6/15/00
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Road Atlanta beautiful -
On RPM2Night this evening they showed quite a lot of
footage of Mario Andretti ringing out the Panoz Roadster at Road Atlanta a
few weeks ago in preparation for LeMans. It is quite evident a lot
of work has been done to improve the circuit. It looks generally
ready for a CART race and can be best described as one beautiful circuit
that would a great addition to the calendar.
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6/15/00
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Burt Reynolds added to CHAMPS cast -
From TV Guide Online: Burt and Sly — together again for the first time! Britain's Press Association reports that Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone are teaming up for their first movie, a racing flick titled Champs, set to begin filming in July. Stallone also wrote the script. Reynolds plays a wheelchair-bound former driver and Renny Harlin will direct.
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6/15/00
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Dry weather forecast for LeMans - The three-day forecast says both Friday and Saturday will be partly cloudy, with a high of 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27.2 Centigrade) and a low of 63 degrees F (17.2 C).
Such hot conditions put extra stress on tires, as they deteriorate quicker, and turbochargers, which work better in cooler conditions.
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6/15/00
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New oval planned in Canada -
A new Super Speedway race track is in
the works for the Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, area. Supposedly they have big ideas and are interested in having CART, NASCAR,
IRL and Dragsters run there someday, with Dragsters being the first in August 2001.
Construction on the drag strip and amenities should begin this summer
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6/15/00
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Charlotte races to be shortened -
Charlotte's two Winston Cup race weeks will each be shortened by one day
next season, with pole qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 and UAW-GM 500 moving to Thursday nights.
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6/15/00
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Evernham Dodge ready by August - Ray Evernham says that he will have a fully-raceable Dodge Intrepid
prototype ready by August, according to the Associated Press. Evernham and
Casey Atwood are testing today at Greenville-Pickens Speedway to get some miles on the new Dodge Winston Cup motor.
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6/15/00
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Herzog Motorsports to run Glen race -
Stan Herzog of Herzog Motorsports(#92 Attel BGN Chevy) confirmed that his team might race
in Winston Cup as early as the Aug. 13 race at Watkins Glen. That will probably be contingent on how well BGN driver Jimmie Johnson performs June
25, when the BGN is at Watkins Glen. Herzog plans to field a Winston Cup team in at least five races next season and will have a full Winston Cup
team in place by 2002.
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6/15/00
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Job Openings -
Cosworth Racing has job openings in its Northampton,
England office for CART Development Engineers with a Mechanical or
Automotive Engineering degree, preferably with engine development or
mechanical systems experience. Be part of the team as they work
toward the 17,000 rpm barrier in the coming years
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6/15/00
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Job Openings -
The McLaren F-1 team has the following job
openings in their Woking England headquarters - Finite Element Analysis
Engineer, Design Engineers, Electrical/Harness Technician, and Chief
Accountant. The Jordan F-1 team in Silverstone England has
the following job openings - Test & Calibration Technician,
Electronics/Control Systems Engineer.
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6/15/00
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Juan Montoya look out
- Lynx Racing driver Sara Senske's participation in the Barber Dodge Pro Series support race at Detroit
this weekend will be a busy one. Not only will she participate in the CART driver autograph session
at 4:45 pm Saturday in pit lane, but she will also throw up the tip-off ball at the WNBA Detroit Shock
game at 6:00 pm Sunday evening after the
race, and will sign autographs during halftime.
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6/15/00
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Mild Seven cigarettes to pay Benetton more
in 2001 -
The Japanese cigarette company Mild Seven will pay
the Benetton team over $25 million more in 2001 than 2000 for the
privilege of having the cars painted in their livery. Supposedly the
cars will revert to yellow and gray in 2002. Yellow and gray is the
color of Renault, the company that will own Benetton when it returns to
F-1 full-time.
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6/15/00
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NASCAR struggles outside USA -
The immensely popular-in-the-USA NASCAR has been a flop outside American
soil. First it failed in Japan, and now Australia. A source
from Australia writes - Unlike the US, where there is a ready market for Chevrolet Monte
Carlo's, Ford Taurus's etc, US bodied cars for Bob Janes NASCAR franchise were not readily taken too
by the fans here. NASCAR racing went from a show that could draw 40,000 people to the
Thunderdome Superspeedway,to watch 25 NASCARS, 35 AUSCARS and 75 other cars
in the early 90's, to a sad spectacle that drew about 2000 last year. The rise of V8SUPERCAR is another major cause of NASCAR's decline.
V8SUPERCAR is the fastest growing sport in Australia and is already challenging stick and ball sports for TV ratings.
