Top Engine Gets Overhaul

Who says don’t fix it if it ain’t broke? Technicians who build the successful Mercedes-Benz race engines at Ilmor Engineering are redesigning them.

The engine Mercedes teams will race in 1998 is being developed from a clean sheet of paper despite that the power plant used in 1997 won 40 percent of the races it entered.

That included winning nine of 17 races in CART’s PPG Cup series and six of 11 FIA GT championship events. But work on the new engine began even before the 1997 engine won a race.

“The level of competition in the CART series demands that we must continually improve our engines, which results in a new or heavily revised engine each year,” said Paul Ray, vice president of Ilmor.

“For 1998, we decided that a clean-sheet-of-paper approach was best because there was no way we could encompass all the new technology available in anything less than an all-new design,” he added.

Next generation

Seventeen-year-old Adam Petty represents the fourth generation of the North Carolina family hoping to make a living from NASCAR racing.

The youngster is the son of Winston Cup star Kyle Petty, grandson of stock car king Richard Petty and great grandson of NASCAR pioneer Lee Petty.

He’s learning the trade in late model stocks, but his father says it probably won’t be too long before Adam is ready for the top circuit.

“He might latch on and go for another 30 or 40 years,” Kyle said.

In print

Joe Gibbs Racing’s teams in NASCAR and the NHRA’s top fuel and funny car divisions will have an unusual sponsor in 1998.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hot Rod Magazine, Petersen Publications will be part of the sponsorship package for Gibbs’ teams, along with Interstate Batteries.

The Hot Rod Magazine logo will appear on both drag racing cars, as well as on Gibbs’ Pontiac stock car for three races.