January 1997

A new year of stock car racing has begun! We are looking forwards to bringing you the best in stock car racing news, the inside scoop, the stuff you don't hear everywhere else.

Joe Ruttman wins Craftsman Truck season opener. Joe took the lead from Chevy driver Jack Sprague on the last lap of the race. However, in his attempt to pass, the two vehicles collided, sending Sprague to the fence. This is Joe's first win in the truck series since he began driving for Roush Racing last year. Roush Racing has one other win in the truck series, when Winston Cup driver Mark Martin topped the field at North Wilksboro last year.

Darrell Waltrip asked to run IROC. The Internation Race of Champions rounded out it's field by asking Darrell Waltrip to run in the IROC series. This marks Darrell's 25th year of racing, and that was why he was asked. This may also be his last, as he has hinted at that several times. Darrell will compete with an identical Pontiac Firebird against these other drivers: Mark Martin, the defending IROC champion, Dale Earnhardt, Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett (from NASCAR), Tom Kendal (Trans Am), Randy Lajoie (Busch Grand National), Al Unser Jr., Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi (IRL/CART) and Robby Gordon (CART/SCORE/HDRA). The tape-delayed televised schedule will be Daytona (March 9 @ 5 p.m. EST), Charlotte (June 8 @ 5 p.m. EST), California (Aug. 2 @ 4:30 p.m. EST), and Michigan (Aug. 10 @ 5 p.m. EST) all on ABC.

John Andretti has taken the top honors at Daytona testing, with a 189.458 lap in his RCA Ford Thunderbird. Running a close second was Sterling Marlin with a 188.620 in his Kodak Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The top ten are as follows; Rusty Wallace (188.446 Ford), Dale Earnhardt (188.324 Chevy), Greg Sacks (188.222 Ford), Ken Schrader (188.190 Chevy), Robby Gordon (188.182), Terry Labonte (188.088), Jeff Gordon (187.672 Chevy) and Mike Skinner (187.492 Chevy). The highest placing Pontiac was Richard Petty's car, with Bobby Hamilton driving, 21st with a 186.602.

Brett Bodine has some promising news, a major sponsorship in the way of Catalyst Communications and Frontier Communications. He will have his Ford Thunderbird decked out with their Close Call Phone Card colors, and using Jack Roush engines to boot. "We feel having Jack build our engines is a major coup," is how Brett put it.

The FIA have announced that the Touring Car World Cup will now be calculated as total points from all the Touring Car Series, not a single event as it has been before. That means that the NATCC racers will be competing for the World Touring Car Cup as they race each and every race. Formula 1 type scoring system will be used. The Championships that will be competing are the Australian, Belgian, Central European, German, Italian, North American, Spanish, South East Asian, Swedish, and British. Talk about a "world champion"...

Savannah, Georgia will be the site of a new NATCC race this year, scheduled for May 16-18. The track is a 10 turn, 2 mile road circuit, specially built for racing.

Jan