Full Throttle

Tiger Woods will race a high-powered dirt-track car Monday in a charity race on New Zealand’s North Island. Woods, in New Zealand to attend caddie Steve Williams’ wedding, accepted Williams’ challenge to drive in the event.

“I’ve done other things. I’ve thrown a baseball a few times and thrown a couple of coins here and there,” Woods told a news conference in Auckland on Thursday. “This is a bit more physical.”

Williams is an enthusiastic racer when not working for Woods and is the New Zealand champion in modified saloon cars.

He said Woods will head one of two five-man teams in the charity event, a 12-lap competition at Huntly. Funds raised in the event will go to the Steve Williams Foundation, which provides coaching and educational opportunities.

Woods said bumping between cars on the tight and narrow circuit was “part of the deal” and his insurance was “taken care of. If they knock me off, I can knock them off,” he said. “The whole idea is to have fun.”

Woods said fellow golf pros would not be surprised by his auto racing debut.

“A few guys out there on tour do race quite a bit,” he said, citing as one example drag-racing compatriot Kenny Perry. Williams said he had tried for some time to get Woods behind the wheel.

“He said that looks like a lot of fun and I said, `Don’t worry, one day I’ll get you in one of those things,’” Williams said.

Woods is making his second visit to New Zealand. He also visited the country in 2002 to play in the New Zealand Open.

New Zealand, Tiger Woods, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

Although Chuck Warren is not a household name among today

Matt Miller’s confidence level at Eldora Speedway was increased another notch Saturday night, as he handily defeated a stellar 53-car field to capture $2,000 and the Sunoco sponsored American Late Model Series event, while Jeff Babcock made it two-in-a-row in Advance Auto Parts Stock Car feature action and Brian Ruhlman triumphed in the UMP Modified finale.

Miller’s 2005 credentials included impressive wins in June’s $100,000 Dirt Late Model Dream and another $10,000 in the season-ending UMP Nationals. And, Saturday, after a shaky start, he added to his resume, in a field of entrants that included defending NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart and multi-time World 100 winner Donnie Moran.

Although Smoke’s “owners advantage” didn’t seem to aid in him winning the feature event he did take the [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/check-flag.bmp]checker[/avatar] in his heat race and third behind Miller in the feature.

Stewart also announced the latest addition to this years Nextel Prelude to the Dream (June 7) at Eldora Speedway.

Mark Martin is the most recent NASCAR Nextel Cup driver to confirm his intentions to jump behind the wheel of a dirt short-track Late Model to challenge nearly a dozen of his NASCAR brethren on the one-half mile clay oval.

In addition to Stewart, who is the owner of the legendary speed plant, Martin will be joined by defending Prelude winner Kenny Wallace, Kenny Schrader, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Dave Blaney, Kyle Petty, Kevin Harvick, and Jamie McMurray, along with Nextel Cup rookies J. J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin. Also in the mix are the ageless Red Farmer (Read Red’s history here.)and current NHRA standout Ron Capps.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Eldora Speedway, Tony Stewart, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

NASCAR Busch North Series regular Ryan Moore will take over Braun Racing LLC’s #38 Chevrolet this weekend in Saturday’s Busch Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Moore, 22, still under a driver development contract with DEI, is replacing rookie Anthony Foyt IV, who has been released from the ride.

Moore, son of former Busch North champion Kelly Moore, has three made Busch Series starts, all coming last season. His best finish was 13^th at Homestead, Fla. Moore’s deal is for one race, but hopes a good showing will lead to additional races this season.

UPDATE: Foyt IV, an Evernham development drivers, still has support from his mentor and Ray is looking for another ride for the Grandson of A.J. Foyt.

NASCAR, Busch Grand National Series, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

(Press Release) - On April 29th an exhibit of “NASCAR Inspired Art” will debut at the Hickory Museum of Art. Stock Car Pit Pass and Race Team USA are proud to announce that our graphic artist Lori Munro will be among artists chosen for this prestigious exhibit. Inspired by the “Color of Speed,” Lori is the creator of the popular “War Wagon” cartoon. Her unique digital media art starts with a Sharpie marker and a vivid imagination! Lori’s work has also been on display since August 2005 at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa. Her work will be featured at the Hickory Museum of Art in Hickory, North Carolina along with other stock car racing artists including Gary Hill and Randy Owens.

On May 20th from 10am until 2pm the Hickory Museum of Art will have their “NASCAR Festival.” This event is free to the public and will feature real racecars, drivers, and some of the artists participating in the exhibit. The Hickory Museum of Art is a United Arts Funded Affiliate of the Catawba County Council for the Arts located at 243 Third Avenue NE in Hickory, North Carolina. (Part of the “Salt Block” Arts and Science Center of Catawba County) For more information call 828-327-8576.

Opportunities still exist for corporate sponsors to get involved with the inaugural “NASCAR Inspired Art exhibition,” which opens to the public on April 29th and runs through September 17th.

