USAR: New Jersey teenager to run Dodge Intrepid on USAR Tour

BORDENTOWN, NJ - Garden State teenager Danny Sammons will chase the Rookie of the Year Award on the 2001 USAR Hooters ProCup Series behind the wheel of a new Dodge Intrepid.

Sammons, 16, of Bordentown, N.J., is the first driver to enter a Dodge Intrepid on the burgeoning ProCup tour. He'll debut the HeartAttack, Inc. #39 at the 200-lap USAR Season Opener on Feb. 24 at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fla.

Dubbed "The Heart Attack Kid" during his wildly successful Quarter-Midget career, Sammons is beginning his third season of professional auto racing. He's coming off an impressive 2000 campaign on the southern-based Late Model Super Truck Series that saw him capture two feature wins, cop a pair of pole awards and finish second in the championship points standings.

Though Sammons lives in New Jersey, he will focus on the 14 events that comprise the Hooters ProCup Southern Series. He expects to enter only selected races on the Hooters ProCup Northern Series, which USAR is launching this season.

Sammons also hopes to compete in the season-ending USAR Four Champions Challenge Series, a five-event mini-tour of major shows that is open to the top-25 finishers in the Southern and Northern Series points standings. Drivers' results in the Four Champions Challenge Series will determine the 2001 Hooters ProCup national championship, worth $250,000.

In all, Sammons, an honor student in his junior year at Bordentown High School, expects to race in states up-and-down the East Coast, including Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

All Hooters ProCup events will be taped for a weekly Thursday-night, prime-time broadcast on the ever-growing SpeedVision cable network. The two-hour television programs will be rebroadcast twice within 24 hours of their original airing.

Sammons's southern concentration is a result of his team's homebase. His parents, Lenny and Debbie, own the Heart Attack, Inc., racing operation, but the cars are housed and maintained in a new shop located in Summerville, S.C. In addition, Sammons's crew chief for the second consecutive season is Rodney Burgett of Summerville, S.C., who is collaborating with Heart Attack, Inc., team manager Joe Pratt of Deptford, N.J., in expanding Sammons's Super Truck effort to tackle the ProCup Series.

Two Laughlin-chassied cars will be at Sammons's disposal. The Dodge Intrepid bodies were built by Bryan Berry of PERC in Terrell, N.C., and Bill Richardson's RAM Racing Engines of Lynchburg, Va., have constructed the team's Dodge powerplants.

Heart Attack, Inc., is currently searching for a title sponsor.

Among the team's associate backers is Fred's Trailer Repair in Delran, N.J., which is owned by veteran Northeast racer Fred Kennedy. Last year Kennedy competed in the URC Sprint Car ranks, but he's retiring from regular driving and will sponsor Sammons's motor program.

Other associates include Haulmark Industries and Tommy Gale Trailers, who are helping the team debut a new 48-foot Haulmark trailer that can carry three cars; Area Auto Racing News (aarn.com) in Trenton, N.J.; ABE Fence of Coplay, Pa.; Jim Boggs Auto Collision of Woodbury, NJ and Bill's Printing of Trenton, N.J.

- Len Sammons