Conference oass::racers

If he did and turned it down we'll never hear about it !!!

Mansell declined an invitation to compete.  Earnhardt has expressed great 
disappointment in Nigel's decision.

From: [email protected] (AP)
Subject: Earnhardt Wins IROC Opening
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 15:41:08 PST
 
	DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt put on a blocking
clinic on the final lap to beat Al Unser Jr. to the finish Friday
in the opening event of the 1994 International Race of Champions
series.
	Earnhardt started from the pole in the 12-man all-star lineup,
but the field was constantly shuffling during the 40-lap, 100-mile
race at Daytona International Speedway as the new Dodge Avenger
sports coupe made a very successful racing debut.
	The defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion regained the lead for
the final time on lap 37, passing fellow stock car star Rusty
Wallace.
	``It got so mixy there at the end, I decided I'd better get to
the front,'' Earnhardt said.
	He looked home free until the final trip around the 2.5-mile,
high-banked oval, when Unser, a former Indy-car PPG Cup champion
and the 1992 Indianapolis 500 winner, made a last ditch run at the
lead.
	Unser moved close behind Earnhardt in the first turn and kept
testing the leader.
	``I just flat blocked him in every corner,'' Earnhardt said. ``I
blocked him in the first turn and the second turn and about three
times on the back straight. I'm kind of surprised he didn't give me
some nudging there at the end.''
	Unser drove high on the banking and pulled alongside Earnhardt
in turn three, but Earnhardt drifted high and Unser couldn't get
past.
	Unser backed off a bit, then darted down the banking through the
final turn and tried Earnhardt on the low side. But Earnhardt
pinched down nearly to the track apron to keep Unser behind him.
	``He really should have got me, but we were blocking him inside,
outside, anywhere he was going,'' Earnhardt added with a wide grin.
	Unser, a two-time IROC champion and the series in career
victories with seven, said, ``I really felt like I had the best car
out there, but I just didn't have anybody with me. ... I had a good
race, I run second.''
	It was the fourth career IROC victory for Earnhardt, who won the
series title in 1990 and also was the winner at Daytona in 1990
when the Dodge Daytonas were introduced to the series.
	``Everybody was competitive it seemed,'' Earnhardt said. ``They
were all in there.''
	NASCAR regulars Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, Kyle Petty and
Wallace finished third through sixth, followed by sprint car
champion Steve Kinser, road racer Geoff Brabham, Indy-car racer
Danny Sullivan and, a lap down, former SCCA Trans-Am champion Jack
Baldwin.
	Scott Sharp, the defending Trans-Am champion, spun and clipped
the wall coming off turn two on lap 24, knocking him out of the
race. And road racer Tom Kendall dropped out after 12 laps with a
bad vibration in his Avenger.
	Wallace, who drove from sixth to first on the opening lap, led a
total of 14 laps, while Unser led nine, Martin eight, Earnhardt
seven and Jarrett two in the competitive race.
	But it was Earnhardt who led at the right time, averaging
180.632 mph (caution flags do not count in IROC) and officially
beating Unser to the finish by a half-car-length.
	The four-race series will pay out $735,000, including $200,000
and a new Avenger to the winner.
	Race No. 2 is scheduled March 26 at Darlington, S.C., with later
events at Talladega, Ala., and Brooklyn, Mich.

    Not to be judgemental either way, but it's pretty easy to understand
    why Mansell might choose not to race in a series where blocking is
    something you admit "with a wide grin".
    
    Chuck

>    Not to be judgemental either way, but it's pretty easy to understand
>    why Mansell might choose not to race in a series where blocking is
>    something you admit "with a wide grin".
    
Hell I thought F1 was where the Masters of Blocking lived :*)  They just 
don't have the guts to admit it much less grin about it.

Jilly

    > choose not to race in a series where blocking is something you admit
    > "with a wide grin".
    
    I may have read the origonal note wrong, but Earnhardt also said he
    expected to "get some help" in being moved out of Little Al's way.
    Probably by Al's bumper. 

Re: .3

> Mansell might choose not to race in a series where blocking is
>    something you admit "with a wide grin".

Gee, from what I've read about Mansell, that kind of racing might be just
his cup of tea!

Carl

    Just my .02's worth, but I'd like to see a return to a more varied
    series of venues; maybe a round at Watkins Glen, a round at Nazareth or
    Milwaukee (something on a shorter track than the current rounds) and
    perhaps even a (gasp!) round on an unpaved oval....It's just turned
    into a modified stock-car show, in it's current guise.
    
    Pete

  I saw a Dodge IROC transporter in Marietta, GA this morning - it turned
  into a drive that goes to the Atlanta Naval Air Station and a GA Tech
  Research Center.
  
  Does the Navy and/or GA Tech have anything to do with the IROC cars? 
  Maybe they found some cheap rental rates on the taxi ways?? :-)
  
  Just a thought, would either of those (NAS or GA Tech) have a wind
  tunnel?  Maybe that was it.
  
  Dave 

I think the Lockheed wind tunnel is at that site.  That's near the
Lockheed-Georgia complex, right?  The wind tunnel is used by a number
of NASCAR teams as well as the Big Three.

Besides, just because it was a Dodge IROC transporter doesn't mean
there was an IROC Avenger inside.  :-)

George

  Yeah, that makes sense - it was sort of the back entrance to the
  Dobbins AFB area and that is where Lockheed is.
  
  Dave

    re: Note 992.9 by TNPUBS::ALLEGREZZA
    > Besides, just because it was a Dodge IROC transporter doesn't mean
    > there was an IROC Avenger inside.
    
    I'd say there was, since I saw an IROC Avenger Sunday at Atlanta
    Dragway at a mopar exhibit.  I suppose they were probably bringing
    it to the wind tunnel at Lockheed since they were in town.
    
    Mike

    So Mad_Mike, how'd that nitro methane smell  :*)
    And what happened to that top fuel car that blew up
    on the line, did it actually break in half?
    Did you have pit passes?
    
    Gone racin
    Gaff

    > So Mad_Mike, how'd that nitro methane smell  :*)
    
    Sweeeeeeeet.  My cohort accidentally got a major wiff of nitro and
    fell down and said <gasp>I-CAN'T-BREATH!  Turned my eyes red and runny
    along with my nose.  Also made my hair stick together.  I love it. :^)
    It's not really the smell that gets you though, it's the sudden
    forceful whack of the throttle which gets people.  As soon as they do
    that once, there's a mass exodus of folks who suddenly realize they're
    too close to the car, thus making it easy for MadMike to get a front
    row seat about 6 feet from the car.
    
    > And what happened to that top fuel car that blew up on the line, did
    > it actually break in half?
    Ah, that was Tommy Johnson Jr. who lost the rear end.  All I saw, since
    the slick went about 50 feet in the air and landed about 20 yards in
    front of me was The launch (which blurs your vision), he immediatly
    struck the tires and then the backend came out of it.  It sheared the
    chassis clean off.  The rear end was flopping around a lot too.  It
    scared the heck out of the lady sitting next to me.  That could have
    ruined a couple folks day if that thing came up into the stands.
    
    > Did you have pit passes?
    Does a bear poo in the woods?   We went and took a closer look at the
    rear end (this sounds goofy don't it?) in the pits, and the destruction
    to the unit was rather severe.  We also made our way into the shutdown
    area (shhh, don't tell anyone) in time to watch "The Snake" come by us
    while on fire.  Shortly there after, the life flight helicopter came
    in for a landing and blew over the porta-crappers.  Fortunantly, nobody 
    was inside.  It looked like the helicopter stays airborne while the
    nitro cars are run.
    
    MadMike_who'll_have_his_own_car_going_at_Altanta_dragway_Friday_and_Saturday
     

From: [email protected] (AP)
Subject: Dirt Track Star Wins IROC Race
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 94 13:20:11 PDT
 
	TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- Sprint car and dirt track star Steve
Kinser pulled off the biggest upset in the history of the
International Race of Champions series on Saturday, beating some of
the world's best oval racers to win the Talladega round of the
all-star series.
	Kinser, the first short-track ace ever invited to participate in
IROC, notched the victory in only his third event. He held off a
determined effort by former SCCA Trans-Am champion Jack Baldwin,
himself a surprisingly adept oval racer, over the final lap,
winning by .067-seconds, about three car lengths.
	``Unbelievable,'' the smiling Kinser said after scrambling out
of one of the 12 identical Dodge Avengers used in the series. ``It
was just a great honor to be invited to drive in IROC. I really
never expected to win this soon.''
	The Bloomington, Ind., driver led the final 25 laps of the
38-lap event on Talladega's 2.66-mile, high-banked track -- the
biggest and fastest oval on which IROC competes.
	During most of the laps Kinser led, Indy-car star Al Unser Jr.,
a two-time IROC series champion and the all-time series leader with
seven -- including the Talladega race in 1993 -- was just behind
Kinser's red Avenger.
	Baldwin and former series champion and NASCAR Winston Cup star
Dale Earnhardt were running just behind Unser in that lead draft.
	``I kept looking in my mirrors and thinking, `This is great. If
I can stay around the white flag (one lap to go), I'll get a
fourth-place out of this,'' Kinser said. ``Dale made a move at the
start of the last lap and I could see Baldwin coming quick, but
when I got into (turn) three, I felt I had a chance.''
	What Kinser had no way of knowing was that both Unser and
Earnhardt were struggling with misfires in their engines at the end
and that Earnhardt's dive to the outside was mostly to get out of
the way.
	Unser said, ``All I could hear was `babop, babop, babop.' It was
popping and misfiring. I was just trying to hang on, and I needed
to have Jack behind me. But he went too early.''
	Earnhardt, who slipped all the way back to eighth at the end,
said, ``I blew up with two laps to go. I just said, `Later, man (to
Unser). I couldn't help you none.'''
	Unser, whose former Indy-car crew chief is Kinser's
brother-in-law, was the key voice in getting the World of Outlaws
sprint car star into the prestigious IROC series, and Kinser gave
Unser plenty of credit for his win.
	``He was helping me, really digging down,'' Kinser said. ``When
it came down to the end, I was going to help him, but it didn't
work out that way. He helped put me in a position to win it.''
	Dale Jarrett wound up third, surprisingly the only Winston Cup
driver among the top six at the end. Road racing specialist Tom
Kendall was fourth, followed by Unser and fellow Indianapolis 500
winner Danny Sullivan.
	NASCAR stars Kyle Petty, Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, two-time
Trans-Am champion and now Indy-car rookie Scott Sharp, road racer
Geoff Brabham and NASCAR driver Mark Martin rounded out the finish.
	Martin, who led early in the race despite starting last in the
lineup that started in reverse order of the standings, cut down a
tire and did some damage to the left-rear of his chassis when he
ran over debris on the 12th trip around the oval. That brought out
the only caution flag of the day and Martin never did get back into
contention, finishing a lap behind in last.
	Still, the winner of the Darlington race held onto the point
lead over Earnhardt, 46-42, going into the series finale on July 30
at Michigan International Speedway. Baldwin is third with 39
points, followed by Kinser 38, Wallace 37, Unser 35 and Kendall 33.
	The entire $735,000 purse is divided on the basis of the final
point standings, with the series winner earning $200,000 from
sponsors Dodge, True Value and Goodyear.