HOOPER'S ROAD MAP DIRECTS HIM EASTWARD.Byline: BILL SCHLOTTER Motor Sports Lance Hooper had accomplished all he could on West Coast race tracks. So in 1997, with Winston West and Featherlite Southwest Tour titles on his resume, he kissed wife Jennifer and daughter Nicole goodbye and left Palmdale to seek his NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. fortune in North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. , the heartland of stock car racing
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly in the United States and Great Britain held largely on oval rings of between approximately a quarter-mile and 2. . Last year was spent making contacts - shaking hands and saying yes sir and no sir to as many team owners as possible. Along the way, he made occasional guest appearances driving on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Busch Grand National series. This year, he caught a limited Busch Series ride with Richard Jackson Motorsports. With his team making only seven of the 15 races so far, Hooper isn't exactly tearing up the tour in points. He's not ranked in the top 40. But he was the second-fastest qualifier at June 5's Hardee's 250 at Richmond International Raceway Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series. . And more important in Hooper's view - he's getting a racing education. ``I'm learning a lot,'' Hooper said. ``This is all a stepping stone to my goal to be in Winston Cup.'' Hooper excelled on the short flat tracks of the West early in his career. But he found his expertise of scant value on Eastern circuits. ``I've got to retrain re·train tr. & intr.v. re·trained, re·train·ing, re·trains To train or undergo training again. re·train myself,'' Hooper said. ``Their short tracks back here are longer than our long tracks out west. And their flat tracks have more banking than our banked tracks.'' The competition is fierce as well, Hooper said. At any given race some 50 to 55 cars might show up to qualify for the 36 starting slots. And up to a dozen of the drivers might be Winston Cup regulars looking to warm up for their race by whipping up on the Busch drivers. Thus it was that Hooper was pretty proud of that No. 2 start at Richmond. ``We felt pretty good about that,'' he said. Hooper sees nothing but good things ahead for himself and his team. ``We just got a brand new car,'' he said. ``And we're a young team and we're growing together.'' The hard part for Hooper is being away from his wife and daughter. And he is hoping his team can scrape together the funds to come out west for the Busch tour's July 19 stop at California Speedway in Fontana. ``We're trying to get sponsorship for that,'' Hooper said. ``My wife and daughter are still in Palmdale and I really want to come out for that race. So if you know of anyone. . . ..'' Wedding-bell blues: North Hollywood racer Jeff Shafer and his girl friend Jolene Wulff have planned for months to get married in Escondido on July 5 and then spend the next week or so honeymooning in Mexico. Then Shafer got this job driving a race car on the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic series with Arciero-Wells Racing. ``We sent an invitation to one of the mechanics on my team and he comes up to me and says, `Hey, you know we're testing in (Wisconsin) the next day.' '' Shafer said. ``I said, `Uh-oh, we're going to have to resolve this.' '' In fact, the resolution was painless - albeit inconvenient - and has Wulff's blessing. The couple's nuptials end at 9 p.m. July 5. At 10 p.m. they board a plane for Milwaukee, arrive at about 5:15 a.m., then drive an hour and a half to the Road America track in Elkhart Lake. After a day of testing Shafer's car, the couple will catch a plane for Mexico. Shafer said Jolene doesn't mind the detour. ``She's completely supportive of my career,'' the Grand High School product said. ``All she said was that she wanted to go with me to Wisconsin. She didn't want to get married, then stay behind while I went off to test.'' Herta close again: Valencia's Bryan Herta won his second pole start of the season and finished third at last weekend's FedEx CART Budweiser/G.I. Joe 200 in Portland, Ore. It was Herta's second pole of the season and the fifth of his career. Herta held the lead three times during the race. But he encountered a bit of bad luck whe`n his team gambled by taking an unscheduled pit stop for fresh tires on lap 73 of the 98-lap race. The plan was to bring Herta in for fresh tires during a yellow flag, giving him an advantage over eventual winner Alex Zanardi, who chose to stay on the track. But when the green flag came out to restart the race, Herta got stuck in traffic while Zanardi speed off to an untouchable untouchable Former classification of various low-status persons and those outside the Hindu caste system in Indian society. The term Dalit is now used for such people (in preference to Mohandas K. lead. Nonetheless, Herta's third-place finish moved him into fifth place in season points. COMING UP NASCAR WINSTON CUP Sunday - Savemart-Kragen 350, Sears Point Raceway, Sonoma. NASCAR BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL Sunday - Lysol 200, Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York at the southern tip at Seneca Lake owned by International Speedway Corporation. Raceway, Watkins Glen, N.Y. LOCAL Glen Helen Raceway (San Bernardino) - This week off. Mesa Marin Raceway Mesa Marin Raceway was a high banked half mile racetrack in Bakersfield, California that was demolished following the 2005 racing season to make way for housing developments in the foothills of northeast Bakersfield. (Bakersfield) - Saturday: NASCAR Winston Racing Series. Firecracker 100. Late model stocks, modified super stocks, street stocks. Perris Auto Speedway - Saturday: SCRA SCRA South Carolina Research Authority SCRA Sprint Car Racing Association SCRA Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003 SCRA Securities Contract Regulation Act (Indian law) SCRA Scottish Countryside Rangers Association sprint cars. Ventura Raceway - Saturday: USAC USAC Universal Service Administrative Company USAC United States Auto Club USAC Universidad de San Carlos (University of San Carlos, Guatemala) USAC US Airways Center (Phoenix, Arizona) TQ midgets, IMCA IMCA International Motor Contest Association (Vinton, Iowa) IMCA Investment Management Consultants Association IMCA International Marine Contractors Association IMCA Instituto de Matematica y Ciencias Afines (Spanish) sprint cars, IMCA modifieds, VRA VRA Visual Resources Association VRA Voting Rights Act of 1965 VRA Volta River Authority VRA Veterans Recruitment Appointment VRA Virginia Recycling Association VRA Volunteer Rescue Association ( Australia) VRA Voice Risk Analysis street stocks, pony stocks & I-4. Victorville Speedway - Saturday: 360 sprint cars, dwarfs, modifieds. Willow Springs Raceway Willow Springs International Motorsports Park is located near Rosamond and Lancaster, California, and is about an hour north of Los Angeles. It is a historic race track, in existence more than fifty years, with the first race in 1953. The main track is a challenging 2. (Rosamond) - Saturday-Sunday: Drive Tech stock car school. California Motorcycle Road Race Assn. CAPTION(S): Box BOX: COMING UP (see text) |
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