Motorola Cup announces 2001 schedule

October 26, 2000 - The Motorola Cup Series presented by NewTech Group International announced today its 10 race calendar for the 2001 racing season. The world's premiere street stock series will enter its fourth season, coming off a very successful 2000 campaign that saw purses swell and entries grow to over 110 cars.

Since the series inception in 1998, average fields have grown from 28 to 60 cars, prize money has increased almost 500%, and the Motorola Cup television audience has multiplied from 28 million households in North America to 215 million homes internationally.

The series, sanctioned by Grand-American Road Racing, will support Grand-Am events through the summer, for the first six races, before breaking off to Mosport for a race with the ALMS and then on to a west coast swing at the end of the season. The schedule debuts with a race at the famed Rolex 24 hour event in Daytona, FL., on February 2, then heads south in the sunshine state for a March 3 race at Homestead-Miami speedway, in conjunction with the Grand-Am Nextel 250 and a round of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Next, the series will head north to Watkins Glen, NY for round 3 on May 19. June 9 is a return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as part of the US Road Racing Classic, and then on to Road America for the Road America 500 event, with a three-hour race on July 7.

New to the Motorola Cup schedule this year is the 32nd running of the famous Grand-Prix de Trois-Rivières, featuring a Motorola Cup race on August 4. The series last visited the streets of Trois-Rivières in 1999. Round 7 of the 2001 season will be held August 18 at Mosport International Raceway as part of the American Le Mans Series event.

The season will end October 28 in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the weekend prior to the 2001 SEMA show. The two "to be announced" dates leading up to Las Vegas will likely include at least one CART date on the west coast. Races will be three hours in length, with the exception of Trois-Rivières and one of the TBA CART events.

"We are very happy with the 2001 schedule. We think it includes the best events from 2000, and has some nice additions with the west coast swing," said Eric Berman, series General Manager. "For the past three seasons, we have been based predominantly on the east coast, and we've been waiting for the right opportunity to expand into the western part of the country. This schedule provides some great opportunities to put our show in front of a large new audience."