Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LV drag race has Marnell excited

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 10:38 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. His golf notebook appears Wednesday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

As much as Pro Stock driver George Marnell is looking forward to the second half of the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series season, the Las Vegas resident is more eager to see the 2000 season roll around.

Marnell, 14th in the NHRA Pro Stock point standings, said he believes he may have an advantage on the competition in the upcoming races as the weather warms up and the tracks become more slippery.

But what Marnell really is looking forward to is the 2000 debut of the NHRA national series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next spring.

"We're all really looking forward to that," Marnell said of the Las Vegas NHRA event, which is expected to be held next April. "I think Las Vegas is a natural for racing. Drag racing, especially on the West Coast, has always been a real popular thing and by being involved in it in Las Vegas, I know a lot of people are real, real interested in it and everybody wants to come to Las Vegas.

"It's a natural -- we have plenty of rooms, we have something to do at night. It's a real touristy town, unlike some of the places we go, and I think it's going to be highly successful. I'm surprised that this hasn't happened before."

Marnell, 48, said there will be only one drawback to competing at home.

"It's a little bit distracting more than anything else because a lot of (my friends) haven't had a chance to visit some of these tracks out of town and have never really got to see me race in person," he said.

"I know a lot of them are looking forward to getting out there and I'm looking forward to seeing them. But it also is a little distracting from the mission at hand, but we're just going to have to deal with it."

Marnell will be part of the Speedway's announcement of the event next Tuesday, as will other NHRA stars. He hopes to become more intimately involved in the development of the new drag strip here.

"I'd like to get involved with them testing on this track and making sure that it's flat and it's smooth and it does the things it's supposed to do," Marnell said.

"Because Top Fuel cars have 300-inch wheel base, they go over bumps -- believe it or not, even though they've got another 100 miles an hour on us -- a whole lot better than these 100-inch wheel base Pro Stock cars. If there's a bump or a dip, that Pro Stock car is going to feel it."

Marnell, who owns Marnell Masonry in Las Vegas, hopes to smooth out the bumps in a season that has seen him dip from sixth earlier this year to 14th in the Pro Stock points.

"We started off this year like gangbusters, we really started off well," Marnell said of his Tenneco Automotive/Dynamax Performance Exhausts Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. "We had been qualifying real well, then we went through kind of a little bit of a (slump) where we missed a couple races as far as qualifying for a couple of races."

Marnell has teamed with two-time Pro Stock champion Jim Yates the past two years to develop their own engines, and Marnell said the results of that partnership is beginning to pay dividends.

Earlier this season, Marnell set the fourth-quickest run in NHRA Pro Stock history at 6.86 seconds (at 199.87 mph) in Richmond, Va., -- only two-hundredths of a second off the national record.

"We're real optimistic because we have been doing quite a bit on engine development," he said. "Yates and I have the same engine development program and we're turning out some real good power there. I think things are pretty much on track, but it gets more and more competitive out here every single year.

"I'm not unhappy with where things are, but I would obviously like to be a little further along. We're capable of stepping up there and competing with the best of them because the car is capable of winning any weekend."

Marnell, who still is in search of his first Pro Stock win, said he believes it could come in the second half of the season -- with a little luck. The series kicks off the second half with this weekend's Mile High Nationals in Denver.

"We're going to get into some tracks now that, because of the hot weather, have a tendency to be a little bit on the greasy side and a little slippery," Marnell said.

"I think our combination is probably a little better than some of the others out there so I feel pretty good about going into Denver and Sonoma and Seattle and some of the hot-weather tracks where traction seems to be a problem a lot of times. Our combination is better getting down a greasy track than some of the other guys. Definitely don't count us out, we're going to be there ... we just need a break here or there."

* NASCAR: Despite wrist, leg and rib injuries suffered in a crash two weeks ago, Mark Martin tested his Valvoline Ford Taurus this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dale Jarrett posted the fastest lap (179.154 mph) in preparation for the Aug. 7 Brickyard 400. Jeff Burton had the second-fastest speed at 178.260 and Martin was third quickest at 178.260.

* CART: Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser will unveil a new Superman paint scheme on his Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard/Honda in Sunday's Molson Indy in Toronto. ...

Richie Hearn of Henderson said in a magazine interview that it is tougher to run in the top 15 in CART than it is to be in the top five in the rival Indy Racing League.

Hearn, who won the inaugural IRL race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1996, said of the victory, "It was not that tough. I beat Robby (Gordon), but other than that, the competition was not there." ...

Alex Barron has been released from his contract with Dan Gurney's All American Racers and will drive for Roger Penske in the U.S. 500 July 25 at Michigan. Gurney will continue with Gualter Salles as driver for the remainder of the season.

* IRL: ABC Sports and ESPN2 will televise the final two races of the IRL season, including the Sept. 26 race from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, after Fox Sports Network agreed to an early termination of its contract.

The Las Vegas race will be shown on ESPN2 and the starting time has been moved up to 11:30 a.m. from 1 p.m. ...

Henderson resident Sam Schmidt and his wife Sheila are the proud parents of a baby boy, born to the couple at approximately 5:30 a.m. last Sunday.

"I actually predicted a boy," Schmidt said earlier this week. "Since we didn't know what the baby was going to be, we waited on names, so currently we are just calling him 'Savannah's brother.'

"We have a very large list of names, so we are going to wait and see if his personality fits something on our list. Our daughter Savannah (1 year old) doesn't quite know what to think of him yet."

The newest Schmidt weighed in at 6 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 20.5 inches.

Schmidt, who is coming off back-to-back podium finishes, and his Treadway Racing team are in Atlanta this weekend for the running of the Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

* BACKMARKERS: Bob Gobrecht has resigned as president and chief executive officer of the Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Association less than 10 months after assuming the post. It is the circuit's fourth significant change of command in the past two years.

Dr. Ken Muscatel, the hydros' acting commissioner, will take on Gobrecht's administrative duties in the interim. ...

Scott Gafforini of Las Vegas earned a $1,000 bonus for leading the Competition Percentage Index (CPI) in the Sunbelt Region of the NASCAR Winston Racing Series. Gafforini has collected six victories in 11 starts in the NASCAR Late Model division at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 3/8-mile paved oval. ...

LVMS will hold a fan appreciation night Saturday evening at the 3/8-mile paved oval. The NASCAR Winston Racing Series program will feature prizes for every fan and special giveaways including two tickets to the Indy Racing League and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events at LVMS in September.

The evening will be highlighted by two 30-lap NASCAR Late Model features; the Grand American Modifieds, Limited Late Models, Legends, and Bandoleros are also slated to compete. Spectator gates open at 5 p.m. and racing starts at 7:45.

archive