starts, were further recognized at the end of the season banquet in August when he won the Gilles Villeneuve Award - presented to the driver who posses extraordinary ability, star quality and who has distinguished himself through sportsmanship, dedication and perseverance in the face of disappointment.
Fans can participate in the voting for this year's Greg Moore Legacy Award by visiting the official website of the Champ Car World Series - www.champcar.ws
The voting will take place in the 'Fan Poll' section on the front page of the website. Voting will close on the website on Monday 12th November at Noon EST.
ENDS - www.a1teamcan.com
Photo Credit: 'A1 Team Canada's James Hinchcliffe' - Jakob Ebrey Photography
From A1 Team Canada Relations: Stuart Morrison - PR & Media Manager
Rally of the Tall Pines: Incredible Entry List for Tall Pines
On Tuesday evening, November 6th, the Seeded Draw for the 2007 Rally of the Tall Pines took place at the general meeting of the Maple Leaf Rally Club in Toronto. The organizers announced that we have 44 entries to-date which is the largest entry list for any event this year in the Canadian Rally Championship.
This year promises to be one to remember and the competition is shaping up to be extremely fierce. The full starting order for the event is posted on our website http://www.tallpinesrally.com/ but to give you a quick peek, here's the top 10 starting order at this point:
Car #1
Car #2
Car #3
Car #4
Car #5
Car #6
Car #7
Car #8
Car #9
Car #10
Along with what's going to turn out to be some amazing competition at the "front of the pack" which just might come down to seeing what Mother Nature throws our way in Bancroft the day of the event, we also have some very interesting and exciting vehicles entered as well.
Here are a few:
Starting 22nd, Vittorio Bares and co-driver Kristin Chute in a 1987 Audi 4000
Starting 28th, Jose Vicente and co-driver Constantine Mantopuolos in a 1997 Audi 4 Quattro 1.8T
Starting 35th, Luis Melo and co-driver Jeff Hagan in a 1991 Lada Samara
And
Starting 38th Simon Gervais and co-driver Oliver Maltais in a 1988 Audi 90
And, it all this is just not enough to get your adrenaline fired up - how about Dave Mirra, the "Miracle Boy" who dominates the world of freestyle BMX and who has won more X Games Gold Medals than any other competitor in the X Games History, making his stage rally debut at Pines. His co-driver will be our own Tall Pines Assistant Coordinator Alan Ockwell.
As we near the home stretch for the 2007 Rally of the Tall Pines, stay tuned to the official web site for up to date news and to discover what else is in store for this year's event. We are hoping that we will see even more teams sign up to compete this year. If you haven't signed up to compete - what are you waiting for? For those who are not competing but would still like to get real close to the action, the organizing club, Maple Leaf Rally Club, is always looking for more volunteers to assist with running the event. As most of the returning volunteers will tell you, being involved with the event is the next best thing to being part of the competing teams. Go onto the website and log in as a worker.
The Rally of the Tall Pines has been run every year since 1971 and is organized by the Maple Leaf Rally Club. For more information, visit http://www.tallpinesrally.com/ or contact one of the following event officials.
From: Marketing Manager / Donna Huber
Jacques Villeneuve's Phoenix Pre-race
Jacques Villeneuve / Bill Davis Racing Event Preview
Race/Date: Casino Arizona 150 - November 9, 2007 (NCTS)
Race/Date: Chequer Auto Parts 500, presented by Pennzoil - November 11, 2007 (NNCS)
Location: Phoenix International Raceway - Avondale, Arizona
NOTES:
· Busy boy. This week is the second time this season that Villeneuve will run both Truck and Cup races, having done so at Talladega, one month ago.
· Second and last. Phoenix will be Villeneuve's second Nextel Cup race, following his Talladega debut where he qualified his Toyota Camry in 6th position. At that race, Villeneuve voluntarily started 43rd and last, in order to avoid causing those drivers contesting the Chase for the Nextel Cup any difficulties. With just two rounds remaining, it seems likely that ether Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon will claim the series win, so Villeneuve will not be volunteering to start anywhere other that the place he earns – provided he qualifies.
· Another NASCAR first. Phoenix is the 7th track that Villeneuve will have raced his Toyota Tundra Truck on. Of those, it's the first 1 mile oval.
· Looks familiar. PIR is the only track that Villeneuve will race in 2007 which he has raced at previously. In 1994, as an IndyCar World Series rookie, Villeneuve made his oval debut at PIR.
· Fast from the off was how IndyCar veterans judged the rookie's oval debut at PIR. Villeneuve qualified 2nd for the race, 1/1000th second off pole. He failed to score any points in a drama packed race which he later described as "definitely different".
· Fast learner. Two events later Villeneuve finished 2nd at the Indy 500 – his second oval race. The following year, the Canadian driver came from 2 laps down to win 'the 500', open wheel racing's single most famous race.
· "I know that face". In 1996, on his way to the series win, Villeneuve finished 5th at PIR, in a race won by NASCAR regular, Robbie Gordon.
· Legends all. Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti finished 2nd and 3rd that day. Villeneuve joins them as one of only three drivers in history to have won the IndyCar World Series, the Indy 500, and the F1 Drivers Championship.
· Hoping for better. Villeneuve has found his recent Craftsman Truck experiences disappointing. With just Phoenix and Homestead to run, ahead of his full season in Nextel Cup in 2008, Villeneuve remains focused on learning, but would like to finish Top 10.
· "Valley of the Sun" is how fans and drivers often refer to PIR. Jacques is the son of the late Gilles Villeneuve, a Formula One legend, who raced for Ferrari.
· "Villeneuve", a full-length motion picture comes to movie screens in 2008. The storyline follows Jacques' perspective of watching his father compete in an era where drivers regularly lost their lives in pursuit of their dreams. The opening scene begins inside Jacques' mind, moments after crossing the line to win the 1996 F1 World Championship….the rest of the story remains a secret for now….
· "Father" is a song that appears on Jacques Villeneuve's debut musical album, 'Private Paradise'. The song was written by Jacques and his sister Melanie, and took years to complete. It tells how the pair love and miss their father to the present day.
· November 28th sees Villeneuve's NASCAR partner, UNICEF host a charity concert at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada – Jacques' home town. Appearing on stage are big name stars including chart-topper Avril Lavigne, and Jacques has been invited to perform. Dependant upon commitments to other sponsors, he hopes to do so.
Jacques Villeneuve on Phoenix International Raceway:
"I've been here before, and I liked it. I have fond memories, but I realise that it will be different in NASCAR. I'll be working to get the best from my truck, something that hasn't proven too easy recently. With the Cup car, I'm not so sure what to expect, as I've not run much in it recently. Air temperatures have cooled considerably, so I don't expect to have much trouble with the heat.
As always, I know that a lot will depend on how well we run in the pack, how consistent we can make the truck or the car, and that if I keep out of trouble, I have another great opportunity to get ready for next year."
From Amanda Smith Mathis / Bill Davis Racing
Race/Date: Casino Arizona 150 - November 9, 2007 (NCTS)
Race/Date: Chequer Auto Parts 500, presented by Pennzoil - November 11, 2007 (NNCS)
Location: Phoenix International Raceway - Avondale, Arizona
NOTES:
· Busy boy. This week is the second time this season that Villeneuve will run both Truck and Cup races, having done so at Talladega, one month ago.
· Second and last. Phoenix will be Villeneuve's second Nextel Cup race, following his Talladega debut where he qualified his Toyota Camry in 6th position. At that race, Villeneuve voluntarily started 43rd and last, in order to avoid causing those drivers contesting the Chase for the Nextel Cup any difficulties. With just two rounds remaining, it seems likely that ether Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon will claim the series win, so Villeneuve will not be volunteering to start anywhere other that the place he earns – provided he qualifies.
· Another NASCAR first. Phoenix is the 7th track that Villeneuve will have raced his Toyota Tundra Truck on. Of those, it's the first 1 mile oval.
· Looks familiar. PIR is the only track that Villeneuve will race in 2007 which he has raced at previously. In 1994, as an IndyCar World Series rookie, Villeneuve made his oval debut at PIR.
· Fast from the off was how IndyCar veterans judged the rookie's oval debut at PIR. Villeneuve qualified 2nd for the race, 1/1000th second off pole. He failed to score any points in a drama packed race which he later described as "definitely different".
· Fast learner. Two events later Villeneuve finished 2nd at the Indy 500 – his second oval race. The following year, the Canadian driver came from 2 laps down to win 'the 500', open wheel racing's single most famous race.
· "I know that face". In 1996, on his way to the series win, Villeneuve finished 5th at PIR, in a race won by NASCAR regular, Robbie Gordon.
· Legends all. Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti finished 2nd and 3rd that day. Villeneuve joins them as one of only three drivers in history to have won the IndyCar World Series, the Indy 500, and the F1 Drivers Championship.
· Hoping for better. Villeneuve has found his recent Craftsman Truck experiences disappointing. With just Phoenix and Homestead to run, ahead of his full season in Nextel Cup in 2008, Villeneuve remains focused on learning, but would like to finish Top 10.
· "Valley of the Sun" is how fans and drivers often refer to PIR. Jacques is the son of the late Gilles Villeneuve, a Formula One legend, who raced for Ferrari.
· "Villeneuve", a full-length motion picture comes to movie screens in 2008. The storyline follows Jacques' perspective of watching his father compete in an era where drivers regularly lost their lives in pursuit of their dreams. The opening scene begins inside Jacques' mind, moments after crossing the line to win the 1996 F1 World Championship….the rest of the story remains a secret for now….
· "Father" is a song that appears on Jacques Villeneuve's debut musical album, 'Private Paradise'. The song was written by Jacques and his sister Melanie, and took years to complete. It tells how the pair love and miss their father to the present day.
· November 28th sees Villeneuve's NASCAR partner, UNICEF host a charity concert at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada – Jacques' home town. Appearing on stage are big name stars including chart-topper Avril Lavigne, and Jacques has been invited to perform. Dependant upon commitments to other sponsors, he hopes to do so.
Jacques Villeneuve on Phoenix International Raceway:
"I've been here before, and I liked it. I have fond memories, but I realise that it will be different in NASCAR. I'll be working to get the best from my truck, something that hasn't proven too easy recently. With the Cup car, I'm not so sure what to expect, as I've not run much in it recently. Air temperatures have cooled considerably, so I don't expect to have much trouble with the heat.
As always, I know that a lot will depend on how well we run in the pack, how consistent we can make the truck or the car, and that if I keep out of trouble, I have another great opportunity to get ready for next year."
From Amanda Smith Mathis / Bill Davis Racing
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Here we go again...
This time, Renault is being investigated for being caught with its hand in the McLaren cookie jar of secrets.
What a bunch.
Raceline Radio Network Newsletter - Nov. 8, 2007
Erik Tomas' Raceline Radio Newsletter....
Later this week, I'll be heading out on a week's vacation. It'll be the annual Tomas family trek to Gettysburg Pennsylvania, scene of that classic 1863 confrontation between the Blue and the Grey that turned the tide of the American Civil War in favour of the Union and the Army of the Potomac, sending Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia back south and eventual defeat 2 years later. A nation, no longer divided against itself, survived to stand.
You can tell I'm a history freak, and this little town in southern Pennsylvania, not that far from Washington DC is one of our favourite places. We've been to Gettysburg at least 20 times, and each time we seem to find things on the battle fields we haven't seen before. The scope and bravery of the struggle that killed more than 50 thousand men counting both sides still boggles the imagination. Average age of a Civil War soldier? 17. All this happens over our remembrance day and the American's Veterans Day. Wear a poppy and take a moment to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice in the great wars so we can live the way we do. We owe them everything…
Did you happen to catch the World of Outlaws World Finals on SPEED from the dirt track at Lowe's Charlotte? Great battles for both the Sprint Cars and Late Models that I was busy with during the summer. But of course there's a Canadian angle to the showcase!
Old friend Roger Slack has had his hands full trying to get a decent racing surface on the clay down there. What to do? Hire those who have the knack at putting in decent dirt tracks. So almost the entire Bicknell clan made their way down to North Carolina.
Besides winning championships and building title winning modifieds, Pete Bicknell, with help from Howard Schram and Bryant Irvine, puts in the pool-table-smooth surface at Merrittville Speedway. Could they work their magic at Lowe's? Yes, but not without a lot of work that even had Pete's wife Nancy out on the grooming equipment. Pete took some deep passes with the grader to get the rough surface off, and to get rid of some chemical additives.
Just the right amount of packing and watering, and drivers of both the sprints and late models had great praise for the new surface. Ah yes, it often takes Canadian ingenuity to stage a great motorsport show! Daughter Erica's famous attention to detail and cordiality was pressed into service as well at Lowe's, handling the crush of traffic at the back gate. Take a bow all!
Talk to you again when we get back from Gettysburg! I'll give your regards to the ghosts.
What do YOU think?
Opinions? Suggestions? Comments on the show? Better ideas? Keep the E-Mails rolling in for The Raceline E-Mail Bag! The address: erik@raceline.ca We always invite your feedback!
Miss a show? Go to The TEAM 1040's Vancouver's website www.team1040.ca and click on their pod cast icon and it's all there!
Later this week, I'll be heading out on a week's vacation. It'll be the annual Tomas family trek to Gettysburg Pennsylvania, scene of that classic 1863 confrontation between the Blue and the Grey that turned the tide of the American Civil War in favour of the Union and the Army of the Potomac, sending Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia back south and eventual defeat 2 years later. A nation, no longer divided against itself, survived to stand.
You can tell I'm a history freak, and this little town in southern Pennsylvania, not that far from Washington DC is one of our favourite places. We've been to Gettysburg at least 20 times, and each time we seem to find things on the battle fields we haven't seen before. The scope and bravery of the struggle that killed more than 50 thousand men counting both sides still boggles the imagination. Average age of a Civil War soldier? 17. All this happens over our remembrance day and the American's Veterans Day. Wear a poppy and take a moment to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice in the great wars so we can live the way we do. We owe them everything…
Did you happen to catch the World of Outlaws World Finals on SPEED from the dirt track at Lowe's Charlotte? Great battles for both the Sprint Cars and Late Models that I was busy with during the summer. But of course there's a Canadian angle to the showcase!
Old friend Roger Slack has had his hands full trying to get a decent racing surface on the clay down there. What to do? Hire those who have the knack at putting in decent dirt tracks. So almost the entire Bicknell clan made their way down to North Carolina.
Besides winning championships and building title winning modifieds, Pete Bicknell, with help from Howard Schram and Bryant Irvine, puts in the pool-table-smooth surface at Merrittville Speedway. Could they work their magic at Lowe's? Yes, but not without a lot of work that even had Pete's wife Nancy out on the grooming equipment. Pete took some deep passes with the grader to get the rough surface off, and to get rid of some chemical additives.
Just the right amount of packing and watering, and drivers of both the sprints and late models had great praise for the new surface. Ah yes, it often takes Canadian ingenuity to stage a great motorsport show! Daughter Erica's famous attention to detail and cordiality was pressed into service as well at Lowe's, handling the crush of traffic at the back gate. Take a bow all!
Talk to you again when we get back from Gettysburg! I'll give your regards to the ghosts.
What do YOU think?
Opinions? Suggestions? Comments on the show? Better ideas? Keep the E-Mails rolling in for The Raceline E-Mail Bag! The address: erik@raceline.ca We always invite your feedback!
Miss a show? Go to The TEAM 1040's Vancouver's website www.team1040.ca and click on their pod cast icon and it's all there!
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
F1: Alonso heading back to Renault?
TSN says two-time F1 world champ Fernando Alonso - fresh off his disastrous one-year stint with McLaren - is close to returning to Renault. The report says the team has lined up support to be able to pay the Spaniard $20 million/year.
Rick Young's 'Rick @ the Races... Retro #17
PIC 1 The Les Mitchell # 238 F80 at a pre season Brafield Practice day
PIC 2 The faithful old Austin 3 Litre in the Netherlands in February 1980
PIC 3 The ex Finnikin Alan Young # 393 built car of Willy Neiling # 48 at Baarlo Feb 1980
PIC 4 The 455 cu Buick powered F1 of Baarlo final winner Friedhelm Welters # 8 at Baarlo.
PIC 5 A smart # 50 Superstox ( the name esapes me) in the Ipswich pits Feb 1980
PIC 6 The ex JohnCayzer # 495 BriSCA F1 of Pete Mayhew # 94 in the Brafield pits
PIC 7 The ex Bryan Warner # 90 BriSCA F1 of Stan Cole # 432 in the Brafield pits
PIC 8 Stan Cole Snr # 506 on the pre-meeting Grand Parade at Brafield mid 60's ( Stan Jnr driving) UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPER
PIC 9 Stu Ralls # 379 in the loaned Ray Scriven # 110 Ford Capri bodied car at Brafield
PIC 10 Bob Hall # 380 in the ex Barry Bye # SCOTA/FISCA # 41, Ray Scriven # 110 car at Brafield
PIC 11 Ian Hall # 381 in the loaned Ray scriven # 110 Ford Capri bodied car at Brafield
PIC 12 Colin Casserley # 176 in his ex Glyn Pursey # 175 car at Brafield
PIC 13 "Big Abe " Dave Abraham # 93 in my old car at Brafield
PIC 14 Bill West # 39 in trouble at Brafield
PIC 15 My Ford Capri 2 Litre ( Wish I was still that slim ! )
PIC 16 Pat in her Fiat X19
PIC 17 Pete Doran lines up on the grid at that fateful Baarlo meeting in May
RICK @ the RACES 'RETRO' is an ongoing story of my life and times at the races. My first taste of stock car racing was at the Foxhall Stadium (Ipswich UK) when I was taken there by my parents as a 'toddler' in the late 1950's. I became a regular race fan during my school days in the 60's and raced my first BriSCA F1 Stock Car at the age of 20. Since then I've moved to Ontario, Canada where, at present, I'm heavily involved in the media side of the DIRT Modified scene. RICK YOUNG
The last installment ( # 16) took us to the end of 1979
First Half of 1980
The winter of 79/80 turned out to be one of the shortest off-season's ever for me. There was enough racing going on right up to the end of 1979 to keep me happy and on January 26 , I attended my first event of 1980. I went along to the Wimbledon Stadium in South London to get my first look at the new Formula 80 stock cars that Spedeworth had introduced to replace the FISCA/SCOTA variety of Formula 1's . Like I said in my last report these were similar to the northern Hot Stox, and a less powerful scaled down version of the 'real thing'. I could never see the point of Hot Stox and the F80's didn't impress me either. I felt at the time , there were far too many different divisions/classes in UK oval racing and this just served to confuse the general public even more. There was already a good alternative in place as a smaller stock car division, with BriSCA F2, the Spedeworth Superstox, or PRI F3 ( which were all basically the same thing) A few of the original FISCA/SCOTA drivers had built cars to conform, but others had moved over to BriSCA F1.
On February 10 , I set off on another of my trips across the North Sea to the Baarlo AutoSpeedway in the Netherlands. Once again I went by my preferred crossing of Dover to Ostende (Belgium) where it was only about a three hour drive to the track via Gent, Antwerp and Eindhoven. Sealink , the ferry operators did a special 60 hour return fare which worked out well. It was easy to leave home on a Friday , see two days of racing , then catch a Sunday night boat back to the UK. On my previous trip in December , I'd applied for a truck driving job at RAF Bruggen but nothing ever came of it. I'm pretty sure that when position's came available, they were offered to locals, in preference to someone like myself , who wasn't even living in the country. So I didn't pursue it any further.
By now word had got around that I did the 'Baarlo' trip quite regularly and it wasn't difficult to fill my car with friends, who wanted to sample the Dutch style of racing, which of course made the traveling costs cheaper for me. This turned out to be one of the last trips 'across the water' for my Austin 3 Litre. Not long after the trip I sold it and bought a Ford Capri V4 2 Litre. It was still not an ideal time of the year to be camping , so for the first time I stayed in small Hotel/Bed & Breakfast in Roermond.
I remember it well, because this is where I picked up my first ( and only) parking ticket. There was very little parking available at the Hotel and I woke up too late in the morning to feed the meter. Rather than 'make a run for it' back to the UK with out paying , I figured because of the high frequency of my visits I should be a 'good boy'. The very same day, I 'payed up' at the relevant office and was able to keep a clear conscience.
One of the surprises in the Baarlo pits was the former Bert Finnikin # 55 , Alan Young # 393 built car, still with the distinctive BMC Mini body and the long bonnet/hood. It was now in the hands of Dutchman, Willy Neiling # 48 .
Alan Young , not related, lived near to me in Bedfordshire , and was a former BriSCA F2 driver. He had a brief spell in F1 before he became a noted car builder. I got to know him quite well when he became a key member of the Glyn Pursey # 175 crew, and later, in the early 90's when he worked next to where I did in Milton Keynes.
The winner of the Baarlo Final was Friedhelm Welters # 8 in a 455 cu in Buick powered UK style car. . He was always one of the best NACO drivers and this was the first time I'd seen him get a big win.
Before the BriSCA F1 season got into full swing ( March) , I went along to see the Spedeworth Superstox in action at Wimbledon, Ipswich and Aldershot. If my records are correct, February 24 was the last time I saw racing at the Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich.
History is tentatively scheduled to take place on Saturday , 20 September, 2008, when the World Final for BriSCA F1 Stock Cars, which are Europe's premier oval racing division, take place for the first time ever at Ipswich. I plan to be there !
Once, the 1980 BriSCA F1 season did get underway, I found myself on many long distance trips to the North of England, regularly attending such places as Bradford, BelleVue, Long Eaton, Hartlepool and Sheffield. These were in addition to my local tracks of Brafield, Coventry and Leicester.
1980, was a year when a few of my 'race fan' buddies decided to try their hand at F1 racing for the first time. These included, Pete Mayhew # 94 (Barking , Essex) , Stan Cole # 432 ( Flitton, Beds) , Stu Ralls # 379 ( Southampton, Hants), Bob Hall #380 and Ian Hall # 381 ( Billericay Essex). Pete made his debut in an ex John Cayzer car and Stan , in an ex Bryan Warner car , where as Stu, Bob and Ian used loaned cars from Ray Scriven . The latter trio who are brothers and long time friends, were known around the raceways as "Halls & Ralls". All five of the guys mentioned above , are still good friends of mine and are on my "RICK @ the RACES" mailing list. Pete, after living for a few years in Hamburg, New Jersey ( close to the Orange County Fair Speedway NY ) now lives back in the UK in Cheshire. Stan is in Northamptonshire, Bob in South Yorkshire, Ian in West London (Middlesex), and Stu is still in Southampton. Stan was a second-generation driver, his Dad, Stan Cole (Snr) # 506 who I also knew well, was an F2 racer at Brafield in the mid sixties when I first started going racing .
Two other old friends, who were back racing with BriSCA, and are recipients of my RICK @ the RACES reports , were Bob Boddington # 196 of Haddenham , Buckinghamshire, and Colin Casserley # 176 of Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Colin had started his racing career with the FISCA/SCOTA F1's and was one of the first to switch over to BriSCA. In 1980 he was driving a potent ex Glyn Pursey # 175 Chevy. These days. like me he's heavily involved in the media side racing and in 2007 is one of the sports leading photographers. He and I are also members of the TRACKCHASERS group. As I prepare this report in November 2007 he is currently Europe's # 3 rated TRACKCHASER behind Roland Vanden Eynde of Belgium and Steve 'Spike' Rixon of Watford in the UK.
The Abraham brothers were also out on the track with the '390' cu in Ford Thunderbird powered car I sold to them in late 1979. They took it in turns to drive , Dave was issued with # 93 and Paul had # 393.
For quite a while, on most of my Monday night excursions to Sheffield I would travel up, with the two 'Micks' that I'd known for many years. Mick 'the beard' Lovett who I first met on the 'Bed Pan Line' gong to Harringay in the 60's and Mick 'Blacky' Black who was crew man/mechanic to Chris Pickup and myself when we first started racing.
While mentioning Chris, ... he was absent for the first part of 1980 as he was building something 'special' and it wasn't finished yet .. More about this in RICK @ the RACES (RETRO # 18)
In 1979 a Daily Mirror Grand Prix Series had been set up and was running again in 1980. Someone had the 'bright idea' ( I say that sarcastically ! ) to run the races in an unconventional way. The general concept of UK stock car racing was ( and still is) to make the top drivers start at the back of the pack. This makes the racing more interesting as they have to work ( or push) their way to the front. The format for the Grand Prix Series did away with this, and often the top drivers would start at the front, making for some pretty boring races.
Because of this, we chose to miss the Sheffield Grand Prix round that was scheduled for May 19, a decision which was to change the direction of my life...
I was still truck driving for a living , engaged on the same paper company contract in the Dunstable area and in the course of my travels I often spotted a good looking blonde driving a green Fiat X19 two seater ( similar looking to the Pontiac Fierro) . When ever we saw each other we'd usually smile and wave ... I was 26 years old and still single !
One the buddies I knew from my engineering ( apprenticeship) days had changed careers and was now a local police officer. Quite often , when I wasn't at the races , we'd both go out to the pubs and night spots in our area, where I'd check out the 'talent'. On the night of the Sheffield Grand Prix round , (which I'd decided to miss) , my 'cop buddy' phoned me to see if I fancied going out for 'a jar'. Well, we were standing at the bar in one of the local 'watering holes' when in walked the girl in the green Fiat X19.... To cut a long story short, her name was Pat, we got along very well, and within the space of about four weeks, we were seriously dating. She later become my wife who I was married to for sixteen years.
Luton's Bill West # 39 was a regular racer at my local tracks, and along with my old buddy ( another fellow TRACKCHASER) ,Colin Herridge we started helping him out at the meetings. At about the same time, Colin started dating Kim, who he married and this year ( 2007) they celebrated their Silver Wedding.
Colin, who I've known since the mid 70's when our 'stock car gang' was based at the Plume of Feathers in Markyate ( Herts) , joined me on my second Baarlo (May 24/25) trip of the year.
This two day event ended prematurely when one of our friends, Pete Doran # 428 , a UK driver competing was involved in a serious accident. His car rolled several times, then went over the safety fence and into the spectator area. Pete luckily escaped injury, but sadly there was one fatality in the crowd . The meeting was brought to a close, as the investigations took place. It was bleak and sad ending to this trip.
The Remainder of 1980 to follow...
- Rick Young
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
What? No China?!
Champ Car unveiled its 2008 schedule on Monday.
Gone is the annual pretend race in China (among others).
But there are two trips to Europe on the '08 sked.
The Canadian Triple Crown returns with consecutive events at Mt. Tremblant (June 29), Toronto (July 6... still called 'Steelback GP of Toronto, by the way), and the GP of Edmonton on July 20. In all, there are 14 races on next season's Champ Car World Series schedule.
One quote from the series' website: "We have succeeded in improving our schedules for next season, offering Champ Car fans, sponsors, teams, drivers, TV broadcasters and other stakeholders a cohesive, strong calendar of events," said Champ Car CEO and President Steve Johnson. "We will stabilize our base in North America, begin a steady growth plan for Europe, and provide a balance of temporary and permanent circuits."
The Champ Car press release is here.
The actual schedule is here.
TSN's reaction is here.
All that remains now is to see who turns out to race, and how many turn out to watch. I just read a piece by NSSN's John Oreovicz (traditionally one of Champ Car's most reliable defenders). In it, he documented the series' troubles in terms of it becoming a primarily 'pay to race' series, among other things.
It ended: "The continuing saga of massive turnover of drivers, teams and races and the lack of significant sponsorship has some observers wondering whether Champ Car is going to answer the bell for the 2008 season. And even worse, the series staunchest supporters are starting to wonder: Why bother?"
Gone is the annual pretend race in China (among others).
But there are two trips to Europe on the '08 sked.
The Canadian Triple Crown returns with consecutive events at Mt. Tremblant (June 29), Toronto (July 6... still called 'Steelback GP of Toronto, by the way), and the GP of Edmonton on July 20. In all, there are 14 races on next season's Champ Car World Series schedule.
One quote from the series' website: "We have succeeded in improving our schedules for next season, offering Champ Car fans, sponsors, teams, drivers, TV broadcasters and other stakeholders a cohesive, strong calendar of events," said Champ Car CEO and President Steve Johnson. "We will stabilize our base in North America, begin a steady growth plan for Europe, and provide a balance of temporary and permanent circuits."
The Champ Car press release is here.
The actual schedule is here.
TSN's reaction is here.
All that remains now is to see who turns out to race, and how many turn out to watch. I just read a piece by NSSN's John Oreovicz (traditionally one of Champ Car's most reliable defenders). In it, he documented the series' troubles in terms of it becoming a primarily 'pay to race' series, among other things.
It ended: "The continuing saga of massive turnover of drivers, teams and races and the lack of significant sponsorship has some observers wondering whether Champ Car is going to answer the bell for the 2008 season. And even worse, the series staunchest supporters are starting to wonder: Why bother?"
Jimmie Johnson Phoenix Preview
Jimmie Johnson and the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series travel to Phoenix International Raceway for Sunday�s ninth of the ten-race 2007 �Chase for the Nextel Cup.� After posting his 32nd career victory at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, Johnson leads teammate Jeff Gordon by 30 points. Johnson hopes to drive his Chevrolet Impala SS �Car of Tomorrow� to his fourth consecutive victory this weekend equaling a modern era record held by seven drivers. Johnson has won 10 of the 38 �Chase� races since NASCAR created the new format four years ago. Only Phoenix and Homestead remain on the 2007 �Chase� schedule.
