American Speed Association PR
DAYTONA BEACH, FL (Friday, March 19, 2010) - Illiana Motor Speedway, an ASA Member Track in Schererville, IN, continues to be one of the more popular destinations for race fans in the Chicagoland area. Last season, they stepped up to become an ASA Member Track and the results they saw made it an easy decision to renew in 2010.

"It has been a positive experience since joining the ASA member track program," Mike Mikuly, Promoter said. "It has also been very beneficial to the drivers who compete at the speedway. ASA really gets the word out. Anyone who knows me personally, can tell you if it wasn't a great deal I wouldn't be interested."

Illiana Motor Speedway has a 1/2-mile asphalt oval with semi-banked sweeping turns that provides some of the best side-by-side racing around. Along with an infield quarter-mile oval it provides a great variety of Saturday night racing action with Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Turbo Stox, Legends and Pure Stock.

"We are looking forward to the 2010 season. We hear of new cars being built, drivers changing divisions and hopefully increased crowds," Mikuly said. "I feel the economy is turning a little, by no means is it great, but seems to be getting better."

They will have a busy 2010 season with the ASA Midwest Tour making its second visit to Illiana on Saturday, June 19th for the 9th Annual Elmer Musgrave Memorial 100.

Also on their 2010 schedule, the Molenaar Classic with fireworks by the Mad Bomber on July 3rd, The USAC Silver Crown Series on July 8th, Crashfest with school bus and trailer figure races on July 10th and September 25th, Old Timers Night featuring Midwest Vintage Cars on August 14th, and the 49th Annual Tony Bettenhausen 100 on September 11th.

CRA Racing Press
After five months of waiting there is life again at the historic Nashville Fairgrounds racetrack with the announcement that Nashville native Tony Formosa has an agreement to promote events at the famous high-banked facility for the 2010 season. Formosa announced during the CRA drivers meeting at Gresham Motorsports Park on Saturday that he will promote the All American 400 Weekend that will be sanctioned by the CRA Super Series.

“We were very happy to hear there would be racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds track again in 2010,” remarked R.J. Scott, Managing Partner of Champion Racing Association. “We have been holding the October 2nd and 3rd date open on our schedule with hopes of working out a date for the All American event. When Tony reached out to us, we offered CRA’s support in any way to help continue the legendary All-American Weekend at its traditional home in Nashville. It is really exciting news for us that this event is going to happen!”

When racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds was in doubt, Montgomery Motor Speedway officials announced their intentions to bring the All-American 400 to Montgomery, a traditional racing home for event founder, the late Bob Harmon. With the news that Nashville would be hosting the event again, track owner Bobby Knox and his officials backed away from their plans for 2010. According to Knox, “As long as the track at Nashville Fairgrounds is open and hosting an All-American event, we want to support that event and its history there. In the unfortunate situation that racing at the Fairgrounds would ever end, we plan to bring the All-American 400 to Bob Harmon’s long time home at Montgomery Motor Speedway.”

Santa Fe Banquet 1969 (Illinois Vintage Racing Photo)by Stan Kalwasinski (Originally Posted on IllinoisVintageRacing.com)

The voice was distinctive, the delivery was unique and anyone who ever heard Jan Gabriel announce a race program at Santa Fe Speedway near Willow Springs will always remember the style and entertaining manner of the longtime Chicago area announcer. Gabriel, 69, passed away on January 10, 2010 suffering from polycystic kidney disease.

Art “Fireball” Fehrman of St. Charles, Ill. had known Gabriel since the late 1960’s when Fehrman was a rookie in the stock car action at Santa Fe and Gabriel was the new announcer at the “Track of Clay.” Fehrman was a front-running competitor in Santa Fe’s sportsman division before moving into the faster late model ranks in 1973. Fehrman drove his last late model race and won it in 1992 and came back to run a modified stocker for a bit in 2004 before calling it “quits.” More recently, Fehrman has been guiding his successful Illinois Vintage Racing stock car organization with his “back in the day” stock car tour visiting numerous race tracks in the Midwest.

With Gabriel’s passing, Fehrman reminisced about his friend.

“We became friends when I started racing at Santa Fe,” commented Fehrman about his 30-plus year friendship with Gabriel. “My dad (Art Sr.) use to have a racing party every year in the middle of January and Jan would always make it. He never let my dad down, driving through snow and ice storms just to get to my dad’s party. He’d fly in from California just to make it.

SÃO PAULO, Brazil - Will Power overtook Ryan Hunter-Reay in Turn 11 on Lap 58 of 61 to win the rain-shortened IZOD IndyCar Series season opener, the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 on the Streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, won by 1.8581 seconds. Vitor Meira was third, followed by Raphael Matos, Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon. PEAK Pole Award winner Dario Franchitti, who claimed the pole earlier in the day, finished seventh.

Power and Meira suffered 2009 season-ending injuries (Power in August, Meira in May), and both wound up on the podium in their first race back in the series.

The race was red-flagged for 36 minutes after a thunderstorm swept over the Anhembi section of the city, and it became a timed race. It was also the first time that an IZOD IndyCar Series event held qualifying and race on the same day.
SAO PAULO INDY 300 POST-RACE QUOTES:

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske, winner Sao Paulo Indy 300): "It was probably the most mixed up race that I have ever been in, but it created an opportunity for me to come back through the field and end up winning the race. The improvements that they did to the track last night, were like night and day. Not a problem at all going down the frontstraight. I think it is just a really good day for racing. If you were fast you could pass, because there is such a good track layout here. I'm pretty sure it was an exciting race for the fans.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tony Schumacher raced to his first victory of the season and in the process moved into the NHRA Full Throttle Series points lead Sunday at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

Tim Wilkerson, Jason Line and Eddie Krawiec also were winners in their respective categories at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
Schumacher earned his fourth Gatornationals win and 62nd of his career by powering his U.S. Army dragster to a performance of 3.797 seconds at 322.04 mph while teammate Antron Brown’s Matco Tools dragster lost traction in the runner-up effort.

The seven-time Top Fuel world champ beat Terry McMillen, Doug Foley and rival Larry Dixon to advance to the final round.

“It was a perfect win for this team,” said Schumacher, who posted the national speed record at 324.98 mph in a thrilling side-by-side win over Dixon in the semifinals. “This is something we needed to do. Now we’re in the points lead and that’s important as we go to Charlotte for the four-wide race.”

Wilkerson scored his 14th career victory by holding off defending race winner and teammate Bob Tasca in the Funny Car final. Wilkerson’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang finished in 4.097 at 303.78, while Tasca’s Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang trailed with a 4.192 at 287.17.

Wilkerson beat Jeff Arend, top qualifier Matt Hagan and two-time world champ Tony Pedregon to advance to the final round, his first at the Gatornationals.
“When you run well and you run consistent, people will show you enough respect to try pretty hard against you,” Wilkerson said. “We did have a good day today. I’m not going to say we were world-beaters, but we made some pretty darn good runs to keep them on their toes.”