Links: Aussie NASCAR V8SUPERCAR
Go to our forums
to discuss this item
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6/15/00
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CART Philadelphia race - With
today's announcement that CART and Dover Downs/Chris Pook will be pursuing
races in major cities, including Philadelphia, a reader writes - "I was pleased to hear that CART and Chris Pook have announced
they are looking at street races. I think that the Philadelphia Naval Yard
is a lot more logical than Manhattan or Washington, D.C. There is the potential for real racing (passing) on a semi street / airport circuit
that does not exist at many street races. Chris Pook's e-mail to me said that
he would explore the idea of a Philadelphia race with the CART Board.
Not very long after came this announcement. Time will tell. However, I think CART is committed to giving Dover Downs Entertainment a
replacement race for Gateway if Pook can make it happen. Why not? Long
Beach is CART's most successful race. I think Pook can make it happen again because the race could benefit Philadelphia Mayor Street's growth
policy in the same way a CART race helped redevelop Long Beach (Los Angeles harbor). There needs to be a motivation to the city that makes
economic sense. A race in Philadelphia could be a very big event. Lots of clubs, restaurants and hotels, and very accessible."
Editor's note - and last we checked Philadelphia is in the NE where
CART needs a successful race.
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6/15/00
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Michael Schumacher to tour US on Motorcycle -
Michael Schumacher will ride a motorcycle with wife
Corinna in tow into parts of the USA this week as he tries to clear his
mind in preparation for the Canadian GP in Montreal.
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6/15/00
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No tire changes for 2001 - F-1
will not change tire specs for 2001 as previously desired by Max Mosely to
slow the cars. The tires will stay with 4 grooves.
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6/14/00
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Mario Andretti report from LeMans Thursday -
Driver-of-the-Century, Mario Andretti, will be a
guest on RPM2Night Thursday Night (7:00 PM ET) to talk about the LeMans
race this weekend where his Panoz sits 4th on the grid after 1st day
time-trials. Americans will be cheering for the American Team - his
Panoz car and engine are built in the USA and of course Mario is America's
most famous driver. Can the 60-year old driver bring home the bacon
at that age? It would have folks talking for quite some time.
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6/14/00
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Filming for CHAMPS to continue at
Detroit - Franchise Pictures, the production company for the
Champ Car-based film preliminarily entitled "Champs", will continue shooting
footage for the feature at this weekend's 19th Annual Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit.
Sylvester Stallone, featured star and producer of the film, will be at The
Raceway on Belle Isle to continue work on the project. Cast members joining
Stallone at Detroit are supermodel Estella Warren and German actor Till
Schweiger. The focal points of this weekend's filming will be post-race celebrations
and Victory Circle activities. This will occur after the formal victory ceremonies for the CART FedEx Championship Series race on Sunday afternoon.
Additionally, over 200 film crew members will gather aerial footage from helicopters over Belle Isle, shoot on-track action from the pace cars, and
do work in the pits throughout the race weekend which is sanctioned by Troy,
Mich.-based Championship Auto Racing Teams. "Champs" is scheduled for release to more than 3,000 movie theaters in the
summer 2001. The film is being distributed by Warner Brothers.
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6/14/00
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Reminder - Juan Montoya on Letterman
tomorrow -
Target/Chip Ganassi Racing driver
Juan Montoya, who won the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day, will appear on the Late Show with
David Letterman at 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, June 15. The visit will mark Montoya's second appearance with Letterman, who
is part owner of Team Rahal, which also races in the CART FedEx Championship
series. Model Naomi Campbell is also scheduled to appear on the Late Show
on Thursday. Montoya, the defending CART champion, will race for his third straight
victory of the season on Sunday at the Grand Prix of Detroit.
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6/14/00
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Kenny Brack to throw out first pitch at Detroit
tonight -
Kenny Brack will throw out the
first pitch Wednesday night at the Detroit Tigers' game. In his new USA
Today diary entry, he compares his pitching abilities to Juan Montoya.
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6/14/00
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Casey Mears tests PacWest car -
Casey Mears, who competes in the 2000 Indy Lights championship, had a test
this past Tuesday in the Putnan Park circuit, nearby Indianapolis, with a car from the PacWest
team. The test is a part of the team's program to evaluate and develop young talents.
Mears is the nephew of Rick Mears, one of the great legends of American racing (3 times Indy champion and 4 times Indy 500 winner).
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6/14/00
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Did you know? - Did you
know that most F-1 cars carry a longitudinal gearbox, whereas, Champ cars
carry a transverse box? The primary reason - a transverse box is
easier to work on and works better with a sequential shifter, hence Champ
cars carry this design. A longitudinal box offers some aerodynamic
advantages and with F-1 mandating flat-bottom cars, the F-1 designers try
to clean up the airflow out the back of the car as much as possible by
using a long slender design. Under the rear bodywork area of a F-1
car, around the gearbox, is where a lot of their downforce is generated.
