Sun-News from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina • 20

Saturday May 25 1991 AUTO RACING The Sun News Myrtle Beach SC COCA-COLAT600 first moments worry Mears Luyendyk ABC Sports cranks up its cameras short and very fast drag race from the starting line to the first comer on the 2V4-mile oval and it likely won't be the conservative Mean most important thing at die start of the race to me is that my car is working he said want to get a feel for things and get into a good rhythm a long race 500 miles You don't win it at thi start so why take Luyendyk has gone through the month of May quietly getting hid preparations done and running coi) sistently among the speed leaders a little more concerned about the opening laps because he'l) be sandwiched between Gary Bettenhausen the fastest qualifier at 224468 mph and 1989 winner Emerson Fittipaldi got some very fast cars in the fifth row and some of them warn to get to the from in a Luyendyk said you have sq much traffic around you things can happen You just have to pick a land and try to stay out of trouble until things get stretched out I can go to the front and lead the race safely I will If you can lead hard to say to yourself gonna sit here in second THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INDIANAPOLIS Rick Mean and Arie Luyendyk have quite a bit in common Both are quiet and workmanlike in their approach to racing Both are winners And both are among the favorites in Indianapolis 500 One thing they have in common though is where they will start Mears the pole winner for a record sixth time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will lead the 33-car field on the inside of the from row uyendyk the defending champion will start in the middle of the fifth row about 400 yards and a lot of traffic and turbulance behind three-time winner Mears give a lot of thought to the start said Mears starting from the front row for the ninth time in the last 10 Indys and 11 of 14 overall take what's given to That's probably a good thing this year because he's joined in the from row by hard-charging four-time winner AJ Foyt and equally aggressive Mario Andretti the 1969 winner One of those three will win the AFTERNOON AFTERNOON SPECIAL (aftar 2 pm) 15 (graan In I cart tndudad) Tha AMOdalad Pma Drivers Darrell Wattiip (Ml) and his brother Michael put their heeds together in the gerage area at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Michael NASCAR hopes are riding with Charlene the car By Barnard KNIGHT-R1DDER PHILADELPHIA The folks at ABC Sports are making a list and checking it twice biggest challenge this year probably more than any other is trying to touch on all the interesting stories going into the said Bob Goodrich producer for coverage of Indianapolis 500 have a fist of stories the announcers are going to want to talk about For instance what is Willy Ribbs up to? happening with the Andretti family? Gary Bettenhausen and his brother Tony? The two Alfa Romeo cars driven by Danny Sullivan and Roberto Guerrero? I think some people will want to know how Gordon Johncock is Goodrich though understands that the aforementioned possibilities merely are sidelights to a more compelling spectacle most obvious story is AJ Goodrich conceded of his position on the track viewers are going to want to know at least a couple of times during the race how AJ is Imagine knowing ahead erf time that you were tuning in to Arnold Palmer's final round of golf Nolan final baseball game Jimmy final tennis match Now you know what it would mean to ABC's ratings if Foyt 56 the grand old man of auto racin were to win a record fifth Indy 5t in this his final race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway AJ Foyt is in die hunt all the way to the finish the security guards better just get out of the way when the checkered flag foils because the crowd is going to go said Paul Page lead announcer now AJ is the single biggest story in auto racing over the past Page's picks as the top three finishers are Rick Mean A1 Unser Jr and Bobby Rabat but he admits to sentimentality as far as Foyt is concerned Foyt who made his Indy 500 debut in 1958 is in the field for the 34th consecutive year He is seeking to go out with a victory to add to those he registered in 1961 and The fact that Foyt suffered severe leg and foot injuries in a September 1990 crash at Elkhart Lake Wis makes his farewell to the brickyard even more poignant AJ ever does sup prises me Page said everybody was saying he'll never walk I discounted that pretty quickly I knew walk and race again if what he really wanted to Ribbs the first black driver to make the Indy field and Hire Matsushita die first Japanese driver figure to get several mentions during the telecast because of the histone implications of their participation Page however isn't sure that a the color of a skin or his nationality is or should be a special point of interest consider Janet Guthrie (who became the first female driver at Indy in 1977) to be all that Page said race car is blind to sitting in the cockpit not sure we shouldn't be as ABC won Emmys for Outstand- Live Sports Special in 1989 and for its coverage of the Indy 500 WB tween 16th and 20th in the season points standings in his first five years Waltrip is on a roll in 1991 He finished in the Top 10 in six of the fust nine races and steadily climbed to fourth in the Winston Cup standings Last week at Charlotte he won the Winston Open a non-points race in which lie started from the pole driving Charlene of course In Wednesday's opening round of time trials for the Coca-Cola 600 Charlene was one of three cars to break the event qualifying record Waltrip guided the car to a fast lap of 174582 mph that put him on die outside of the front row beside pole-sitter Mark Martin think be hard to Waltrip said feel good about how we've done The further we go the better we Waltrip introduced Charlene in ist year's 600 th the Winston Cup last year's 600 the longest race on Cup said spent a lot of time working on her but we really didn't know what to expect when it came time to race she kind of moseyed her way up through the field and we finished a strong fourth Ever since then just flat out Charlene named for her successful debut at Charlotte and because a friend of has the same name returned to Charlotte for last race and came in third The car also ran third at Atlanta earlier this year Waltrip has a decal inside the car that states: Likes really know what it is about he said something Whether Charlene's special enough remains to be seen think I've proven that I know what it takes to win a 600-mile race and just what going to have to do he said that will finally be our Lessons Available PGA Pro Gwen Miller To get to Heron Point turn onto Highway SC 707 from US Highway 17 Bypass at the back gate to the Air Force Base and go 58 miles PROPER ATTIRE REQUIRED place GOLF SPECIAL FOR TEE TIMES CALL 650-6664 448-6664 (S1H11) 1991 HUNDAI EXCEL She was real difficult to get to handle the way 1 wanted her he 4-Door twist: Go Flossie go! THEASSOTTED PRESS CONCORD NC Michael Waltrip is hoping Charlene can help him finally crawl out from under the shadow of his older brother She was difficult at the beginning but really come around" Waltrip said of Charlene the name he has given to the Pontiac Grand Prix he hopes will cany him to victory in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Waltrip 28 is in his sixth full season of Winston Cup racing a circuit on which his 44-year-old brother Darrell has won 80 races and three season driving titles The younger Waltrip is still looking for career victory No 1 in stock car top series If his performance so far this year is any indication that triumph may not be far off A look at his performance on 1 5-miie layout further strengthens his outlook After finishing anywhere be- New racing Flossie go! Ju-Inior Johnson has come up with a clever way to field a car in Coca-Cola 600 at Char lotte and her name wife Flossie who' is cooking abilities is Flossie his known for her rather than her auto racing knowledge received her NASCAR owners license Wednesday and will head up a team Sunday Johnson owner of the No 11 Budweiser Ford Thunderbird crew chief Tim Brewer and Tommy Ellis a fill-in driver were all penalized earlier in the week after NASCAR discovered an oversized ine following The Winston nson and Brewer will be suspended for four races while Ellis was fined $18000 but will not miss a race Ellis a former Busch Grand National Series champion is filling in for injured driver Geoff Bodine event was his first race with Johnson's team and at first he also was suspended for 12 weeks along with Johnson and Brewer Upon appeal Ellis' suspension was dropped and the other two were shortened The sad part is that Ellis as well known as he is had been out of action for a while He had the sponsorship of Polaroid for the first five races in a Lewis Cooper-owned car before Polaroid dropped out The team ran one race without a sponsor and Ellis then left the team after the Darlington race Now this an admitted mistake on the put of Brewer If situation wasn't enoug nigh support for the now No 97 red Ford along comes Flossie You have to wonder how Flossie Dick Moroso Rob's father will donate die No 20 Olds mobile Cutlass to the International Motosports Hall of Fame in memory or his son Moroso winner of the 1989 Busch Grand National championship was leading the 1990 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honors when he died in a traffic accident Sept 30 of that year As it turned out lead in the rookie standings was so great other rookie contenders failed to even come close to making a challenge during the remainder of the season But at the annual awards banquet in New York NASCAR officials failed to recognize a rookie of the year winner It was not until the 1991 NASCAR Yearbook came out that name was mentioned as being the rookie of the year Tha Granger Select 400 at Hickory NC last Saturday was rained out and will be held June 15 The date was originally an open weekend for the Busch Grand National drivers The schedule now has Grand National drivers racing at Rougemont NC on June 8 Hickory June IS and Myrtle Beach Speedway in the Carolina PrideBudweiser 250 on June 22 The Myrtle Beach race will be televised five on TNN Original List $10349 Scott Price 8277 SCOTT CARC HIGHWAY 501 MYRTLE BEACH UU131 MARKJ0HNS0N Auto Racing will fare as a functioning car owner Will she be down there checking the carta and stuff or sit in the stands like the owners at a horse race? Will Junior sit up in a skybox and radio down instructions to her in the pits? Will she listen? Perhaps she nas a mind of her own Although the team failed to qualify in the top 20 maybe just maybe team will pull an upset Or a top 10 finish or top 5 Go Flossie go! NASCAR normally tears down a limited number of cars in post-race inspection for Winston Cup events For the Winston Open and The Winston every car tnat competed was subjected to the extensive examination At no other time in the seven-year history of The Winston has an oversized engine been discovered The last competitor caught using an illegal engine was Trie King Richard Petty at Charlotte in October of 1983 Kyle Petty registered under an assumed name when he was hospitalized following injuries received in the Winston 500 at Talladega on May 6 Petty who was in the Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham Ala and then the Carolines Medical Center in Charlotte was registered as Elvis Perkins Petty said the alias was a combination of Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins Perkins wrote Suede Shoes' and Elvis stole it and then sang Petty explained Rob Moroso is finally getting the recognition that NASCAR never gave him tional race Schrader who started on the pole pulled away immediately was never challenged and ended up 648 seconds ahead of Robert Huffman on Charlotte Motor Speedway's 13-mile layout Schrader averaged 160119 mph in his Chevrolet He'll start 33id in Saturday's 43-car field v5 Week At EXOTIC NIGHTLIFE Call Our Hotline: 272-2514 For More Info Plus 45 of the Beach's Best Babes 3102 Hwy 17 North Myrtle Beach Area Schrader makes 300 field Linda Johnson 40DDe24e34 CONCORD NC (AP) Ken Schrader led the whole way Friday in winning a 40-lap qualifying race that determined the final 10 starters for Saturday's Champion Spark Plug 300 Schrader and 13 other drivers were in the qualifier after failing to win one of the 32 starting spots available in Thursday's time trials for the NASCAR Busch Grand Na I.