JIMMIE JOHNSON ON RECENT STRING OF SUCCESS: �I think that we've been on quite a roll here and going to victory lane does something for the crew and the shop that you couldn�t do any other way. When you go to victory lane, there's just a buzz that goes through all of Hendrick Motorsports and really on the 48 team.�
OUTLOOK: �We have momentum going our direction right now but it's only 30 points and if you look at the last two weeks, I've been able to make up roughly 60 points. Jeff hasn't had bad races the last two events. He's had strong he finishes. So it's not like he's had bad nights. I can finish tenth, he can win, and I'm back in second. So we have a lot of work ahead of us and are happy to be in a position to race for the championship. With good racetracks coming up for us, good race cars in the lineup and momentum from the victories, and our guys are showing up hungry every week, we�re trying to get as many points as we can.�
SECOND HALF �CHASE� SURGES: �I think tracks have something to do with it. There are good tracks that we see in the spring and fall and that has a lot to do with it. I feel that we have no idea. We just show up and we do the same job every week that we always do but there are certain tracks that we are better at.�
RACING AND FRIENDSHIP WITH JEFF GORDON: �This is racing. You have to check your emotions at the gate when you come in here. Motorsports is such a humbling experience and I've been very fortunate to experience in my career a lot of great things but the road getting here was a tough one and I think a lot of people know the career that I've had, and things that I've had to do to get to this point and it's been a long battle. Motorsports will eat people up and spit them out, and I just want to capitalize on this opportunity that I have. Jeff is a great friend and great teammate, but he's also the most challenging guy out there for me to beat. And that's with all the respect in the world. But I don't feel bad for him and I know he wouldn't, either. If something happened where he had bad luck and we ended up winning the championship, that's where I would feel bad. But the fact that we are racing as hard as we are for it right now, it's racing.�
From Kristine Curley / kcurley@gmrlivepr.com
JIMMIE JOHNSON ON RECENT STRING OF SUCCESS: �I think that we've been on quite a roll here and going to victory lane does something for the crew and the shop that you couldn�t do any other way. When you go to victory lane, there's just a buzz that goes through all of Hendrick Motorsports and really on the 48 team.�
OUTLOOK: �We have momentum going our direction right now but it's only 30 points and if you look at the last two weeks, I've been able to make up roughly 60 points. Jeff hasn't had bad races the last two events. He's had strong he finishes. So it's not like he's had bad nights. I can finish tenth, he can win, and I'm back in second. So we have a lot of work ahead of us and are happy to be in a position to race for the championship. With good racetracks coming up for us, good race cars in the lineup and momentum from the victories, and our guys are showing up hungry every week, we�re trying to get as many points as we can.�
SECOND HALF �CHASE� SURGES: �I think tracks have something to do with it. There are good tracks that we see in the spring and fall and that has a lot to do with it. I feel that we have no idea. We just show up and we do the same job every week that we always do but there are certain tracks that we are better at.�
RACING AND FRIENDSHIP WITH JEFF GORDON: �This is racing. You have to check your emotions at the gate when you come in here. Motorsports is such a humbling experience and I've been very fortunate to experience in my career a lot of great things but the road getting here was a tough one and I think a lot of people know the career that I've had, and things that I've had to do to get to this point and it's been a long battle. Motorsports will eat people up and spit them out, and I just want to capitalize on this opportunity that I have. Jeff is a great friend and great teammate, but he's also the most challenging guy out there for me to beat. And that's with all the respect in the world. But I don't feel bad for him and I know he wouldn't, either. If something happened where he had bad luck and we ended up winning the championship, that's where I would feel bad. But the fact that we are racing as hard as we are for it right now, it's racing.�
From Kristine Curley / kcurley@gmrlivepr.com
Jacques Villeneuve's Texas Truck Recap
Jacques Villeneuve – Unicef Tundra
Post Race Report
Race: Silverado 350K
Track: Texas Motor Speedway
Date: Friday, Nov. 2, 2007
Started: 16th
Finished: 25th
Laps Completed: 141
Total Laps: 149
After scoring his career best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jacques Villeneuve and his No. 27 UNICEF team hoped to better that mark this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, a similar track to Atlanta.
Prior to this weekend, Villeneuve had never visited the Texas track. He took it easy throughout the first practice session Thursday morning in an effort to adapt to the racetrack. He picked up the pace during the rookie practice and final practice sessions, and the No. 27 team had its Tundra running well.
Like his past NCTS starts, Villeneuve was one of the first drivers to qualify. He did all he could to muster a good qualifying lap. His lap of 29.636 seconds was good enough for the 16th position on the starting grid for Friday night's race.
After the green flag waved to start the race, Villeneuve immediately let crew chief Doug Wolcott know that the handling of his UNICEF Tundra was tight. He fought his truck through the first 10 laps of the race before coming to pit road under caution. The crew pulled tape from the grille of the No. 27 Tundra, in addition to changing the rear tire pressure, before sending Villeneuve back onto the track.
Within a few laps, Villeneuve let his crew know that his truck was improving. He maintained his position well before reporting to the pits again under caution on lap 40. The crew made a wedge adjustment during the four-tire stop, and Villeneuve restarted 18th on lap 44.
Just when it appeared Villeneuve was on the move to the front, he felt something unusual and drove to the attention of his crew. The unusual feeling was the result of a flat tire, which the crew quickly changed. Villeneuve lost one lap to the leader because of the unscheduled green flag pit stop.
Things just got worse for Villeneuve. His Tundra grew tighter by the lap. He was forced to keep pitting throughout the next 100 laps for adjustments, as he could no longer handle his ill-fighting truck. He finished the race in the 25th position, six laps behind the race winner.
Villeneuve join the rest of the Craftsman Truck Series drivers this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. He will also attempt to qualify for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race this weekend.
From Amanda Smith Mathis / Bill Davis Racing
Post Race Report
Race: Silverado 350K
Track: Texas Motor Speedway
Date: Friday, Nov. 2, 2007
Started: 16th
Finished: 25th
Laps Completed: 141
Total Laps: 149
After scoring his career best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jacques Villeneuve and his No. 27 UNICEF team hoped to better that mark this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, a similar track to Atlanta.
Prior to this weekend, Villeneuve had never visited the Texas track. He took it easy throughout the first practice session Thursday morning in an effort to adapt to the racetrack. He picked up the pace during the rookie practice and final practice sessions, and the No. 27 team had its Tundra running well.
Like his past NCTS starts, Villeneuve was one of the first drivers to qualify. He did all he could to muster a good qualifying lap. His lap of 29.636 seconds was good enough for the 16th position on the starting grid for Friday night's race.
After the green flag waved to start the race, Villeneuve immediately let crew chief Doug Wolcott know that the handling of his UNICEF Tundra was tight. He fought his truck through the first 10 laps of the race before coming to pit road under caution. The crew pulled tape from the grille of the No. 27 Tundra, in addition to changing the rear tire pressure, before sending Villeneuve back onto the track.
Within a few laps, Villeneuve let his crew know that his truck was improving. He maintained his position well before reporting to the pits again under caution on lap 40. The crew made a wedge adjustment during the four-tire stop, and Villeneuve restarted 18th on lap 44.
Just when it appeared Villeneuve was on the move to the front, he felt something unusual and drove to the attention of his crew. The unusual feeling was the result of a flat tire, which the crew quickly changed. Villeneuve lost one lap to the leader because of the unscheduled green flag pit stop.
Things just got worse for Villeneuve. His Tundra grew tighter by the lap. He was forced to keep pitting throughout the next 100 laps for adjustments, as he could no longer handle his ill-fighting truck. He finished the race in the 25th position, six laps behind the race winner.
Villeneuve join the rest of the Craftsman Truck Series drivers this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. He will also attempt to qualify for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race this weekend.
From Amanda Smith Mathis / Bill Davis Racing
Monday, November 05, 2007
A1GP: Wickens Shines in Euro Adventures
The 18-year-old's European travels kicked off with A1 Team Canada at the Brno Auto Motodrom in the Czech Republic, the second round of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Wickens wasn't about to let his inexperience behind the wheel of the 550bhp A1GP car or his lack of track knowledge get in the way of his first outing for the Canadian team since a one-off pre-season test at Silverstone in August.
The 2006 Formula BMW USA Champion wasted little time in getting up to speed and in the second 25-minute session for rookie drivers the Canadian captured P1 before handing over qualifying and race duties to sophomore driver James Hinchcliffe. Buoyed by a sterling performance in Brno, Wickens headed to Portugal and the Estoril circuit, former home of the Portuguese Grand Prix, to make his debut in the World Series by Renault driving the Red Bull-backed #8 Carlin Motorsport entry.
Following in the footsteps of fellow A1 Team Canada alum, Vancouver's Sean McIntosh - who finished sixth overall in the 2006 World Series by Renault, Robert proudly flew the maple leaf flag in the category that's produced a host of next generation F1 talent including Poland's Robert Kubica (BMW), Finland's Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) and Germany's Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).
Scoring a 12th place finish in the first of the weekend's double-header races, having started 18th due to a flat-spotted tire in qualifying, Wickens backed that up with a 10th place finish in Race 2 to score a point on his debut weekend - a goal he'd earlier set himself. With a race weekend under his belt Wickens headed to Spain's Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona the following weekend for the season finale at the end of October.
Showcasing his confidence behind the wheel of the Dallara-Renault, Wickens captured sixth on the grid and duly scored more points with a seventh place finish at the flag. The second race saw him start fourth thanks to the inverted top-ten used by the World Series by Renault and a podium finish was the target. A great start was quickly eradicated by a spin caused by contact from behind - Robert able to get back on track but stuck down in 18th. A solid recovery drive saw Wickens just miss out on the points with an 11th place finish, his lap times as he stormed the field the equal of the race leaders.
"It was pretty satisfying to score points in both Portugal and Spain," Wickens reflected on his first career starts in the World Series by Renault. "I knew that I had the pace to get a podium in the second race in Spain so it was a bit of a bummer that I was taken out at the first corner but overall both events were good experiences for me."
On the differences between the A1GP and World Series race cars Robert stated, "Well they're both quite different. The A1GP car's fun to drive as you're sliding it around and working on the balance whereas the World Series car has phenomenal grip in comparison. The two are complete opposites to drive but I had a blast in both cars. I thoroughly enjoyed my debut with A1 Team Canada earlier in October and I hope my efforts in the rookie session helped the team. We might not always get to go P1 in every session but as long as we're improving our competitiveness that's what counts!"
Photo Credit: 'A1 Team Canada's Robert Wickens pictured in the Czech Republic' - Jakob Ebrey Photography
From A1 Team Canada Media Relations: Stuart Morrison - PR & Media Manager
Please tell me they're not planning on using $1 million Jags this time....
MOORESVILLE, NC - If you are a race fan, especially an old school race fan, you will want to mark May 18, 2008, on your calendar. Old school and everyday race fans will be able to see their favorite old school drivers back on the track.
Racing legends David Pearson, Dave Marcis, Harry Gant, James Hylton, Geoff Bodine and more have signed up to race in The Old School Racing Champions Tour (OSRCT) in 2008.
The OSRCT will debut at the Concord Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina with a 10 race schedule. A champion will be crowned at the New Smyrna Speedway in February of 2009 during a Last Chance and Championship Race.
"I have been an ARCA Truck Series Team owner for many years, have a few wins under our belt, but OSR is the most exciting thing I have ever been involved with in racing,” said Gene Weaver a Managing Partner of the OSRCT.
The OSRCT is for former winners in any of NASCAR’s top three series, former ARCA, CART and Indy Car Champions, or previous Indianapolis 500 winners that are not currently competing full-time in any of the above listed series.
“These drivers are legends in auto racing and I hope that OSR can provide a platform that will allow us to show them how much we appreciate what they have done for this sport,” added Weaver. “They deserve recognition as the pioneers of racing and it is the least we can do for them at this stage of their lives."
Driver safety is priority number one with the OSRCT. All tracks on the schedule are ¾ a mile or less and include such venues as two-time Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, the Music City Motorplex, Southside Speedway, Hickory Motor Speedway, South Boston Speedway, Flat Rock Speedway and the Springport Speedway.
The night of the race to these legendary drivers delight they will strap into equally prepared, maintained cars, provided to the drivers by OSRCT. While the drivers are excited about another turn around the track, the competitive spirit that made them Champions will compel them to drive for the win. Two time Busch Series Champion Larry Pearson probably summed it up best saying, “I can’t wait to do this.”
Adding a twist to traditional racing where drivers show up to qualify for every race, in the OSRCT drivers will only be eligible to race in 6 of the 10 races on the schedule and points will be based on the driver’s five best finishes.
To make things even more exciting, only about 15 drivers will be able to compete in any regular season race and only 20 or so drivers in the championship races. With all race sign-ups being on a first come first serve basis all drivers must select their races not only early but also wisely.
As the drivers race for each win and the championship, the car will display the logo of the drivers chosen charity. Half of all the driver’s winnings will go to that charity, including half of the half million dollar Championship purse. This will give recognition to each charity as well as a generous donation on behalf of every driver that competes in the OSRCT.
Mark your calendars and get ready for the most exciting racing series to debut in years.
“Competitiveness is bred within and Remains for Life” as these legends will exhibit starting May 18th 2008.
Summing up the excitement surrounding the series debut, managing partner Norm Weaver said “Hold on to your hats, it’s going to be something.”
For further information on the OSRCT please visit the OSRCT website at http://www.osrct.com/.
From Matthew Blaylock / Media Relations
***
UPDATE: For anyone who isn't familiar with the reference in the title of this post, click here.
Racing legends David Pearson, Dave Marcis, Harry Gant, James Hylton, Geoff Bodine and more have signed up to race in The Old School Racing Champions Tour (OSRCT) in 2008.
The OSRCT will debut at the Concord Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina with a 10 race schedule. A champion will be crowned at the New Smyrna Speedway in February of 2009 during a Last Chance and Championship Race.
"I have been an ARCA Truck Series Team owner for many years, have a few wins under our belt, but OSR is the most exciting thing I have ever been involved with in racing,” said Gene Weaver a Managing Partner of the OSRCT.
The OSRCT is for former winners in any of NASCAR’s top three series, former ARCA, CART and Indy Car Champions, or previous Indianapolis 500 winners that are not currently competing full-time in any of the above listed series.
“These drivers are legends in auto racing and I hope that OSR can provide a platform that will allow us to show them how much we appreciate what they have done for this sport,” added Weaver. “They deserve recognition as the pioneers of racing and it is the least we can do for them at this stage of their lives."
Driver safety is priority number one with the OSRCT. All tracks on the schedule are ¾ a mile or less and include such venues as two-time Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, the Music City Motorplex, Southside Speedway, Hickory Motor Speedway, South Boston Speedway, Flat Rock Speedway and the Springport Speedway.
The night of the race to these legendary drivers delight they will strap into equally prepared, maintained cars, provided to the drivers by OSRCT. While the drivers are excited about another turn around the track, the competitive spirit that made them Champions will compel them to drive for the win. Two time Busch Series Champion Larry Pearson probably summed it up best saying, “I can’t wait to do this.”
Adding a twist to traditional racing where drivers show up to qualify for every race, in the OSRCT drivers will only be eligible to race in 6 of the 10 races on the schedule and points will be based on the driver’s five best finishes.
To make things even more exciting, only about 15 drivers will be able to compete in any regular season race and only 20 or so drivers in the championship races. With all race sign-ups being on a first come first serve basis all drivers must select their races not only early but also wisely.
As the drivers race for each win and the championship, the car will display the logo of the drivers chosen charity. Half of all the driver’s winnings will go to that charity, including half of the half million dollar Championship purse. This will give recognition to each charity as well as a generous donation on behalf of every driver that competes in the OSRCT.
Mark your calendars and get ready for the most exciting racing series to debut in years.
“Competitiveness is bred within and Remains for Life” as these legends will exhibit starting May 18th 2008.
Summing up the excitement surrounding the series debut, managing partner Norm Weaver said “Hold on to your hats, it’s going to be something.”
For further information on the OSRCT please visit the OSRCT website at http://www.osrct.com/.
From Matthew Blaylock / Media Relations
***
UPDATE: For anyone who isn't familiar with the reference in the title of this post, click here.
