NorthernLight IRL: Blueprint Racing/Jimmy Kite Notes and Quotes, Radisson 200
13 June 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
BLUEPRINT RACING TEAM NOTES
Big Daddys BBQ/ Founders Bank/ Blueprint Racing Special
Radisson 200
Pikes Peak International Raceway
JUNE 16-18, 2000
www.blueprintracing.com
Car Name: #27 Big Daddys BBQ/ Founders Bank/ Blueprint Racing Special
Chassis: 1999 G Force (chassis # GF 030)
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
* Jimmy Kite made his Indy Racing Northern Light Series debut at Pikes Peak International Raceway (PPIR) June 29, 1997. Kite set fast-lap for the event on lap 15 at 167.715 mph. Starting ninth he eventually finished 20th after making contact with the turn-four wall on lap 39.
* Blueprint Racing has direct ties with the Colorado Springs area. Chief mechanic and right-front tire changer Randy Ruyle is a longtime resident of Cascade, Colorado. Randy lives in the shadow of Pikes Peak with his wife Linda and their two children, Nicholas and Caroline. The avid hunter and fisherman also operates Ruyle Race Services, which Randy has owned since 1992, in the area. Through Ruyle Racing Services, Randy works with a midget program which races almost weekly in Colorado. He also owns a hill climb car that competes in seven races a year, including the historic Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
Layne Covert, mechanic and air jack/vent-man for the team, is from Colorado Springs where he works as a builder of custom homes. A former motorcycle racer, Layne is highly invovled with his childrens activities in the community as well. His daughter, Jessi (14), is a competition-swimmer and son Taylor is a hockey player.
The newest member of the team, Mike Ernest, is from Denver. Mike works as the teams data acquisition engineer. He operates his own network and Internet consulting firm, DriversMeeting.com, for small and medium-sized companies out of his Denver offices.
* Blueprint Racing engine manager Sonny Meyer built the race-winning engine for the inaugural Radisson 200 in 1997. Tony Stewart drove the car to victory with an average speed of 100.128 mph.
* Blueprint Racing has competed in only one Radisson 200 despite its involvement with the Indy Racing Northern Light Series since the series inaugural event in 1996. The sole Pikes Peak race came in 1999 with driver Tyce Carlson. Running as Blueprint-Immke, Carlson started fifth but would finish 20th after an opening lap incident. The team took away only $33,000 for the race.
The team had planned to compete in 1997 but that effort, with Jim Guthrie, ended when a tire went down in practice. The resulting accident ended the weekend for Blueprint Racing prior to qualifying.
* Blueprint Racing has nicknamed the engine that Kite drove at Texas, Timex. The powerplant first saw action, with a slightly different tuning, at the Indianapolis 500 on Pole morning. In qualifications the car spun into the wall on its first lap destroying the teams primary Big Daddys BBQ 2000 G Force. The engine was then re-tuned and taken to Texas Motor Speedway where it was run in Blueprint Racings newest 2000 G Force. Following a mechanical failure on the chassis, the car skidded down the front straightaway on fire. The engine was removed, inspected, cleaned-up and installed on the 1999 back-up G Force for the Texas event where Kite raved about its power. The engine known as Timex definitely knows how to take a licking and keep on ticking.
* Many of the Big Daddys BBQ/ Blueprint Racing crewmembers took the early part of the week between the Casino Magic 500 and the Radisson 200 to drive up to Colorado Springs instead of flying. Several, including team manager Brad McCanless and owner Keith Sanders, took family with them to enjoy a small vacation during the most-heated part of the Indy Racing Northern Light Series schedule.
* Fathers Day is a special day for Blueprint Racing as many of the team members come from racing families.
Louis Sonny Meyer, Jr. is the son of legendary race driver and three-time Indianapolis 500 Louis Meyer. William Bill Bignotti is the son of seven-time Indianapolis 500-winning mechanic George Bignotti. Ed Rachanskis father was a successful Chicago-area mechanic and his sons, Ed Jr. and Mike, are key members of Blueprint Racing. Young-mechanic Cade Southall had his father, Terry, is a longtime racer in Australia. Driver Jimmy Kites father, Gary, is a former race mechanic for Gordon Johncock and has attended every event his son has competed in. Brad McCanless father, Jack, can be seen regularly at the race track with the team as can co-owner Keith Sanders father, Joe, and father-in-law, Lyle Campbell.
Team sponsorship is a father-son-grandson effort as well. Big Daddys BBQ Racing was founded and is directed by Dan Lloyd Sr. Dan Lloyd Jr. is his fathers right-hand man and Dan Lloyd III is being groomed to take over Big Daddys BBQ Racing in the future.
Several of the Blueprint Racing team members plan to spend at least some of Sundays Fathers Day holiday with their children. Expected to be at the event are McCanless children; Cameron and Connor, Randy Ruyles children; Nicholas and Caroline, Keith Sanders four daughters; Natalie, Monica, Olivia and Patricia as well as his father, Layne Coverts kids; Jessi and Taylor and Ed Rachanskis boys; Ed Jr. and Mike.
* In two Pikes Peak events in 1999 the duo of Kite and McCanless had two solid performances. In last seasons Radisson 200, held June 27, Kite qualified 10th (at 173.435 mph) and finished 15th, still running at the checkered flag, taking home $37,400. In the second event, held August 29, Kite qualified 16th (at a speed of 171.928 mph) and raced up to eighth, his highest finish of the season, earning $44,500.
* Blueprint Racing started 23rd- starting positions were based on entrant points- and finished 16th with a 1999 G Force chassis in the Casino Magic 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 11th. The Texas race, on a 1.5 mile oval, is the most recent event contested on the Indy Racing Northern Light Series.
* The last one-mile oval in which Blueprint Racing competed on was the famous Phoenix International Raceway. The event marked the first race that driver Jimmy Kite was with the team. The Big Daddys BBQ/ Founders Bank/ Blueprint Racing Special started 14th and finished 26th, falling out on lap-14 with an electrical failure.
* Despite heavy accidents suffered with the two 2000 G Force chassis the team had purchased this season, Blueprint Racing expects to have two 2000 G Force chassis-with Blueprint Racing Engines- ready for competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 15th. Both cars are entered for driver Jimmy Kite with Brad McCanless listed as team manager/engineer and Randy Ruyle as chief mechanic.
* News and notes on Blueprint Racing can be found at www.BlueprintRacing.com.
* The name of the #27 Blueprint Racing entry is now officially the Big Daddys BBQ/ Founders Bank/ 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, of Yukon, Oklahoma, 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. The publicly held company trades under the OTC ticker BIGD. More information is available on the company at www.bigdaddysbbq.com.
* 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
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