The TACH Report: NHRA Standings, No Retromobile at San Diego, The Heat's On Panoz
29 October 1998
THE TACH REPORT
NHRA Standings, No Retromobile At San Diego,The Heat’s On Panoz
With one race remaining this weekend at Houston Motorplex prior to the
“biggie” WinterNationals mid-November in Pomona, Ca the top five
contenders are:
TOP FUEL
1. Gary Scelzi 1565 points
2 Cory McLenathan 1492
3 Joe Amato 1428
4 Mike Dunn 1258
5 Kenny Bernstein 1220
FUNNY CAR
1 John Force 1513
2 Ron Capps 1423
3 Chuck Etchells 1283
4 Cruz Pedregon 1269
5 Whit Bazemore 1150
PRO STOCK
1 Warren Johnson 1838
2 Jeg Coughlin 1328
3 Kurt Johnson 1302
4 Jim Yates 1261
5 Mark Osborne 994
One of the highlights of the Chrysler Classic Speed Festival at the Navy
Airfield, San Diego, Ca, November 13-15 was to be the first ever in the
U.S. Retromobile U.S.A. The exhibit of automobilia, historical displays,
rare parts and cars has been cancelled for 1998 and will be a feature of
the vintage car weekend in 1999.
In Professional Sports Car news Don Panoz originator of the “petite
LeMans” series at his Road Atlanta race course announced last week that
he was going to stage similar events on road circuits around the world.
Not so, said the FIA, Federation International Automobile....the guys
that sanction such events. ”We call the shots...not Don Panoz”!
Alex Zanardi's new boss in F-1, Frank Williams informed Alessandro there
will be no donuts in any GP he might win.
There is no love lost between CART drivers Michael Andretti and Paul
Tracy after their recent tangle at Surfer's Paradise in Australia.
They head into this weekends California 500 on thin ice.
While the big kids in CART are doing their thing in Fontana, Ca 300 Kart
racers will go at it in the Briggs and Stratton 300 at Charlotte Motor
Speedway this weekend. They will compete on a specially laid out 1.5
mile road course and will be hitting speeds of 60 mph plus.
In the NASCAR Featherlight South west tour keep your eye on Kevin
Harvick. He won at Mesa Marin last week and in Craftsman Trucks and
Winston West he is a guy on the move.
Bobby Rahal is retiring from CART competition after this weekend's Ca 500
and says he will certainly miss the racing but won’t miss the testing.
He has a bunch of auto related businesses to keep him busy.
Everyone in CART is busy, and the Mercedes Benz racing engineers have
each logged 82,000 airline miles in 1998. Would you like to have their
frequent flyer miles?
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, the FIA doled out a $1 million fine to the
organizers for allowing spectators on the track before the race was
terminated.
Whereas grids for NASCAR races go up to 40 cars, the FIA has ruled that
no more than 24 buzz bombs will be allowed to start a race next year.
Everyone--fans and drivers--loved the lighting setup at Daytona
International Speedway. The lighting project is one of the largest
ever undertaken. The system is so powerful it would light up 24000
blocks of city streets.
We received the results of the Pro Sports Car races at Sebring September
19 two weeks after the event. That’s old news.
Top customer incentives for 1999 models are;
Olds Aurora $2000
Pontiac Bonneville $2750
GMC Jimmy $3500
The History Channel recently conducted an online poll to find out what
we think are the greatest sports cars of all time. Corvette was No. 1
followed by AC Cobra, Ford Mustang, GT-40 and Nissan 240Z
Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel