Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994 TAG: 9401190124
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
If that wasn't enough, Bodine also has been trying to raise money for his U.S. Bobsled Project, which has yet to find that one deep-pockets corporate sponsor to pay the costs of developing and refining the new Bo-Dyn American-made sleds.
"I felt like a beggar," Bodine said in a recent interview. "All I was doing all winter was asking for money from people."
But Bodine will announce his new sponsor today during Charlotte Motor Speedway's annual media tour and word is that it will be Exide Batteries. Bodine has agreed to run on Hoosier tires this season and he reportedly also will get backing from the tire company.
General Motors flew the media tour to Daytona for its test session Tuesday, and many of the group of more than 100 reporters made a beeline to Felix Sabates. The car owner just happened to have his new NASCAR find, Indy-car driver Danny Sullivan, tagging along.
"I want to go for Winston Cup rookie of the year in 1995," Sullivan told reporters.
Sullivan is planning to run only five races this year, he said, but that may change now that he has lost his Indy-car ride with Rick Galles.
"We're going to do Rockingham, Richmond, the Brickyard [Indianapolis], the Charlotte fall race and the last Atlanta race," he said. "To start at Daytona would be like going off the deep end. I'd rather work my way into it. Everybody from Dale [Earnhardt] to Kyle [Petty] to Rusty [Wallace] to Roger Penske to Felix Sabates to Don Miller all said, `Don't start off at a superspeedway.' "
Sabates is not technically the sponsor, although he's providing the Pontiac Grand Prix race cars and engines. Sullivan said the team owners are John Porter, vice president of LDDS, a long-distance carrier, and Jim Mattei, who owns the Checkers fast-food chain.
"I was talking to Wally Dallenbach and he said these [stock cars] are a lot different than what you are used to, but when you get used to them, they are a lot of fun. That is important," Sullivan said.
Ricky Rudd, the first driver to meet the media during the tour's first day Monday, heated up things quickly with a few more parting shots at GM.
"I've never had a warm relationship with GM," Rudd told reporters. "They didn't know I existed when I was trying to put my team together."
He accused GM of giving the most attention to unnamed "wealthy car owners." Ford, on the other hand, has sent people to his shop to help him get started.
Here are the top five practice speeds at Daytona on Tuesday during the second day of a three-day GM test: Harry Gant, 190.355 mph in a Chevy; Robert Pressley, 190.235 mph in one of Gant's Chevys; John Andretti, 189.115 mph in a Chevy; Kyle Petty, 189.076 mph in a Pontiac; and Dale Earnhardt, 188.957 mph in a Chevy.
When Greg Sacks turned some fast laps in practice last week at Daytona International Speedway in his D.K. Ulrich-owned Ford Thunderbird, Ulrich was suspicious.
"Are you all cheating?" he asked crew chief Tony Furr.
"No," Furr said.
Still doubting his new team's inced, Ulrich ordered the car through NASCAR inspection, Furr recalled Tuesday.
Then, with a NASCAR-certified legal Ford, Sacks went even faster, hitting 190.275 mph on Jan. 12 - the fastest lap among Fords that day.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB