The Macon News from Macon, Georgia • 13

if Tho Macon Telegraph A News Sun Jan 24 Page 31 Auto Ends Grid Season NFC Favored by John Krueger Green Flag for MGR AIR In Pro Bowl Tilt ington as well as Gena Washington also have Dick Gordon of the Chicago Bears the leafing catcher in the NFC veteran Carroll Dale of Green Bay and tight end Charlie Sanders of the Detroit lions A week ago things looked bleaker for area auto racing fans than a blown engine on the white-flag lap Middle Georgia Raceway near Byron and Atlanta International Raceway in Hampton the nearest major race tracks appeared to be going down for the third time in the Sea of Financial Ruin It looked like a Pettyless Isaadess Allisonless season was ahead for Peach Staters If the two tracks wore fly-by-night organizations It would bo easy to see how they could go under like all the little outlaw dirt tracks throughout the country which have folded almost as quickly as they wore (pardon the expression) constructed But that the case Middle Georgia Raceway has been hailed by drivers and experienced observ- ers as one of the finest of its size anywhere After a vast improvement program two years ago Atlanta International Raceway can hold its own with any other super speedway in the country Yet there they were on the brink of disaster AIR finally went over the edge but it may have been a blessing in disguise MGR averted a similar fate when track president Lamar Brown Jr found a backer who agreed to finance the first two races of the season '( Tho Atlanta track $1 millin in dabt I a bankruptcy All of its debts have boon wiped out and the track will start anew with a dean slate on April Larry Brown and Bon Johnson of the New York Giants a pair of 1000-yard gainers during the regular season' as well ae Mel Farr at Detroit Dave Osborn of the Vikings and MacArthur Lane of St Louis can lead the ground attack The alternate quarterbacks are a Tarkenton of the Giants and Bob Griese of Miami for the NFC and AFC respectively Griese can hand off to Ms running back Larry Csanka and the other AFC rashers include Kelly a veteran of five Fro Bowls and Denver's Floyd little the AFC leader with 901 yards last season Both teams have powerful defenses The NFC front four Brief -ing Timeout year brought his unranked team out of nowhere to win the NAIA cham--pionship believes all good teams can shoot but the secret of winning is defense Lucias Mitchell (L) head basketball coach at Kentucky State College goes over scouting reports with his two big boys Travis Grant (33) and Elmore Smith during a break in practice Mitchell who last Driver Is '4 with tho Atlanta 500 Hew tho track could go bank CITY AUDITORIUM TUESDAY NIGHT 8:30 PM Main FENCE MATCH! PAUL DeMARCO A Race at Byron VL The Fabulous LUKE GRAHAM 4 rupt Is a groat mystery since the "500" draws more than 80000 paying customers each spring and anoth- or 30000 to 40000 for tho Dixie 500 In siimmor But the track has been plagued by power strug- gled for several years too many chiefs and 'not enough Indians and the chiefs all seemed to be dip-J ping their hands into the till Now back to 1 one chief and hopefully will turn the non-profit or- ganization into a profit-making one which was their original intention 1 Tha ring will be completely enclosed by wire fence The bout If icheduled for 2 out of 3 falls no time limitl SEMI-FINAL BUDDY COLT u-J kw Qm tlaanae 01 mgu my wsiii nmm vuei vs Minn tkliti tils si ts ThiSsi it Sun Crime tsr Isssnitisii cal I4I-I4II sr 741-1114 liaiiMi SMI III Its Mi IMMrts MGR Situation Different 1111 it Istr Its He 5211 CMirss SMI SsssMral 1 IsssIii Iptleirt CM The situation at Middle Georgia Raceway was different but the end was nearly the same Lamar Brown Jr has been its only owner since building the $500000 facility in a Byron pasture in 1966 First he was liurt by 0 i i 0 from the little dirt tracks in the area- which finally crowded each other out Then there were occasionally small fields of cars which resulted in small crowds and little includes Carl Eller and Alan Page of Minnesota Dsacon Jones of Los Angeles end Bob Lilly of the Dallas Cowboys The AFC front four with a combined weight of some 1J0O pounds isheavier than the NFC but perhaps not as quick The four starters are Bubba SCHEDULE EXPANDED OLE AN NY St Bonavesture University has expanded its basketball schedule for the 1972-73 season and in addition to playing 1 nthe Charlotte Invitational Tourney will play UCLA and Georgetown BOB GRIFFIN Ml ARMSTRONG SCIUMRAKIU 4 Mm Tig Tees Match Ml WIS0N art JOE FUUEHTY Vt MIL TO mi GREAT OTA Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! They won't last a Brawn finally run tho track alone and wont looking for a buyer or partner Ho had many people ready to jump into it with him until ho discovered that when they made tho jump they'd have to have a pocketful of finally decided he couldn't continue to LOS ANGELES (AP) The veiled but strong-remains between players of the old American and National football leagues It may surface one way or another in the nationally-televised Pro Bowl game Sunday No one on either side cares to pop off publicly That would be Inviting trouble But old icons may be settled and new ones bam astheNational Football League season finally cbugs to a stop Sixty thousand or man fans an expected for the kickoff at 4 pm EST CBS will televise the game with Southern California blacked out This is tiw 21st edition of the Pn Bowl 1 1 1 an NFL AllStar production until this year Until the merger of the two leaguesthe American had its own All-Star attraction Cleveland Baltimon and Pittsburgh an now under the American Conference tent and such players as Mike Curtis Bubba Smith and Jerry Logan of the Colts will be playing against their old rivals The same applies to Joe Greene and Andy Russell and Leroy Kelly- Gene Hickerson and Jim Houston The Nationals an favored Coach Dick Nolan of the San Francisco 49ers win lead off with his own quarterback John Brodie while the AFC coach John Madden of Oakland selected Me own Dtryle Lamonica Oakland talent dominates the offensive unit with no less than six Baiders aboard La-monica will have the benefit of Ms teammate at center Jim Otto as well as his own wide receiver Warren Wells tight end Raymond Chester and running back Hewitt Dixon pass receivers will include Ms own Gene Wash Phone 7M-853I It looked like the annual IMCA Winter Preview sprint car races on Jan 31 the Speedy Morelock 200 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman race on Feb 21 and even the Georgia 500 Grand National race on Nov 7 would he cancelled because there was no money left with which to stage the races But last Monday night only a ftw hours bofora Atlanta International Racaway want to court with its bankruptcy petition an "angel" from Milladgaville bearing gifts of groan turned up at Brown's door and offered to finance tho IMCA and Morelock races with an option to got into more events later of tho first two are successful Ready Beutimann especially likes the power steering which he says will eliminate the back breaiking work he had with his other ride A field of 60 sprint machines are set to take starter Johnny qualifying flag at noon Sunday Jan 3L And Beutimann is planning on making it a lot tougher on anybody who fries to pass him fids time by making it a lot easier on himself IL TUCKER had the CAE sprint built in late 1969 and ironically it debuted at last year's IMCA race at Byron It didn't last long however as driver Dave Scarborough badly smashed the new machine in one of the heat races The car has since been repaired Mg fortes are inde-pendent suspension for the rear wheels and power steering TU EJ For IMG Wayne Beutimann has a core to settle Jan 31 at the fast Middle Georgia Raceway a half-mile asphalt oval at Byron not so' much with the crack field of International Motor Contest Association drivers as it Is himself that the former Florida State late model champion will have to contend with Last year Beutimann finished a strong third in the feature a grueling 30-lap grind around Middle: Georgia Bace-way Before doing so he set the fastest qualifying time and looked like a shoo-in for the checkered flag BUT HIS racing machine did Mm In The gleaming No 00 eprint that aet the fart qualifying time literally wore the 26-year-old driver out and two machinea aiipped by the Ze-phyrMlla Fla driver in the waning laps of the race juat pooped Wayne aaid after the race car la primarily a dirt car and its not made to handle smoothly on an asphalt track I had to fight it all the This year coming bock in another machine This one is the sleek Black Deuce a car that was built specifically for the torturous turns of the speedway a machine built at a coat of over $20000 out of tiw generous pocket of a Sarasota Fla plumber named Hollis Tucker Inks Contract ATLANTA (UPI) -Cecil Upshaw ace relief pi(cheraf two seasons ago who sat out the 1970 campaign when be cut Ma finger hi a freak accident has signed Ms 1971 contract-the Braves announced Saturday The righthander became the fourth Brave brought into the fold' The others are outfielders Rico Carty and Hank Aaron and infielder Felix winn Upshaw whose contract figures were not disclosed severed the nerves and artery to Ms right ring finger last April 8 when be tried to demonstrate a basketball hot and csjught his ring finger on an overhead awning He bad 2S saves two years ago when the Brave won the Western Division title and he figures his success to 1971 will be based pn his mental outlook Upshaw said he feels be is Jo good shape and think be working harder both mentally and physically when I get to spring training than I did in the Upshaw said also he has moved out of his apartment numbered 13-F this week because he figures it is unlucky His wife broke a foot recently Manchester Wins LONDON (AP) Colin Bell England's World Cup soccer sjar scored two goals within four minutes Saturday as Manchester City defeated Chelsea 3-0 and knocked the defending champions out of the English Cup competition If area racing enthusiasts want to be assured of bigtime racing the rest of the season do well to be at Middle Georgia Raceway on Jan 31 and Feb 21 and at Atlanta International Raceway on April 4 Unless of course rather spend their Sunday afternoons watching old movies on television while biding their time until the 0 0 tb all season kicks off next fall A Race Driver from 19th In tho stand last season PIT STOPS: It will be interesting to follow the in- -V vestigation into the death of Italian race driver Ig-! nazio Guinti during the Jan 10 Argentine 600-mile i race The Ferrari driver was killed when he crashed into a car being pushed across the track after run 0 ning out of fuel The stalled driver Frenchman Jean-Pierre Beltoise is involved in a hearing to see whether or not he should be charged with negligent homicide which must be a first for auto racing Pedro Rodriguez defending champion and three Ime winner of the 24 hours of Daytona will be among the favorites when the 1971 classic roars off at Daytona International Speedway at 3 pm on Jen 30 Rodriguez winner of four international endurance races lest season will head the Gulf-Porsche 917K team and will co-drive with Jackie Oliver Pete Hamilton the young New England charger who recently joined forces with master mechanic Cotton Owens is the 68th driver to sign up for the 3194450 Daytona 500 on Feb 14 which he won last year drive a Plymouth again The pole posi-- tion dashes get underway on Feb 6 with the two 125-mile qualifying races slated for Feb 11 long at our low prices TWO CORVETTES IN STOCK Dave Marcls on of the top independent drivers in NASCAR was recently honored in his hometown of Wausau Wis with "Dave Marcls Day" More than 200 persons attended the ceremonies honoring the 1971 CORVETTE COUPE 365'Horseoower 454 cu inch V-8 turbo hydra-matic power disc brakes power steering 4 SEASON air conditioning F-70 white stripe tires audio alarm system AM-FM radio saddle vinyl interior and war bonnet yellow exterior 29-year-old charger including Bobby and Judy Allison who flew up from Hueytown Ala in their pri vate plana Marcls jumped ings his first yoar to ninth The Yenko Sportscars Team of Canonsburg Pa which will compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona will bring one piece of equipment to the race that no one else has: A Piano! Driver Don Yenko is a virtuoso IHI IS IHLCO) IL IE IF pianist as well as a fine race driver and likes to relax di during practice sessions by belting out a few 430 THIRD ST MACON bars of jazz the piano -iV--Asia TIT BP ft.