Full Throttle

NASCAR Nextel Cup star Ken Schrader of Fenton, MO will begin his 2006 racing season competing with the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series at the 16th Annual Ice Bowl at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, AL on January 7-8. Schrader will attempt to make his second series event by qualifying for the $2,500-to-win NeSmith Chevrolet 40.

Schrader finished fifth in the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series Crate Racin’ USA World Championship Race at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, FL on December 3. After the race, Schrader said he was impressed with the GM Performance crate engine that costs one-tenth what an unlimited dirt late model engine costs.

After his Ice Bowl competition with the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series powered by Crate Racin’ USA, Schrader will begin to concentrate on his “day job,” getting ready for the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season with a new ride. For 2006, Schrader will step into the legendary #21 Woods Brothers Ford.

The entry of Schrader is just part of the equation of drivers that will make up the Ice Bowl driver roster for the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series’ first National Touring points event of the 2006 season.

NASCAR Busch Grand National regular Kenny Wallace of St. Louis, MO has also announced his intentions of running with the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series at the Ice Bowl driving a car out of the Villanow, GA-based Jeff Smith Racing stables.

Add to the nationally-known NASCAR drivers a good mix of dirt late model seasoned veterans, weekly drivers trying to make a name for themselves, plus young drivers making their first ventures into dirt late model racing, and you have the makings for a part of the sport that is gaining popularity among dirt late model fans.

Dirt late model veterans that include National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame driver Jeff Purvis of Clarksville, TN, Ronnie Johnson of Chattanooga, TN, and Mike Head of Ellenwood, GA will join Schrader and Wallace.

Carrying the torch for the weekly racers will be the defending StormPay.com Dirt Late Model National Champion Denny Slayton of Rossville, GA, along with Jeff Fields of Aragon, GA, Matthew Turner of Dawsonville, GA, Curtis Cline of Douglasville, GA, and Robby Bilbrey of Albertville, AL.

Chris “The Survivor” Turley of Oxford, AL will be coming out of the Talladega Short Track Junior Late Model Division to compete for the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series Rookie of the Year honors. The 23-year-old driver gets his nickname because he is a surviving cancer patient, who was paralyzed during chemotherapy, and drives with hand controls.

It’s the affordability and dependability of the crate engine that has brought these drivers together. The engine gets it name because it is built, sealed, and put into a crate at the GM factory, where it is shipped to a GM dealership. The engine can be purchased by the racer right at the dealership, who then takes it home in the crate, unpacks it, and places it right in their dirt late model chassis.

The steel-head “602″ engine sells for $2,800, and the aluminum-head “604″ engine sells for $4,800. Race cars using the 602 engine weigh 2,200 pounds, and get a 150 pound weight break over the race cars using the 604 engine that must weigh 2,350 pounds.

On Saturday afternoon, January 7, the StormPay.com Dirt Late Model Series will participate in Qualifying to set the top 18 cars for the NeSmith Chevrolet 40, and the top six qualifiers will run the Fast Car Dash to determine the top six starting positions for Sunday afternoon’s main event.

Qualifiers 19 on back will line up for B-Main action on Sunday afternoon, January 8 to fill the starting field for the NeSmith Chevrolet 40 to be run later in the day. (SOURCE: Motorsports Blog)

Technorati Tags: NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

NASCAR fans are well aware of the accomplishments of the man called Smoke during the NEXTEL Cup season. They may not be fully appreciative of how busy the reigning, and now two-time NEXTEL Cup Champion is during the “off season.” A few examples:

• The 2002 season saw Smoke preceed his first NASCAR Championship with his first win at the O

Those of us that follow the F1 circus know many of it’s personalities, on occasion, become infected with a case of oral Montezuma’s revenge. The most prominent, if only because of his position as F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone dropped his medication and went off just prior to the British Grand Prix for example.

