Cars and Stars: Eddie Cheever on TV, CART in Germany, Volvo's Giant Safety Pin
4 June 1998
CARS N STARS; Indy 500 Winner Cheever On TV, CART May Race In Germany, Volvo’s Godzilla Safety Pin. Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever was on TNN's Crook and Chase talk show Thursday evening. Cheever is the thinking man's race driver: ”track accidents don’t happen they are occurrences, when they play the national anthem prior to a race you are paying homage to your flag. When Eddie hangs up his Nomex, he can look forward to a long career in the TV broadcast booth, because he is the closest thing to a Phil Hill, tell-it-like-it-is, no crap type of person. There’ a new oval/road course race circuit being constructed for $206 million in a suburb of Berlin. CART is eyeing it for a possible in the year 2000. Wouldn'’t that b a giggle . . . European F-1 fans would actually see fast, single seat cars pass one another. CART is also looking at Mexico and Road Atlanta for next year, and after they are scheduled it has to be a saturation point for the FedEx Champ cars. Volvo, for some reason or other . . . obviously publicity, has built a 131 foot long, 47 ft high “safety pin that will be anchored to a skyscraper in Skanska Sweden. It will flash safety messages to one and all on the ground and it weighs 49,000 pounds. The FedEx/CART guys run at Belle Isle in Detroit this weekend. Defending champion Gregg Moore says he can'’t waitbecauset the track has been reconfigured to provide a possible passing area in the main straight. Previous winners are Michael Andretti, Robby Gordon, Bobby Rahal, Emmo, Danny Sullivan, and Paul Tracy. Last year's race came down to a “fuel strategy” situation. Alex Zanardi leads the series in money earned having won $390,000 so far in 1998. The SCCA Trans-Am series has gotten bigger for 1998 . . . 40% bigger, field-wise . . . 32 cars per event. Rumor has it that this race group may ink a race date in Latin America for 1999. As reported elsewhere in this publication, Chrysler Corp is having its biggest sales year ever. The company sold 250,000 vehicles in May. Rebates figured heavily in this sales record. Almost every auto maker enjoyed brisk May sales: Honda was up 18%, Subaru rose 33%, and Volvo climbed 4%. Saab, however, dropped 26 percent. Big concours d’elegance this weekend in L.A. at Loyola Marymount University near LAX. The event is sponsored by Hornburg Jaguar, Jag purveyor to the stars. There will be a record number of French masterpieces such as Delahaye and Talbot. Spokesman James Groth, Jaguar aficionado, says attendees will also see six pristine XK120 roadsters. Home run king Mark McGwire of the St Louis Cards has bought a piece of the Bobby Hillin NASCAR Busch series team. The IRL race at Texas Speedway will be seen on TNN this Saturday night. They held a race memorabilia auction at the Monaco Grand Prix and Ayrton Senna's helmet and driving suit from the 1986 French Grand Prix brought $62,500. Besides the Texas IRL race, CART is at Detroit, with Trans Am, while NASCAR is at Richmond, VA. F-1 races in Montreal; the USAC Silver Crown cars run at Memphis; Gilmore cars will be on display at Farmers Market, L.A.; and Ivan the iron man Stewart will have at it in the Baja 500. Also on the left coast, Rod Millen is getting his full-house, slam-bam, double turbo, winged thing Toyota Tacoma truck ready for an assault on Pikes Peak July 4. Back to F-1, we learn that Ferrari pilot Michael Schumacher keeps a Harley in storage in Monaco so he can get around town. J. Villenuve is pissed off at Riccardo Rosset for chopping him down in a corner, and publicly stated Rosset should not be in F-1. Your turn will come Jacques. I remember seeing off-road ace Rick Mears in his first open cockpit, single seater race at Riverside Raceway years ago. I laughed my can off as Mears struggled with the car and plowed corn. That was then. For tax relief reason nine F-1 drivers live in Monaco. Celebrities at last weekend's race included Sylvester Stallone, Phil Hill, Jack Brabham and the Duchess of York. The City of Atlanta is making a strong bid for a Formula One race in the streets. Chris Pook is helping with the presentation. The place to be for rich motorsports enthusiasts is Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, June 11-12. Mario Andretti, Stirling Moss, John Surtees and just about every big-time old-timer in the sport will be on hand to see some great race cars of yesteryear take a few laps. In NASCAR-land, Hut Stricklin was released by the Stavola Brothers as driver of their Circuit City Chevy. John Andretti says he is concentrating on stock car racing over Indy cars, Todd and Lynn Bodine welcomed a new baby, Ashlyn Marie, and Joe Gibbs announced motorcycle maker Husqvarna as an associate sponsor. Parker Johnstone--out of a CART ride this year--will be heard on the CART radio network. A come down in salary, I'm sure, and Parker has a whole bunch of cows to keep healthy on his Oregon ranch. David Letterman couldn’t be in St. Louis to watch his partner Bobby Rahal race last week, but he did pop for race tickets, lunch and T-shirts for 100 area kids. This writer used to race against Bobby'’s father Mike Raha,l who gave the "“gentleme, start your n . . .et"c” at Milwaukee last Sunday. Like Formula Vees? Then head for Elkhart Lake Road America July 17-19. Over 150 VW powered buzz bombs will be gettin'’ it on for the Brundage trophy. Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel
