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DATE
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News (chronologically
12/20/00 to 12/31/00)
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12/31/00
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Are
Mercedes and Dodge race programs in jeopardy? Deutsche Bank, who own 12% of the
Daimler Chrysler company are reportedly ready to sell their stock
shares, but not until the stock price improves. Deutche Bank chief executive Rold Breuer has confirmed the plans, but says that they have nothing to do with current management difficulties.
The company has hit financial hard times and already cancelled their
CART program. This latest vote non-confidence in the company
may ultimately have a negative effect on the F1 and NASCAR program.
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12/31/00
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 Moscow
F1 track proponent shot The deputy mayor of Moscow, and the driving force
behind the city's plans for building a F1 circuit, Josif Ordzhonikidze survived an attack
last Tuesday when two gunmen opened fire on his vehicle.
According to reports, he is in critical condition following an operation after the attack.
Ordzhonikidze favored the circuit plan over a previous proposal to build a casino in the Nagatino region close to Moscow and, according to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, may have been the intended victim of a suspected Russian mafia hit in the city last week. The powers behind Moscow's gambling cartels are believed to have been behind the shooting, which took place
in central Moscow on the Saturday before Christmas. Underground terrorists have already made an attempt to kill one of Ordzhonikidze's staff earlier this year when gambling taxes were raised, and the recent decision to downsize the amount of land in the Nagatino project available for the construction casinos is thought to have added further to the mafia's
dislike of him. Ordzhonikidze survived the assassination attempt,
although his driver was killed. The track agreement was signed by Moscow City representatives and chairman Tom Walkinshaw of the developing group
TWR. Walkinshaw also owns the Arrows Formula One team.
At the time Walkinshaw said: "I am proud for TWR to be a partner with the Moscow City government to develop Russia's first international racing facility." "I am very excited about this joint project," Moscow deputy premier
Josif Ordjonikidze said. "We will have an international motorsport circuit complete in two years which will allow us to stage international motorsport in our city."
We wonder if they would say the same thing now.
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12/31/00
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 Hut
Stricklin to stay with Junie Donlavey Junie
Donlavey announced Saturday night that 39-year old Alabama driver Hut Stricklin would remain in the cockpit of his No. 90
Ford Winston Cup cars in 2001. Sponsorship will again be from Hills Bros Coffee,
Stricklin took the No. 90 wheel from rookie Ed Berrier at Indianapolis in August. He
qualified 36th, but moved up to 14th at the end. Donlavey also announced the hiring of Bobby King as crew
chief and the team will use Penske Jasper engines.
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12/31/00
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CART
more popular overseas than at home? It sure seems that
way. A reader writes: "I spend some time in Ireland and "The
Isles." They are quite knowledgeable of CART racing, mostly because of the international
flavor it has taken on. Many of the South American drivers are familiar names because they have come up through various
"formulas." Last summer I was in a village pub in
Co. Clare and a delayed CART race came on and the very noisy pub got quiet, and to my amazement they were very
well versed on the drivers; Tracy, Blundell, and deFerran being the favorites.
I had a call from one of my Irish friends last night and he was into a
"rant" because of some changes that had been made to his local cable
company. He was getting a letter off to them to have coverage replaced.
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12/30/00
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Team
Penske Holiday news Marlboro Team Penske
held their annual Christmas Party at Berkshire Country Club in Reading, PA.
The party provided an opportunity for the whole Team to get together and celebrate the 2000 season, with Roger Penske presenting each Team member with a ring commemorating the Team's 100th win, which Gil de Ferran earned for Penske at the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix in Nazareth, PA, and their record-tenth National Championship.
In addition to the festivities in the Team's hometown, drivers Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves accompanied Roger Penske and Penske Racing President Tim Cindric to New York City for a holiday visit at Philip Morris USA.
While there Penske, de Ferran and Cindric each received a sterling silver race car from Tiffany's in
honor of the 100th win, while Castroneves received a framed piece of the fence he climbed when he recorded his first CART win in Detroit!
Castroneves then headed for the beaches of St. Barts, before heading to his home in Brazil to spend the holidays with family and friends.
