ZANARDI ALL GEARED UP FOR A PARTY.Byline: BILL SCHLOTTER Motor Sports It's almost as if the motor moguls behind the CART FedEx Championship Series envisioned Alex Zanardi's drama-draining sprint to the 1998 series-season title. And knowing that the daring Italian would have the championship locked up long before Sunday's Marlboro 500 at the California Speedway The California Speedway is a two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California, similar to that of "sister track" Michigan International Speedway. It is located approximately 40 miles east of Los Angeles on the site of the former Kaiser Steel mill. , they figured they needed a plan to inject a little excitement into the season's final race. The scheme they agreed on - in truth, long before Zanardi's tour de force - will cost them $1 million Sunday, all of it going to the race winner in the richest CART payoff since the 1996 U.S. 500. But Sunday's race will be every bit as rich in emotion as it is in cash. Zanardi is ending his three-year reign of CART terror to move to Formula One racing This article focuses on a specific subtopic of Formula One. A Formula One race takes place over an entire weekend, with two free practice sessions on Friday, a practice session and a qualifying session on Saturday, and the race on Sunday. and would love to go out with a win. And the 17-year career of tour elder statesman Bobby Rahal Robert "Bobby" Woodward Rahal (born January 10, 1953 in Medina, Ohio) is an American auto racing team owner and former driver, spending most of his driving career in the CART open-wheel series, winning three championships there. comes to an end as well on Sunday. The 1986 Indy 500 winner also would love to go out a winner. There are other themes to follow as well. Another Zanardi victory would tie him for wins in a single season with Michael Andretti Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American retired CART and Formula One driver with Italian heritage. He now co-owns the Andretti Green Racing team in the Indy Racing League. and Al Unser This article is about the automobile racer. For the baseball player, see Al Unser (baseball). Alfred Unser (born May 29, 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a former American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of Bobby Unser and father of Al Unser, Jr. at eight. And while first place is decided, the competition to be Zanardi's runner-up is fierce. Scotsman Dario Franchitti Dario Franchitti (b. 19 May, 1973 in Bathgate, West Lothian) is a Scottish racing driver of Italian descent. He is the 2007 IndyCar Series champion. He used to compete in the IndyCar Series, formerly drove in the CART series, and won the rain-shortened 2007 Indianapolis 500. - who has three victories, a second and a fourth in the past five events - is the tour's hottest driver at the moment and has a 12-point lead over Zanardi teammate and 1996 tour champ Jimmy Vasser Jimmy Vasser (born November 20 1965 in Canoga Park, California ) is an American racing driver. Vasser was the 1996 Champ Car champion, driving for Chip Ganassi, and has scored ten victories in the category. . Just six points behind Vasser, and very much in striking distance of second place, is Mexico's Adrian Fernandez. Franchetti has won three times this season, Vasser and Fernandez twice each. Sunday's race also will be the second in CART history run under the influence of the Handford device. The winglike structure was designed to slow the cars after drivers reached speeds of over 240 mph in last year's Marlboro 500. And in its first appearance, at July's U.S. 500 in Michigan, the device kept the field tightly bunched and led to unusually tight racing, with a CART-record 62 lead changes. More than 100,000 fans are expected for Sunday's 12:30 p.m. race, with an estimated 8,000 grandstand seats available as of Thursday night. Many more seats were available for today's practice and Saturday's CART qualifying and Indy Lights The Indy Lights was an open-wheeled racing series that acted as a developmental circuit for CART from 1986 to 2001. Founded in 1986 as the American Racing Series (ARS), the series was renamed Indy Lights in 1991. 100-mile race. Speedway 1999 schedule: CART, Indy Lights and NASCAR's Winston Cup, Busch Grand National, Craftsman Truck and Winston West tours will all be back at California Speedway next season, according to a track schedule released this week. But the packaging of the events will be different. Instead of three racing weekends, there will be just two. The first will run Friday, April 30 through Sunday, May 2 and focus around the 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. Winston Cup California 500. Also racing that weekend will be the Busch Grand National and Winston West tours. The second weekend runs Oct. 29 through Oct. 31 and culminates with the running of the CART FedEx Marlboro 500. Included in the package will be Oct. 30 appearances by the Indy Lights cars and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series. The scheduling - thankfully - leaves the Speedway free of a midsummer event. This year's July appearances by the NASCAR Busch, truck and Winston racers were accompanied by temperatures well over 100 degrees. Coronation Sunday? Jeff Gordon can wrap up his third Winston Cup title of the past four years with a 40th-place finish at Sunday's ACDelco 400 in Rockingham, N.C. Gordon, who finished second to teammate Terry Labonte in the 1996 Winston Cup points race, takes a 329-point lead to Rockingham with just two races remaining. But Gordon says he'll take the title however and wherever it comes. ``We just want to win that third championship and it doesn't really matter where it happens,'' Gordon said. ``If we can run well and get a good finish or a win at Rockingham, it can happen there.'' Nuts and bolts nuts and bolts pl.n. Slang The basic working components or practical aspects: "[proposing] : Tickets are on sale for the NHRA's season finale Winston Finals at Pomona Raceway, Nov. 12-15. Information: 1-800-884-6472. . . . Simi Valley racers Rick Hendrix and Alex Harris increased their leads in 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) midget and three-quarter midget standings Saturday with victories in the USAC show at the Ventura County Fairgrounds n. pl. 1. same as fairground. . . . . Granada Hills' M.K. Kanke was 15th in Saturday's Featherlite Southwest Tour race in Phoenix and is in third place in season points, 49 points behind leader Steve Portenga. . . . Rusty Wallace's win in last Sunday's Dura-Lube 500 in Phoenix broke a winless streak of 59 races. CART FEDEX MARLBORO 500 When: Today through Sunday. Where: California Speedway, Fontana Who: Two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi, Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal and rest of CART tour. Also: PPG PPG Points Per Game (basketball player statistic) PPG Power Play Goals (hockey) PPG Planning Policy Guidance (UK) PPG Programmable Pulse Generator PPG Power Puff Girls Indy Lights tour. Schedule: Today: Gates open 7 a.m. CART practice, Indy Lights practice and qualifying; Saturday: Gates open 7 a.m. CART practice and qualifying. Indy Lights race 3 p.m.; Sunday: Gates open 7 a.m. CART warmup. Marlboro 500 is at 12:30 p.m. CAPTION(S): Box Box: CART FEDEX MARLBORO 500 (See Text) |
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