Oral Montezuma’s revenge being a viral infection hits many. It doesn’t discriminate between the top of F1 and some further down the food chain such as McLaren Team boss Ron Dennis:

The Woking-based team principal said that while Renault and Alonso ‘did the job’ from the word go in 2005, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya perhaps had more to do with McLaren’s early problems than once thought.

‘Our drivers,” Dennis told the ‘Guardian’ newspaper, ”psychologically overreacted to problems at the first round of the world championship and definitely didn’t respond to the pressure.”

Ron Dennis is many things, but I seriously doubt he is qualified, or licensed, as a psychotherapist or psychoanalyst. But I bet he can afford to purchase a very expensive endangered species leather couch for his charges to recline on.

Dennis went on to note Kimi Raikkonen’s performance during the Malaysian GP where, through no fault of his own (a tire valve failed), Kimi had a poor finish.

Ron said in the English ‘paper: ”It was all a bit frustrating. In most seasons, 10 race wins would have been good enough to clinch the world championship quite early in the season.”

That may be true, it’s also true if just one, or more probably two, of the four engine failures Kimi suffered during qualifying - and resulting in a ten spot starting penalty - the constructors championship would have been more hotly contested, if not won by McLaren.

I’m not a psychotherapist or psychoanalyst but feel strongly those four McLaren V10’s “psychologically overreacted” and puked their guts all over the tarmac due to abuse, and or neglect, back at the Woking engine factory.

But that’s just me (and I don’t have to lay on Dennis’ couch to figure it out), what do you think?

Cross Posted @ Fast Machines.

As I was walking through the woods one day I came across a snake. Not your usual everyday snake. This was an aggregating snake.

For those unfamiliar with the breed here is a short summary: They operate very stealthy, crawling through the blogosphere snatching content leaving the original owner completely unaware of their visit. Before I continue should say their are “good snakes” around NASCAR Shop Talk is one, Topix Net is another.

BUT this snake (”Scientific name” XB90 - Blogging Network, A/K/A John Ross) is an asshole of the first order. His “network” was caught aggregating entire blog posts and creating content for his “network.” In the cases of Full Throttle and Church of the Great Oval without prior notification or permission. I believe that is also the case for Dustin Marson’s NASCAR Blog but the snake has since dropped the links to it. He/it has also taken content from NASCAR Napper, NASCAR News and NASCAR News on the Web although I can’t ascertain whether any notification was given to the owners.

Anyway, to make a long story longer the snake shed his skin when a trace route revieled his location and server. A DAMN sight more info then any of his “network” pages contain that are completely devoid of ANY contact information. What follows is a verbatim copy on an Email received from the snake after an Email of complaint was sent to the abuse dept of his domain registrant. The complaint was forwarded to him because of the previously noted lack of courtesy, common sense and having a brain the size of a snow pea. All of which, if possessed in the slightest amount, would have allowed the snake to post his contact information.

Without further adieu, here is his respionse to getting his forked tongue caught in the cookie jar: (Boldface is my response to his points and cover the eyes of any children close by - I’M PISSED)

Hi Marc,

I was just forwarded your email (below) and want to address your concerns.

It would appear you became aware XB90 aggregating your great articles in our Nascar News & Information site http://nascar.xb90.com. I personally think that you guys are great bloggers’ and deserve the notoriety and exposure. We simply aggregate RSS syndication feeds so people can see the big picture of what’s happening with a topic and then visit the blogs that most interest them my [sic] click on the link immediately after the article.

Yea it would appear that way asshole. What gave you the first clue I “became aware”, your host jumping your ass? REALLY, you “simply aggregate RSS syndication feeds.” Well riddle me this fuckface: If it is an RSS feed you grab why is it my stolen posts contain the “related posts” section? They ONLY appear on my individul archive pages NOT my RSS feed! And BTW, the “link immediately after the article,” leads nowhere but a circle jerk within your own “network. Additional you have splogged our blogs categories as well. What the hell kind of RSS feed are they included in! And the ONLY links to the stolen sites are in your sidebar. We don’t even get credit for the comments left on OUR posts. Hit the comment link of OUR POST and it takes you to YOUR SITE.

In the rush up to the holiday season the nascar site went live before we asked your approval aggregating your site. Without getting into all the details of it basically we were hacked between Dec 21 - 24 ( can be verified by our hosting company) and this hack caused several of our new syndication sites to go live before we had made contact with the authors, plus several other issues.

Hacked is it! Between 21-24 Dec you say. NEWSFLASH prick, better check this post of mine that you scraped. It’s dated 15 Dec! Can I presume your “several other issues” might be a strong propensity to insult the intellengence of those you address Emails to?

We are not trying to do any thing that would cause problems and as you see we have the content from you that we syndicate always point back to you and give you full credit for the article.

Earlier today emails were sent to all involved requesting approvals. No sooner had this been done, I received your email that had been addressed to grstirling. I would like to apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding. Below is a copy of the email that was sent out.

My name is John Ross and I am the editor of XB90 a news and information portal. We recently added your RSS feed to our XB90 site http://nascar.xb90.com

Recently my ass - see note above!

In doing so we have recently started to syndicate your RSS feed with link backs to your site. An issue has just been brought to my attention, for some reason we added your site without your approval. Although we attribute all posting back to the original site and use the Fair Use doctrine of the copyright act, I wanted to bring this to your attention and get your approval to syndicate your content and include it in our aggregation site.

A high quality blogger like yourself deserves the promotion and recognition. With XB90 now syndicating you, we are now spreading the word about your great content. You will benefit with increased traffic and readers. With the vast number of blogs and websites it is difficult for people to find great content, your site/blog is well written and you are offering the reader articles that are in our opinion some of the best available on the topic.

No pal - no that’s being too kind - NO dickweed I don’t deserve your attention or your efforts to publicize my blog. And kissing my ass won’t get you anywhere, its been smooched by the best and you hardly rate in that category. My I ask just how much traffic your scam will generate for MY SITE? Just how important is the “xb90 Blogging network?” Don’t answer that, I have the answer! Not very important if you ask Google. The fact of the matter is a Google search turns up nothing on your “network” but more reports of stolen material, ill feelings and this long piece that first reported you being shut down. But as we both know your back up and stealing again.

We very clearly linked back to your article and display your name as well. Our attribution reads Thanks “Author” from “Your Blog Site”. We do not make any changes to your posts, we simply publish your RSS feeds as it provided by you from your blog. In addition we add your site/blog under the heading Contributors with a link back to you.

Gee thanks! Your so kind to add us as “Contributors” WITHOUT our permission.

As a webmaster/blogmaster you no doubt know the importance of linking. The more sites that link to you, the more the search engines consider your site a quality reference. XB90 sincerely hopes that the links back to your blog post will increase your search engine traffic and site popularity. If you want, please feel free to add us to your blog roll. Linking back to us will help in making your content, and the your site more popular with the search engines and sites like Technoratti and others.

Plain and simple Mr. Ross Asshole I don’t need, want or desire your help whether its was offered first or not. Your nothing but a content thief wrapped in an Adsense bow. And for such an “expert” on blogging and the importance of links you REALLY should learn how to spell Technorati.

I need to hear back from you if you approve of our aggregation of your content or you wish us to remove your RSS from our site.

I think the above covers it.

Just reply to this email with your url in the subject line and say approve or remove and we will comply promptly with your request.
We feel you will benefit from additional traffic and recognition by inclusion in XB90, BUT if we do not hear from you in the next 7 days, we will stop aggregating your RSS feed in XB90.

Again, your so kind - but I don’t believe a damn word of it. As soon as the unwanted attention goes away your be right back at it.

Your content is excellent and we sincerely hope that you will continue your active blogging with its great articles. More people need to know about you and your information

COEBURN, Va. - The Kinzer family’s five-year plan to make Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn a financial success will fall one year short, as an announcement was made Wednesday that the family will not be operating the track in 2006.

The Kinzers are now advertising the track for sale or lease.

LPR was purchased by Kentucky mining operator J.W. Kinzer in August 2001 and opened under new management for the 2002 season. Since 2003, the track has been managed by Kinzer’s son-in-law, Morris Copley.

Copley issued a press release Wednesday stating four consecutive seasons of operating in the red have forced the closure of the three-eighths-mile asphalt oval, as well as LPR’s 300-foot dirt drag strip, which was constructed last season.
|inline

INDIANAPOLIS

After a few billion years has the Earth suddenly decided to revolve in the opposite direction? Maybe not, but you get the idea, I’m SHOCKED!

Shocked I could actually read in a Washington State newspaper a commentary in favor of the purposed NASCAR, ISC project for Kitsap County Washington. I should temper my surprise somewhat, it’s a guest commentary and written by the past president of Seattle International Raceway who is now retired. It stands to reason he would give the project a thumbs up.

Washington state better look for a way to put a deal together on this proposal from Speedway Corp. or miss out on one of the best revenue sources and tax equalizers there is. Motor sports events, in my view, are not affected by the cycle of recession that tax revenues go through. While the country as a whole was stumbling along over the past half-dozen or so years, the racing business was accelerating to its highest levels ever. New race facilities throughout the United States were being built in such states as Texas, Kansas, California, Florida and Nevada because of the strength of the NASCAR program.

The negative vibes from some lawmakers certainly shows their ignorance of motor racing and maybe even business deals. With all due respect, a professional negotiation team needs to come forward to stop all the negatives in the media and captivate the absolutely best potential this area has ever seen. For the thousands of race fans located on the West Coast or throughout Canada, this possibility is beyond a dream. Those same fans have had to travel all over the country to attend one of the NASCAR events.

Exactly.

The untapped fan base from north of the border alone is worth a good percentage of seating capacity. Add in Oregon, Northern Cali and points east and it’s promises a long string of sellouts. And as the author, Jim Rockstad, points out it isn’t just NASCAR and 2 or 3 dates they will provide the speedway, it’s “hot-rod shows, swap meets or flea markets.” The market for the latest craze Drifting has potential to fill a weekend by holding a Formula D event as well as other racing related events.

Local lawmakers are sending out “negative vibes” for the project and that’s to be expected after getting scorched by taxpayer funded sports stadiums for the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners. But at the moment they seem to be more concerned about their ego than funding the project, They’re crying because the Staten Island project is being fully funded by ISC while the Seattle/Bremerton purposal is being partially funded via a bond issue with 50% coming from ISC’s pockets.

“That’s a big factor with my constituents,” said state Sen. Tim Sheldon (D-Potlatch, Wash), noting that area residents oppose public funding for the track by a two-to-one ratio.

“We’re taxpayers, too. If it can be done privately in one place, they’re saying to me, why can’t it be done privately in Kitsap County as well? They don’t want to take a backseat to New York City,” he said.

On it’s face Sheldon has a point, as did the Seattle Times in a Dec. 18^th editorial, but in true political spin (Dare I say anti-NASCAR bias?) both the Times and Sheldon fail to mention ISC will own the Staten Island facility outright. Washigton State’s will be owned by the local citizens and leased out to ISC/NASCAR for a “minimum three events per year.” That’s a not so subtle diffrence.

Also not mentioned is the recent $4.48 billion TV contract NASCAR entered into and how a potential venue in the NY City area was factored into the contract. To be fair any crying on the part of Wash. residents and local politicos should also be directed at FOX, the SPEED Channel, TNT, ESPN and ABC for partially forcing the issue.

Michael Printup, ISC’s project manager for the Staten Island track adds a caveat to that lease that I haven’t seen in the media before.

ISC would petition NASCAR to create one, possibly two, new Nextel Cup races on its schedule for a New York race, along with an Indy Racing Series race, he said. In Washington, though, the track developer would seek to shuffle its schedule around and move a pre-existing Cup date.