Teammate de Ferran celebrated Christmas with his wife Angela and their two children at their home in Ft. Lauderdale, before heading for Utah to hit the slopes for some skiing and relaxation.
Full Story
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12/30/00
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 New
Lake and other Monterrey news As can be seen in our track layout
of the Monterrey circuit in Fundidora Park, there will be a lake in
the infield of the new Monterrey circuit. The lake can be seen
in the photo at the right, and will hold about 36,000 cubic meters
of water. Three Mexican companies will sponsor the event,
Quaker State, Tecate and one other, possibly Herdez. As
working is getting close to being finished, the number of workers
seen at the track has been decreasing. The base layer of
asphalt is down on the circuit, except from turn 5 to 8 where
graders are still preparing the track bed for it's first
layer. On January 15th work will start on the crash walls,
sand traps and the grandstands.
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12/30/00
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Dear Kenny Irwin Jr. Fan:
Once again, we would like to thank everyone who has been so kind and helpful to us following the loss of our son. In the past several months, we have been searching for the best way to honor Kenny's life and his memory. We have been so blessed to hear from so many people that Kenny was able to touch during his life and we want to provide a way to continue his legacy.
Full letter
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12/29/00
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Jackie Stewart speaks out on son's cancer
Jackie Stewart has spoken out about the diagnosis of his son Paul's colon cancer. "It was the worst blow I've ever had. All my life I've avoided the unpredictable happening, so it was particularly horrible for me," he said, speaking to the Daily Mail. "I've seen death close up. Many of my friends in racing have died, but it was always someone else - not me or my family." The Scotsman estimated that 30 years ago if a driver had a five year career, there was a two in three chance of death.
The cancer was diagnosed while Paul was being treated for ulcerative colitis. He said his father took it worse than anyone else. Stewart Senior admitted "I took it very badly... Helen [his wife] had an inner strength that I didn't have. She senses things more. She had a feeling that Paul was going to be OK. But I had an inner fear....I was so frightened."
Paul is now in remission. He stepped down as Chief Operating Officer at Jaguar when his cancer was diagnosed in April. He resigned from the Jaguar board altogether at the end of October.
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12/29/00
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More EM.TV controversy EM.TV the owner of 50% of
SLEC, Bernie Ecclestone's holding company, has hit further controversy. The company is awaiting the completion of a partial sale of its holding to Kirch which will reduce its SLEC stake to 25.5%. The latest controversy surrounds the sale of EM.TV shares by the Haffa brothers. The company is headed by Thomas
Haffa, and his brother Florian Haffa recently resigned as Finance Director.
In a fundraising in November 1999 the Haffas apparently agreed to a six month "lock-up" period, which prevented them from selling shares. They would have needed to have had the permission of the consortium bank, West LB, in order to sell shares during that period.
According to a report in the German Magazine, Der Spiegel, West LB have stated that Thomas Haffa did not inform them of his share sales in January and February 2000 when he sold shares to the value of DM 40m.
The article also alleges that Florian Haffa sold up to DM 100m in shares in the spring.
The relationship between EM.TV and WestLB is a reasonably long one - the bank helped the company to float on the Neuer Markt in October 1997, and with subsequent placings and fund raising.
WestLB is also known as the lead manager of Formula One Finance's $1.4 billion Eurobond in June 1999. WestLB underwrote a significant part of the Eurobond, the proceeds of which went through Ecclestone's companies including SLEC and were distributed to his family trust.
EM.TV is the subject of legal actions from disgruntled shareholders who were affected by the share price plunge after the announcement of a profit warning indicating that profits would only be 10% of what had been forecast only a month earlier. An insider dealing investigation is expected and the EM.TV offices were raided by the police and Public Prosecutors office before Christmas. Its share price is currently Euro 5.90 having hit a low of Euro 5 yesterday.
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12/29/00
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F1 testing roundup On our Formula
One page you will find a roundup of recent testing by F1 teams before
the Christmas break.
