Champ Cars are Coming

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the place to be this week as the Champ Car World Series makes its return to the hallowed hills of one of America’s premier road racing venues.

We don’t get a race, but we do get the next best thing as both the Atlantics and Champ Cars will hold their Spring Training on the world-renowned, 2.238-mile, 11-turn circuit today (Wednesday) through Saturday.

Cruise the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca web site for exciting details on the Open House to begin the celebration of the track’s Golden Anniversary of the inaugural race in November of 1957. There will be fan activities – including a fan forum with Champ Car folks, car displays, a tribute to 1957 and so on, culminating with an old fashioned sock hop in the Red Bull Hospitality Center Saturday night.

This is such a great opportunity to see the stars and cars of the premier open-wheel road racing series in the country. The highly-competitive Atlantic Series will be running the new Swift chassis with 300-horsepower Mazda power on the dry lake for the first time. And this year, the Atlantics are shod with a new tire supplier as Cooper Tires takes over following a super successful tenure with Yokohama.

After two days of Atlantic testing, the Champ Cars take over for the final open test session before the season begins April 6-8 on the streets of Las Vegas – a brand new event for the series this year.

More details are available in my weekly Pitstop column in the Monterey Herald. Please click on the following link to go to the column: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/sports/16817538.htm.

Further info on the Atlantics heading into the final two-day test today and Thursday can be found at the following link: http://www.champcaratlantic.com/News/Article.asp?ID=2788.

Read more on Champ Car testing at the following link, which chronicles Day 2 of the Houston open test: http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=11264.

Rainey to be Honored

Wayne Rainey, whose home with wife Shea and son Rex is in the hills just outside Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, is one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time. April 26 at Talladega, Rainey will get his due as he is inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (IMHOF).

Wayne, who won three consecutive 500cc World championships from 1990-1992 and a pair of AMA Superbike titles, was a major player in bringing MotoGP back to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Stay tuned for more on this well-deserved honor as well as a profile on the guy who heads my personal IHBHOF (International Human Being Hall of Fame).

The Mikeys

From time-to-time during a race weekend, we (the media) experience a bit of down time. With, really, nothing better to do, that can result in some interesting blogging. Two weekends ago and with the Oscars about to be awarded (I hope your favorite won), veteran Associated Press Motorsports Writer Mike Harris awarded his inaugural “Mikeys.”

Read all about it at the following link (scroll down to the Saturday, Feb. 24 item): http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPT_CAR_NASCAR_WEBLOG?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-02-28-22-28-50.