HARVICK GOES BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL

“A Night Out with Kevin Harvick” will be held at Stramler Park in Bakersfield, Calif. on June 18 at 6 p.m. The dinner is a fundraiser for North High School’s wrestling program. Tickets are $55 for adults, $15 for kids 3-10. An auction will be held and there will be live music. No information if Harvick will be available to a couple of turns ‘round the dance floor. For more information go to www.kernhigh.org/north. [05/15/08]

RAIN TAKES TOLL ON WoO EVENTS

Donny Schatz and the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) team continue to fight Mother Nature in the 2008 Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint series. Following two more rainouts this past weekend, Schatz and his TSR teammate, Kraig Kinser, travel east for a busy week of action that includes four races scheduled over six nights.

The WoO schedule resumes on Tuesday with an event at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., on the western side of the Keystone State. It then moves to Central Pennsylvania for a pair of races at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg on Thursday and Friday nights. An event at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y., on Sunday night concludes the week’s slate of action.

With 12 of the first 19 events falling victim to weather-related problems, gaining a rhythm has been a difficult task for the two-time defending champion who drives the TSR No. 15 Armor All/Chevy/ParkerStore J&J. Schatz is coming off his first WoO win of the season on May 3 at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway and is looking forward to returning to tracks where he’s had a lot of success in the past. [05/15/08]

CORVETTE TEAM RACES IN UTAH BEFORE HEADING TO LeMANS

After back-to-back races on concrete-lined street circuits, the Corvette Racing team will revel in the wide-open spaces of Miller Motorsports Park, the site of Sunday's American Le Mans Series Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix. Although the team has raced twice previously at the facility near Salt Lake City, this will be the first ALMS race held on the circuit's fast 3.048-mile, 15-turn perimeter course. The two previous ALMS events held at Miller Motorsports Park were contested on the track's twisting 24-turn, 4.5-mile configuration.

The Utah Grand Prix is a crucial event for Corvette Racing because it is the final rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the centerpiece of the Chevrolet factory team's program. Miller Motorsports Park's high-speed turns and wide, smooth surface replicate the conditions that Corvette Racing will encounter on the immense 8.5-mile Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans on June 14-15. But with the twin Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars scheduled to be flown to France just days after the Utah event, it's imperative that they roll into their transporters unscathed at the conclusion of the two-hour, 45-minute race.

"While the infield course at Miller Motorsports Park is very challenging because there are so many turns, racing on the perimeter course is a better tune-up for Le Mans," said Steve Wesoloski, GM Racing Road Racing Group manager. "At more than three miles in length, the outer circuit is still a long track by most standards, and the addition of the new Turn 7 will make it a very fast course. Eliminating several of the tight corners in the infield should produce a cleaner race with fewer incidents. Our top priority is to have the race cars ready to air freight to Le Mans in three days."

"Without doubt it's a good warm-up for Le Mans," said defending GT1 co-champion Oliver Gavin, driver of the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R. "It's a circuit that has a good long straight, some reasonably high-speed corners, and we can run our Le Mans tire specification for the last time before we go to France. It's a good place for us to run.

"I think the new track configuration for the Utah Grand Prix is going to be a very fast circuit," the Briton noted. "Every driver likes a high-speed track, and it's very different to what we had in the Long Beach and St. Petersburg street circuits. It will be nice to get back into 100 mph corners, will be good fun to stretch the legs of the Corvette C6.R again."

While the team's eyes are on the Le Mans prize, there is still an ALMS championship to be decided. After three rounds of the 11-race series, Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell hold a four-point lead over Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the GT1 drivers’ championship on the strength of two victories.
 
The American Le Mans Series Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, will be held on Sunday, May 18, at 1:05 p.m. MT. SPEED will broadcast the two-hour, 45-minute race live at 3 p.m. ET.  (photo courtesy General Motors Corp.) [05/15/08]