Busch Series Goes South of the Border....

[Ldawg]

for the TELCEL MOTOROLA MEXICO 200 at the AUTODROMO HERMANOS RODRIQUEZ near Mejico City ( yep the same track that's on your PS2 Labonte/Jarrett game )

If you have the game you know that it is 2.78 mi.s of LONG STRAIGHT AWAYS AND HIGH SPEED CORNERS w/ some ESSES thrown in for fun ...this promises to be one WILDASS Race .

I smells a wagering op here !!

checkout the site and tell us what you think....
http://www.mexico200.com/02/

PS - I hear that the TACO'S are fantastic .... Uno Cerveza Por Favor'

[mike650]

Hey LDAWG..Looks great..Looks like a few NASCAR drivers will be there also..Question do you think in the next year or 2 That NASCAR car will actually run a nextel race there along with bush or Trucks????

[mike650]

One other question which Track would you compare this Track to in Nextel cup .Is there one you can compare it to ..Like Bristol or some other track

[Ldawg]

One other question which Track would you compare this Track to in Nextel cup .Is there one you can compare it to ..Like Bristol or some other track

Hey Mike , I don't know if Nascar will take their Nextel Cup cars to Mejico ...seems they are TESTING the waters w/ the Busch cars . A lot of Nextel guys are going down . I think it is noteable the absence of some good Road Course guys like Stewart and Gordon . Did you look at the layout of the track ?
The site above has a map and a even better map at :

http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/ahr/index.html

Sounds funny ...but I had two different Racing games with this track on it ( Jarrett/Labonte and TOCA (?) Racing by CODEMASTERS ) these game guys go to GREAT lengths to make the tracks as realistic (true to form ) as possible ! And this AHR track is ONE HIGH SPEED BAD HOMBRE' , the speed you can carry into a LOT of the TURNS is amazing !!

I don't think there IS a track in America that you can compare it to ... I think the closest thing would be The Nuremburg Ring
in Germany !!
I'm thinking of laying early hunch bets on road course guys , Ron Fellows and Robbie Gordon . It will be interesting to see how the Hispanic Guys do , they probably have a lot of track time at this venue . Anyone that has any info on the Mexican Drivers , please pass it on !
I really do think this will be ONE AWESOME RACE !!
gl

[mike650]

Hey LDawg.Thanks for the info .Yea i never saw the course before checking it out It is more like a road course then anything else.I thought it was an oval one but looking at it I would agrre with you if your going to make a few bets like i think we both will the road course guys would be the way to go .The only thing i would be worried about is the Mexican Drivers. I have never heard of any of these guys .I guess the best way to find some info would be a gogle search or something like that .I would like to see some lines on then to ,To see who they are paired with .Good stuff for sure
Good luck
Mike

[Ldawg]

yep ... if you turn up anything on those guys , be sure to post it !! gl mike

[Ldawg]

Mexican handoff
Fernandez, Jourdain carry the banner as Busch Series ventures into Mexico City

BY NATE RYAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 1, 2005


Because of new rules that guarantee their cars' entry, Adrian Fernandez and Michel Jourdain will have no worries about making Sunday's first Busch Series race in Mexico City.


But truthfully, they had few concerns about qualifying on their home turf anyway.

"The fans will guarantee whether we're in," Fernandez said, smiling as laughter filled the room of a news conference at Daytona International Speedway last month. "If we're not in, we'll be in trouble, I can tell you that!"

Open-wheel veterans Jourdain and Fernandez are among 10 native sons who will provide a rooting interest for a crowd of at least 150,000 that is expected for the historic race. The event is central in NASCAR's thrust toward gaining a foothold in a Latin American fan market largely untapped by stock-car racing.

By putting Mexican stars in its cars, NASCAR is hoping to expand its popularity in the country and with 30 million Mexican-American whose passion for auto racing ranks high with boxing and soccer.

"The fans are rabid," said Chip Ganassi, who has fielded Champ Car and Indy Racing League cars in races south of the border for several years. "They love racing, and they love the automobile. They identify with so many American [makes]."

Felix Sabates, a Cuban native who is a partner with Ganassi in the Dodge that Jamie McMurray will drive in Mexico City, was instrumental in using connections with the Mexican government to help NASCAR schedule the event. Sabates said he jokingly told McMurray "there'll be 300,000 of us there. If one of you gringos touches one of the Mexicans' cars, it will be hard. When you see them coming, pull over!"

"Mexicans love following Mexicans," Sabates said. "So if you have a following in Mexico City, the Mexicans are going to follow NASCAR. You open a whole new market of people to follow NASCAR."

Jourdain is expecting the Busch race to be the year's biggest race in Mexico, which also flocks to Champ Car and Indy Racing League events in six-figure crowds.

The main draw of the Busch event will be Fernandez. The 41-year-old has been a national hero since the early 1990s when he broke into the major leagues of Indy cars in the United States.

"It's been almost 15 years that he's been on the ****** of the news all the time," Jourdain said. "It's something that we don't have that often in Mexico. It's been a soccer player and a couple of boxers that have had that.

"Adrian is huge, and I think compared with a lot of big names in sports in the history of Mexico, he's tried to be closer to the people and the media, and he has kept himself in a good position. A lot of these other guys after five years, they go crazy [from the attention]."

"Not yet," Fernandez quipped.

Fernandez's popularity has been compared with Michael Jordan in a country where the variety of sports isn't as vast as in America. His decision to step back from driving and focus on being an owner in the IRL this year because of a lack of sponsorship has drawn waves of protest from his following.

"They're very passionate," Fernandez said. "They're so passionate, they want to consult with me sometimes on what I do."

After a victory in a Champ Car race at Australia in 2000, his sales shot up 40 percent the following weekend at California Speedway, which sits in a market teeming with Latino fans.

Lowe's is sponsoring Fernandez on Sunday, and Senior Vice President of Marketing Bob Gfeller said his company will be tracking sales among multicultural customers in the Southwest. He expects to see a spike in Latino buying from backing a driver "who is known as only 'Adrian'" in his home country.

Lowe's will offer free Fernandez hero cards and will hold a drawing for an autographed helmet at stores in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix and El Paso, Texas.

Racing in the Hendrick Motorsports No.5 Chevrolet that carried Kyle Busch to five victories last year, Fernandez wants to do his part to justify all that attention Sunday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.

"I'm in a top-class car," Fernandez said. "I know the circuit.

"I expect to win."

[Ldawg]

More NASCAR scoop ...

http://www.nascar.com/2005/news/head...ico/index.html