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6/14/00
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Did you know? - Did you
know that the 2000 Lola is the only CART chassis to use an advanced
composite rear bulkhead? Rivals Reynard and Swift are fitted with
the traditional machined aluminum rear bulkheads.
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6/14/00
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Jason Bright Update - Jason
Bright tells us they are hoping to do another race as well as Australia.
They were aiming for Houston but with the Indy Lights race now at Houston it makes that option difficult because the money would have to be
secured much sooner. Elkhart Lake is the only other race that they could possibly do that doesn't
clash with Indy Lights and it would give him a bit of a head start for his Gold Coast debut.
He has fingers crossed something can be put together.
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6/13/00
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Firestone to use Long Beach tire at Detroit -
Jon Beekhius reports that Firestone will use it Long Beach tire at
Detroit. Driver had very little complaints about tire marbles at
Long Beach. Similar good results are expected at Detroit which might
help the racing.
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6/13/00
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Benetton to build new car around new
Renault V10 - Benetton will build a totally new car around
the all-new Renault V10 slated for 2002 when the French company returns to
F-1. The new compact and lightweight engine is said to feature a
major design breakthrough.
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6/13/00
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Rockingham news - Did you
know that 28 foot high earth walls will be built up around the outside of
the track to suppress noise? How about the fact that the track
surface will be laid to a tolerance of 1 mm+/1 (that folks is a smooth
surface). Whereby most US ovals have a single access tunnel to the
infield, Rockingham will have three!
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6/13/00
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GP of Russia takes a step closer to reality -
The Russian government has given approval for plans to build a GP circuit
adjacent to the capital city's Molzhaneyevsky airport. Now all that
is required is a private investor to make it happen.
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6/13/00
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Stock Price button update -
Whereas originally our Stock Price button on our main menu only returned
CART's current stock price, it now returns CART, International Speedway Corp.
(ISC), Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports (TRK), and Dover Downs (DVD)
which owns tracks such as Long Beach, Gateway, and Dover Downs.
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6/12/00
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Roberto Moreno to chat online Tuesday -
Roberto Moreno will be online for a live chat tomorrow, Tuesday on CNNSI.com
at 4:00 PM ET. Please tell your friends and ask Super Sub all
those questions you always wanted to.
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6/12/00
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New DTM race series a success, important
for CART The new German DTM race series was an instant success
when 56,000 fans paid to see the opening round at Hockenheim on June 4th.
Air horns honked continuously, fireworks erupted, smoke bombs were hurled
and every incident was cheered. Fans camped at the circuit the whole
weekend and parties lasted into the night. It once again proved that
Germany's appetite for touring car racing is healthy. That sounds
like the weekend atmosphere that is missing from most CART oval track
events. This may be important to CART as some folks feel the support
race for a CART event at the Lausitzring (rumored to be starting in 2001)
should be DTM to help ensure a successful weekend. The DTM series
died four years ago, but has been resurrected again.
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6/11/00
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Montoya's Letterman appearance to be
rescheduled UPDATE
According to this website,
Juan Montoya will now appear on David Letterman's The Late Night Show this
Thursday evening. Interestingly, F-1 driver David Coulthard will
appear Monday night.
6/6/00 - Due to the rain delay at Milwaukee, Juan Montoya was not able to
make his scheduled appearance on the Late Night Show with David
Letterman yesterday. It will be rescheduled.
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6/11/00
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Engine
power bands - Did you know that the current generation of
CART engines have a power band of 2,000 to 4,000 on short ovals, street,
and road courses? We bet you didn't know that Honda builds an
alternate version of its engine for superspeedways with a power band as
narrow as 600rpm. Oh and did we forget to mention that although
current CART engines are just now breaking the 16,000rpm barrier, at least
one manufacturer says 17,000rpm is doable in a few years, even with the
limitation on technology CART imposes.
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6/11/00
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All
but two teams using same damping system - All CART teams
are using the Ohlins TT-44 damping system in 2000, all except Newman Haas
and Rahal. Newman Haas Lola's have access to an exclusive
development contract with Ohlins Racing AB of Sweden. What is
different about their system is top-secret, but if you look at their
dampers you will see more hydraulic tubing and control units than used by
the other teams. Some people suspect that the dampers may actually
be driver controlled. The Rahal team is using custom dampers made in-house
by Tom Janiczek, formerly with Penske Racing Shocks.
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6/11/00
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Lola's
harder to pass - Patrick Carpentier was on RPM Radio this morning.
We found something he said very interesting. He said that there is more turbulence when following the Lolas with the new Handford wing.
Hmmm...could this be why it is so hard to catch and pass Montoya when he is leading?
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6/10/00
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Rockingham
Update - Work continues at a feverish pace to get Rockingham
ready for a rumored CART race next fall. Here are a couple of new
construction photos courtesy of Rockingham Motor Speedway
Footings for the oval wall (L),
Tunnel/Underpass construction (R)
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6/9/00
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CART Pace Car
Driver website launch - The official site of race car
and CART pace car driver Marybeth Harrison has been launched! If you haven't visited
yet, feel free to do so at http://www.marybeth-harrison.com
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6/9/00
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How soon we forget -
Our Jim Allen writes - I was snooping around for a long-ago saved file when I came across this gem.
It is from a story reported on Championship Racing Magazine's Web site on Nov. 17, 1998 that uses these quotes from Leo
Mehl, former Executive Director of the IRNLS. The story described the IRL's switch to the current
3.5 litre engine formula and went on to discuss how it was a better formula
for racing than CART's engine leases. The paragraph's below report on Mehl's poo-pooing an idea to have CART teams
run at Indianapolis. Given the events of this past May, I think you'll agree
these comments go a long way in showing the thinking and arrogance of the
IRNLS' top brass was way off the mark. Some talk has also centered around the possibility of CART teams
racing against IRL teams in the Indianapolis 500. Mehl believes that CART teams would be at a disadvantage if they were simply going to compete at
Indy, and he admits that he's not particularly interested in having CART teams race just at Indianapolis.
"I can't imagine why we would want people to do a one month show," Mehl said. "You've got to understand that we've got a series here, and we
want additional competitors. Maybe it's okay to do a one month show, and we
have plenty of equipment and engines available right now for that. We've not
had any takers. It's important for us to have teams that are running the whole series.
"I personally think that the level of our competition is such, with the restrictions we have, that it'd be a tough ball game for somebody to
come in here and run two weeks in the month of May and be competitive and be
able to win against the talent we've got right now. Our guys race ovals every week. We're not looking for one month wonders."
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6/8/00
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New Forum
- We have added a Sportscar forum to our list of available forums,
for those of you who would like to discuss that aspect of our sport.
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6/8/00
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Ashley &
Dario
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Franchitti's
contract is up, eying F-1 in 2001
- Dario Franchitti's contract with Barry Green is up at the end of
2000 and Dario has made it clear F1 is what he wants next year. He
hasn't hid that from anyone, including his fiancée, actress Ashley
Judd. Barry Green is said to be ready to offer Dario a new 3-year
contract to stay in CART, but we suspect if one of the three F1 offers
Dario is reported to have pan out, he will be in F1 next year.
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6/8/00
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Gidley outpaces
Fontana at Mid-Ohio - Memo Gidley was 7/10ths of a second
faster at Mid-Ohio today than Norberto Fontana in the same Della Penna
car. We don't know if the times represent each drivers best effort,
but it does underscore the fact that Memo Gidley 'belongs'. Click
here to see all the test times from today at Mid-Ohio.
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6/8/00
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Mario's countdown to LeMans begins
-
The countdown to the 24 Hours of Le Mans has begun. Mario will co-drive the #11 Panoz Ford with David Brabham and Jan Magnussen on June 17-18. Tune in to Speedvision for live, continuous television coverage of the action from start to finish beginning at 9:30 am Eastern on Saturday, June 18.
Following is the schedule of events in local time:
Wednesday, June 14
7:00-9:00 pm Qualifying practice
10:00 pm-12:00 am Qualifying practice |
Friday, June 16
6:00-7:00 pm Drivers parade in Le Mans city center |
Thursday, June 15
7:00-9:00 pm Qualifying practice
10:00 pm-12:00 am Qualifying practice |
Saturday, June 17
9:00-9:45 am Warm up
1:00 pm Presentation of drivers
3:51 pm Start of formation lap
4:00 pm Start of race |
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Sunday, June 18
4:00 pm race concludes |
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6/8/00
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New Super-Sub, Memo Gidley, likely to get
another chance
- RPM2Night stated last evening that Memo Gidley has a very good
chance of substituting for Norberto Fontana at Detroit. We spoke
with Memo at Milwaukee and he said his first choice is to land a full-time
Champ Car ride and has been seen at every event waiting for an
opportunity. One came up with Della Penna and he is testing the car
this week at the Mid-Ohio open test, and hopefully will race it next week
at Detroit.
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6/7/00
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 CART
Popoff Valve Man, one of many volunteers that help CART
- We had the pleasure of bowling with Rich Ziegert, one of CART's
volunteer Popoff Valve inspector's on Friday Night at Milwaukee where it
was the media up against CART to raise money for the CART
Ministries. A fun time was had by all. CART has many unsung
hero's like Rich who give countless hours of their time to help the sport
they love. These people pay their own travel expenses and
accommodations to the races for the chance to rub elbows with the people
on the inside of the sport.
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