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12/29/00
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DRIVEN Movie teaser Here
is another CART DRIVEN movie teaser we just became aware of -
http://www.what-drives-you.com/start.html
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12/29/00
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Kenny Brack to write for USAToday.com
After each event, the Swedish driver will share his experiences with USATODAY.com
readers. Some personal stats on Kenny courtesy of USAToday:
FULL NAME: Kenny Brack
BIRTHDATE: March 21, 1966
AGE: 34
HEIGHT: 5'8"
WEIGHT: 145
FAMILY: Single
BIRTHPLACE: Arvika, Sweden
RESIDENCE: Dublin, Ohio
MOST MEMORABLE
ACHIEVEMENT: Winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1999.
RACING HEROES: Nigel Mansell, A.J. Foyt
FAVORITE TRACKS: Magny Cours (France), Indianapolis Motor Speedway
PRE-RACE PREPARATION: Transcendental meditation and special mental goal
creating programs
IF NOT RACING: Would be a rock star or at least try to be one
GREATEST INFLUENCE: A neighbor who started me in racing
HOBBIES: Playing guitar, riding motorcycles
PERSONAL VEHICLES: Ford Explorer
FAVORITE MUSIC: Traditional blues music
FAVORITE TV SHOW: VH1's Behind the Music
FAVORITE MOVIE: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
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12/29/00
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Scott Dixon Supporters Club For
all you Scott Dixon (rookie CART Champ Car driver) fans out there, his
Supporters club has a new website. The address is http://www.fpnet.co.nz/users/t/tvm/sd_main.htm
We have added this to our links page.
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12/28/00
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 Did
you know? Did you know that F1 driver , Marc Gene, recently
confessed that he once hit 293 km/h with his personal Corvette? On the personal
side, and for the ladies, he’s single, has no girlfriend, likes Madonna, tennis and trekking, and said that flying a F-18 plane was an incredible experience. F1 drivers closest to him are Ricardo Zonta and
Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Marc revealed recently that he received a concrete offer from Prost for 2001, and that he hopes to be racing for Williams in 2003.
We suspect Jenson Button may have something to say about that.
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12/28/00
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Rear-engine race car inventor John Cooper
passes away John Cooper, the English racing car
manufacturer passed away recently. Cooper was the first man to concentrate on building rear
engine race cars for sale to the masses when he and his father decided to go motor racing in England after World War II.
What cars, if any, were available at that time were obviously pre war and
very expensive, even if the original owners would part with them, so they decided to build their own.
The first Cooper was a rear engine, 500 cc motor cycle engine, chain drive vehicle built in their own garage using whatever pieces of metal they could find, including parts of a bed which was nearby. Basically it was a motorcycle on four wheels.
These cars, being so light and nimble, quickly ran rings around the pre war monsters and became the required car for racing. Using the popular single cylinder 500cc JAP
(J.A. Preswick) speedway engine initially, other engines used included the Vee twin JAP, Vee twin Matchless, Brough Superior - pre war engines - Manx Norton 500 cc
(Nortons were very popular as a race engine at that time and formed the basis of the BRM Formula One engine in the '50's) 1000cc Ariel Square Four and the fabulous 1000 cc Vee twin Vincent
H.R.D., often claimed to be the best motor cycle engine ever produced.
Many a budding racing driver in the late 40's and early 50's got their start in Cooper cars (or their copies) including Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn and Jack Brabham as well as uncountable national driving champions worldwide. Even 1980 world champion Alan Jones' father, Stan, had a stable of Coopers before changing to front
engine cars, finally settling for a Maserati 250 F. Cooper was also responsible for the Morris Cooper and Morris Cooper S,
derivatives of the Mini Minor which caused so much embarrassment to bigger and much more powerful cars on race tracks around the world.
Those who saw and / or remember the movie, The Italian Job, will recall the exploits of the Morris Coopers in that film.
As far as I can ascertain, there was only one front engine Cooper race car, the Cooper Bristol built around the time he started on his Formula One career.
The Kimberley Special, the car Jack Brabham used to revolutionize Indianapolis, was a Cooper.
(History provided by Brian, a race fan)
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12/27/00
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Dallara will build Champ Cars UPDATE
A reader writes to remind us that Dallara also built the outstanding
Toyota GT-One (LeMans) car as well as the wonderful Audi R8 chassis that
dominated sportscar racing in 2000. The Audi R8 was designed by Tony
Southgate. 12/20/00 - Gino Paolo Dallara,
who owns the Italian open wheel car manufacturing company named after him,
Dallara, stated to Autosport that his company will build Champ Cars within
five years, maybe sooner. He is waiting to see if there is any
chance for reunification with the IRL before making a decision. Even
if there is no reunification, Dallara's Sales and Marketing manager, Nick
Langley, said the company can supply cars to both leagues. Dallara
currently supplies cars to the Indy Racing league, built the Ferrari F1
cars in the 80's, their cars dominate F3 worldwide, the highly successful
Ferrari 333SP Sportscar, and the Honda test car that was extremely
fast. Honda decided to only supply engines when it reentered F1 a
few years ago, but if they did enter with a car too, it would have been
built by Dallara.
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12/27/00
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Cosworth Ford Pioneer dies
Walter Hayes, the man who
approved moving forward with the Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine, has died aged 76 following a long illness.
Hayes was the man many of Ford’s other racing projects in the '60s and ‘70s. He joined
Ford in 1962 and eventually became vice-chairman for Ford of Europe, before retiring in the mid-‘80s, but he will be best remembered for
putting up Ford's money for the most successful engine ever to be raced in F1.
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12/27/00
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Jaguar to unveil new car first Jaguar
will be the first team to unveil their new car when they launch the R2 challenger on January 9th.
No venue for the launch has yet been announced but the team is likely to switch from the high profile approach of last year which
was a glitzy party at Lords Cricket Ground. Sauber has also set the launch date for their new C20. The car will be unveiled at the team’s factory at Hinwil on January 24th.
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12/24/00
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Suzuka upgrades planned Track
upgrades are planned at Suzuka to ensure it keeps the Japanese GP. The Fuji circuit was recently bought by Toyota and there was speculation they would mount a bid to steal the race.
Run-off areas at the S-corner, Dunlop corner and Degner curve will all be widened to reduce the chances of drivers being hurt. The work is expected to be completed by March.
The pit-lane and paddock areas will be improved with an enlarged media center, extra pit garages and improved team suites being added.
There are also plans to increase the capacity of the grandstands, but that work will not be completed until the 2002 race.
Suzuka will host the season finale again next season after losing out to Malaysia this year.
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12/24/00
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Test your NASCAR IQ (Check back in a day or two for the answers, and try your luck at five more questions.)
1. What was "Fireball" Robert's first name?
A. Jeff
B. Matt
C. Bo
D. Glenn
2. Who was the youngest driver, at age 19, to win a stock car race at Daytona International Speedway?
A. Jimmy Foster
B. Lyndon Amick
C. Jeff Gordon
D. Bill Rexford
3. What is the name of the backstretch grandstand at Rockingham?
A. Elliott
B. Pearson
C. Fireball
D. Hamlet*
4. Who is credited with coming up with the name "NASCAR"?
A. Richard Petty
B. Bill France Sr.
C. Joe Weatherly
D. Red Vogt
5. What year was Watkins Glen International built?
A. 1945
B. 1956
C. 1963
D. 1969
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12/24/00
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President Clinton pardons Rick Hendrick
President Bill
Clinton issued 59 pardons to individuals Friday, some well-known and others not so well-known.
For motorsports fans, one of those names was very well known – Rick Hendrick.
The 51-year-old NASCAR team owner and automobile dealer was granted a full pardon by President Clinton
in connection with his conviction on mail fraud in 1997. Hendrick was tried as part of a federal investigation into bribery involving the American Honda Co. He was accused of giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts, in the form of money, cars, houses and other valuable merchandise, to Honda executives in exchange for favorable treatment in the allocation of Honda automobiles and the awarding of dealerships.
Hendrick has been battling Leukemia, which is life threatening, and that
may have weighed on Clinton's decision.
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12/23/00
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Marc Hynes comments on Indy Lights test
On
Autosport.com, former British F3
champ. Marc Hynes had this to say about his recent test with the PacWest
Indy Lights team - "It went well. I was quicker than Dan Wheldon [who has signed for the team already] and fiddled with the car and progressed things with it. The engineer had a list of stuff he wanted to work though, which was good because the car got better. I really enjoyed it and set the fastest time they'd ever done at the track before."
