HONDA, TOYOTA AT IT AGAIN.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

Honda Racing touts its two Indy Racing League event victories in 2003.

Toyota has the Indianapolis 500.

Honda has the IRL Rookie-of-the-Year driver in Dan Wheldon.

Toyota has the IRL IndyCar Series champion in Scott Dixon.

The rivalry between Honda and Toyota is about as heated as any in sports. The drivers for the teams are well aware of the bragging rights at stake as the IRL IndyCar season opens this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Toyota Indy 300.

Honda, which has its Honda Performance Development team based in Santa Clarita, has some definite catching up to do. Toyota had 11 victories in 16 races last year. Chevy even posted one more victory than Honda, with driver Sam Hornish Jr. winning three of the season's last five races in a Chevy-powered entry for Panther Racing.

But the Honda drivers, including Valencia's Bryan Herta, know how important it is to beat Toyota.

``They want to beat Toyota and Chevy,'' said Herta, who won one of the two races for Honda last year driving for Andretti Green Racing. ``We want to win.''

There are two races Herta is looking forward to racing this year. The first is obviously the Indianapolis 500 in May. The other is the Twin Ring Motegi race in Japan. He said he would love to win the race in Japan, on Honda's - and Toyota's - home track.

--NHRA: The K&N Filters Winternationals at Pomona Raceway were postponed a week because of the weather. They will try to run the season opener to the Powerade NHRA Drag Racing Series this weekend, starting Friday with qualifying.

Larry Dixon, driver of the Miller Lite top fuel dragster for Don Prudhomme Racing, used the weekend rain delay to spend time with his family. He also spent time getting his dragster ready for the next race in Phoenix.

``The rainout doesn't bother me,'' said Dixon, the two-time NHRA top fuel champion and Van Nuys High graduate. ``If you're going to get upset about the weather, you're going to be upset a lot. You just wait and race. I didn't have any plans for (the) weekend and now I do.''

--NASCAR: There won't be any Nextel Cup racing going on this weekend, so it's a shame the NASCAR IMAX Experience won't open until March 12.

It's a shame because the 3-D IMAX movie would have been a great fix for NASCAR fans itching to watch some stock car racing this weekend.

The movie, which will be shown at IMAX theaters at Universal CityWalk and in Santa Clarita, serves as a speedway roller coaster, NASCAR documentary and history retrospective.

It chronicles NASCAR's roots, from the days of moonshiners, dirt tracks and racing on the beaches of Daytona, to race footage from the driver's seat and creative perspectives on the track. The NASCAR IMAX Experience covers a lot of area at a pace about as quick as a qualifying run at Bristol Motor Speedway (Tenn).

Most of the footage was shot during the 2003 NASCAR season, and included great shots of Ryan Newman tumbling through the infield during the Daytona 500 and the fender-scraping finish between Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

The hardest part of the movie to watch was a piece covering Dale Earnhardt. NASCAR history needs to recognize how important Earnhardt was to the growth and popularity of the sport, but watching Fox commentator Darrell Waltrip battle his emotions, with his brother Michael winning his first race and his friend and closest rival, Earnhardt, crashing on the last lap of the race, was painful.

There's no other way to describe it. At least the filmmakers had the good taste to leave out the actual footage of the crash. Instead, they left in Darrell Waltrip making the call as the race ended and showing Michael Waltrip take the checkered flag.

Still, it stirred some strong emotions. But it also served as a testament to how much of an influence Earnhardt had on NASCAR and its fans.

My NASCAR fix is filled for the week. The rest of you will have to wait another couple of weeks, but the wait will be well worth it.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

THIS WEEK'S RACES