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NorthernLight IRL: Blueprint Racing Team Notes, Casino Magic 500

6 June 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

BLUEPRINT RACING TEAM NOTES
Big Daddys BBQ/ Blueprint Racing Special
CASINO MAGIC 500k
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
JUNE 8-10, 2000
www.blueprintracing.com

Car Name: #27 Big Daddys BBQ/ Blueprint Racing Special
Chassis: 2000 G Force
Engine: Oldsmobile Aurora (90 degree crank) built by Blueprint
Racing Engines
Tires: Firestone Firehawk Racing radials
Entrant: Blueprint Racing Enterprises, LLC
Owners: Ed Rachanski and Keith Sanders

* The name of the #27 Blueprint Racing entry is now officially the Big Daddys BBQ/ Blueprint Racing Special.

* Saturday, May 20th, Blueprint Racing announced that Big Daddys BBQ Racing had joined the team for four and a half years. The sponsorship began immediately.

* Big Daddys BBQ Racing is the parent company to several subsidiaries, which include a beer division-Big Daddys Backyard Brew- meatpacking, root beer, and the sauce and spice division. More information is available on the company at www.bigdaddysbbq.com.

* In an odd twist of events, Jimmy Vasser recently purchased the Simpson helmet that Jimmy Kite wore until the day before the auction. The helmet, painted by Beam, was at auction to benefit the Sam Schmidt Foundation.

* Blueprint Racing has won $1,207,656 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1996.

* The 30th-place finish in the 84th Indianapolis 500 earned the Big Daddys BBQ/ Blueprint Racing Special $164,000.

* The $164,000 prize brought Jimmy Kites career earnings above the $1 million mark. Since his 1997 Pikes Peak debut Kite has earned a total of $1,157,550.

* By completing 74 laps of the Indianapolis 500, Kite broke a second barrier at Indianapolis. He broke 2,000 laps completed in his Northern Light Series career. He currently has a career total of 2,024 laps completed.

* Jimmy Kite is just now getting over a serious head cold that sidelined the Stockbridge, Georgia resident for most of the week following the Indianapolis 500. "I dont know what it is, but I would like to go into Texas without spending all this time in bed because I am sick! Last year this time I was just getting over an appendicitis, now I am just starting to be able to breathe again from this cold. I dont know what it is about Texas but I am glad that we dont race the week after Indy like the Indy cars use to. Id never make the event!"

Following the 1999 Indianapolis 500, Kite was placed into Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for an emergency appendectomy. Eager to race again, he asked the surgeon to do whatever he had to do to allow Kite back into his Indy Racing car the next week. With the surgery a success, Kite was released from the hospital the day following the appendectomy to finish recovering at home. He would qualify 22nd for the 1999 Casino Magic 500 and finished 25th with an oil leak.

* Blueprint Racing has direct ties with the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. Right-rear tire changer Gill Kaszuba lives within 30 minutes of the Texas Motor Speedway in Burleson, Texas with his wife Christy. Gill is looking forward to competing in front of his friends and neighbors.

* Kite continued an Indianapolis tradition that goes back to his first Indianapolis 500. Every year since 1998, Kite has worn a hand-painted tie to the awards banquet. The tie is designed and painted by Marian McCanless, wife of Brad McCanless, a successful Indianapolis realtor and artist that has done much work in Indy car racing. 2000 was no exception as Marians design was worn by Kite to accept his prize for Indianapolis.

* Mark Taliaferro, Blueprint Racing tire manager, is quickly becoming known as the Sucker Man. Taliaferro, who until know was best known for his trademark cigar, made a deal with driver Jimmy Kite during at Indianapolis to give Kite a Tootsie Roll "Tootsie Pop" every time he was "a good boy and had a good session." On Friday, May 19, Kite had a "two- sucker day" by having two very good sessions that placed him on the top of the speed charts for much of the day. Pole Day, May 20, was a "no sucker" day as the car spun in morning practice and made contact with the first-turn wall in Kites qualification attempt. Kite again earned a sucker on Sunday, May 21, by placing the Big Daddys BBQ/ Blueprint Racing Special firmly in the field. Despite the frustrating 30th-place finish -following the loss of an engine- at Indianapolis, "Big Daddy", as Taliaferro is called by the crew, handed Kite a sucker for his effort.

* Blueprint Racing unveiled its own web site, www.BlueprintRacing.com, recently.

* Blueprint Racing is one of only three Indy Racing Northern Light Series teams currently building their own engines. Blueprint Racing Engines is led by Ed Rachanski, Sonny Meyer and Frank Russo. Legendary drag racer and engine designer John Farkonas designs many of the internal engine components for Blueprint Racings Oldsmobile Indy V8 Aurora engines.

Text provided by Darkhorse Communications

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.