Bourque raises morale of Canada's military members and funds for their families
Folks,
The General holding my helmet is Rick Hillier, Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff, photo taken while in Afghanistan two weeks ago. The banner, signed by all drivers and available NASCAR officials at Cayuga Speedway in September, is permanently stationed at Base Camp in Kandahar. A complete set of races from the 2007 Canadian Tire season was donated by James Robinson & Associates and is also permanently stationed at Base Camp.
My helmet was auctioned last night at a black tie affair at the Canadian War Museum attended by over 750 people. It went for $5,000, proceeds going to a charity to aid the families of our serving
military members, and was donated back to the Chief of the Defence Staff, who promised to find an appropriate home for it at National Defence HQ in Ottawa.
You all had a part in this, I can't tell you how proud I was last night on behalf of our team and our sport. Thank you all very much.
- Pierre
BUSCH CHAMP Carl Edwards, Pierre Kuettel and Jack Roush discuss their title
Ford Racing Notes from Texas Motor Speedway after Carl Edwards clinched the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series title
CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Dish Network Ford Fusion –HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE 2007 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES CHAMPION? "It feels great. In 2005, we went out to run the Busch Series full time. At the beginning of the year, we didn't have a full time sponsor for the Cup side and I was really excited about running for a championship in 2005. We got close, then in '06 we got a little bit closer. This year, especially the first half of the year was just so spectacular, PK [Pierre Kuettel] and all of the guys did such a great job and we had luck on our side. It just feels great to be a championship. I won championships at my local dirt tracks and I won two, then I won the Baby Grand Stock Car Racing Association Championship in 2002. It feels great."
PIERRE KUETTEL – No. 60 Crew Chief – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE CHAMPIONSHIP CREW CHIEF? "It feels really good. I finished in the Cup series a couple of times in the top five. I finished second in the sports car championships and finally getting to be a champion is a really good feeling."
JACK ROUSH, OWNER ROUSH FENWAY – TALK ABOUT THIS CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON WITH CARL? "We, of course, had a great start. The rhythms in this business will just drive you crazy as a driver or crew chief, mechanic or an owner. We had an unbelievable start to the year and of course it was unbelievable that we had to get a lot of it back. I would not been surprised after it started to the turn if we would kept breaking things, kept crashing and kept having things go wrong. When that monkey gets on your back, he rides hard and he's got sharp claws. It means a lot to me to be able to watch Carl win his championship in NASCAR and to watch PK win his. We moved Carl around the Busch Series. He didn't stay long enough in the truck series to win the championship there which he certainty could have. We didn't keep him in the Busch Series before we moved him into Cup. Every time for everything we tried to do with Carl, we really put some amount of risk to his career. When he came back a couple of years ago and tied for second with Greg Biffle for the Cup championship, I felt that we hadn't made a mistake for Carl. It was going to be okay. Then Mark Martin never did win a championship with us in 19 years. For us to win a championship now with Carl and get that behind us is really big."
EDWARDS – JACK MENTIONED HOW THE RHYTHM LEFT. HOW DID IT GO AND WOULDN'T COME BACK? "I just couldn't believe it. I'll never forget Kentucky. We were dominant. We were half a second faster than the field and just doing great leading. On a late restart, I'd already decided who I was going to give the trophy to. I was thinking this is going to be great and sure enough, we got wrecked there. Then, it just seemed like it wouldn't stop all the way up to Memphis last week. That monkey does have some sharp claws. I don't know. That's just the way racing goes though. I think it was Jimmie Johnson who said that momentum was an unbelievable thing. When it's going great it's unbelievable, when it's going bad it's unbelievable. We've had both this season. Hopefully we can just finish these last two races and get a couple of wins and keep going."
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS AND WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? "It's just amazing. I say this a lot, but I've lived two completely different lives. I've been to Texas Motor Speedway. I was here in 2000 with Mike Mittler working on his truck. I drove in the right seat of the semi here from Missouri. I don't remember where I stayed, probably is somebody's roll away in the hotel. I came here and carried ice bags. I just helped out. I did that and to be staying there on pit road with the championship trophy in the NASCAR Busch Series, it's amazing. A lot of good people have helped me. These two up here [Jack Roush and Pierre Kuettel] have done an amazing amount of work for me and I'm extremely grateful. It's a great feeling. I can't wait to start the season next year as a defending champion and hopefully do it again."
DO YOU THINK YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM FROM HAVING TO GO BACK AND FORTH FROM BUSCH TO CUP? "No, there really was nothing. It doesn't matter to me to race three times a day, seven days a week. That doesn't affect me. The deal is, it was just terrible luck. Charlotte for example, of all the people to spin out by themselves and collect us, I never in a million years thought Jimmie Johnson would have done it. We had a dominant car all day, so here we go. We led most of the race, we got caught up in a wreck that was a complete fluke and the 29 car wins the race and we finish 40th or whatever. It's just like the luck was astoundingly bad. I don't think there was anything we really could have done. We had the stuff that happened at the road course that was spectacular, welds breaking and parts failing, it was just amazing. I think we just had a lot of bad luck. I'm glad we could still overcome it and win this driver's championship."
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ROUSH FENWAY UP TO THIS. "I'm going to write a book, but I guess I could give you the short version. I decided when I was about 13 or 14 that I wanted to drive race cars and from then on I bothered every person that had a race car that I came in contact with. I had business cards to hand out. I never actually handed one to Jack Roush but I'm sure I handed one to 50 or 60 people that he knew or came into contact with. And eventually, some how Max Jones and those folks called me up. I didn't know whose number it was when my phone rang. I knew it was a 704 area code and that was from North Carolina. I remember right where I was standing when Max Jones called me. I remember about six or eight months later exactly what I was doing and where I was when they called me up and said 'hey, you can come and drive this Craftsman Truck. We don't have a sponsor or anything but you can come drive it.' I just remember how amazing that feeling was. It's amazing."
ROUSH - "The unsung hero sponsor for Carl, outside his mother and father and family not withstanding, but Mike Mittler. He probably made a great person investment percentage-wise in terms of what it meant to him, to Mike, then certainly that I have. And Mike Mittler is a guy that I thank for giving Carl a shot and bringing him to our attention."
EDWARDS – "You're exactly right. If Mike didn't have that truck and wasn't within driving distance of my house and I couldn't go up there everyday, I definitely wouldn't be here. I'd be doing something else."
ROUSH – DOES IT TAKE ANYTHING AWAY NOT GETTING THE OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP LOCKED UP WITH THIS? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT IN HAVING THE DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR YOU? "I feel like a second-class owner if I didn't manage to do that."
EDWARDS – "You're not."
ROUSH – "I thought about this question. In fact, I thought about it earlier today that somebody is going to ask me what I feel like tonight when Carl wins as a driver. If I want to be argumentative, I could pick the best road race driver and the best flat track driver and the best mile-and-a-half driver and have those in my car at different times. Then if I was lucky, you would do better that than you would do with either one of those drivers driving in all three of those different cars. But it isn't that simple. We're third behind Denny Hamlin, too and Denny's done most of his own driving. The Childress organization did a great job putting great drivers in the Busch cars and they had good fortune to go with that. They've just done a great job. And Carl's done a great job. I managed to put him in road race cars and PK helped me with some of that. But I managed to put him in road race cars that broke twice and we lament that and we'll thrash ourselves for that over the winter. But that's not the only reason we got beat. We were unlucky on the race track. We just got caught up in wrecks that we're anybody's fault. So some of the things we could have avoided and that was my fault. Others we couldn't. Like I said, there's a rhythm to this thing. When Matt Kenseth won his championship in 2003, there was a good part of that year when it looked like he was going to win that championship when it looked like he was not going to win a race. Of course, we could do no wrong. We couldn't break a part, we didn't have a flat tire, no body wrecked in front of us, and we didn't cause a wreck. That's just the way it goes. I certainly will do a better job in providing the leadership that will help PK and help the team put Carl in stuff and all the drivers in stuff, the cars and trucks that don't break. That's my primary responsibility. And I assume the responsibility of falling short on that this year."
EDWARDS – CAN THIS EXPERIENCE CARRY OVER TO OTHER THINGS? "Yeah, it's an accomplishment that I will be able to take with me for the rest of my career. It definitely feels good. I've learned a lot this season and I feel like I learn a lot every year and every race, for that matter. This is something that is a great feeling. Years from now, hopefully this will be one championship of many. I'm just excited to get the first one done."
ROUSH – AT WHAT POINT DID YOU SEE THE TALENT IN CARL? HOW MUCH DID YOU SEE? DID YOU EVER THINK THIS WOULD BE THE OUTCOME? "You consider what a person does on a race track and you consider who would speak for them and the recommendations will come. I enjoyed Benny Parsons when he was around. He was always watching for talent and he would help me with that. And he brought Greg Biffle to us and for which I'm eternally grateful. So you look at who would speak up for somebody, try to make an assessment as how good you think their equipment is. Different times we've had drivers in our programs that have not been as well thought of as they should have been because our cars weren't as good as they should have been for a period of time. Then I'm inclined to make an assessment of where I think somebody else's program is. Then past that, not everybody that can technically drive a race car has got the determination, the motivation and the inclination to be able to close the deal and win. A driver needs to be a gun fighter. A driver needs to be somebody that you wouldn't like to stand between him and something he needs because when it's really important. I've seen some people mad and me and I've seen some people that see me as a burden or somebody that is in the way. The gun fighter's look in a driver's eye is very important. Your really good drivers are drivers that close the deal. They give you a look like a red-tailed hawk when it's really important. Then they close the deal."
EDWARDS – ANY THOUGHTS ON BEING THE LAST BUSCH SERIES CHAMPION? EVEN THOUGH IT'S A NAME CHANGE, WILL IT FEEL DIFFERENT NEXT YEAR? "I hadn't thought about it much. But, the other day they unveiled the logo and I got to be part of that for the Nationwide Series. Anheuser Busch has done a lot for this series. To be involved for so long and doing so much, I'm very grateful for that. It's a great company. From what I see, they've done their best to support the series and it's nice to win a Busch Series Championship. But I look forward to Nationwide being the in the series. They're really excited about it and in a few years, it'll be just like NEXTEL coming in and stuff. I think the name will be just as synonymous with racing and the performance that everybody sees on the track. Hopefully we can get one of each, it will be great."
EDWARDS – HOW WOULD NASCAR'S CHANGES IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES AFFECT YOUR DECISION TO RUN? "It will make it more uncomfortable because I'll have to wear all that make-up for my disguise. It will be tough, all the logistics. I hope that I can race. They way I look at it, if I go to the local dirt track, there's a dirt track that runs on Wednesday nights and I want to go build a late model and go race for points, I can go do that and I'm glad that I can. And I feel that way about the Busch Series as I've got a great team and we've got sponsors that are excited and I'm grateful that I get to run for points in that. If NASCAR feels that they need to change for the good of the series, then I'll do whatever I need to do. If it turns out that I can't race or whatever, that's what I'll do. I just hope I can still race in these Busch races when I want to."
EDWARDS – HOW PHYSICALLY DEMANDING IS IT TO DO BOTH SERIES? OR DO YOU THINK YOU'LL TAKE A STEP BACK AND CONCENTRATE ON THE CUP CHAMPIONSHIP NEXT YEAR? "Jack and I actually talked about that a little bit. We might try to experiment a little bit next year in focusing more on the Cup Series if it can help. I'm really at a point in my life, I'm 28 years old, I've wanted to race cars for 10 or 15 years now worse then anything and now I have an opportunity to go do it. Really, all I have to do is eat, sleep and drive race cars and I'm going to do that for a while. To me it's not physically difficult or anything. I try to be in the best shape I can be and go to sleep at night and make sure I right and things like that. It hasn't been very demanding. Jack's made it very easy flying me around in the jets and it's really not that bad."
ROUSH – "One thing that we have talked about, there has been a temptation to go to a Busch race on Friday and go back and forth a couple of times on a weekend. I think that's pretty much out of the question going forward. Because you do wind up not doing the best you probably could do in the Busch car for yourself and certainly not as good you could do in the Cup car on those weekends where the races are apart. Carl and I are racing dogs. And most of the people who really carry their energy to the limit are in this business. If they'll let us race for a championship in the Busch Series, that's just fine. If they don't let us race in the Busch Series for a championship, that is also just fine. As long as we can carry sponsors that have the interest in promoting it and I can afford to make a viable business out of it, we'll be there."
ROUSH – WITH EVERYTHING BEING ALL CHEVY FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND NOW YOU HAVE A CHAMPIONSHIP, IS IT A REAL SHOT IN THE ARM FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO SAY TO FORD, 'LOOK WHAT WE DID, WE GOT YOU A CHAMPIONSHIP'? "We'll Ford expect us to race for the championships. There was a time when Ford had a third of the field. And you would expect in those times to win every third year. We don't have a third of the field now with Toyota in and Dodge in and with Chevrolet in; at the most it's like 20-25%. We don't expect to win more than our share, as much as you'd like to win all the time. Ford will certainly celebrate this. But there's no reason to believe that we can't win the Cup championship in the same year."
KUETTEL – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU TO REACH THIS LEVEL? HOW DID YOU HANDLE EVERYTHING THIS YEAR? "Being in this a long time and finally getting to this point, it's quite and accomplishment. Fifteen years ago or so whenever I saw this on TV for the first time and thought this was pretty cool and thought maybe I'd like to do this. So the hard work doing all sorts of different jobs from driving the truck to doing everything and getting to this point is great. I've worked with a lot of different guys and people. Jack was nice enough to give me a job back in '99. I worked with Jeff Burton for a number of years and won a lot of races. I've had a lot of great equipment and a lot of great people to work for. It's been pretty easy with Jack. If you apply yourself and keep you nose to the grindstone, he sees that and he moves you around which is very nice. Thank you, Jack. Yeah, you have a hard time not getting down when you don't have the luck go your way. It was pretty frustrating at Charlotte. I know we that had an outstanding race car and we didn't come away with a win. Last year, we had let the championship get away from us and I think there was one stretch there we had six weeks we were leading with less than 10 laps at the end and we didn't get the wins. So, to have four wins last and four wins this year, you can't take that away. That's a great accomplishment but I'd still like to get a couple more before the year's out that's for sure."
CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Dish Network Ford Fusion –HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE 2007 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES CHAMPION? "It feels great. In 2005, we went out to run the Busch Series full time. At the beginning of the year, we didn't have a full time sponsor for the Cup side and I was really excited about running for a championship in 2005. We got close, then in '06 we got a little bit closer. This year, especially the first half of the year was just so spectacular, PK [Pierre Kuettel] and all of the guys did such a great job and we had luck on our side. It just feels great to be a championship. I won championships at my local dirt tracks and I won two, then I won the Baby Grand Stock Car Racing Association Championship in 2002. It feels great."
PIERRE KUETTEL – No. 60 Crew Chief – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE CHAMPIONSHIP CREW CHIEF? "It feels really good. I finished in the Cup series a couple of times in the top five. I finished second in the sports car championships and finally getting to be a champion is a really good feeling."
JACK ROUSH, OWNER ROUSH FENWAY – TALK ABOUT THIS CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON WITH CARL? "We, of course, had a great start. The rhythms in this business will just drive you crazy as a driver or crew chief, mechanic or an owner. We had an unbelievable start to the year and of course it was unbelievable that we had to get a lot of it back. I would not been surprised after it started to the turn if we would kept breaking things, kept crashing and kept having things go wrong. When that monkey gets on your back, he rides hard and he's got sharp claws. It means a lot to me to be able to watch Carl win his championship in NASCAR and to watch PK win his. We moved Carl around the Busch Series. He didn't stay long enough in the truck series to win the championship there which he certainty could have. We didn't keep him in the Busch Series before we moved him into Cup. Every time for everything we tried to do with Carl, we really put some amount of risk to his career. When he came back a couple of years ago and tied for second with Greg Biffle for the Cup championship, I felt that we hadn't made a mistake for Carl. It was going to be okay. Then Mark Martin never did win a championship with us in 19 years. For us to win a championship now with Carl and get that behind us is really big."
EDWARDS – JACK MENTIONED HOW THE RHYTHM LEFT. HOW DID IT GO AND WOULDN'T COME BACK? "I just couldn't believe it. I'll never forget Kentucky. We were dominant. We were half a second faster than the field and just doing great leading. On a late restart, I'd already decided who I was going to give the trophy to. I was thinking this is going to be great and sure enough, we got wrecked there. Then, it just seemed like it wouldn't stop all the way up to Memphis last week. That monkey does have some sharp claws. I don't know. That's just the way racing goes though. I think it was Jimmie Johnson who said that momentum was an unbelievable thing. When it's going great it's unbelievable, when it's going bad it's unbelievable. We've had both this season. Hopefully we can just finish these last two races and get a couple of wins and keep going."
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS AND WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? "It's just amazing. I say this a lot, but I've lived two completely different lives. I've been to Texas Motor Speedway. I was here in 2000 with Mike Mittler working on his truck. I drove in the right seat of the semi here from Missouri. I don't remember where I stayed, probably is somebody's roll away in the hotel. I came here and carried ice bags. I just helped out. I did that and to be staying there on pit road with the championship trophy in the NASCAR Busch Series, it's amazing. A lot of good people have helped me. These two up here [Jack Roush and Pierre Kuettel] have done an amazing amount of work for me and I'm extremely grateful. It's a great feeling. I can't wait to start the season next year as a defending champion and hopefully do it again."
DO YOU THINK YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM FROM HAVING TO GO BACK AND FORTH FROM BUSCH TO CUP? "No, there really was nothing. It doesn't matter to me to race three times a day, seven days a week. That doesn't affect me. The deal is, it was just terrible luck. Charlotte for example, of all the people to spin out by themselves and collect us, I never in a million years thought Jimmie Johnson would have done it. We had a dominant car all day, so here we go. We led most of the race, we got caught up in a wreck that was a complete fluke and the 29 car wins the race and we finish 40th or whatever. It's just like the luck was astoundingly bad. I don't think there was anything we really could have done. We had the stuff that happened at the road course that was spectacular, welds breaking and parts failing, it was just amazing. I think we just had a lot of bad luck. I'm glad we could still overcome it and win this driver's championship."
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ROUSH FENWAY UP TO THIS. "I'm going to write a book, but I guess I could give you the short version. I decided when I was about 13 or 14 that I wanted to drive race cars and from then on I bothered every person that had a race car that I came in contact with. I had business cards to hand out. I never actually handed one to Jack Roush but I'm sure I handed one to 50 or 60 people that he knew or came into contact with. And eventually, some how Max Jones and those folks called me up. I didn't know whose number it was when my phone rang. I knew it was a 704 area code and that was from North Carolina. I remember right where I was standing when Max Jones called me. I remember about six or eight months later exactly what I was doing and where I was when they called me up and said 'hey, you can come and drive this Craftsman Truck. We don't have a sponsor or anything but you can come drive it.' I just remember how amazing that feeling was. It's amazing."
ROUSH - "The unsung hero sponsor for Carl, outside his mother and father and family not withstanding, but Mike Mittler. He probably made a great person investment percentage-wise in terms of what it meant to him, to Mike, then certainly that I have. And Mike Mittler is a guy that I thank for giving Carl a shot and bringing him to our attention."
EDWARDS – "You're exactly right. If Mike didn't have that truck and wasn't within driving distance of my house and I couldn't go up there everyday, I definitely wouldn't be here. I'd be doing something else."
ROUSH – DOES IT TAKE ANYTHING AWAY NOT GETTING THE OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP LOCKED UP WITH THIS? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT IN HAVING THE DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR YOU? "I feel like a second-class owner if I didn't manage to do that."
EDWARDS – "You're not."
ROUSH – "I thought about this question. In fact, I thought about it earlier today that somebody is going to ask me what I feel like tonight when Carl wins as a driver. If I want to be argumentative, I could pick the best road race driver and the best flat track driver and the best mile-and-a-half driver and have those in my car at different times. Then if I was lucky, you would do better that than you would do with either one of those drivers driving in all three of those different cars. But it isn't that simple. We're third behind Denny Hamlin, too and Denny's done most of his own driving. The Childress organization did a great job putting great drivers in the Busch cars and they had good fortune to go with that. They've just done a great job. And Carl's done a great job. I managed to put him in road race cars and PK helped me with some of that. But I managed to put him in road race cars that broke twice and we lament that and we'll thrash ourselves for that over the winter. But that's not the only reason we got beat. We were unlucky on the race track. We just got caught up in wrecks that we're anybody's fault. So some of the things we could have avoided and that was my fault. Others we couldn't. Like I said, there's a rhythm to this thing. When Matt Kenseth won his championship in 2003, there was a good part of that year when it looked like he was going to win that championship when it looked like he was not going to win a race. Of course, we could do no wrong. We couldn't break a part, we didn't have a flat tire, no body wrecked in front of us, and we didn't cause a wreck. That's just the way it goes. I certainly will do a better job in providing the leadership that will help PK and help the team put Carl in stuff and all the drivers in stuff, the cars and trucks that don't break. That's my primary responsibility. And I assume the responsibility of falling short on that this year."
EDWARDS – CAN THIS EXPERIENCE CARRY OVER TO OTHER THINGS? "Yeah, it's an accomplishment that I will be able to take with me for the rest of my career. It definitely feels good. I've learned a lot this season and I feel like I learn a lot every year and every race, for that matter. This is something that is a great feeling. Years from now, hopefully this will be one championship of many. I'm just excited to get the first one done."
ROUSH – AT WHAT POINT DID YOU SEE THE TALENT IN CARL? HOW MUCH DID YOU SEE? DID YOU EVER THINK THIS WOULD BE THE OUTCOME? "You consider what a person does on a race track and you consider who would speak for them and the recommendations will come. I enjoyed Benny Parsons when he was around. He was always watching for talent and he would help me with that. And he brought Greg Biffle to us and for which I'm eternally grateful. So you look at who would speak up for somebody, try to make an assessment as how good you think their equipment is. Different times we've had drivers in our programs that have not been as well thought of as they should have been because our cars weren't as good as they should have been for a period of time. Then I'm inclined to make an assessment of where I think somebody else's program is. Then past that, not everybody that can technically drive a race car has got the determination, the motivation and the inclination to be able to close the deal and win. A driver needs to be a gun fighter. A driver needs to be somebody that you wouldn't like to stand between him and something he needs because when it's really important. I've seen some people mad and me and I've seen some people that see me as a burden or somebody that is in the way. The gun fighter's look in a driver's eye is very important. Your really good drivers are drivers that close the deal. They give you a look like a red-tailed hawk when it's really important. Then they close the deal."
EDWARDS – ANY THOUGHTS ON BEING THE LAST BUSCH SERIES CHAMPION? EVEN THOUGH IT'S A NAME CHANGE, WILL IT FEEL DIFFERENT NEXT YEAR? "I hadn't thought about it much. But, the other day they unveiled the logo and I got to be part of that for the Nationwide Series. Anheuser Busch has done a lot for this series. To be involved for so long and doing so much, I'm very grateful for that. It's a great company. From what I see, they've done their best to support the series and it's nice to win a Busch Series Championship. But I look forward to Nationwide being the in the series. They're really excited about it and in a few years, it'll be just like NEXTEL coming in and stuff. I think the name will be just as synonymous with racing and the performance that everybody sees on the track. Hopefully we can get one of each, it will be great."
EDWARDS – HOW WOULD NASCAR'S CHANGES IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES AFFECT YOUR DECISION TO RUN? "It will make it more uncomfortable because I'll have to wear all that make-up for my disguise. It will be tough, all the logistics. I hope that I can race. They way I look at it, if I go to the local dirt track, there's a dirt track that runs on Wednesday nights and I want to go build a late model and go race for points, I can go do that and I'm glad that I can. And I feel that way about the Busch Series as I've got a great team and we've got sponsors that are excited and I'm grateful that I get to run for points in that. If NASCAR feels that they need to change for the good of the series, then I'll do whatever I need to do. If it turns out that I can't race or whatever, that's what I'll do. I just hope I can still race in these Busch races when I want to."
EDWARDS – HOW PHYSICALLY DEMANDING IS IT TO DO BOTH SERIES? OR DO YOU THINK YOU'LL TAKE A STEP BACK AND CONCENTRATE ON THE CUP CHAMPIONSHIP NEXT YEAR? "Jack and I actually talked about that a little bit. We might try to experiment a little bit next year in focusing more on the Cup Series if it can help. I'm really at a point in my life, I'm 28 years old, I've wanted to race cars for 10 or 15 years now worse then anything and now I have an opportunity to go do it. Really, all I have to do is eat, sleep and drive race cars and I'm going to do that for a while. To me it's not physically difficult or anything. I try to be in the best shape I can be and go to sleep at night and make sure I right and things like that. It hasn't been very demanding. Jack's made it very easy flying me around in the jets and it's really not that bad."
ROUSH – "One thing that we have talked about, there has been a temptation to go to a Busch race on Friday and go back and forth a couple of times on a weekend. I think that's pretty much out of the question going forward. Because you do wind up not doing the best you probably could do in the Busch car for yourself and certainly not as good you could do in the Cup car on those weekends where the races are apart. Carl and I are racing dogs. And most of the people who really carry their energy to the limit are in this business. If they'll let us race for a championship in the Busch Series, that's just fine. If they don't let us race in the Busch Series for a championship, that is also just fine. As long as we can carry sponsors that have the interest in promoting it and I can afford to make a viable business out of it, we'll be there."
ROUSH – WITH EVERYTHING BEING ALL CHEVY FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND NOW YOU HAVE A CHAMPIONSHIP, IS IT A REAL SHOT IN THE ARM FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO SAY TO FORD, 'LOOK WHAT WE DID, WE GOT YOU A CHAMPIONSHIP'? "We'll Ford expect us to race for the championships. There was a time when Ford had a third of the field. And you would expect in those times to win every third year. We don't have a third of the field now with Toyota in and Dodge in and with Chevrolet in; at the most it's like 20-25%. We don't expect to win more than our share, as much as you'd like to win all the time. Ford will certainly celebrate this. But there's no reason to believe that we can't win the Cup championship in the same year."
KUETTEL – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU TO REACH THIS LEVEL? HOW DID YOU HANDLE EVERYTHING THIS YEAR? "Being in this a long time and finally getting to this point, it's quite and accomplishment. Fifteen years ago or so whenever I saw this on TV for the first time and thought this was pretty cool and thought maybe I'd like to do this. So the hard work doing all sorts of different jobs from driving the truck to doing everything and getting to this point is great. I've worked with a lot of different guys and people. Jack was nice enough to give me a job back in '99. I worked with Jeff Burton for a number of years and won a lot of races. I've had a lot of great equipment and a lot of great people to work for. It's been pretty easy with Jack. If you apply yourself and keep you nose to the grindstone, he sees that and he moves you around which is very nice. Thank you, Jack. Yeah, you have a hard time not getting down when you don't have the luck go your way. It was pretty frustrating at Charlotte. I know we that had an outstanding race car and we didn't come away with a win. Last year, we had let the championship get away from us and I think there was one stretch there we had six weeks we were leading with less than 10 laps at the end and we didn't get the wins. So, to have four wins last and four wins this year, you can't take that away. That's a great accomplishment but I'd still like to get a couple more before the year's out that's for sure."
NHRA NEWS: POWERADE SERIES WORLD CHAMPIONS CROWNED IN POMONA
SCHUMACHER, PEDREGON, COUGHLIN AND SMITH WIN NHRA POWERADE SERIES WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CROWNS
POMONA, Calif. -- Tony Schumacher and Matt Smith needed wins in the final round of Sunday's 43rd annual Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals to clinch Countdown to the Championship titles in the POWERade Drag Racing Series. New Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon sweated it out until the semifinals before securing his second crown, while Jeg Coughlin wrapped up his third Pro Stock title in the quarterfinals.
For the second year in a row, Schumacher waited until the final pass of the season to steal the title away, this time from "Hot Rod" Fuller. He defeated Bob Vandergriff with the quickest pass of the race, a 4.486 at 328.30 mph. Robert Hight beat fill-in teammate Phil Burkart in the Funny Car final when Burkart's car lost traction 200 feet out.
In Pro Stock, Coughlin punctuated his title with his 38th career win, this one over first-time finalist Justin Humphreys. Smith beat fellow Buell rider Chip Ellis in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final.
Schumacher becomes the first Top Fuel racer to win four championships in a row with his second Cinderella finish in as many years. Entering this weekend in fourth place and needing help on many fronts, Schumacher danced his way through to the final in his U.S. Army dragster and blistered Vandergriff's UPS dragster 4.486 to 4.681 to win his fifth POWERade championship by just 19 points.
"After the second round it was like déjà vu," Schumacher said. "My knees started shaking and I had that feeling like maybe we could do it again. The guys on this team are unbelievable when the pressure is on. They showed it again today."
Temporary teammates Hight and Burkart had little to race for in the final besides bragging rights and an event trophy as the Funny Car title had already been decided one round earlier when Hight couldn't run quick enough to set a national record, depriving him of a chance at the 20 bonus points he would have needed to pass Pedregon.
Hight still shined in the final with the best pass of the weekend, a 4.731 at 326.71 mph in his Auto Club Ford Mustang.
"We pushed as hard as we could in the semifinals to try and at least get the back-up for a record but we broke a couple of lifters and it was a handful just to keep it off the wall," Hight said. "It would have been close but it didn't happen. If we had won the championship it wouldn't have made this a great year. Winning the race didn't make it a great year. We lost our teammate [Eric Medlen] this year and nothing will make up for that. We all miss him like you can't believe. I'm gonna go home and have a little ice cream, and like Eric always said, that is sure to make you happy."
Pedregon was relieved and emotional after finally securing the championship in his Q Horsepower Chevy Impala.
"This is racing, and we want to win races, but we have to remember we're putting on a show, and I think the NHRA did a great job with this Countdown," Pedregon said. "The biggest difference between this year and 2003 when I won a title with John Force Racing was the amount of media coverage. The stress is through the roof but in the end, I think we have a better product now. I had people doubting my sanity when I left John but I wanted to race with my brother and I wanted to see if I could do it on my own. I know how difficult it is to race a team like that. I know what they have over there. And to be able to beat them is special. Winning our first race on my own was huge. To win this championship, I can't describe it."
Two rounds after clinching his third NHRA title, Coughlin won his 38th national event by barely catching and passing Humphreys. The former NHRA Sport Compact champion was ahead of Coughlin at every timer except the finish line, but Coughlin's Jegs.com Cobalt had just enough steam to win with a 6.638 at 207.98 mph to Humphrey's 6.662 at 207.27 mph in his Knoll Gas & Energy Pontiac GTO.
"This goes back to last week in Las Vegas when I woke up on Sunday morning and said to myself that if I was gonna win the championship it was time to get after it," Coughlin said. "No matter what car I had under me, I needed to get it done. We made it to the final but lost to Greg and came in here almost two rounds behind him. I had to have that talk with myself again and I don't know if I was buying it this time.
"It was amazing to see how it came out in Round 1 with Greg Anderson and Dave Connolly, two of the best in the business, both losing like that. We knew we needed some help and we got it right away. Then I just dug down deep and got that second round win and clinched it. It's a phenomenal feeling."
The Pro Stock Motorcycle championship came down to the final round and Smith was superb under the intense pressure, rocketing off the starting line on his Torco Race Fuels Buell and never looking back, defeating Ellis's S&S Buell with a 6.944 at 191.191.08 mph to Ellis' 6.957 at 192.17 mph.
"I don't know if words can describe this feeling," Smith said. "I've had some big races before but nothing like this. My goodness, it was all or nothing there.
"This is pretty special, especially with my dad here helping us. We felt like we had such a great bike all year and we had times where we just couldn't punch it through when we probably should have won some races, but we never gave up and just kept fighting."
The championship was put up for grabs after leader Andrew Hines rolled the lights in the quarterfinals and red-lighted. Had Hines won that round, he would have clinched his fourth straight title. Instead, he was relegated to second place.
* * *
POMONA, Calif. -- Final finish order (1-16) for professional categories at the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The race is the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
TOP FUEL:
1. Tony Schumacher; 2. Bob Vandergriff; 3. J.R. Todd; 4. Brandon Bernstein; 5. Larry Dixon; 6. Morgan Lucas; 7. Doug Herbert; 8. David Grubnic; 9. Hillary Will; 10. Melanie Troxel; 11. Doug Foley; 12. David Baca; 13. Rod Fuller; 14. Cory McClenathan; 15. Alan Bradshaw; 16. Doug Kalitta.
FUNNY CAR:
1. Robert Hight, Ford Mustang; 2. Phil Burkart, Mustang; 3. Tim Wilkerson, Chevy Impala; 4. Mike Ashley, Dodge Charger; 5. Jack Beckman, Charger; 6. Ashley Force, Mustang; 7. Jerry Toliver, Toyota Solara; 8. Jeff Arend, Impala; 9. Ron Capps, Charger; 10. Tony Pedregon, Impala; 11. Kenny Bernstein, Charger; 12. Tony Bartone, Chevy Monte Carlo; 13. Mike Neff, Mustang; 14. Gary Scelzi, Charger; 15. Del Worsham, Impala; 16. Gary Densham, Impala.
PRO STOCK:
1. Jeg Coughlin, Chevy Cobalt; 2. Justin Humphreys, Pontiac GTO; 3. Tom Hammonds, Cobalt; 4.Mike Edwards, GTO; 5. Jason Line, GTO; 6. Richie Stevens, Dodge Stratus; 7. Allen Johnson, Stratus; 8. Greg Stanfield, GTO; 9. Greg Anderson, GTO; 10. Warren Johnson, GTO; 11. Dave Connolly, Cobalt; 12. V. Gaines, Stratus; 13. Max Naylor, Stratus; 14. Larry Morgan, Stratus; 15. Kurt Johnson, Cobalt; 16. Ron Krisher, Cobalt.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:
1. Matt Smith; 2. Chip Ellis; 3. Antron Brown, Suzuki; 4. Angelle Sampey, Suzuki; 5. Peggy Llewellyn; 6. Eddie Krawiec, Harley-Davidson; 7. Karen Stoffer, Suzuki; 8. Andrew Hines, Harley-Davidson; 9. Matt Guidera; 10. Steve Johnson, Suzuki; 11. Geno Scali, Suzuki; 12. Craig Treble, Suzuki; 13. Hector Arana; 14. Angie McBride, Suzuki; 15. Shawn Gann, Suzuki; 16. Junior Pippin.
POMONA, Calif. -- Sunday's final results from the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The race is the final of 23 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:
Top Fuel -- Tony Schumacher, 4.486 seconds, 328.30 mph def. Bob Vandergriff, 4.681 seconds, 317.19 mph.
Funny Car -- Robert Hight, Ford Mustang, 4.731, 326.71 def. Phil Burkart, Mustang, 8.314, 104.31.
Pro Stock -- Jeg Coughlin, Chevy Cobalt, 6.638, 207.98 def. Justin Humphreys, Pontiac GTO, 6.662, 207.27.
Pro Stock Motorcycle -- Matt Smith, Buell, 6.944, 191.08 def. Chip Ellis, Buell, 6.957, 192.17.
Top Alcohol Dragster -- Bill Reichert, 5.191, 275.22 def. Duane Shields, 13.445, 87.32.
Top Alcohol Funny Car -- Jay Payne, Ford Mustang, 5.607, 257.24 def. Von Smith, Chevy Camaro, 7.034, 129.85.
Competition Eliminator -- Tom Mettler, Dodge Dakota, 7.456, 180.12 def. Dean Carter, Dragster, 6.954, 177.35.
Super Stock -- Dan Fletcher, Chevy Camaro, 9.361, 137.51 def. Michael Iacono, Camaro, 9.937, 125.10.
Stock Eliminator -- Jody Lang, Chevy Malibu, 13.180, 79.89 def. Toby Lang, Chevelle, 11.681, 111.97.
Super Comp -- Shawn Langdon, Dragster, 8.924, 167.24 def. Gary Stinnett, Dragster, 8.946, 174.21.
Super Gas -- Steve Parsons, Chevy Camaro, 9.906, 157.50 def. Randy Balough, Chevy Corvette, 9.916, 155.17.
POMONA, Calif. -- Final round-by-round results from the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:
TOP FUEL:
ROUND ONE -- Morgan Lucas, 4.562, 322.04 def. Doug Foley, 4.572, 325.92; Larry Dixon, 4.522, 323.81 def. Hillary Will, 4.524, 330.07; Brandon Bernstein, 4.557, 327.11 def. Cory McClenathan, 12.109, 75.31; J.R. Todd, 4.496, 334.24 def. Doug Kalitta, foul; Tony Schumacher, 4.508, 325.69 def. Alan Bradshaw, 12.480, 75.09; Doug Herbert, 4.624, 296.05 def. David Baca, 4.574, 327.19; David Grubnic, 4.542, 326.00 def. Melanie Troxel, 4.549, 330.15; Bob Vandergriff, 4.540, 331.28 def. Rod Fuller, 10.998, 78.01; QUARTERFINALS -- Vandergriff, 4.570, 310.63 def. Herbert, 4.681, 294.11; Bernstein, 4.549, 322.19 def. Grubnic, 5.020, 305.77; Schumacher, 4.501, 330.96 def. Lucas, 4.552, 327.90; Todd, 4.508, 330.88 def. Dixon, 4.549, 318.84; SEMIFINALS -- Vandergriff, 4.585, 331.94 def. Todd, foul; Schumacher, 4.520, 325.53 def. Bernstein, 4.637, 319.14; FINAL -- Schumacher, 4.486, 328.30 def. Vandergriff, 4.681, 317.19.
FUNNY CAR:
ROUND ONE -- Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger, 4.797, 324.90 def. Gary Densham, Chevy Impala, 7.076, 123.67; Tim Wilkerson, Impala, 4.762, 321.50 def. Tony Bartone, Chevy Monte Carlo, 4.931, 318.47; Ashley Force, Ford Mustang, 4.843, 296.31 def. Del Worsham, Impala, 7.037, 132.24; Jeff Arend, Impala, 4.849, 318.02 def. Tony Pedregon, Impala, 4.853, 319.98; Robert Hight, Mustang, 4.902, 307.09 def. Gary Scelzi, Charger, 5.632, 176.90; Jerry Toliver, Toyota Solara, 4.871, 322.34 def.
Kenny Bernstein, Charger, 4.915, 316.75; Mike Ashley, Charger, 4.802, 328.62 def. Mike Neff, Mustang, 4.938, 284.56; Phil Burkart, Mustang, 4.861, 317.57 def. Ron Capps, Charger, 4.822, 323.35; QUARTERFINALS -- Ashley, 4.795, 329.91 def. Beckman, 4.799, 320.81; Wilkerson, 4.792, 322.42 def. Force, 4.812, 322.50; Burkart, 4.891, 301.81 def. Arend, 5.596, 223.91; Hight, 4.796, 319.29 def. Toliver, 4.839, 323.58; SEMIFINALS -- Hight, 4.877, 255.05 def. Ashley, 4.951, 324.51; Burkart, 4.796, 324.20 def. Wilkerson, 4.859, 312.06; FINAL -- Hight, 4.731, 326.71 def. Burkart, 8.314, 104.31.
PRO STOCK:
ROUND ONE -- Jason Line, Pontiac GTO, 6.669, 208.01 def. V. Gaines, Dodge Stratus, 6.681, 206.70; Allen Johnson, Stratus, 6.671, 206.92 def. Max Naylor, Stratus, foul; Tom Hammonds, Chevy Cobalt, 6.693, 206.76 def. Kurt Johnson, Cobalt, 6.739, 206.70; Richie Stevens, Stratus, 6.671, 206.80 def. Ron Krisher, Cobalt, 6.844, 205.38; Greg Stanfield, GTO, 6.699, 206.39 def. Warren Johnson, GTO, 6.663, 207.85; Mike Edwards, GTO, 6.703, 206.10 def. Dave Connolly, Cobalt, foul; Justin Humphreys, GTO, 6.669, 207.18 def. Greg Anderson, GTO, 6.658, 208.42; Jeg Coughlin, Cobalt, 6.650, 207.34 def. Larry Morgan, Stratus, 6.692, 206.80;
QUARTERFINALS -- Hammonds, 6.693, 206.64 def. Stanfield, 6.742, 206.57; Humphreys, 6.647, 207.50 def. A. Johnson, 6.676, 207.02; Edwards, 6.712, 206.57 def. Line, foul; Coughlin, 6.646, 207.88 def. Stevens, 6.672, 206.80;
SEMIFINALS -- Humphreys, 6.674, 206.70 def. Hammonds, 6.699, 206.73; Coughlin, 6.654, 207.88 def. Edwards, foul;
FINAL -- Coughlin, 6.638, 207.98 def. Humphreys, 6.662, 207.27.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:
ROUND ONE -- Antron Brown, Suzuki, 7.116, 185.77 def. Craig Treble, Suzuki, foul; Chip Ellis, Buell, 6.996, 189.50 def. Junior Pippin, Buell, 7.263, 180.94; Eddie Krawiec, Harley-Davidson, 6.990, 188.62 def. Matt Guidera, Buell, 7.035, 188.20; Karen Stoffer, Suzuki, 7.019, 189.47 def. Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 7.052, 189.26; Peggy Llewellyn, Buell, 7.075, 187.57 def. Hector Arana, Buell, foul; Andrew Hines, Harley-Davidson, 6.984, 191.46 def. Shawn Gann, Suzuki, 7.182, 175.46; Angelle Sampey, Suzuki, 6.993, 190.24 def. Geno Scali, Suzuki, 7.068, 189.36; Matt Smith, Buell, 6.994, 188.78 def. Angie McBride, Suzuki, 7.152, 165.68;
QUARTERFINALS -- Smith, 6.969, 188.73 def. Llewellyn, 7.005, 189.28; Sampey, 6.979, 190.48 def. Stoffer, 7.078, 187.78; Ellis, 6.979, 190.30 def. Krawiec, 7.053, 187.08; Brown, 7.078, 184.95 def. Hines, foul;
SEMIFINALS -- Ellis, 6.987, 191.02 def. Sampey, broke; Smith, 6.956, 190.30 def. Brown, foul;
FINAL -- Smith, 6.944, 191.08 def. Ellis, 6.957, 192.17.
POMONA, Calif. -- Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series -
Top Fuel
1. Tony Schumacher, 3,186; 2. Rod Fuller, 3,167; 3. Brandon Bernstein, 3,149; 4. Larry Dixon, 3,135; 5. Bob Vandergriff, 2,358; 6. Doug Herbert, 2,292; 7. J.R. Todd, 2,273; 8. Whit Bazemore, 2,182; 9. Melanie Troxel, 1,173; 10. Doug Kalitta, 1,045.
Funny Car
1. Tony Pedregon, 3,178; 2. Robert Hight, 3,159; 3. Gary Scelzi, 3,092; 4. Ron Capps, 3,067; 5.
Jack Beckman, 2,358; 6. Mike Ashley, 2,337; 7. John Force, 2,191; 8. Jim Head, 2,163; 9. Del Worsham, 1,050; 10. Ashley Force, 960.
Pro Stock
1. Jeg Coughlin, 3,217; 2. Greg Anderson, 3,173; 3. Dave Connolly, 3,126; 4. Allen Johnson, 3,086; 5. Jason Line, 2,292; 6. Kurt Johnson, 2,278; 7. Larry Morgan, 2,233; 8. Warren Johnson, 2,180; 9. Richie Stevens, 1,056; 10. V. Gaines, 1,025.
Pro Stock Motorcycle
1. Matt Smith, 3,211; 2. Andrew Hines, 3,205; 3. Chip Ellis, 3,204; 4. Peggy Llewellyn, 3,108; 5. Angelle Sampey, 2,309; 6. Craig Treble, 2,283; 7. Eddie Krawiec, 2,244; 8. Karen Stoffer, 2,242; 9. Steve Johnson, 746; 10. Antron Brown, 708.
From NHRA
POMONA, Calif. -- Tony Schumacher and Matt Smith needed wins in the final round of Sunday's 43rd annual Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals to clinch Countdown to the Championship titles in the POWERade Drag Racing Series. New Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon sweated it out until the semifinals before securing his second crown, while Jeg Coughlin wrapped up his third Pro Stock title in the quarterfinals.
For the second year in a row, Schumacher waited until the final pass of the season to steal the title away, this time from "Hot Rod" Fuller. He defeated Bob Vandergriff with the quickest pass of the race, a 4.486 at 328.30 mph. Robert Hight beat fill-in teammate Phil Burkart in the Funny Car final when Burkart's car lost traction 200 feet out.
In Pro Stock, Coughlin punctuated his title with his 38th career win, this one over first-time finalist Justin Humphreys. Smith beat fellow Buell rider Chip Ellis in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final.
Schumacher becomes the first Top Fuel racer to win four championships in a row with his second Cinderella finish in as many years. Entering this weekend in fourth place and needing help on many fronts, Schumacher danced his way through to the final in his U.S. Army dragster and blistered Vandergriff's UPS dragster 4.486 to 4.681 to win his fifth POWERade championship by just 19 points.
"After the second round it was like déjà vu," Schumacher said. "My knees started shaking and I had that feeling like maybe we could do it again. The guys on this team are unbelievable when the pressure is on. They showed it again today."
Temporary teammates Hight and Burkart had little to race for in the final besides bragging rights and an event trophy as the Funny Car title had already been decided one round earlier when Hight couldn't run quick enough to set a national record, depriving him of a chance at the 20 bonus points he would have needed to pass Pedregon.
