Richard Petty Motorsports laid off nine employees Monday and reduced salaries throughout the organization, a byproduct of Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing.
RPM officials took the measures because of anticipated cutbacks from Dodge, a person familiar with the moves told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding RPM’s contract with Chrysler.
Chrysler, Dodge’s parent company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
In an interview Monday before the organizational cuts, team co-owner Richard Petty acknowledged a disruption to the race team since Chrysler’s April 30 filing.
“Everybody sets up a budget of what to do. All of a sudden… Details
Patrick Long is known as a consummate sportscar racer but the Porsche factory driver has expanded his resume in 2009 to include stock cars. To date, he’s driven in three NASCAR Camping World Series East races — one road course and two oval-track events. And the glib California native has done very well, including a near-win at Watkins Glen International over the weekend.
“I grew up around street racing, midgets and sprint cars,” Long said. “While I have made my trade in sports cars, someone saw my talent and asked, ‘Would you want to try a road course in a stock car?’ I said sure as I am the kind of guy that wants to race in everything from the Baja, to rally’s to championship indoor races. My goal is to …Â Details
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A University of Minnesota team and its car, called Centaurus, lapped the competition at a race in Texas.
Adem Rudin always loved airplanes and rockets. Still does. Then, just before he began studying aerospace engineering at the University of Minnesota, he spotted solar cars.
He found them to be “really frickin’ cool.”
Four years later, Rudin has helped lead the university’s solar car team to a victory at the 2009 Formula Sun Grand Prix…Â Details
When drag racing in sand, to wait for the green light is to lose.Â
A light fixture separates two lanes of sand, each 100 yards long, clumped and stained with rubber and exhaust. A row of yellow bulbs shines, then another: On your marks. Less than a second passes, the exact duration unpredictable. Then an orange light flashes: Get set. This is the crucial moment of acceleration. In another four-hundredths of a second the green light will signal go, the front end of the dragster in the next lane will rise up like a taunted beast and an awful lot of dirty sand will color the sky…Â DetailsÂ