Hornish Delivers for GM

Contact: Rick Voegelin
rickvoegelin@compuserve.com
GM Racing Communications
(831) 761-2201
                            


Hornish Delivers the Goods - On and Off the Track

MADISON, Ill., Aug. 21, 2001 - While Sam Hornish Jr. focuses on delivering
an IRL championship to his teammates at Pennzoil Panther Racing, the
Hornish family trucking business concentrates on delivering tons of cast
iron to General Motors plants.

    Whether Sam can wrest the Northern Light Cup from the tenacious grip
of defending champion and chief rival Buddy Lazier is a question that will
be decided in the next three races. But there is no doubt that Hornish
Brothers, Inc. is winning in business. The company has been named a
"Worldwide Supplier of the Year" by General Motors for seven consecutive
years - the only U.S. trucking company among GM's 30,000 global associates
that has been honored every year since 1994.

    While the 22-year-old son of Jo Ellen and Sam Hornish Sr. drives
Panther Racing's Oldsmobile Dallara in 13 Indy Racing Northern Light Series
events, the company's fleet of 170 trucks and 400 trailers is on the road
24 hours a day. Founded in 1946, the Defiance, Ohio-based enterprise boomed
when interstate trucking was deregulated in 1978. It now employs 130
people. Hornish Brothers specializes in delivering castings from foundries
in Ohio to GM Powertrain assembly plants in New York and Ontario, Canada.

    Before Sam became an Indy car driver, he was a grease monkey. "Sam
has worked in the business since he was 11," recalled Jo Ellen Hornish.
"He started off washing and servicing trucks. He repaired broken trailer
doors and patched roofs. Then he learned how to fabricate the specialized
equipment that we designed to carry castings without damage. Sam was
involved in all of that."

    Predictably, Sam remembers his apprenticeship from a slightly
different perspective. "It seemed like I got the jobs nobody else wanted,"
he laughed. "I did whatever my parents asked me to do and tried not to
complain too much. I never got to drive the big rigs, though."

    The former fabricator has been the revelation of the 2001 racing
season. An unheralded driver with only nine Indy car starts on his resume,
Hornish was tabbed to succeed Scott Goodyear at Panther Racing in one of
the IRL's premier seats. The faith of the team's owners was richly rewarded
when Sam won the season-opening race in Phoenix. Three weeks later he
scored his second victory in Homestead, Fla. He has led the championship
standings since opening day, and enjoys a 25-point margin over Lazier going
into the Gateway Indy 250 at Gateway International Raceway on Aug. 26.

    Indy car aficionados may be surprised by Hornish's rapid progress, but
his parents aren't. They actively supported Sam as he progressed from karts
to open-wheel cars.

    "I stayed at work and ran the company when he and his dad started
racing go-karts," said his mother. "That was the first time I can remember
my husband taking time for anything except work.

    "We needed to get Sam out there so people could see what he could do,"
she continued. "We thought the IRL series was the best arena."

    Although he is just a sophomore in a tough Indy car class,
Hornish's racecraft has proven impeccable. Relying on the horsepower and
reliability of Oldsmobile engines prepared by Speedway Engine Development,
he has led more laps (556) and completed more laps (2,043 out of a possible
2,050) than any of his rivals. He has also earned $1.1 million in prize
money, second only to Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves' $1.3 million
payday.

    "My parents told me that when I finally got a paying ride I didn't have
to work at the trucking company," Hornish confided. "I still work just as
hard, but the work is different now."

    All work and no play haven't made Hornish a dull boy, however. He
finds relaxation in racing - not the 220 mph open-wheel cars he drives on
any given Sunday, but radio-controlled replicas.

    "My radio-controlled cars run about 65 mph," Hornish said. "I race
them mostly on ovals. I can work on my hand-eye coordination and keep my
reflexes sharp without worrying about crashing."

    Hornish is equally fearless in full-size race cars as he shuns
the conservative approach favored by some title contenders. His
wheel-to-wheel duels with Lazier in recent races have been spectacular.

    "Every time I get in the car, I want to win," he offered. "I'm going
to push the car just as hard as if I was 200 points ahead or 200 points
behind."

    Regardless of the outcome of this year's championship race, Hornish
has shown his true grit. And in the tradition of his family business, Sam
just keeps on truckin'.

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  E-mail from: Rick Voegelin, 21-Aug-2001