Hight still shined in the final with the best pass of the weekend, a 4.731 at 326.71 mph in his Auto Club Ford Mustang.
"We pushed as hard as we could in the semifinals to try and at least get the back-up for a record but we broke a couple of lifters and it was a handful just to keep it off the wall," Hight said. "It would have been close but it didn't happen. If we had won the championship it wouldn't have made this a great year. Winning the race didn't make it a great year. We lost our teammate [Eric Medlen] this year and nothing will make up for that. We all miss him like you can't believe. I'm gonna go home and have a little ice cream, and like Eric always said, that is sure to make you happy."
Pedregon was relieved and emotional after finally securing the championship in his Q Horsepower Chevy Impala.
"This is racing, and we want to win races, but we have to remember we're putting on a show, and I think the NHRA did a great job with this Countdown," Pedregon said. "The biggest difference between this year and 2003 when I won a title with John Force Racing was the amount of media coverage. The stress is through the roof but in the end, I think we have a better product now. I had people doubting my sanity when I left John but I wanted to race with my brother and I wanted to see if I could do it on my own. I know how difficult it is to race a team like that. I know what they have over there. And to be able to beat them is special. Winning our first race on my own was huge. To win this championship, I can't describe it."
Two rounds after clinching his third NHRA title, Coughlin won his 38th national event by barely catching and passing Humphreys. The former NHRA Sport Compact champion was ahead of Coughlin at every timer except the finish line, but Coughlin's Jegs.com Cobalt had just enough steam to win with a 6.638 at 207.98 mph to Humphrey's 6.662 at 207.27 mph in his Knoll Gas & Energy Pontiac GTO.
"This goes back to last week in Las Vegas when I woke up on Sunday morning and said to myself that if I was gonna win the championship it was time to get after it," Coughlin said. "No matter what car I had under me, I needed to get it done. We made it to the final but lost to Greg and came in here almost two rounds behind him. I had to have that talk with myself again and I don't know if I was buying it this time.
"It was amazing to see how it came out in Round 1 with Greg Anderson and Dave Connolly, two of the best in the business, both losing like that. We knew we needed some help and we got it right away. Then I just dug down deep and got that second round win and clinched it. It's a phenomenal feeling."
The Pro Stock Motorcycle championship came down to the final round and Smith was superb under the intense pressure, rocketing off the starting line on his Torco Race Fuels Buell and never looking back, defeating Ellis's S&S Buell with a 6.944 at 191.191.08 mph to Ellis' 6.957 at 192.17 mph.
"I don't know if words can describe this feeling," Smith said. "I've had some big races before but nothing like this. My goodness, it was all or nothing there.
"This is pretty special, especially with my dad here helping us. We felt like we had such a great bike all year and we had times where we just couldn't punch it through when we probably should have won some races, but we never gave up and just kept fighting."
The championship was put up for grabs after leader Andrew Hines rolled the lights in the quarterfinals and red-lighted. Had Hines won that round, he would have clinched his fourth straight title. Instead, he was relegated to second place.
* * *
POMONA, Calif. -- Final finish order (1-16) for professional categories at the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The race is the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
TOP FUEL:
1. Tony Schumacher; 2. Bob Vandergriff; 3. J.R. Todd; 4. Brandon Bernstein; 5. Larry Dixon; 6. Morgan Lucas; 7. Doug Herbert; 8. David Grubnic; 9. Hillary Will; 10. Melanie Troxel; 11. Doug Foley; 12. David Baca; 13. Rod Fuller; 14. Cory McClenathan; 15. Alan Bradshaw; 16. Doug Kalitta.
FUNNY CAR:
1. Robert Hight, Ford Mustang; 2. Phil Burkart, Mustang; 3. Tim Wilkerson, Chevy Impala; 4. Mike Ashley, Dodge Charger; 5. Jack Beckman, Charger; 6. Ashley Force, Mustang; 7. Jerry Toliver, Toyota Solara; 8. Jeff Arend, Impala; 9. Ron Capps, Charger; 10. Tony Pedregon, Impala; 11. Kenny Bernstein, Charger; 12. Tony Bartone, Chevy Monte Carlo; 13. Mike Neff, Mustang; 14. Gary Scelzi, Charger; 15. Del Worsham, Impala; 16. Gary Densham, Impala.
PRO STOCK:
1. Jeg Coughlin, Chevy Cobalt; 2. Justin Humphreys, Pontiac GTO; 3. Tom Hammonds, Cobalt; 4.Mike Edwards, GTO; 5. Jason Line, GTO; 6. Richie Stevens, Dodge Stratus; 7. Allen Johnson, Stratus; 8. Greg Stanfield, GTO; 9. Greg Anderson, GTO; 10. Warren Johnson, GTO; 11. Dave Connolly, Cobalt; 12. V. Gaines, Stratus; 13. Max Naylor, Stratus; 14. Larry Morgan, Stratus; 15. Kurt Johnson, Cobalt; 16. Ron Krisher, Cobalt.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:
1. Matt Smith; 2. Chip Ellis; 3. Antron Brown, Suzuki; 4. Angelle Sampey, Suzuki; 5. Peggy Llewellyn; 6. Eddie Krawiec, Harley-Davidson; 7. Karen Stoffer, Suzuki; 8. Andrew Hines, Harley-Davidson; 9. Matt Guidera; 10. Steve Johnson, Suzuki; 11. Geno Scali, Suzuki; 12. Craig Treble, Suzuki; 13. Hector Arana; 14. Angie McBride, Suzuki; 15. Shawn Gann, Suzuki; 16. Junior Pippin.
POMONA, Calif. -- Sunday's final results from the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The race is the final of 23 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:
Top Fuel -- Tony Schumacher, 4.486 seconds, 328.30 mph def. Bob Vandergriff, 4.681 seconds, 317.19 mph.
Funny Car -- Robert Hight, Ford Mustang, 4.731, 326.71 def. Phil Burkart, Mustang, 8.314, 104.31.
Pro Stock -- Jeg Coughlin, Chevy Cobalt, 6.638, 207.98 def. Justin Humphreys, Pontiac GTO, 6.662, 207.27.
Pro Stock Motorcycle -- Matt Smith, Buell, 6.944, 191.08 def. Chip Ellis, Buell, 6.957, 192.17.
Top Alcohol Dragster -- Bill Reichert, 5.191, 275.22 def. Duane Shields, 13.445, 87.32.
Top Alcohol Funny Car -- Jay Payne, Ford Mustang, 5.607, 257.24 def. Von Smith, Chevy Camaro, 7.034, 129.85.
Competition Eliminator -- Tom Mettler, Dodge Dakota, 7.456, 180.12 def. Dean Carter, Dragster, 6.954, 177.35.
Super Stock -- Dan Fletcher, Chevy Camaro, 9.361, 137.51 def. Michael Iacono, Camaro, 9.937, 125.10.
Stock Eliminator -- Jody Lang, Chevy Malibu, 13.180, 79.89 def. Toby Lang, Chevelle, 11.681, 111.97.
Super Comp -- Shawn Langdon, Dragster, 8.924, 167.24 def. Gary Stinnett, Dragster, 8.946, 174.21.
Super Gas -- Steve Parsons, Chevy Camaro, 9.906, 157.50 def. Randy Balough, Chevy Corvette, 9.916, 155.17.
POMONA, Calif. -- Final round-by-round results from the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:
TOP FUEL:
ROUND ONE -- Morgan Lucas, 4.562, 322.04 def. Doug Foley, 4.572, 325.92; Larry Dixon, 4.522, 323.81 def. Hillary Will, 4.524, 330.07; Brandon Bernstein, 4.557, 327.11 def. Cory McClenathan, 12.109, 75.31; J.R. Todd, 4.496, 334.24 def. Doug Kalitta, foul; Tony Schumacher, 4.508, 325.69 def. Alan Bradshaw, 12.480, 75.09; Doug Herbert, 4.624, 296.05 def. David Baca, 4.574, 327.19; David Grubnic, 4.542, 326.00 def. Melanie Troxel, 4.549, 330.15; Bob Vandergriff, 4.540, 331.28 def. Rod Fuller, 10.998, 78.01; QUARTERFINALS -- Vandergriff, 4.570, 310.63 def. Herbert, 4.681, 294.11; Bernstein, 4.549, 322.19 def. Grubnic, 5.020, 305.77; Schumacher, 4.501, 330.96 def. Lucas, 4.552, 327.90; Todd, 4.508, 330.88 def. Dixon, 4.549, 318.84; SEMIFINALS -- Vandergriff, 4.585, 331.94 def. Todd, foul; Schumacher, 4.520, 325.53 def. Bernstein, 4.637, 319.14; FINAL -- Schumacher, 4.486, 328.30 def. Vandergriff, 4.681, 317.19.
FUNNY CAR:
ROUND ONE -- Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger, 4.797, 324.90 def. Gary Densham, Chevy Impala, 7.076, 123.67; Tim Wilkerson, Impala, 4.762, 321.50 def. Tony Bartone, Chevy Monte Carlo, 4.931, 318.47; Ashley Force, Ford Mustang, 4.843, 296.31 def. Del Worsham, Impala, 7.037, 132.24; Jeff Arend, Impala, 4.849, 318.02 def. Tony Pedregon, Impala, 4.853, 319.98; Robert Hight, Mustang, 4.902, 307.09 def. Gary Scelzi, Charger, 5.632, 176.90; Jerry Toliver, Toyota Solara, 4.871, 322.34 def.
Kenny Bernstein, Charger, 4.915, 316.75; Mike Ashley, Charger, 4.802, 328.62 def. Mike Neff, Mustang, 4.938, 284.56; Phil Burkart, Mustang, 4.861, 317.57 def. Ron Capps, Charger, 4.822, 323.35; QUARTERFINALS -- Ashley, 4.795, 329.91 def. Beckman, 4.799, 320.81; Wilkerson, 4.792, 322.42 def. Force, 4.812, 322.50; Burkart, 4.891, 301.81 def. Arend, 5.596, 223.91; Hight, 4.796, 319.29 def. Toliver, 4.839, 323.58; SEMIFINALS -- Hight, 4.877, 255.05 def. Ashley, 4.951, 324.51; Burkart, 4.796, 324.20 def. Wilkerson, 4.859, 312.06; FINAL -- Hight, 4.731, 326.71 def. Burkart, 8.314, 104.31.
PRO STOCK:
ROUND ONE -- Jason Line, Pontiac GTO, 6.669, 208.01 def. V. Gaines, Dodge Stratus, 6.681, 206.70; Allen Johnson, Stratus, 6.671, 206.92 def. Max Naylor, Stratus, foul; Tom Hammonds, Chevy Cobalt, 6.693, 206.76 def. Kurt Johnson, Cobalt, 6.739, 206.70; Richie Stevens, Stratus, 6.671, 206.80 def. Ron Krisher, Cobalt, 6.844, 205.38; Greg Stanfield, GTO, 6.699, 206.39 def. Warren Johnson, GTO, 6.663, 207.85; Mike Edwards, GTO, 6.703, 206.10 def. Dave Connolly, Cobalt, foul; Justin Humphreys, GTO, 6.669, 207.18 def. Greg Anderson, GTO, 6.658, 208.42; Jeg Coughlin, Cobalt, 6.650, 207.34 def. Larry Morgan, Stratus, 6.692, 206.80;
QUARTERFINALS -- Hammonds, 6.693, 206.64 def. Stanfield, 6.742, 206.57; Humphreys, 6.647, 207.50 def. A. Johnson, 6.676, 207.02; Edwards, 6.712, 206.57 def. Line, foul; Coughlin, 6.646, 207.88 def. Stevens, 6.672, 206.80;
SEMIFINALS -- Humphreys, 6.674, 206.70 def. Hammonds, 6.699, 206.73; Coughlin, 6.654, 207.88 def. Edwards, foul;
FINAL -- Coughlin, 6.638, 207.98 def. Humphreys, 6.662, 207.27.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:
ROUND ONE -- Antron Brown, Suzuki, 7.116, 185.77 def. Craig Treble, Suzuki, foul; Chip Ellis, Buell, 6.996, 189.50 def. Junior Pippin, Buell, 7.263, 180.94; Eddie Krawiec, Harley-Davidson, 6.990, 188.62 def. Matt Guidera, Buell, 7.035, 188.20; Karen Stoffer, Suzuki, 7.019, 189.47 def. Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 7.052, 189.26; Peggy Llewellyn, Buell, 7.075, 187.57 def. Hector Arana, Buell, foul; Andrew Hines, Harley-Davidson, 6.984, 191.46 def. Shawn Gann, Suzuki, 7.182, 175.46; Angelle Sampey, Suzuki, 6.993, 190.24 def. Geno Scali, Suzuki, 7.068, 189.36; Matt Smith, Buell, 6.994, 188.78 def. Angie McBride, Suzuki, 7.152, 165.68;
QUARTERFINALS -- Smith, 6.969, 188.73 def. Llewellyn, 7.005, 189.28; Sampey, 6.979, 190.48 def. Stoffer, 7.078, 187.78; Ellis, 6.979, 190.30 def. Krawiec, 7.053, 187.08; Brown, 7.078, 184.95 def. Hines, foul;
SEMIFINALS -- Ellis, 6.987, 191.02 def. Sampey, broke; Smith, 6.956, 190.30 def. Brown, foul;
FINAL -- Smith, 6.944, 191.08 def. Ellis, 6.957, 192.17.
POMONA, Calif. -- Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series -
Top Fuel
1. Tony Schumacher, 3,186; 2. Rod Fuller, 3,167; 3. Brandon Bernstein, 3,149; 4. Larry Dixon, 3,135; 5. Bob Vandergriff, 2,358; 6. Doug Herbert, 2,292; 7. J.R. Todd, 2,273; 8. Whit Bazemore, 2,182; 9. Melanie Troxel, 1,173; 10. Doug Kalitta, 1,045.
Funny Car
1. Tony Pedregon, 3,178; 2. Robert Hight, 3,159; 3. Gary Scelzi, 3,092; 4. Ron Capps, 3,067; 5.
Jack Beckman, 2,358; 6. Mike Ashley, 2,337; 7. John Force, 2,191; 8. Jim Head, 2,163; 9. Del Worsham, 1,050; 10. Ashley Force, 960.
Pro Stock
1. Jeg Coughlin, 3,217; 2. Greg Anderson, 3,173; 3. Dave Connolly, 3,126; 4. Allen Johnson, 3,086; 5. Jason Line, 2,292; 6. Kurt Johnson, 2,278; 7. Larry Morgan, 2,233; 8. Warren Johnson, 2,180; 9. Richie Stevens, 1,056; 10. V. Gaines, 1,025.
Pro Stock Motorcycle
1. Matt Smith, 3,211; 2. Andrew Hines, 3,205; 3. Chip Ellis, 3,204; 4. Peggy Llewellyn, 3,108; 5. Angelle Sampey, 2,309; 6. Craig Treble, 2,283; 7. Eddie Krawiec, 2,244; 8. Karen Stoffer, 2,242; 9. Steve Johnson, 746; 10. Antron Brown, 708.
From NHRA
DIRTcar NorthEast Adds To Headlines In Trip Down South!
Concord, NC – November 4, 2007 – By Tom Skibinski, DIRTcar Racing NorthEast PR Director
It was billed all year long as the 'Outlaws World Finals' with the action-packed three-day event at the Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway for the first time ever uniting the World of Outlaws Late Models and Sprint Cars on the same program. Although not scheduled on the race card, the Big-Block Modifieds were not forgotten as sprinkled throughout both the pits and grandstands were hundreds of racers and fans boasting ties to DIRTcar Racing NorthEast's premier division.
The biggest show of the year for the World Racing Group attracted a handful of stars from the DIRTcar Racing NorthEast Region. And when history was made over the weekend in Concord, North Carolina, among those taking part in the trackside activity were 2005 Mr. DIRTcar Modified Champion Tim Fuller and 1992 DIRTcar NE Big-Block Rookie of the Year Ricky Elliott.
Dubbed the 'Empire Executioner,' Edwards, New York native Fuller arrived at The Dirt Track having already clinched the 2007 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year Award. He didn't enter the Jani-King Southern Showdown at Lowe's held earlier in the season because of commitments with the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series for Big-Block Modifieds and failed to qualify for the Circle K Colossal 100, so he was looking to find the fast lane at Lowe's where he won the last Big-Block tour event staged there in 2005.
"All I ever knew was Modified racing. We dabbled with the Late Model in the past so this year we gave it our best shot and things just worked out," said Fuller, who turned 40 on Oct. 28. "John (Wight) gave us this opportunity so we moved all the equipment to our shop when the season started and just kept plugging away. I told the guys if we don't get any better this year we'd go back to Modified racing and never come back."
Fuller not only scored his first career WoO LM Series A-Main victory in 2007, he came 20 points short of capturing his second overall Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Modified Championship while taking three checkered flags in the demanding 32-race Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series.
"It seemed easier picking up a Late Model win than my first one in the Modifieds," figured Fuller, after ending the '07 DIRTcar NE campaign with four Big-Block feature wins and two more in the Small-Block ranks. Updated career totals include 79 BB and 40 SB victories, with 17 Advance Auto Parts Series and 14 358 tour wins affording him overall Mr. DIRTcar titles in the Modified (2005) and 358-Modified (1993 & '03) divisions. "Experience allowed me to bluff my way through a few times. Next year that won't happen as you have to be consistent to make any kind of run at the title."
"Looking back I never would've thought I'd be where I am today …. starting out with an Enduro car, even pulling it to the track with an old ambulance. Running a Big-Block was really just a pipe dream not too long ago. We're already looking forward to next year, you can't really talk about a championship but I think we can be a contender. We took real good notes and know what to work on over the winter. Best of all the family will be traveling along more. You want to race and need to run good to make a living. I want to see my kids grow up and having them around will make the schedule a little more tolerable," added Fuller, who failed to make the 'World Finals' starting grid on opening night yet put on the best performance in the nationally televised SPEED show Saturday steering the no. 19 Gypsum Wholesalers-JL Motorsports/Rocket machine from 22nd to third in 50-laps of nail-biting action.
Eventual race runner-up Elliott was far more successful, leading laps 31-43 in Friday night's 50-lap finale before all-time WoO LM race winner Scott Bloomquist put an exclamation point on his crowd-pleasing rally from the rear of the 26-car full-fender field. Elliott settled for 14th in the Saturday finale.
"I wish I could've started a little earlier in the Late Models," said Elliott, 42, prior to matching his best career WoO LM finish amidst a stellar field of 82 Late Model cars that signed to requirie six qualifying heats and a C-Main. The Seaford, Delaware driver dominated the Advance Auto Parts Series showdown at Lowe's in April of 2004 piloting the potent no. 85 J&M Roofing & Builders-Art Collins Trucking/TEO entry.
"I still love the Big-Blocks, but where I live is so much more conducive to Late Model racing. I think the open tire rule keeps a lot of teams coming back and there are a lot of high-paying events spread out with different groups. I still follow the Modifieds and have a lot of friends involved but right now this is the place I want to be," added Elliott, as he prepped the blue no. 45 Seaside Builders-Ocean RV Center/Rocket for the memorable night ahead.
SKIDMARKS
More DIRTcar NE influence came right from the top as all events held at Lowe's Dirt Track continue to be under the direction of personable Roger Slack, a 33 year-old native of York, Ontario, Canada. Slack is the son of former DIRT Modified driver Randy Slack and grandson of Bob Slack, the previous owner of Cayuga Speedway in Nelles Corners, Ont., site of the inaugural Advance Auto Parts Series DIRT/Asphalt Challenge event in 1988…..Complementing Slack throughout the week were Merrittville Speedway mainstays Pete & Nancy Bicknell and Howard Schram, head of track prep at the 56 year-old speedplant located in Thorold, Ontario. Nancy was even seen navigating the spacious red-clay 4/10-miler with the 'sheep's foot' in control as husband Pete ---DIRTcar NorthEast's all-time 358-Modified winner--- and Schram shared time pressing the water truck, tiller and grader into operation under the guidance of Randy Grove. Daughter Erica Bicknell joined DIRT Hall of Fame award winner Jean Lynch in providing pit pass upgrades at the ticket trailer throughout the weekend while former Lebanon Valley Speedway and Super DIRT Week handicapper John Harper assisted with scoring in the track tower…..Western Pennsylvania Big-Block standout and '03 Advance Auto Parts Series winner at Lowe's Kevin Bolland was also in the pits checking out the latest LM creations along with fellow Keystone State veterans Rick Laubach and Dave Schrader, current Advance Auto Parts Series star Dale Planck, plus former DIRT Modified-sportsman drivers Tim Clemons and Kent Peckham…..Jessica Zemken was the only female among 48 winged warriors that attempted to qualify for the WoO Sprint Car portion of the World Finals, time trialing 28th and 26th-quickest with the no. 1z Maxim in Thursday qualifying before falling just short in her bid to make both 30-lap A-Mains. "I'd love to follow the Outlaws tour with the right deal, right now we're about 100 horsepower short and that's a lot on this track against these guys," summed up Zemken, 21, a student at Hudson Valley College in Troy, NY who owns nine DIRTcar Sportsman feature wins with two scored on the Mr. DIRTcar Championship trail. On June 2, 2007 she made history, taking the lead with seven laps to go in the 25-Lap A-Main to win her first career ASCS Patriot feature at Brockville Ontario Speedway, becoming the first woman to accomplish such a feat…..Crew chief of Nextel Cupper Clint Bowyer's Dirt Late Model etam, Tommy Greco was also visitor to Lowe's over the weekend…..A media gathering at the neighboring National Speed Sport News headquarters ---in viewing distance of Lowe's superspeedway--- on Saturday morning announced the return of Rite Aid as the primary sponsor of the Advance Auto Parts Series' premier 200-lapper during Super DIRT Week at the New York State Fairgrounds next October, along with title sponsorship of the Outlaw Showdown at Lowe's Dirt Track in May of 2008. The NSSN office building featured more than a dozen framed collages that were stuffed with a collection of legendary publication editor Chris Economaki's numerous press credentials, VIP passes, track licenses and special event buttons acquired over the past half-century. Included in the unique display area were a 1973 Weedsport (now Cayuga County Fair) Speedway press pass and a decal of the Schaefer International 100 --- today recognized as the Rite Aid 200 on the Syracuse Mile.
The Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series for Big-Block Modifieds is brought to fans across the Northeast by several sponsors and partners, including series sponsors Advance Auto Parts, Hoosier Racing Tire and Sunoco Race Fuels. Promotional partners include AMB i.t., Rite Aid Corporation and the University of Northwestern Ohio and the contingency sponsors are Bert Transmission, Bicknell Racing Products, Bilstein Shocks, Brodix Cylinder Heads, Crane Cams, Integra Shocks, MSD Ignitions, Motorsports Safety Systems, Penske Shocks and Wrisco Industries.
It was billed all year long as the 'Outlaws World Finals' with the action-packed three-day event at the Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway for the first time ever uniting the World of Outlaws Late Models and Sprint Cars on the same program. Although not scheduled on the race card, the Big-Block Modifieds were not forgotten as sprinkled throughout both the pits and grandstands were hundreds of racers and fans boasting ties to DIRTcar Racing NorthEast's premier division.
The biggest show of the year for the World Racing Group attracted a handful of stars from the DIRTcar Racing NorthEast Region. And when history was made over the weekend in Concord, North Carolina, among those taking part in the trackside activity were 2005 Mr. DIRTcar Modified Champion Tim Fuller and 1992 DIRTcar NE Big-Block Rookie of the Year Ricky Elliott.
Dubbed the 'Empire Executioner,' Edwards, New York native Fuller arrived at The Dirt Track having already clinched the 2007 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year Award. He didn't enter the Jani-King Southern Showdown at Lowe's held earlier in the season because of commitments with the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series for Big-Block Modifieds and failed to qualify for the Circle K Colossal 100, so he was looking to find the fast lane at Lowe's where he won the last Big-Block tour event staged there in 2005.
"All I ever knew was Modified racing. We dabbled with the Late Model in the past so this year we gave it our best shot and things just worked out," said Fuller, who turned 40 on Oct. 28. "John (Wight) gave us this opportunity so we moved all the equipment to our shop when the season started and just kept plugging away. I told the guys if we don't get any better this year we'd go back to Modified racing and never come back."
Fuller not only scored his first career WoO LM Series A-Main victory in 2007, he came 20 points short of capturing his second overall Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Modified Championship while taking three checkered flags in the demanding 32-race Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series.
"It seemed easier picking up a Late Model win than my first one in the Modifieds," figured Fuller, after ending the '07 DIRTcar NE campaign with four Big-Block feature wins and two more in the Small-Block ranks. Updated career totals include 79 BB and 40 SB victories, with 17 Advance Auto Parts Series and 14 358 tour wins affording him overall Mr. DIRTcar titles in the Modified (2005) and 358-Modified (1993 & '03) divisions. "Experience allowed me to bluff my way through a few times. Next year that won't happen as you have to be consistent to make any kind of run at the title."
"Looking back I never would've thought I'd be where I am today …. starting out with an Enduro car, even pulling it to the track with an old ambulance. Running a Big-Block was really just a pipe dream not too long ago. We're already looking forward to next year, you can't really talk about a championship but I think we can be a contender. We took real good notes and know what to work on over the winter. Best of all the family will be traveling along more. You want to race and need to run good to make a living. I want to see my kids grow up and having them around will make the schedule a little more tolerable," added Fuller, who failed to make the 'World Finals' starting grid on opening night yet put on the best performance in the nationally televised SPEED show Saturday steering the no. 19 Gypsum Wholesalers-JL Motorsports/Rocket machine from 22nd to third in 50-laps of nail-biting action.
Eventual race runner-up Elliott was far more successful, leading laps 31-43 in Friday night's 50-lap finale before all-time WoO LM race winner Scott Bloomquist put an exclamation point on his crowd-pleasing rally from the rear of the 26-car full-fender field. Elliott settled for 14th in the Saturday finale.
"I wish I could've started a little earlier in the Late Models," said Elliott, 42, prior to matching his best career WoO LM finish amidst a stellar field of 82 Late Model cars that signed to requirie six qualifying heats and a C-Main. The Seaford, Delaware driver dominated the Advance Auto Parts Series showdown at Lowe's in April of 2004 piloting the potent no. 85 J&M Roofing & Builders-Art Collins Trucking/TEO entry.
"I still love the Big-Blocks, but where I live is so much more conducive to Late Model racing. I think the open tire rule keeps a lot of teams coming back and there are a lot of high-paying events spread out with different groups. I still follow the Modifieds and have a lot of friends involved but right now this is the place I want to be," added Elliott, as he prepped the blue no. 45 Seaside Builders-Ocean RV Center/Rocket for the memorable night ahead.
SKIDMARKS
More DIRTcar NE influence came right from the top as all events held at Lowe's Dirt Track continue to be under the direction of personable Roger Slack, a 33 year-old native of York, Ontario, Canada. Slack is the son of former DIRT Modified driver Randy Slack and grandson of Bob Slack, the previous owner of Cayuga Speedway in Nelles Corners, Ont., site of the inaugural Advance Auto Parts Series DIRT/Asphalt Challenge event in 1988…..Complementing Slack throughout the week were Merrittville Speedway mainstays Pete & Nancy Bicknell and Howard Schram, head of track prep at the 56 year-old speedplant located in Thorold, Ontario. Nancy was even seen navigating the spacious red-clay 4/10-miler with the 'sheep's foot' in control as husband Pete ---DIRTcar NorthEast's all-time 358-Modified winner--- and Schram shared time pressing the water truck, tiller and grader into operation under the guidance of Randy Grove. Daughter Erica Bicknell joined DIRT Hall of Fame award winner Jean Lynch in providing pit pass upgrades at the ticket trailer throughout the weekend while former Lebanon Valley Speedway and Super DIRT Week handicapper John Harper assisted with scoring in the track tower…..Western Pennsylvania Big-Block standout and '03 Advance Auto Parts Series winner at Lowe's Kevin Bolland was also in the pits checking out the latest LM creations along with fellow Keystone State veterans Rick Laubach and Dave Schrader, current Advance Auto Parts Series star Dale Planck, plus former DIRT Modified-sportsman drivers Tim Clemons and Kent Peckham…..Jessica Zemken was the only female among 48 winged warriors that attempted to qualify for the WoO Sprint Car portion of the World Finals, time trialing 28th and 26th-quickest with the no. 1z Maxim in Thursday qualifying before falling just short in her bid to make both 30-lap A-Mains. "I'd love to follow the Outlaws tour with the right deal, right now we're about 100 horsepower short and that's a lot on this track against these guys," summed up Zemken, 21, a student at Hudson Valley College in Troy, NY who owns nine DIRTcar Sportsman feature wins with two scored on the Mr. DIRTcar Championship trail. On June 2, 2007 she made history, taking the lead with seven laps to go in the 25-Lap A-Main to win her first career ASCS Patriot feature at Brockville Ontario Speedway, becoming the first woman to accomplish such a feat…..Crew chief of Nextel Cupper Clint Bowyer's Dirt Late Model etam, Tommy Greco was also visitor to Lowe's over the weekend…..A media gathering at the neighboring National Speed Sport News headquarters ---in viewing distance of Lowe's superspeedway--- on Saturday morning announced the return of Rite Aid as the primary sponsor of the Advance Auto Parts Series' premier 200-lapper during Super DIRT Week at the New York State Fairgrounds next October, along with title sponsorship of the Outlaw Showdown at Lowe's Dirt Track in May of 2008. The NSSN office building featured more than a dozen framed collages that were stuffed with a collection of legendary publication editor Chris Economaki's numerous press credentials, VIP passes, track licenses and special event buttons acquired over the past half-century. Included in the unique display area were a 1973 Weedsport (now Cayuga County Fair) Speedway press pass and a decal of the Schaefer International 100 --- today recognized as the Rite Aid 200 on the Syracuse Mile.
The Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series for Big-Block Modifieds is brought to fans across the Northeast by several sponsors and partners, including series sponsors Advance Auto Parts, Hoosier Racing Tire and Sunoco Race Fuels. Promotional partners include AMB i.t., Rite Aid Corporation and the University of Northwestern Ohio and the contingency sponsors are Bert Transmission, Bicknell Racing Products, Bilstein Shocks, Brodix Cylinder Heads, Crane Cams, Integra Shocks, MSD Ignitions, Motorsports Safety Systems, Penske Shocks and Wrisco Industries.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
