Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

Legend Cars, those little Yamaha motorcycle-engine-based race cars with the ½ scale coupe or sedan bodies, have been a popular and affordable way for many to get into racing. They race all over the country on short tracks, road courses, and dirt tracks. Well now you can add drag strips to that list. For the 2010 season, the NHRA has created a class enabling Legend cars to compete on all 140 NHRA member drags strips across the country.

The annual NASCAR Media Tour begins this week. Teams in and around the Charlotte, NC area will be hosting motorsports journalists and bribing them with free food and swag and dishing out clichés like; “Our guys have worked very hard over the winter”, or the ever popular; “We expect 2010 will be our best season yet”.

This past Saturday night the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) held their annual Hall 0f Fame inductions. Voted in this year are Roger Penske, Jack Roush, Robert Yates, and Rusty Wallace

Kevin Swindell, the son of legendary sprint car driver Sammy Swindell led the last 26 laps of the prestigious “Chili Bowl Midget Nationals” in Tulsa Oklahoma on Saturday night. Kevin become the youngest winner in Chili Bowl Nationals history and can now add his trophy to the five in his father’s trophy case. Cole Whitt finished second, and keeping things in the family, dad Sammy, came home third.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, in a move that should help fans planning to come to the NASCAR race there on Feburary 28^th, has partnered with 13 hotels in Las Vegas to give fans a discount on their rooms. Participating hotels have dropped rates by as much as 25% and are offering additional promotions such as free hats, free cocktail hours, and other options. Check the speedway’s web site for more information.

Michael Waltrip and Marcos Ambrsose teamed up with Rui Aguas and Niki Cadei to enter a Ferrari in the “24 Hours of Dubai” endurance race over the weekend. The car ran consistently in the top ten, at times as high as 6^th overall until a collision with another car ended the effort after nine hours.

NASCAR officials plan a series of tests to determine if the current Sprint Cup car will handle better with a more traditional rear spoiler rather than the wing they have now. Gary Nelson, who was heavily involved in the initial design of the car said the change is not that big a deal; “We designed the car originally to go either way, so either the spoiler or the wing would bolt onto the exact same spot,” . . .  “It’s that simple, so to me, I don’t really know how big of a news item it is.”