And on how he rates his chances of getting the ride - "I don't know for sure, but it was all very encouraging and hopefully there will be an opportunity for me, because my past record speaks for itself. I think Indy Lights is going to be a good championship to contest. The team atmosphere was again good, not quite like BAR, but still very professional. I desperately want to get a deal and get back into racing, wherever it may be, but I want to get back to what I do best - winning races."
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12/22/00
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Is a universal F3000 formula in sight?
Reynard and Dallara are set to compete with Lola
for the contract to build the new International F3000 chassis that will be
used from 2002. CART is close to awarding a contract for its new cars in
2002. Will the same company get both contracts? Lola secured
the previous two contracts since F3000 became a one-make formula in 1996,
building the T96/50 (1996-1998) and the current B99/50 used since 1999.
The contract is up for renewal at the end of next season (as is the Indy
Lights contract), and will be fought for by the sport's three biggest
constructors. Lola boss Martin Birrane believes his company deserves to
retain the deal. He told Autosport: "We have already started
designing a car. All we can be confident about is that we will bid, you
can never be sure about winning. But we are ready. We've been catering for
F3000 for some time and 90% of the people involved say we do a fantastic
job." A Reynard spokeswoman confirmed with Autosport that the
company, best known for their successful domination of Champ Cars, will
definitely launch a bid. Reynard were the dominant force in F3000 before
the one-make rules came in, and at the time were angry that Lola,
struggling in the series, were awarded the initial contract. Next year
Reynard will be supplying the chassis for the new International Single
Seater Challenge, a series pitched at a level below F3000. Dallara, the
company which dominates F3 chassis construction and builds successful IRL
chassis, is also keen to build an F3000 car. Sales and Marketing manager
Nick Langley said: "We're as good as anybody." The Italian firm
built one F3000 chassis in the 1980s, the Dallara 3087. (Source: portions
of this news provided by Unofficial
F3000)
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12/22/00
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Ecclestone demands Monza changes
Bernie Ecclestone has written to Monza's management company
ACM to demand improvements before next year's Italian GP. Ecclestone has reportedly told the firm that it would ‘be in their best interests’ to upgrade buildings such as the pit complex and paddock, mostly because he feels it needs to be more spacious and ‘high tech’.
Ecclestone has additionally asked to see proposals for an exclusive F3000 and Porsche cup paddock, as well as security measures to be devised in the wake of another track invasion last year when Michael Schumacher won an emotional victory for Ferrari. Teams are also keen to see better crowd control methods employed, after losing millions of dollars worth of equipment over the years.
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12/22/00
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 Newman
Haas team wraps up Sebring test Newman/Haas Racing's first test with their 2001 Toyota-powered Lola chassis at Sebring International Raceway concluded late yesterday with Big Kmart/Route 66 driver Christian Fittipaldi behind the wheel for the entire test.
Initially the test was scheduled for three days but the team was only able to run 45 miles on the first day, Dec. 19 before cold temperatures and high winds forced the day to end early. The inclement weather continued on Day 2 and the team only ran a few laps to evaluate the conditions. Fittipaldi ran most of the day on Thursday and all were happy with the progress made during the test. (Lap times were not available at the time of printing.)
Story
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12/21/00
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German driver Tieman tests
Zakspeed/Forsythe car According
to Gordon Kirby on CART.com, German rookie driver Marcel Tieman tested a 2000 Ford/Reynard for Zakspeed/Forsythe at Firebird Raceway in Arizona two weeks ago. Tieman completed more than 200 miles over the two days and lapped about a second-and-a-half better than the best times turned at Firebird this year, although nobody else ran while he was there.
Tieman is still not confirmed for the seat, but he is favored if
sponsorship can be lined up. Johnny Herbert is still in the running
for the seat too. It's a race between managers for both drivers to
find sponsorship. Whoever gets it first will likely get the ride.
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12/21/00
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Prost lands PSN as primary sponsor Prost Grand Prix has struck a marketing and sponsorship deal with South American television network
PSN. Actual dollar figures were not announced but the multi-year deal is set to begin 2001 and believed to be worth several million dollars.