The Half-Vast Staff’s Two Cents: As someone that has never progressed beyond the “paint-by-numbers” stage of artistic endeavors - and then only images that had numbers of less than 5 - we continue to be impressed with Lori’s talents. I urge anyone to visit the display in Hickory or the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa to experience in person what I can only see via my slow as molasses modem.

Barring that, stop by Stock Car Pit Pass, the site is illustrated by Lori. Or in an impressive display of multi-tasking visit Lori’s RATED eXtry, One Sharpie and the Truth, Confessions of a MAD NASCAR Cartoonist.

But wait… there’s more! She’s also a poet, and everyone should know it!

(NOTE to Lori’s “legal staff:” Sorry for lifting your image, but ya know I’m jealous as hell and had to have a little piece “of Heaven” for myself!)

Lori Munro, War Wagon, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. Stock Car Pit Pass, Racing Cartoons, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

When is finishing in sixth place a win? When you’re the top Busch Series driver and the first five places all have NEXTEL Cup regulars residing in them. Woods drive was the highest finishing position by any of the Busch regulars in the first 8 BGN events.

And, oh by-the-way… Kevin Harvick extended his BGN points lead to 156 markers by winning the Pepsi 300 at Nashville. It was his first win of the year and eighth different Cup driver to win in the eight BGN events held to this point.

Harvick finished 0.504 seconds ahead of Bowyer, his RCR teammate, en route to his 18th career Busch Series victory. “Right now life is good,” Harvick said. “But life can go bad in a hurry. The best thing to do is enjoy it while you can, then move on to the next race.”

Advice I will take… and move onto the ARCA event held as a prelude to the BGN event.

Asheville, North Carolina

Steve Wallace, ARCA Series rookie won the pole for today

Long time readers know I’m hardly a fan of NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow. In fact I’ve made it a habit to make light of the project at times. I agree with it’s stated purpose, increased safety, but my support ends there.

It may save teams money but the cost of the switch is so great the large teams may be forced into amortization of the cost over many years, something they can afford, but the question remains should they have to? At the opposite end of the starting field are the smaller one and two team operations, who may face an uncertain financial future because of the change.

Allegedly speeds are to be reduced also. Hard to tell by what has been posted at Talladega. The CoT was only about 4mph off official pole speed with a restrictor plate that was slightly larger than what is in use today.

Jerry Bonkowski, writing for Yahoo Sports, points out the real elephant in the room. NASCAR’s plans for the CoT have taken little or no consideration to the current financial condition of the US auto makers. The list of employee cuts looks like a re-make of Slaughter House Five: General Motors 30,000 hourly jobs and an, as yet unannouced, number of salaried workers. Ford 30,000 “involuntary separations” and DaimlerChrysler has targeted 6,000 employees that will get the axe.

Which brings us to the elephant and what Bronkowski calls “the right car for all the wrong reasons at the current time.”

In the last year, we’ve gone from a potential introduction of the COT in 2009 to a fast-track introduction roughly one year from now. “Phasing in” is how NASCAR puts it, with several races including the COT in 2007, even more in 2008 and full implementation by 2009

The preceding post noting the demise of another of America’s premier shorts tracks got me to thinking. Growing up in the Mid-West Easter weekend always was a racing weekend. The local tracks - “local” in my case meaning within a 500 miles radius - either had their last pre-season testing session open to the public, or held the years opening night. My current location being what it is I decided to do a little virtual travel and see what tracks were in operation this holiday weekend.

The biggest, and only “large” event is at Nashville for the joint NASCAR Busch, ARCA RE/MAX event in Lebanon TN. The youngsters are ruling the day there as Reed Sorenson topped the speed charts in final Busch practice and ARCA RotY contender Blake Bjorklund, at just 20-years-old, held the top time during practice Friday in preparation for Saturday

The Illiana Motor Speedway, a half-mile race track that served as an air field in the 1940s, will close after this summer and be developed into a combination of residential and commercial uses, a Town Council member said.

The sale of the property along U.S. 30 about 10 miles south of Gary was a private real estate transaction, councilman Steve Kil said.

The town had worked with owner Mike Mikuly for an agreement on hours of operation after nearby residents complained of noise levels coming from the track. In recent years, increased use of the track concerned neighbors, Kil said.

“Over the years, I’ve fielded countless concerns,” he said.

2006 marks the speedway’s 60^th year in operation and all indications are it will meet the same fate as others located near populations centers. It will be marked by a headstone engraved by condos, strip malls.

The season opens this Saturday with a full schedule of Super Late Models, Mid-American Sportsman and Limited Late Models. June sees the 5^th Annual Elmer Musgrave Memorial with special guest Ted Musgrave. The USAC Silver Crown Series will also be on the June schedule.

R.I.P. Illiana Motor Speedway 1946-2006

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