WORLD OF OUTLAWS NOTES

Heading indoors: A number of World of Outlaws drivers will again compete in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals this off-season in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which will run from January 12-16. Among those are Jason Meyers, who finished second in the World of Outlaws championship standings this past season, who will team up with long-time midget owner Steve Lewis and the Nine Racing team. It will be the fifth appearance for Meyers in his career at the event, where he finished sixth in the A-Feature in 2003.

Joey Saldana who won 20 A-Feature events and 21 times overall in 2009 with the World of Outlaws, will also be in action, piloting a Kasey Kahne Racing machine, as a teammate to his car owner and also Brad Sweet. For the native of Brownsburg, Indiana it will be the third appearance of his career in the event.

Danny Lasoski, the 2001 World of Outlaws champion, will also compete in the Chili Bowl for the Loyet Motorsports team. The 2010 edition of the event will mark the 19^th appearance for Lasoski at the Tulsa Expo Center, where he has finished second three times in his career.

Cody Darrah, who will be a contender for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award with the World of Outlaws in 2010, will make his second appearance in the event wheeling a car owned by his father Joe.

Tune in: With snow covering the ground in a large portion of the country and the 2010 season opening Florida DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park still over a month away, fans can take in some sprint car action from Springs Speedway in New Zealand via The Dirt Track Channel Webcast. This past weekend’s event which featured three-time World of Outlaws champion Sammy Swindell as well as Californian Jonathan Allard can be heard by visiting The Dirt Track Channel at http://thedirttrackchannel.com/Webcast.html.

Up close and personal: A FREE Fan Pit Pass is available to every ticket buyer who comes through the main gates every night during the 39^th Annual Florida DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park beginning on February 2. All fan have to do once they arrive at the track is take their grandstand ticket and head toward the pits, where a table will be set up to sign-in for an up-close look at the cars and stars who will be racing that night. To purchase tickets call Volusia Speedway Park at 386-985-4402 and for more information visit www.DIRTcarNationals.com.

WORLD OF OUTLAWS NEW ‘N NOTE’S

Back in Victory Lane: Donny Schatz returned to action on Sunday at Parramatta City Raceway in Australia and won a duel over Garry Brazier in the annual $10,000 to-win Valvoline Sprint Car Grand Prix, which was postponed a day by rain. For Schatz the win was the 32^nd of his career at the track. He has won at least one race at Parramatta every year since 2000. Schatz began the event on Sunday by turning in the fastest lap in time trials of the 43 cars that took to the track. He followed that up with a second-place finish in the first heat race and also finished second in the dash. He lined up sixth for the A-Feature quickly getting to the front in the scheduled 30-lap race which wound up running 27 laps due to time constraints and impending weather.

Also competing at Parramatta City Raceway on Sunday was Schatz’s car owner, Tony Stewart, who finished seventh after lining up 25^th. Schatz, the four-time and defending World of Outlaws champion, will be back in action at the track on Tuesday as well as Friday and Saturday in the annual $50,000 to-win Scott Darley Memorial, which he has won a record seven times in his career. Stewart will also be in action in all of those events.

“I’m glad to be back, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate last night and we’re here tonight, we got a great race in and are glad to get the win,” said Schatz, following the victory. “This is a terrific track, one of the best I’ve raced on and Garry (Rush-car owner) always makes us feel at home.” 

Racing Down Under: Craig Dollansky began an extended tour of Australia on Monday competing with the World Series Sprintcars at Borderline Speedway in the sixth round of their season during their annual Speedweek. The native of Elk River, Minnesota will be back in action on Wednesday at Avalon Raceway with the World Series and then will race at Sungold Premier Stadium Speedway on New Year’s Day also with the World Series.

Fan of February: Every fan that purchases a ticket for the 2010 season opening 39^th Annual Florida DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park before January 15 will be entered in the “Fan of February” contest presented by Hoseheads.com which is currently being held. The winner will be announced on January 16 and will receive two tickets for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series portion of the DIRTcar Nationals, February 5-7, as well as a free hotel stay during that time. Winners will also be selected for the World of Outlaws Late Models Series potion of the event, as well as the Super DIRTcar Series and UMP DIRTcar Modifieds portions. For more information visit: www.fanoffebruary.com.

BOSS 302R

BOSS 302R: RACING MUSTANG NEXT GEN UNVEILED 12/28/2009

Dearborn, Mich. — Forty years after its namesake became a road racing legend, the BOSS is back on track for 2010 with a new 5.0-liter V-8 engine.   Great Expectations       In honor of the 40th anniversary of Parnelli Jones’ 1970 Trans-Am championship in a Mustang BOSS 302 prepared by Bud Moore Engineering, Ford Racing is introducing the BOSS 302R, a factory-built race car ready for track days and road racing in a number of Grand-Am, SCCA and NASA classes.“To keep pace with consumer demand, the Ford team has built modern versions of the most iconic performance Mustangs over the years,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports. “From Shelbys to Bullitt, Mach and Cobra Jet, it is now time for BOSS to join the list of America’s most coveted Mustangs. The original BOSS 302 was a championship-winning legend and the new Mustang BOSS 302R will carry on the tradition. The Mustang was born to race from the start, and this new Mustang is bred to win.” \

USF1 UP AND RUNNING

 

 They will indeed be on next year’s grid, USF1 sporting director and former SPEED commentator Peter Windsor has broken the team’s silence and says the team is coming along.
Last week USF1 sporting director, and former SPEED commentator, Peter Windsor was forced to defend F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone’s claim then the team would not be ready to contest the 2010 world championship

Second, since August, we have been building our “house”. Literally. We gutted the ex-Hall of Fame Racing/Joe Gibbs NASCAR shop, re-painted it, re-floored it, re-wired it, re-lit it and re-designed it. In three weeks. That’s what you can do in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the economic impact of the motorsports industry approaches $6 billion per year.
And then, once we had a building (and even before we had one), we began to design parts and to hire our team.
As for team’s new European base in Spain, the MotorLand complex in Alcaniz, Windsor said it is nearly complete and added that it, “boasts a beautiful new F1 circuit, a moto-cross layout, a world championship kart track, rally Tarmac and dirt stages.”

Windsor reiterated that the team will be ready for 2010
“Very soon we’ll be announcing our driver line-up for 2010 plus a whole lot more besides,” Windsor wrote. “I can’t wait.”
There web site USF1.COM

WORLD OF OUTLAWS Junction Motor Speedway

Inaugural World of Outlaws Event at Junction Motor Speedway Set for June 25

 Concord, NC—December 24, 2009—The World of Outlaws have visited countless tracks over the last 32 years, though one missing from that list is Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Neb. That is set to change on Friday, June 25 as the series is tentatively scheduled to visit the state-of-the-art 3/8-mile in the Cornhusker State for the first time.

Junction Motor Speedway was built in 2003 and hosted its first races the following year with sprint car among the machines powering around the track. The racing surface was formed from nearly 500,000 yards of dirt, with 34 feet of fill at its deepest point. A Musco Lighting System illuminates the track which is 90 feet wide in the turns with 12 degrees of banking, with the straightaways 80 feet in width and banked at six degrees.“It will be nice for something this big to come into rural Nebraska, especially for the nearby communities of Junction Motor Speedway,” said Track Owner and Promoter Delmar Friesen.

The World of Outlaws have a storied history in the state of Nebraska dating back to 1979, with Tim Green and Doug Wolfgang splitting wins that season. Several drivers that will be competing full-time with the World of Outlaws in 2010 have won in the state with the series including: 20-time series champion Steve Kinser, who leads all drivers with nearly 30 wins in Nebraska in his legendary career, four-time and defending title winner Donny Schatz, 2001 titlist Danny Lasoski, Craig Dollansky, Jac Haudenschild and Joey Saldana, who has a number of relatives near the Lincoln area.

FORMULAONE 2010 season changes

2010 season changes

Though not as dramatic as the rule changes introduced for the 2009 season, the revisions for 2010 could still have a significant impact on the teams’ relative performance…

Refuelling
The biggest change for the 2010 season is the banning of refuelling during races for the first time since 1993. Pit stops will not become a thing of the past, however, as drivers still have to use both dry-weather tyre compounds during a Grand Prix. Of course, those stops will now be much quicker, quite possibly under four seconds.

The change requires cars to possess a much larger fuel tank – up from around 80 litres to something nearer 250 – and has a major effect on race strategy, with drivers having to pay more attention to tyre and brake conservation. To accommodate the bigger tank, the cars are likely to feature wider rear bodywork and a longer wheelbase. As a result, the weight distribution will be quite different to that of a 2009 car.

Points system
In place of the previous structure, which saw the top eight drivers scoring 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point respectively, from 2010 the top ten finishers in a Grand Prix score points. The change has been introduced as a result of the expanded grid of 13 teams. Under the new system, the race winner takes 25 points, with 20 and 15 being awarded for second and third places respectively. The next seven finishers will score 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2 and 1 point respectively.

Weight
The minimum weight of the car has been raised from 605kg to 620kg. The initial thinking behind this was to offset the disadvantage faced by taller, heavier drivers in KERS-equipped cars (the additional weight of the KERS system meant they were left with less flexibility in terms of weight distribution than their lighter rivals). By mutual agreement, however, teams are now not expected to run KERS in 2010.

Narrower front tyres
When slick tyres returned to Formula One racing in 2009, the tyre size remained unchanged. In terms of contact area, this meant that the fronts gained proportionally more grip than the rears. This has been addressed for 2010, with front tyre width reduced from 270mm to 245mm, thus helping to bring back a better grip balance. Also, the ban on refuelling means cars will be around 100kg heavier at the start of a race than in 2009, so Bridgestone will use slightly harder tyre compounds to compensate.

No wheel fairings
Teams are no longer allowed to use the wheel rim covers that became so commonplace in 2009. Their removal means one less thing to go wrong when pit crews are trying to change of set of tyres in less than four seconds, and could also aid overtaking by making the airflow immediately behind cars less turbulent.

More teams
Thirteen teams – 26 cars – will feature on the grid in 2010. This means a slight alteration to the knockout qualifying session, which will now see eight drivers (as opposed to five) eliminated in Q1 and Q2, leaving ten to fight it out for pole in Q3. The ban on refuelling means that cars will qualify on low fuel in all three phases of the session.

Testing
If a team declares that one of their current race drivers is to be substituted by a driver who has not participated in an F1 race in the two previous calendar years, one day of track testing will now be permitted, on an approved circuit not being used for a Grand Prix in the current season. This is to avoid scenarios such as that seen in 2009 when Jaime Alguersuari made his Formula One debut with Toro Rosso having only previously driven an F1 car in straight-line testing.

In another minor change, teams will be allowed six rather than eight days of straight-line aero testing per season. They will also have the option of substituting any of these days for four hours of wind tunnel testing with a full-scale (rather than the normal 60 percent-scale) model.

Miichael Schumacher Joins Mercedes GP

Seven-time Formula One World champion Michael Schumacher has joined Mercedes GP and will return to competition in 2010.

According to reports by the BBC and German newspaper Bild, Schumacher has signed a deal and an announcement is ‘imminent’.

Schumacher will be reunited with Ross Brawn who worked with Schumacher for all of his seven titles won over a span of ten years and who is currently the team principal at Mercedes GP, the team he led to both drivers and constructors championship this past season under the Brawn GP banner.

The rumors and speculation concerning the return of Schumacher were fueled after a false start this past summer when the German agreed to return in a substitute role for injured Ferraridriver Felipe Massa. The comeback attempt was thwarted after doctors said Schumacher had not fully recovered from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident earlier in the year.

This past week however, his manager Willi Weber said that a recent medical check with his sports doctor Johannes Peil showed Schumacher to be in a high state of health and in fact he called Schumacher ‘super-fit’.

Schumacher will partner with fellow German Nico Rosberg. The speculation has been that Schumacher will drive for the team for at least one year, perhaps longer

World of Outlaws News & Notes

World of Outlaws News & Notes 12-21-09

Concord, NC—December 21, 2009— Keeping busy: For the second consecutive year, Danny Lasoski was one of the promoter’s of the Bullring Midget Nationals at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, which was held this past weekend. In addition to his promoter duties, the 2001 World of Outlaws champion also competed in the event. He finished fifth in the opener on Friday night and was second in the finale on Saturday. Lasoski led a lap during the middle portion of the race, which was won by his teammate Brad Loyet. Lasoski will be back in the No. 6 machine for the Parsons Motorsports team in 2010 on the World of Outlaws trail.Getting a head start on the 2010 season: Donny Schatz will begin gearing up for the 2010 season later this week by competing in the Valvoline Australian Sprint Car Grand Prix at Parramatta City Raceway near Sydney, NSW, Australia on Saturday, December 26, followed by another event at the track on Tuesday, December 29. The following weekend, Schatz will take part in the annual $50,000-to win Scott Darley Memorial also at Parramatta. The four-time and reigning World of Outlaws champion has won the race a record seven times in his career. The North Dakota native has won at least one race at the track each off-season since 2000. Schatz’s, World of Outlaws car owner Tony Stewart will also compete in all of the aforementioned events at Parramatta City Raceway.Also heading down under: Craig Dollansky will be heading to Australia later this week for an extended stay which will see him begin competition on December 28 with the World Series Sprintcar at Borderline Raceway during their annual Speedweek. He will also race with the World Series at Avalon Raceway on December 30 and on New Year’s Day at Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway. Dollansky competed earlier this off-season at Springs Speedway in New Zealand, finishing second in an event there.Fan of February: Every person that purchases a ticket for the 2010 season opening 39^th Annual Florida DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park before January 15 will be entered in the “Fan of February” contest currently being held. The winner will be announced on January 16 and will receive two tickets for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series portion of the DIRTcar Nationals, February 5-7, as well as a free hotel stay during that time. Winners will also be selected for the World of Outlaws Late Models Series potion of the event, as well as the Super DIRTcar Series and UMP DIRTcar Modifieds portions. For more information visit: www.fanoffebruary.com.HoldingJason Meyers and the Elite Racing team hosted an open house event at their Elite Racing shop in Brownsburg, Indiana earlier this month during the inaugural International Motorsports Industry Show in Indianapolis, with nearly 200 people passing through the doors of the facility. The event included a meet and greet with team partners and supporters, a tour of the new 8200 sq. ft. facility located within John Force Racing, as well as exhibits including a display of the new 2010 KPC Chassis, along with the unveiling of the trade show booth that the team utilized during the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Orlando, Florida. The appearance at the PRI by Elite Racing made them the first-ever World of Outlaws team to have a booth at the renowned trade show and offered a 2010 paint scheme rendering of Meyers No. 14 machine, as well as a mannequin highlighting Elite Racing’s commitment to its safety equipment, a Garrett Racing engine, and two Mediatile screens with highlights from the 2009 Elite Racing season including a ticker-tape of valued partners. shop:

