Cars 'n' Stars: CART Testing in Japan, Sprinter Sarah Fisher First 17 Year-Old Phenomenon, 1998 Sales Incentives
31 October 1997
Well boys, the CART awards party is over and now it's time to get down to business: 15 teams head for a test session at the Twin Motegi circuit in Japan. The gala awards banquet last saturday at the posh Century City, CA Century Plaza Hotel was star studded and $$$$ studded. Champ Alex Zanardi received a $1 million check from PPG and a Mercedes Benz ML320 sport ute; Patrick Carpentier got 50 grand for Rookie of the Year; actors Jason Priestly, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Tim Allen were presenters; and Smokey Robinson played his guitar for 90 minutes. And now, just one week later, the troops are headed for Japan and practice. Making the junket are: Vasser, DeFerran, Blundell, Unser, Moore, Ribeiro, Tracy, Franchiti and others. Over in Vegas, Ernie Irvan and Bill Elliott have joined the field for the November 8 Winston West race at the Las Vegas Speedway. Have you heard about Sarah Fisher? Shes the 17 year old Sprint Car sensation from Ashville, O and she has a bright future as she not only wins races in a 410 winged sprinter at KC Raceway, but also maintains a 3.8 high school grade point average. Sales incentives for 1998 models include: Ford Contour $ 750 Ford Escort $ 500 Windstar $1,500 Ranger $ 500 Mercury Sable $ 750 Tracer $ 500 Villager $2,000 1998 Kool/Toyota Atlantic Championship Schedule Apr. 4 Long Beach, Ca April 25 Nazareth, Pa May 30 Milwaukee June 6 Montreal July 12 Cleveland July 18 Toronto Aug 2 Quebec Aug 9 Mid Ohio Aug 16 Road America Sept 5 Vancouver Sept. Laguna Seca Mercedes Benz historical highlights: 1886 First patent, Carl Benz three wheeler 1891 Benz builds first four-wheel model 1900 First Mercedes car is built under direction of Wilhem Maybach 1904 Daimler factory completed in Unterturkheim. MB set speed record 97 mph 1911 Blitzen Benz with Bob Burmen up sets speed record at 141 mph, Daytona Beach, Fla 1914 Ralph DePalma wins Vanderbilt cup in MB/GP car 1926 Daimler and Benz mege 1936 Carraciola sets speed record in streamliner at 228 mph 1955 300SLR takes the world by storm 1963 230SL sports model built. Disk brakes 1968 Production of cars since 1946 reaches 2 million 1978 Station wagons are offered In 1997, Mercedes won races on four types of race tracks; superspeedways, short ovals, road courses, and street courses. The manufacturer was the highest points scoring engine builder with 316 points and nine wins. Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel