Paved ovals have been placed on a financial red alert. Times are tough for America's asphalt bullrings even while dirt tracks seem to be thriving, primarily due to the popularity of sprint car racing. Stephen Cox talks with Scott Kosak.
I was recently talking with the owner of a well-known asphalt late-model Touring Series who made a remarkable observation. Here is a guy who has been in auto racing his entire life, and when offered an opportunity to operate a racetrack he responded, “You'v...
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Stephen Cox
ROCKSTEADY RACING: STEPHEN COX TO COMPETE IN WRL!
After competing on oval tracks for the past three seasons, Stephen Cox returns to long distance endurance racing this year with Rocksteady Racing.
Rocksteady Racing will participate in World Racing League (WRL) events including the 16-hour enduro that will comprise the final race ever run at Texas World Speedway on May 30-31. Cox will join Rocksteady's four-driver team for the two-day race. The historic venue, which opened in 1969, closes permanently just days after the event.
Rocksteady Rac...
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BARN FIND: SHELBY GROUP 2 SCCA MUSTANG!
Stephen Cox blogs about the sixteenth ’66 Mustang A/Sedan racer built by Shelby,
but never raced.
Originally painted in Ford's familiar Wimbledon White, the car was loaded with go-fast equipment during a lengthy process when it was converted from assembly line stock into a professional racing machine. Like the fifteen cars that preceded it, a K-Code 289/271 small-block powered this Shelby Mustang. In reality, it probably had far more power than that since Shelby's small block Fords ...
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SHORT TRACK: WILL AMERICAN OVAL RACING IMPLODE?
Stephen Cox blogs about the survival of the Super Cup Stock Car Series.
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that a short track series is advertising free admission at their upcoming season opener. The bad news is, of course, that a short track series is advertising free admission at their upcoming season opener.
By all means, please go to the Super Cup Stock Car Series race at CNB Bank Raceway on May 2nd in Clearfield, PA. It will be a truly great short track event and it won't ...
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E. J. VISO: NEW LIFE IN STADIUM TRUCKS!
Ex-Indycar racer keeps on truckin’, blogs Stephen Cox.
A few years ago the late Mike Stephens, then owner of the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma, helped me find a ride in an open-cockpit Toyota World Sports Racer. I had no experience in the type and missed the podium in consecutive races. A month later I switched to a sports car team and won the next event. After the race, Mike cruised by in his golf cart and shouted at me.
“Hey, Stephen! Now I know what's been wrong with you late...
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’69 DODGE CHARGER: AMAZING 162.8-MPH NUREMBERG DAYTONA!
Stephen Cox blogs about the first American car, a winged Charger Daytona, in Germany's prestigious Autobahn 250 club.
It was the mid-1970s. NASCAR's aerodynamic Supercars were a thing of the past. The great American muscle car had succumbed to a slow death, strangled by government regulations and absurd speed limits. The U.S. auto industry fell into its own Dark Age and would not emerge for another 20 years.
But in Nuremberg, Germany, a small band of merry rebels picked up where America le...
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PONTIAC TRANS-AM: LAST SURVIVING PROTOTYPE!
The only surviving Firebird Trans-Am prototype is alive and well thanks to a dedicated musclecar enthusiast, blogs Stephen Cox.
In the autumn of 1968, Pontiac Motor Division General Manager, John DeLorean, recruited California customizer Gene Winfield to create the “ultimate Firebird”. Winfield was flown to Pontiac Engineering in Michigan, then given a pair of brand new ‘69 Pontiac Firebirds and a free hand to re-design them as he saw fit. When Winfield's highly anticipated cars emerged from...
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HONDA’S AMAZING CB350: THE COLLECTION I SHOULDN’T HAVE!
Stephen Cox blogs about collecting stuff and his passion for Honda’s CB350.
I collect old Fords. I also collect racecars, knives, aviation books and those old plastic NFL helmets that you could buy in vending machines for a quarter in the 1970s. You know, the ones with the team stickers that always peeled off. I also collect Evel Knievel videos, ELO record albums and concert ticket stubs. I have other collections that I cannot recollect. Maybe I just collect collections?
The last thing I n...
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FORMULA E: THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW!
‘I’ll certainly be cheering for the series to succeed long term, but there are a few points to bear in mind along the way,' blogs Stephen Cox.
The new Formula E racing series for electric cars has done a lot of things right, as was evident by their first race in Beijing last weekend. The series already draws more entries than Formula One will have in 2015, and they've attracted known drivers including Nick Heidfeld, Takuma Sato, Jarno Trulli, Katherine Legge and others.
First of all, Form...
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PENSKE’S CAN-AM PORSCHE 917: THE FINAL CHAPTER!
Stephen Cox blogs about the most iconic of the thundering Turbo Porsche 917s.
Part VII: The Legacy.
“In two of the races – Atlanta and Elkhart Lake – the car lapped the entire field. That’s doing something. This was an unbelievable car.” – Chief mechanic John “Woody” Woodard.
Porsche enjoyed a dominance in 1972 that McLaren could only dream of. McLaren’s five-year stranglehold had been crushed, and Porsche had earned their first Can-Am Challenge Cup.
But many years passed before the pa...
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