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IRL: Brack's Success Helps Racing Pick Up Speed with Swedish Fans

2 October 1998

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 1, 1998 -- On March 20, 1966, A.J. Foyt, only a two-time Indy 500 champion at the time, started fourth in a USAC champ car race at Phoenix International Raceway, fell out after 101 laps in 11th place and won a whopping $396.24.

One day later in the distant village of Glava, Sweden, a baby boy was born to Gun and Bert Brack. They gave him the American-sounding name of Kenny.

Thirty-two plus years later, on Oct. 11 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Brack the driver and Foyt the car owner seek to wrap up a $1 million bonus as champions of the Pep Boys Indy Racing League. They need only to finish eighth or better -- or in front of Davey Hamilton and Tony Stewart -- in the Las Vegas 500K to clinch the season title and the Pep Boys Million.

The victory would add another chapter to Foyt's legendary career and make Brack a hero in his homeland, which has produced more famous tennis players than race drivers.

Foyt is best known for his four wins and 35 appearances at Indy. But he's also won enough season championships in major competition as a driver or owner to start his own trophy shop. A second Indy Racing League owner's title would be his 2lst overall.

As a driver, he won USAC champ car championships in 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1975 and 1979. He captured three USAC stock car titles as a driver (1968, 1978-79) and added an Eastern sprint car crown in 1960 and the 1972 dirt car diadem. In 1974-75, he claimed the title of what was called the World Series of Auto Racing with wins in a sprint and a stock car. He won IROC III and IV championships in 1974 and 1975.

As a car owner, he picked up the USAC champ car championship in 1979 as well as the 1968 and '78-79 stock car crowns and, after a long drought, took the first Indy Racing League owner's title in 1996 with Scott Sharp driving. Sharp and Buzz Calkins tied for the driver title. But that covered only three races, while the 1998 championship encompasses a grueling 11 races.

Brack, who at 32 is almost half of Foyt's 63 years, collected two championships on his way to the IRL and a possible title in only his second year -- and first with Foyt -- on the circuit. In 1992 he captured the Renault Clio Scandinavian title with nine wins and a second. Then the next year he won the Zerex Barber Saab title in America with six victories.

If he has a successful finish at Las Vegas, he would become the first Swedish driver to win an Indy-style championship.

In fact, Stefan Johansson is the only other Swede to drive on this level in the U.S. Now retired and owner of a prominent karting center in Indianapolis and an Indy Lights team, he was born in Vaxjo, Sweden, nearly 10 years before Brack. Driving for Tony Bettenhausen, his best season finish was 11th. He drove in 79 Formula One Grand Prix races without a victory but placed fifth in the 1986 final standings.

"He's put a huge amount of effort into his career," Johansson said of Brack. "It's a classic case of persistence paying off.

"It's not comparable to winning the World Championship, but it is a fantastic accomplishment."

Johansson, whose driver, Guy Smith of England, has won two Lights races and is second in the standings, is extremely happy to see a fellow Swede win in America. He said it has boosted racing interest in their country.

"I'm trying to help young drivers over there," he said. "This will boost the morale of all young drivers. Businesses there see racing as an off sport. The larger corporations don't want to put money into it, but this will help them see it as a sport worth sponsoring." There have been a few other prominent Swedish drivers in Formula One over the years. They include:
Ronnie Peterson drove in 73 races, winning 10 and placing second in the championship in 1971 and 1978. He was Mario Andretti's teammate in 1978 and suffered fatal injuries in a crash at Monza, Italy, the day Andretti clinched the championship.
Joakim Bonnier drove in 102 F1 races, winning one. His best placing was eighth in 1959. Gunnar Nilsson drove in 31 grand prix and races and finished a career-best eighth in the 1977 standings.
Reine Wisell's career was a short 25 races. In 1971, his first season, he finished third in the U.S. Grand Prix and ended ninth in the standings.

Brack still holds high regard for Peterson. When asked about outstanding Swedish athletes, he answered:

"If you look at racing you look at the great driver Ronnie Peterson, who sadly lost his life. And he was very good, very quick.

Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to win when he was racing the last year. But he was always up there pushing Mario, sometimes up beside him trying to get Mario to go quicker.

"He was very, very good. That doesn't take anything from Mario, but Ronnie was very good. And we've had a few other good Swedish racing drivers."

Brack said Sweden has produced other outstanding athletes, with tennis star Bjorn Borg being the most famous to Americans. Ingemar Johansson, world heavyweight boxing champion in the 1950s, and skiing greats Ingemar Stenmark and Gunder Swan are others with international acclaim.

There are a flock of Swedes in the National Hockey League and three Swedish golfers are top challengers on the LPGA.

"We've probably had less people successfully racing," Brack said.

"Perhaps that has to do with the negative feeling in Sweden from the late '70s when Ronnie sadly died. And that probably affected the Swedish racing drivers, made it more difficult for people to get up through the ranks.

We've had Stefan Johansson since then, and he was successful as well both in Formula One and CART."

Brack's success in the Pep Boys Indy Racing League has made the series very popular in Sweden. He helps make this possible by being very accommodating to the Swedish media. Often after a race he can be found in the press room describing his race over the phone to his homeland.

He said he always has had a good relationship with Swedish journalists, and they have played a key role in advancing his career.

"It's been very important for me to have that relationship, because obviously I have had to finance my racing through sponsors," Brack said.

"Subsequently, it is very important to have a good relationship with the press so they write about you and get you PR.

"I'm not in that situation anymore that I need the publicity, because I have a ride here. I don't bring any sponsors into this deal. There is a tremendous interest right now for me and the IRL series in Sweden. I really try to put a little work into that, because I feel I owe that to them."

A victory at Las Vegas will make him even more famous in Sweden. Even more famous than one A.J. Foyt.

LAS VEGAS 500K NOTEBOOK

Event schedule: The third annual Las Vegas 500K is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. (PDT) Oct. 11. PPG Pole qualifying starts at noon (PDT) Oct. 10. Pep Boys Indy Racing League practice sessions will take place at 10 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. (PDT) Oct. 9, and 8:45 a.m. and 4 p.m. (PDT) Oct. 10.
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Broadcast schedule: The Las Vegas 500K will be televised live on TNN at 4 p.m. (EDT) Oct. 11. A same-day delayed telecast of PPG Pole qualifying will be shown on SpeedVision at 9 p.m. (EDT) Oct. 10. The IMS Radio Network will broadcast the race live at 4 p.m. (EDT) Oct. 11, with a pre-race show starting at 3:30 p.m.
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Brack, fan could share $1 million: If Kenny Brack wins the Las Vegas 500K, he will split $1 million with a lucky fan through the MCI Pep Boys Million contest.

Brack won the first two races of the contest series, the Atlanta 500 Classic presented by MCI on Aug. 29 and the VisionAire 500 on July 25 at Charlotte, N.C., to ensure that he and a fan will split at least $100,000.

Fans must choose the driver who they think will win all three races in the series. The contest is open at Pep Boys stores through Oct. 5 or via the Internet at www.mciracing.com or http://www.pepboys.com/promo/entry.htm through Oct. 10.

The choice of driver is easy: Kenny Brack.
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Big bucks on the line for Brack: Pep Boys Indy Racing League points leader Kenny Brack could bring home more than $1.6 million if he wins the Las Vegas 500K on Oct. 11 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A breakdown:
O$1 million: Pep Boys Million to the 1998 Pep Boys Indy Racing League champion.
O$500,000: Brack's share of the MCI Pep Boys Million for winning races this season at Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta and Las Vegas. The other $500,000 goes to a fan who picked Brack to sweep the races.
OAt least $100,000: The winner's purse at every Pep Boys Indy Racing League event this year has been at least $100,000.
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Pit bosses to compete in Vegas: Pit bosses roam the floors of every Las Vegas casino, monitoring the action at a group of gaming tables for the casino management.

But the true pit boss of the Pep Boys Indy Racing League will be determined Oct. 8 in Las Vegas on a strip of asphalt a few yards from the tables.

Six of the Pep Boys Indy Racing League's top teams will compete for their share of a $25,000 purse in the Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience Pit Stop Contest at 5:30 p.m. (PDT) Oct. 8. The competition will take place on Fourth Street, adjacent to the popular Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

The competing teams, with drivers in parentheses: Hemelgarn Racing (1996 Indianapolis 500 champion Buddy Lazier), ISM Racing (1997 Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year Jeff Ward), Nienhouse Motorsports (Las Vegas resident Davey Hamilton), Panther Racing (Scott Goodyear), Team Cheever (1998 Indianapolis 500 champion Eddie Cheever Jr.) and Team Menard (1996-97 Pep Boys Indy Racing League champion Tony Stewart).

Teams participating in the contest will change four tires and perform a simulated fill-up of fuel. The cars will drive in and out of their pit stalls and will be electronically timed by Indy Racing League officials.

There will be three qualifying rounds, with two teams in each round.

The two teams with the best times will compete in the final, with the winning team receiving $8,000. The runner-up will earn $5,000 and the four other teams $3,000 each.

Many Pep Boys Indy Racing League drivers will sign autographs after the contest. The autograph session will continue until 8 p.m. Fans can register for prizes.