The deal comes just months after PSN pulled out of an agreement to buy controlling interest in rival Minardi. At the time, PSN expressed concern that primary sponsor Telefonica would not be involved any longer with the Italian-based team. However, at Prost, PSN becomes the primary sponsor since Gauloises decision to leave the team at the end of this current season.
The PSN deal likely means that Argentinean driver Gaston Mazzacane will join Prost as the second driver in 2001.
We have updated our 2001 Silly Season
Page.
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12/21/00
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Patrick Racing conducts third pre-season
test Patrick
Racing conducted its third test of the preseason, and its final test
before the new year, running for two days at Phoenix International Raceway
in Phoenix, Arizona December 19-20. Story
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12/21/00
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Atlantics - Mac Tools signs on with Active
Motorsports Dublin, OH based Active Motorsports recently signed a three-year agreement with MAC Tools. With the agreement, Mac Tools will serve as associate sponsor for Active Motorsports as they campaign in the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship. "The entire Active Motorsports team is excited to continue a relationship with Mac Tools" Operations Manager Daniel Incandela said. "We depended heavily on Mac Tools heavily this past season."
"From the team shop to pit lane all of our mechanics will have access to MAC tools extensive line of race proven products." President Malcolm Ross added.
Founded in 1938, MAC Tools has a history of supporting the motor sports industry. The 62 year-old Mac Tools is a leader in the hand tool industry providing 8,000 products across the United States, Canada, UK and Japan. "Mac Tools has sponsored many of the greatest racing series in all of Motorsports for many years," says Tony Torres, motorsports manager for Mac Tools.
Active Motorsports joins Mac tools as it launches into their fourth season in the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship. While already tasting victory, podium finishes, top-5 and top-10 finishes consistently, Active's next step is to capture the championship. The 2001 season will officially kick of with the spring unveiling party planned in late March and the first race April 7th at Long Beach.
For more information on both teams, visit www.activemotorsports.com and
www.mactools.com
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12/21/00
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Martin Basso re-signs with Michael Shank Michael Shank Racing
(MSR) announced today that it has re-signed Martin Basso—the fourth-place finisher in the 2000 CART Toyota Championship and the series’ Rookie of the Year runner-up—to drive in the 12-race, ultra-competitive development series again in
2001. Story
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12/20/00
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Team Rahal wraps up pre-holiday testing Team Rahal completed the pre-holiday portion of the team's off-season testing program this week with a single-day CART supervised test at the Texas Motor Speedway in suburban Dallas, TX. The Monday test completed the initial testing with the team's 2001 package consisting of the Ford-Cosworth XF engine, the Lola B2K/00 chassis and Firestone Firehawk tires.
The preseason-testing program kicked off with three full days at Sebring International Raceway in Florida in early December. Miller Lite driver Max Papis spent a full day on track on December 6th and Kenny Brack in the Shell car spent two full days on track December 7th and 8th. Over the test Team Rahal logged over 500 miles and compiled enough data on the 2001 cars that the team has rescheduled its January 7th and 8th test on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Team Rahal Technical Coordinator Ray Leto was impressed with the first test of the off season. "The Lola chassis ran flawless and we were able to make some significant progress for our first test with a new chassis," said
Leto. "We came back from Sebring with so much data that we have reshuffled our testing schedule. With the new testing rules in place you need to be properly organized heading into each test day and we felt we needed additional time to sort through all the data. This was basically a get acquainted with the chassis session for the team and the drivers. That fact we were able to actually accomplish more than gaining some familiarity with the package speaks volumes about our package for this season."
Following the test at Sebring, the team sent a Lola chassis to Ford Advanced Engineering Center for a week's worth of specialized testing. The car split the time in Dearborn, MI between the Vehicle Inertia Measurement Facility
(VIMF) and the Kinematics Compliance Rig (K & C Test). Both tests are part of Team Rahal's ongoing relationship with Ford Motor Company, a relationship that has grown with Team Rahal's designation as the factory team for Ford-Cosworth in 2001.
Finally on Monday the team completed the pre-Christmas portion of testing by conducting a one-day on-track test at Texas Motor Speedway for CART. Kenny Brack, the only driver in CART to have driven previously at TMS drove one of Team Rahal's 2000 Reynard chassis with the Ford-Cosworth XF engine. The test was primarily to help CART as the FedEx Championship Series sanctioning body to determine what rules package needs to be implemented for the April 30th race in Dallas. Brack logged over 100 laps at TMS with speeds ranging between 215 and 221 mph.
The team will take delivery of three additional Lola chassis in early January and will spend the early part of the month preparing the cars for an aggressive testing schedule in late January and February leading up to the 2001 season opener in Monterrey, Mexico. The team will have its next on track test January 22nd at Firebird East in suburban Phoenix, AZ.
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12/20/00
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Bobby Labonte, Mario Andretti to be honored
Bobby Labonte has been voted the Al Holbert Eastern Motorsports
Press Association (EPMA) Driver of the Year for winning the NASCAR Winston
Cup championship. In addition, Mario Andretti will be inducted into
the EPMA Hall of Fame. The awards will take place January January
6th in Trevose, PA.
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12/20/00
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ISC Ticket prices to rise At a
recent stock analyst meeting ISC revealed that ticket prices will rise 2
to 3% for Winston Cup races, 5 to 6% for NASCAR truck races and 1% for its
CART Champ car races in 2001.
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12/20/00
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Team Green pulls double duty in Miami Team KOOL Green and driver Paul Tracy took advantage of perfect weather in south Florida to complete a scheduled three days of testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway from December 14-19. Tracy spent two days on the 1.5 mile oval on Thursday and Friday before switching over to the 2.08 mile road course and completing the test on Tuesday.
Tracy focused on tire testing for Firestone during his two days on the oval, running more than 500 miles in last year's KOOL Honda-Reynard. Working with a variety of tires, he lapped consistently in the low 27 second range throughout the test with a best lap of 27.22 seconds.
"We were extremely pleased with the consistency of the tires overall," said team manager Kyle Moyer. "The car handled great through the long runs and, with no mechanical problems, we were able to complete two days of quality track time for Firestone."
Over the weekend, the Team KOOL Green crew finished final preparations on the team's new 2001 Honda-Reynard before Tracy completed a handful of "systems check" laps on Monday. Tuesday was a full day of work as Tracy ran 65 laps of the Homestead road course, establishing a baseline road course set-up as well as testing some variations for the Rio 200 scheduled for March 25.
"The 2001 Honda-Reynard package is really responsive," said Tracy. "It was great to get back in my old car on the oval but even better to be in the new car on the road course. It was also nice to run a different road course and get an opportunity to work different angles on the set-up that will be helpful in Rio."
Moyer was similarly pleased with the results of the test. "We were able to identify a few new car `teething' problems on Monday and then run a full day on Tuesday," he said. "We had quite a list of things to accomplish Tuesday, but the car ran well and Paul never put a wheel wrong, so we accomplished everything on our list. It was a very productive test."
Team KOOL Green will take a few days off for the holidays before returning to Florida during the second week of January to test on the road course at Sebring International Raceway.
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12/20/00
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Rockingham Update
Left - Looking toward 4th turn from
top of main grandstand
Right - Looking toward 1st turn from top of main grandstand.
Photos courtesy of Rockingham
Speedway
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Order your
Die-cast CART and Formula One Transporters
AutoRacing1.com
is pleased to announce that we now offer very high quality, detailed
1/43rd scale die-cast CART and Formula One Race Car Transporters for sale. We
offer a wide variety of Transporters and it's easy to order online with
VISA or MasterCard. A perfect gift for the holidays or as a
showpiece on your office desk. Each transporter measures about
15" long. More details
 
Jordan F1 Transporter (L) and Renault 6 Time
F1 Champ Transporter (R)
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 Autocourse
F-1
Yearbook 2000-2001
List Price: $54.97
Our Price: $43.96
You Save:$10.99 (20%)
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 2001
Autocourse
F-1 Calendar
Our Price: $14.95
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 2001
Autocourse
CART Calendar
Our Price: $14.95
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