That should shivers down the spines of a few non ISC owned race tracks.

In the end, obviously the local taxpayers will have the final say but they shouldn’t be taking the word of hack newspaper editorials or disingenious politicians in making their decisions. In fact I would highly recommend they learn from Kansas Speedway’s experiance, whose operators and local businessmen are doing just fine, thank you.

Technorati Tags: NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports, International Speedway Corporation | del.icio.us tags: (NASCAR,, Sports)

It is official, the 2006 season will be the last for the NASCAR Elite Division. There will be an official press release issued on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 along with the 2006 NASCAR Touring schedule.

NASCAR will put more focus on the NASCAR Grand National and NASCAR Modifieds Series.

The decision was made by NASCAR because the costs have gone up and the purses have gone down. NASCAR also had a hard time signing tracks up.

NASCAR will have 32 total events in the final season, this is for all four of the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Series.

The Toyota All-Star Showdown is shown on the Irwindale Speedway website as being scheduled for October 21st.

Source: Racing West

UPDATE: As predicted, it’s now official.

“These tours were originated to offer NASCAR’s weekly member tracks special events once or twice a year. The Elite Division was designed to allow the best local racers an opportunity to race periodically at an advanced regional level,” said Hunter. “The cost of competing at this level has escalated significantly over the years and participation has continuously declined in every region. It has also become extremely difficult for our member tracks to successfully host these events.”

The above link also provides the 2006 Elite Division schedules.

Technorati Tags: NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sports

In a break from what has become my NASCAR-nomics Series
I thought a little “role reversal” would be a refreshing change. Rather than bore you with another tome on NASCAR’s personal jet squad, the lastest corporate sellout or mega-deal making someone or something the “Official Whatsit” of NASCAR a look back would stir memories - for us old timers - or give the “post Jeff Gordon Era Fan” a glimpse into what was. This story, and image, is courtesy of The Union Star of Brookneal Virgina and reprinted in full.

When NASCAR celebrated its 50th Anniversary it took time to honor what they considered the top-50 NASCAR drivers of all time. One of those men was Rex White.

Rex is hardly a household name to racing fans today but many older fans remember and respect his accomplishments, because he was Chevrolet’s best driver from the late fifties through 1963.

He began his career to the top in 1956, grabbing 14 top-ten finishes. After a part-time run in 1957, White won twice the next year. His big year came in 1960, when he won six races and the NASCAR Grand National championship.

When he retired in 1964, he had 28 career victories. Afterwards, he was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.

But what makes his story interesting is that he won all his races on a shoe-string budget.

In 1950, White was still pumping gas in his hometown of Taylorsville, North Carolina. Red Byron was the first NASCAR champion, Lee Petty was second, and Bob Flock was third.

Rex White had stood it as long as he could, he was about to go racing.

A study, supposedly carried out by Midland’s MF1 team, has shown that Scuderia Toro Rosso will enjoy a huge power advantage in 2006.

The Silverstone based team, concerned that STR’s V10 loophole will be unfair for close V8-powered rivals, apparently conducted tests where V8 data was compared specifically with a V10 limited by the FIA’s current rules.

At present, a team may run a V10 in 2006 if it is rev-limited to 16,500rpm, and fitted with a 77mm airbox intake.

But, even so, teams and carmakers claim that Toro Rosso’s reigned-in power units will still pack more punch than the works 2.4 litre grunt.

Midland’s study allegedly purports that STR will go to Bahrain with around 800 horse power - which is at least 50-100hp more than the current V8 crowd.

The FIA, however, is keeping pretty quiet on the subject. It is believed that teams have been assured by the governing body that V8s will always be quicker than a limited V10, even if that means that late alterations to the rules are needed.

Technorati Tags: Formula One, Auto Racing, Sports | del.icio.us tags:( F1, Sports, Racing)