Nineteen women have signed up for Lyn St. James’ Project Podium, a new grant program that provides matching funds to female drivers who have generated sponsorships.
“There are many more women in the driver pipeline than ever before,” said St. James, one of only five women who have raced in the Indianapolis 500.
“Project Podium is designed to help young talent achieve racing and business success, but not by giving them a handout,” she added. “Each applicant must demonstrate her commitment, desire and need, both in the business world and on the track.”
The announcement of the new program comes on the heels of the historic victory in April by Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar race.
For St. James, Project Podium is a natural extension of her Women in the Winner’s Circle Foundation and Driver Development Program, of which Patrick is a graduate.
A total of $55,000 in scholarships is available from Project Podium. Each applicant is being reviewed by a volunteer panel of motorsports and business professionals. Recipients will be announced later this month.
More time to complete Toronto deal.
Andretti Green Promotions and the Grand Prix Association of Toronto Corporation agreed to extend the closing date on the potential purchase of the Toronto race assets until May 15.
An additional 15 days were needed by the parties to meet obligations related to the completion of purchase agreements. A release said terms of the agreement will not be disclosed, and neither party would offer further comment.
With the unification of the two American open-wheel series earlier this year, most of the Champ Car World Series schedule, including the Toronto race, was canceled. But the Grand Prix Association is working toward getting it on the IRL IndyCar Series schedule in 2009.
AGP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Andretti Green Racing, signed a letter of intent in March to purchase the assets of the Grand Prix Association.
Andretti Green Promotions is already the promoter of the IRL race in St. Petersburg, Fla., as well as fielding a four-car team in the IndyCar Series.
The downtown street race in Toronto has been part of the CART or Champ Car World Series schedule since 1986.
Fill it up with leaded, please.
The Canadian government has ignored warnings from health officials and extended a regulatory exemption that will allow race cars and other competition vehicles to use leaded gasoline for two more years.
The cabinet added a year to the exemption the Environment Department originally proposed last December.
Under the change, approved by cabinet in late April, drag and stock car racers will have until Jan. 1, 2010, to halt the use of leaded fuel, which has been banned for use by all other passenger vehicles in Canada since 1990.
The IndyCar, Formula One and NASCAR racing circuits, including Canadian NASCAR, no longer allow leaded fuel.
The Canadian exemption has been in place since 1994, when the Liberal government of Jean Chretien responded to the cancellation of a major racing event in Quebec the previous year because of the ban.
Health Canada has said even low-level exposure to lead can harm the intellectual development, behavior, size and hearing of infants.
Old friends from the old school.
Besides being cousins and friends, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have something else in common.
“Junior is real old school,” Eury said. “He loves old stuff. And I do, too.”
Old school, in this case, means an appreciation for the history of NASCAR and the people that built the stock car sport into what it is today.
“I admire the people that have put the sport out there for us,” Eury said. “Probably one of my biggest heroes in the garage is Leonard Wood. He’s a very intelligent man. I talk to him at least twice a weekend.
“Those guys, the experiences that they’ve had, the things that they’ve done in the past, it’s overwhelming. With so little, they’ve done so much. Me and Dale Jr. talk a lot about it. We really respect the old guys.”
Eury said he feels particularly fortunate to have watched longtime Cup stars like Harry Gant and Darrell Waltrip drive in their prime.
“I got to see those guys race, and there’s a lot of guys in the garage that never got to see that,” Eury noted. “Everybody knows this is a unique sport and not everybody can do it.”
Eury, who moved with Junior from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick Motorsports this season, is just as anxious as his driver to end their current 72-race winless string. And he noted that Darlington, where the Sprint Cup cars were scheduled to run Saturday night, would be a perfect place for that to happen.
“It’s on (Earnhardt Jr.’s) list,” Eury said. “Just like we’ve got Martinsville, we’ve got some older tracks that he’s really looking forward to trying to win there because that puts you in an elite group.
“It’d be kind of special. Everybody goes to Martinsville and it’s like, ‘I forgot what time it is. I need one of those grandfather clocks (that they give to the winners).’ Same thing for Darlington. If you can say you’ve won there, it would be really special.”
Driver development enters fast lane.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is still going to school. The 20-year-old’s classrooms are racetracks like Kentucky Speedway.
That’s where he’s competing this weekend in the ARCA RE/MAX Series as an entry for Roush Fenway Racing’s driver development program.
Stenhouse, whose background includes 14 years in go-karts, sprint cars and midgets, is coming off a third-place finish Sunday at Rockingham in a 500-kilometer ARCA event, the longest race of his career.
That was the second top-five finish in a row for the youngster, who goes to Kentucky tied for third in the ARCA standings after his first five races.
The fortunate Stenhouse has a very experienced, if unofficial, advisory group, including Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, his former U.S. Auto Club car owner, and veteran crew chief Jeff “Lumpy” Campey.
“To have drivers like Carl, Matt and Tony helping me is definitely cool,” Stenhouse said. “That’s one of the great things about Roush Fenway, I have access to all my other teammates, crew chiefs and engineers, so I’m lucky.
“It’s a lot of information to take in, but it’s all very helpful. It definitely helps your confidence to have drivers like Tony coming to your races and telling you when you do something right. It’s also been a huge help to have guys like Erik Darnell and Travis Kvapil come to the tests with me and coach me through what I’m doing right and wrong.”
Campey said he has seen marked improvement in his driver over the last five races.
“Ricky has done everything we’ve asked of him,” Campey said.
“If the luck will stay with us we should be fine. . . . I was real pleased at Kansas as we got closer to the end (and) he started running his fastest laps of the race. That’s pretty much perfect.
“You can’t ask for much more than that.
“Then, last week at Rockingham, he did a good job managing his tires and bringing the No. 99 Ford home in one piece. I’m real proud of Ricky and this entire No. 99 team. We just need to keep running up front and eventually we’ll win one of these things.”
New venue for racing veteran.
In the past, Sam Hornish Jr. would be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend trying to win the Indy 500 pole for team owner Roger Penske.
Instead, the Sprint Cup rookie was at Darlington, working hard to inch higher in the standings.
The three-time IRL IndyCar Series champion and 2006 Indy 500 winner acknowledged he was feeling a little anxious heading to Darlington and its tough 1.366-mile oval for the first time.
“I don’t know what to expect this weekend in Darlington because I have never been there before,” Hornish said. “I drove by the track 10 years ago on my way to Myrtle Beach for my senior trip in high school.
“I have watched many Darlington races on television and am excited to race at the legendary track for the first time. As a driver, there are certain tracks where you want to race during your career. Darlington is that type of track to me.”
Stat of the week.
Hendrick Motorsports, which won 18 of the 36 Cup races in 2007, is off to a much slower start this year, with only one win in the first 10 events. But the juggernaut’s streak of having at least one driver in the top 10 stood at 75 races heading into Darlington.
Jeff Gordon kept the string alive with his ninth-place finish last Saturday at Richmond.
The last time there was no Hendrick driver in the top 10 in a race was April 9, 2006, when Jimmie Johnson led the team with an 11th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
Mike Harris, The Associated Press
