The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 175

IS CABARRUS NEIGHBORS Sunday July 25 1993 SPORTS Legends racing: Same skills cheaper thrills not NASCAR but racers like its smaller cheaper cars Racing enthusiasts who have a lot of cars are -scale replicas of the famed NASCAR money are turning to Legends cars like the one modifieds from the 1930s and 1940s but owned by Jack Cumpata of Charlotte Legends as expensive as traditional racing cars By WOODY CAIN Special Correspondent a new form of racing sweeping the region and the price is attractive enough that many average race fans are getting involved behind the wheel Legends cars are -scale replicas of the famed NASCAR modi-fieds from the 1930s and 1940s and bringing fans back to the days when racing wasn't a multimillion dollar sport Powered by 1200cc Yamaha motorcycle engines these tough little machines cost less than $11000 and are the brainchild of Charlotte Motor Speedway President HA Wheeler and former Winston Cup regular driver Elliott Forbes-Robinson a series where someone can afford to get into it and go racing serious says Forbes-Robinson who supervises the building of the cars you see them a lot of people think little but it really is serious racing The drivers are serious but on the other hand something you can afford to run a lot of people want to get into some sort of racing but they have the budget or they want to get into something a little bit unsafe whether bikes or go-karts or whatever and this gives them an Cars come as package The Legends cars are professionally built machines with tubular chassis rack and pinion racing steering a 35-gallon fuel cell recycled Toyota rear ends and competition-rated hoses bolts and fittings The cars are available in both sedan and coupe styles and come as a complete package Sanctioned this season by the World Karting Association the Legends are running a full series points battle at a variety of asphalt nd dirt tracks in the region There are even separate divisions for beginners and experienced divi- stons run numerous tracks throughout North and South Carolina we go to Georgia we also go to Florida and later on this year we are hoping to expand into the Pennsylvania market" says David Stetzer manager of 600 Racing Inc the company in charge of producing the Legends cars looking to regionalize this series where we would have several tracks in numerous parts of the country and then get all the track champions together at Charlotte Motor Speedway at the end of the year for sort of a Superbowl of Legends car racing" Charlotte hosts event In that vein CMS will be hosting a of the-Legends" event Aug 7 with drivers competing in timed events on the oval course road course and drag racing on the Charlotte backstretch The driver accumulating the most points during the event will have his or her name engraved on a trophy for permanent display in Smith Tower at CMS The series consists of 28 races this season with 18 being at Charlotte either on the quarter-mile asphalt oval which is the pit road or on the 15-miIe clay oval behind the Charlotte backstretch grandstands very new so expanding tracks everyday talking to new track operators and there are even people building racetracks just for these Stetzer said pay anywhere from $100 to $300 to win a race and then at the end of the season we have a grand points championship where we distribute about $10000 (sponsored by BF Goodrich) among our competitors so you can make a little bit of money doing this to help alleviate the small Among the costs the Legends series is trying to hold down is tire expense traditionally one of the more expensive parts of racing The Legends rubber is durable and cheap in other kinds of racing if you have a good set of tires in each race not going to be says Legends driver Jack Cumpata of the only way to learn to just keep doing it wrong until you hit it" Cars created equal Legends cars have a minimum weight requirement of 950 pounds and a maximum of 1110 pounds with a left to right ratio of 52 to 48 very similar to IROC series" says Forbes-Robinson of the equal capabilities of the Legends racers we do is we build a chassis and have the pickup points exactly the same The owners of the cars are allowed to move the adjustable parts the tow the camber the caster and things like that and they will change those to comfortable for them but whether the sedan body or the coupe body the position all the chassis points are exactly the same for everybody" Most drivers associated with Legends racing say the most fun ever had behind the wheel really having a great time with this Legends series Humpy Wheeler and the whole staff of the Legends series are doing a great says driver Benny Ertel of Charlotte for a lot of fun They started off with a few cars now they have 65 with possibly over a hundred ordered I think A lot of big names are getting into it (country music stars) (Kix) Brooks (Ronnie) Dunn just bought two cars Graham Brown bought one Paul Newman's got one so really enjoyable but this is the fun part of it we have to take care of our businesses Another well-known fan Another famous name that is enjoying his participation is TNN fisherman Hank Parker who won a recent event at Charlotte Motor Speedway He says that since fishing is his job he made racing his hobby love to fish don't get me wrong been fishing since I was a little boy but I came down here a couple of years ago and took the NASTRAK (driving school) with Rodney Combs and we drove around this speedway here and they let me get up to about 155 or 160 miles an hour into that third turn over there was a sensation I never experienced before and I liked it and I said like to do some more of that But you really jump into that Busch or Winston Cup stuff because that's kind of expensive Then these little Legends cars came along and got a lot of acceleration and quite a bit of horsepower a lot of fun to drive and really really enjoyed Still the basic idea is competitiveness at a low cost emphasis is back in the driving of the car rather than spending a lot of money on engines or so forth" Stetzer says Want to go? For more information call Charlotte Motor Speedway at 455-3209 When you see them a lot of people think little but it really is serious racing Elliott Forbes- Robinson former Winston Cup driver Charlotte who has raced everything from USAC midgets to cars" on the drag circuit Goodrich with the help of Elliott and Humpy have given us a deal at $65 a tire We get it through the company and everybody has to run the same tire Most of the guys from last season are still running the same tires from their first season getting better with age I guess" Repairs are rare Maintenance is always a key in any form of racing but most competitors say even that cost is low for the Legends machines can go to your local motorcycle dealer for service on the engine But these Japanese engines in these things are so great you almost have to touch Cumpata says mean they just seem to run forever as long as you change the oil and plugs and watch that stuff The biggest amount of work we do on the cars is doing our weights and setting the chassis for each track And.