Up close and personal: A FREE Fan Pit Pass is available to every ticket buyer who comes through the main gates every night during the 39^th Annual Florida DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park beginning on February 2. All fan have to do once they arrive at the track is take their grandstand ticket and head toward the pits, where a table will be set up to sign-in for an up-close look at the cars and stars who will be racing that night. To purchase tickets call Volusia Speedway Park at 386-985-4402 and for more information visit www.DIRTcarNationals.com.

Last minute shopping: For those doing last minute shopping this Holiday season, they can get an up-close look at World of Outlaws team owner Kasey Kahne in the new “The Rise of Kahne” DVD that documents the Washington natives rise from short track racing to NASCAR superstardom was recently released. The 90-minute, documentary style DVD narrated by country music star Dierks Bentley presents fans with an insider’s gaze into Kahne’s life on and off the race track. Kahne’s ascent to racing stardom is also a tale of committed family and loyal fans. “The Rise of Kahne” DVD features sit-down interviews with Kahne and members of his family, exclusive video and photos, archival racing footage, behind-the-scenes NASCAR and World of Outlaws footage of Joey Saldana’s win at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway last May, in an event at which Kahne was in attendance for, plus a special bonus features section.“The Rise of Kahne” is now available for sale at www.kaseykahnestore.com.

Rome Grand Prix deal agreed

Rome Grand Prix deal agreed – Report

(UKPA)

Bernie Ecclestone has agreed a deal which would see Formula One come to the streets of Rome, according to course planner Maurizio Flammini.

A Rome grand prix, raced through the streets of the Italian capital much like that of Monaco, has been in planning for over a year and a half.

 And Flammini, the creator of the idea, has revealed they have now been given the green light by the Formula One supremo, telling Sky Italia: “The agreement with Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone to give life to the Rome Grand Prix has already been done and signed.”

He added: “The appropriate course still has to be defined.”

Italy already has a grand prix on the world championship circuit, in Monza.There were fears when plans for a Rome grand prix were first mooted that it would replace the historic track which has been a more or less permanent fixture in the Formula One calendar since 1922.

However, the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, insists it will serve as a second Italian grand prix.

 We think the Rome Grand Prix would be very important and we are in favour of it,” he said. “And it’s not true that it is an alternative to Monza.

“Monza is a grand prix on the circuit, and the grand prix of Rome is integrative to that of Monza, it’s not a replacement.We have calculated that there will be an income of one billion euros a year with this grand prix and Rome needs to renew its tourist appeal. Not only the past, archaeology and monuments, but also the future, something which is aimed at families and youngsters.”

Copyright © 2009 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

F1 TEAM USF1 /ACG

Advanced Composites Group Inc. (ACG), part of the Composites Division of Umeco plc, is proud to announce the signing of a long term supply agreement with USF1 Team, the only US-based team to take the grid for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

With strong backing and a solid team to enable it to meet the challenges of building a new car in an extremely short time line, US F1 Team is focused on challenging the world’s best drivers and teams.

Ken Anderson, US F1 Team President, CEO and Team Principal, said: “USF1 Team is pleased to announce ACG as a technical partner in the designand construction of our 2010 Formula One car. The team faces a tremendous challenge to design and produce the first American-based Formula One car in more than 40 years, and ACG’s composites expertise will be critical for us to meet our goals and expectations in 2010 and beyond.”

ACG’s heritage in Formula One goes back many years; the Group’s philosophy of providing outstanding product development, application-specific, customized products and technical support at all stages of development and manufacture has placed it at the forefront of the motorsport industry.

Adrian Potts, President of ACG Inc, said: “There is an exciting time of change in Formula One racing and this has created the opportunity for new teams to enter the grid. US F1 Team is the sole American entry, and we are proud to support them from our Tulsa facility. I’m confident that the new team has signed up with the very best support and service in the industry, and we will demonstrate that their confidence in us is well placed.”