IRL: Loudon entry list notes

• "Lee A. Driggers"
• MNI - Motorsport News International
• Tue Aug 6 22:50:02 EDT 1996

For Immediate Release

CARS ENTERED FOR IRL SEASON-OPENING TRUE VALUE 200

INDIANAPOLIS, August 5, 1996 -- Indy Racing League reigning co-champions
Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins and Indianapolis 500 winners Buddy Lazier and
Arie Luyendyk head a list of 23 drivers named to rides for the Aug. 18 True
Value 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway, it was announced today.

A total of 35 cars have been entered for the IRL's 1996-97 season opener,
the League's first race at the one-mile NHIS oval.  The race, to be aired
live by ABC Sports and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, is
scheduled for 3 p.m. (EDT, 2 p.m. Indy) Sunday, Aug. 18.  Boston Celtics
legend Larry Bird will serve as Grand Marshal for the event.  Tickets for
the True Value 200 are available by calling 603/783-4931.

Sharp, a Norwalk, Conn., native, returns to his New England roots in the #1
championship-winning Conseco Lola-Ford Cosworth car for AJ Foyt Enterprises.
The Loudon track's road course was the site of Sharp's first Sports Car Club
of America race, which he won at age 18.

Lazier, who won the 80th Indianapolis 500 this May, also returns to his
roots, having been graduated from Curry College in Milton, Mass.  The
Hemelgarn Racing team has additional connections in the region through both
Delta Faucet and Super Fitness, primary sponsors of the #91 car fielded by
owner Ron Hemelgarn.

Calkins, the winner of the IRL's inaugural race at Walt Disney World in
January 1996, will take the wheel of the Bradley Motorsports entry that
carried him to a share of the IRL drivers title.  Luyendyk, the 1990
Indianapolis 500 winner who now holds the one-lap, four-lap and 500-mile
speed records at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, returns with Treadway Racing.

Several drivers named to True Value 200 entries have raced championship cars
previously at Loudon.  They include Sharp, Luyendyk, Lazier, Roberto
Guerrero, Mike Groff, Eddie Cheever and Marco Greco.  The race also marks
the comeback ride of Stan Wattles, who was sidelined from finishing the
first IRL season by a practice crash at Phoenix.  Wattles teams with series
rookie Randy Tolsma for McCormack Motorsports' new IRL program.

Team Scandia has the most entries on the list (four), with three solo
entries (for Formula One veterans Eliseo Salazar and Michele Alboreto and
France's Stephan Gregoire) and one shared entry (Greco with Arizona
Motorsports).  Team Menard follows with four cars, two each for 1996
Indianapolis 500 pole starter Tony Stewart and Mark Dismore. 

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