Cars n' Stars: Chicagoland Speedway, M.Benz on a Roll, CART IPO and Season Opener
12 March 1998
CARS N STARS; New Big Time Speedway For Chicagoland, M. Benz On A Roll, CART Announces IPO And Readies For Season Opener In Florida. A group called Motorsports Alliance which consists of a partnership of Indy Speedway and Intn'l Speedway Corp has landed a race track site in Plano, Il, a dismal little burg 50 miles outside of Chicago and will build a 1.5 mi oval with 70,000 seats.It will cost $100million and be ready to race in 2000. But what will they race ? The CART and NASCAR schedules are overflowing with dates so here comes the IRL...we predict. As all race enthusiasts know Mercedes Benz has a new lighter weight/smaller motor ready for the 1998 season and as they, MB, won 40% of the races they entered last year in F1, CART and FIA-GT championship they are going to be a tough act to follow. Hal Whiteford, VP operations MB of North America says they are starting some series with a clean piece of paper and are looking forward to this racing season with cautious optimism. However MB came away a winner in one arena last week as they unveiled their new CLK Cabriolet at the Geneva Auto Show to a rousing press welcome; it will sell for $47,000. CART, Championship Auto Racing Teams has gone on the big board with an offering of 4,700,000 shares of common stock going off at $16.00 per share. The racing organization will get 63 mil from the sale and will spend $10 million to purchase the Indy Lights series. Over in Florida the FedEx/CART series for 1998 is about to get underway this weekend at the 225 mile opener at Homestead which will air live on ABC-TV. The field consists of 25 drivers and a lot of new equipment including the new Mercedes engines and Reynard Chassis. As it always happens prior to a major race the PR folks have contrived a charity event featuring many of the top drivers and Friday’s affair features cleb charity bartenders in the person of Al Unser Jr., Max Papis, Andre Ribeiro, Mark Blundell, Rick Mears, Emmo and Indy Lights driver Clint Mears. Defending champ Alex Zanardi will appear on Letterman Monday night after the race. Denis Vitolo who crashed last week has been cleared to run on this his hometown track. Did you know that there is a real college in Missouri, McPherson College that offers a two-year accredited course in car restoration? Been around 21 years and some of their grads have gone on to be involved with cars taking the gold at Pebble Beach. Jay Leno gave them a grant. Recent surveys have revealed that Hondas were the most stolen cars in 1997. Toyota Camry was first but Hondas followed in second, third, fifth, seventh and ninth. The Honda-Toyota combine was broken up by Ford Mustang in 10th spot. In Formula One the sanctioning body met re the hassle wherein the McLarens dictated the winner of last weeks opener in Australia and they said no more of this nonsense. You race to the finish. Stewart Ford took three cars, 44 personnel and nine engines to Perth. The Jordan team took 35,000 pounds of parts and spares. Speed cost money. Injured FF2000 driver Thiago Bezerra is showing progress though he still remains in a coma in an Orlando, Fla hospital. He crashed after copping the pole at Walt Disney World Jan 24. IRL is in the middle of its "test in the west" at Phoenix International and Scott Sharp is setting fast times...173. mph to Tony Stewarts 170.12. A.J. Foyt’s driver Billy Boat is fourth quick. Andy Evans Team Scandia has filed the first entry for the 82nd Indianapolis 500. Jimmy Kite is the shoe in the teams Dallara Aurora. Celebrities for the Toyota Celebrity race at the April 4-5 Long Beach CART Grand Prix are: James Belushi, Queen Latifah, Catherine Bell, Joshua Morrow, Daryl Mitchell, Eric Braeden, Andy Lauer and Derrick Thomas. Celebrities? See if you can match them up with the soap/sit coms they appear in. My Best Friends Wedding, Mr. Destiny, Living Single, Young and the Restless, Veronicas Close, Caroline in the City, Jag, K.C. Chiefs. With all the spoiler height jazz going on in NASCAR and fights between Ford and Chevy teams Chevrolet announces a new racy cab forward design Camaro that will be in dealerships in mid 1998. Stay tuned ..the plot thickens. Rumor has it that major NASCAR Chevy teams aided in the design and development. Sales of the new and popular Dodge Durango are so good they helped Chrysler achieve a 3% sales gain in February. The Geneva Auto show saw Ford take the wraps off a new successor to the Escort...the Focus, which is a completely new entry-level coupe. Did you see the new Motor Trend wherein editor C.Van Tune discusses his hectic 48 hours in TV news at the various recent auto shows? Good stuff. Bill Maloney The Auto Channel
