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Cars 'n' Stars: P.L. Newman Wins, Max Papis to LeMans, New Federal Crash Tests, SEMA is Busy, Muroc Dry Lakes Speed reunion

29 May 1997

Paul Newman drove a Panoz roadster to a second-in-class finish at the Pro SportsCar weekend of races at Limerock, Ct Motorsports Park. Jason Priestly of Beverly Hills 90210 came in fourth driving a Mustang.

Max "Mad Max" Papis of the Arciero-Wells CART team has been tapped by Ferrari to drive a 333SP at LeMans on June 14. He will join owner/driver Gianpiero Moretti and Didier Theys for the 24 hour grind. Max will race his Toyota powered racer in Detroit the weekend prior to LeMans and Portland the following week.

The Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) has been busy of late. They hosted a salute to the American Automotive Performance & Motorsports industry in Washington, where they honored famous women in the business of speed. On hand were Janet Guthrie, Lynn St. James, Linda Vaughn, Shirley (don't call me Cha-Cha) Muldowney and others.

It has generally been acknowledged that hot rodding was born back in the forties and fifties at the dry lake drags race meets at Muroc California. They held a reunion at Muroc recently that attracted 160 old timers, including head of the NHRA, Wally Parks. Seven individuals were inducted into the 200 mph club. Muroc is now Edwards Air Force base, the site of space shuttle landings.

At the Miller CART 200 at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend MCI Telecommunications, sponsor of Max Papis' Toyota powered Reynard will have a big party with 200 corporate guests attending the race. Max, you just gotta finish this race.

The NHTSA recently completed side impact and frontal crash tests on a bunch of 1997 cars and trucks. Five stars is the highest/safest ranking a vehicle can receive. Reaching that goal were: Chevy C/K pickup Chevy C/K extended cab, Honda Civic 4-door, Dodge Avenger, Chrysler Sebring, Ford Probe, Mazda 626, Olds Achieva, Chevrole Camaro, Pontiac Trans Am.

In further Dept of Transportation news, Chrysler has been fined $140,000 for a Dodge Ram fuel system failure. A long wheelbase Ram Pickup was tested and it was found that the fuel line could get pinched by the frame rails in a crash. 7,000 pickups were recalled.

Mercedes-Benz rolled the one-millionth C-Class sedan off one of its assembly lines in Germany last week. It was a silver C230 model.

America On The Road radio hosts Mike Anson and Jack Nerad recently interviewed Lee Melody, Prexy of MotorVac Technologies, Santa Ana, CA, as they cruised at 30,000 feet in a United jet over Mexico City. What better place for an interview about clean air than Mexico's capital? Mr. Melody's company company makes and markets machines that clean out a car engine's fuel system, thus reducing emissions. You can acces America on the Road on The Auto Channel.

District of Columbia has a new seat belt law that REQUIRES people to use their seat belts. If you don't two points go on your driving record, and you get a 50 buck fine.

Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel