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TRAC announces SMI partnership, unveils cars

The Team Racing Auto Circuit (TRAC) racing series today announced an alliance with Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), the owner of several of the nation's premier racing tracks. TRAC's 2003 inaugural season will include two races at each of SMI's ...

The Team Racing Auto Circuit (TRAC) racing series today announced an alliance with Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), the owner of several of the nation's premier racing tracks. TRAC's 2003 inaugural season will include two races at each of SMI's five major stock car ovals in Bristol TN, Charlotte NC, Atlanta GA, Ft. Worth TX, and Las Vegas NV. TRAC expects to add other racetracks to their schedule before the season begins in early April 2003 with a race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Series officials plan for approximately 15 races in their first season schedule, plus a championship race and an all-star event.

The TRAC series' cars were also presented at today's announcement. Riley & Scott Race Car Engineering, builders of the TRAC car, showed three examples, clothed in bodywork representing a Chevrolet Corvette, a Dodge Viper and a Ford Mustang. The cars have Kevlar body panels wrapped around a tube-frame chassis, and contain a 7-liter, fuel-injected V8 engine supplied by Katech Engineering. These engines, which will produce 600-625 horsepower, are supplied to the teams as sealed units, all previously tested to be as equal as possible. TRAC spokesman Cale Yarborough, and test drivers Andy Hillenberg and Tony Ave were present to drive a few laps of the Lowe's ¼ mile course at today's introduction.

TRAC, a creation of Team Sports Entertainment, Inc., will bring a city-based team concept to stock car racing's heartland with a minimum of ten three-car teams, each carrying the name of a participating US city or other geographic area. "Texas Torch", "Las Vegas Rollers", and "Carolina Storm" are some of the proposed team names. Each team will purchase the rights for the geographic region (for $6 million), and will pay $2.5 million for the cars and transporters and will purchase $2.5 million in equity in the league.

The league will operate similarly to many other professional sports leagues, with "players" (drivers) selected through a draft system. TRAC officials have received over 1500 applications from interested drivers, and will choose approximately 500 drivers to form the initial selection pool. Each team will select six drivers from the pool, three primary and three backups.

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