Cars n' Stars: R. Gordon Gets CART Ride, F-1 Comes Down Hard on Rule Breakers, D. Waltrip Cashes In
20 March 1998
Stormy petrol Robby Gordon, who has been serving the Arciero Wells CART race team as a "tester," has now been promised a full time ride when driver Hiro Matushita retires after the Long Beach GP on April 5. The governing body of Formula One racing says that it will levy severe penalties to any team attempting a "contrived" finish such as the one the McLaren team pulled off in Australia last week when David Coulthard allowed teammate Mikka Hakkinen to take the lead and the race in the penultimate lap. In NASCAR Darrell Waltrip has announced that he is selling his entire tean after next week's race at Darlington. That will put the three-time champion out of the cockpit, and we predict that you just may see a few veteran Winston Cup drivers move over for Darrell allowing him a top finish in this Sunday's race, so he will go out with close victory. Did someone say "contrived?" Wayne Taylor has the pole for Sunday's Sebring 12 hour race. His R&S Olds beat out the Ferrari of England's James Weaver by 0.94 seconds. Saab is up to its old enduro tricks again. In an effort to punctuate the durability aspects of its new 9-3 sedan, two of the cars will go on a 6000 mile cross-country jaunt that will take them from sub-zero climes to temperatures of 80 degrees. Earlier this week, the two cars left Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and will run 24 hours a day going through Canada, Montana, Missouri, Georgia, Florida and Key West, Florida. You can keep up with the caravan on the Saab web site...www.saabusa.com. Saab has also announced the prices for their new 9-5 sedans that we reviewed two weeks ago. We pointed out that if the compsny could keep the retail sticker down in the low 30s, it would be a neat price for a lot of luxury car. 9-5 2.3 Turbo $29,995 V6 Turbo auto $33,750 Honda says it is the sales leader once again for individual purchases. The Accord sold 359,101 units to 326,925 for Camry. Ford Escort was in the number 5 spot with 223,214 registrations. These figures do not include fleet purchases. CART is starting a new ad campaign built around the theme "Feel the speed." Speaking of CART, did anyone notice how fast rookie J,J, Lehto toured the 1.5 mile Homestead track last Sunday? He was third fastest in morning warmups, and, although he started almost last (mechanical) during the race, he moved through the pack and into the top 15. The race marked Lehto's first oval track outing. At Phoenix this weekend the IRL cars have their second outing of 1998. Home town favorite Billy Boat (driving for Anrhony Foyt) is setting top speed records in practice. Speed King Boat is a spokesman for his town. As such, has recorded public service radio spots that say..."It's our town, please slow down." Kia Motors came to the U.S. in 1992, and hired Hyundai executive Greg Warner to head the operation. Warner died at the age of 54 last week after an acute asthma attack. 7200 Saturn workers have voted to retain their "risk and reward" contract wherein they have lower hourly wages than other GM divisions but can make out real good in the bonus department, getting around $5,000 each if sales goals are met. Daewoo, the Korean car company that is forever announcing its U.S. launch, is back in the news. Now they say they will have a Los Angeles headquarters. They were going to launch last fall, then at a couple of last month's major auto shows, and then . . . well, who knows? Do government crash tests mean anything to the car makers? You betcha. Last year the VW Passat received a "poor" rating. This year it is rated "good." BMW is going to build a sport utility plant in Spartanburg, NC for its new SAV (Sport activity vehicle), which will sell for $50,000. As followers of CART know, Bobby Rahal is hanging up his helmet at the end of this season. Now Marlboro announced they will contribute $10.00 to the Rahal charity foundation for EVERY lap he completes this season. What is the name of the founder of Toyota Motor Company? Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel