DC's May Day perspective
!CAN SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A CAR?
Oops
Mark Martin, an accomplished sports and stock car racer, is going to be at Rusty Wallace's mid-July Iowa Speedway Rolex Series race - it's just that no one yet knows what he'll be racing, including Mark Martin.
Really, it shouldn't be a secret to anyone that drivers of Mark Martin's caliber are paid to drive. And that includes one-off sportscar races.
Usually, it's the car owner who ponies up the cash for the "celebrity" driver. This time it was Iowa Speedway - reportedly between $75,000 and $100,000.
When Rusty Wallace made his retirement announcement a couple of years ago in the Daytona USA theater, two dominant themes arose among the many speakers: Wallace is an excellent racer and, once he understood how to make money in things "racing" (legend has it from Dale Earnhardt), Wallace became one of the best at that aspect, too.
It should come as no surprise that Wallace made sure some good people were at Iowa Speedway's helm when the 1.3-mile road-course track broke ground and that those people aren't there to make the track a break-even deal.
Few outside of the track elite know who among the Iowa Speedway insiders decided to engage Mark Martin's driving services, but that someone evidently did it without first learning in which car Mark Martin might drive.
Right now, supposedly no one knows -- though at least a couple of teams have been mentioned.
Rumor has it that Kevin Doran's No. 77 Kodak Doran-Ford is one prospect and Wayne Taylor has offered to come out of semi-retirement and run a second SunTrust Riley-Pontiac car.
(Um, Wayne, there's this 16-year-old racer who happens to share your last name. Ricky's kicking butt in Skip Barber and you might want to consider him, even though he is a lot taller than Mark Martin.)
Also among the ride questions: what will be done about Mark Martin getting some practice time in whatever he may run? The Rolex Series' marquee Daytona Prototype isn't exactly something one can hop into inasmuch as it's not a point-and-shoot, total ground-effects car. It actually demands some finesse.
Mark Martin fans need not fear, at least as of this writing, he'll be there -- if nothing else but to cheer after possibly parking a DP in record time.
See more at www.motorsport.com
