Following are pictures from Langley....
Hammerhead Cleaning Frenzy's own Jessie
Buckman sang the National
Anthem!
SUPPORT MADE IN U.S.A.
During Geoff's trip to Virginia Beach, he visited the Seabees at the Little Creek Naval Amphib Base. Click on thumbnail to enlarge photo.
only recently moved to Virginia on May 3, 1980, when he drove a white
No. 99 Pontiac into Langley's victory lane.
To get there, he twice scraped sheet metal with teammate and Langley legend
Sonny Hutchins in the 100-lapper. Bodine had long been an open-wheel
Modified
star in the Northeast, but his first win against a local favorite
was not a popular one.
"None of them liked getting beat by a Yankee," Bodine, an upstate New York
native, reminisced this week. "Those are great memories."
Bodine, 56, competed at Langley one more season before he drove off to
NASCAR glory, winning 37 poles and 18 races, including the 1986 Daytona 500.
He'll return to Langley for the first time in 24 years next Saturday, when
he'll drive the No. 97 Chevy Monte Carlo in a 75-lap Late Model race. While
at Langley,
he'll launch Geoffrey Bodine's Waxing Frenzy, an automotive wax.
Bodine is part owner of Hammerhead Cleaning Frenzy of Virginia Beach, which
manufactures and distributes the wax. Rob and Kim Amos, the husband-wife
team who founded Hammerhead and helps sponsor the vehicle, asked Bodine to
race at Langley and promote his wax.
Bodine also will display one of the Bo-Dyn bobsleds that he designed and
built for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. The U.S. women's team steered a
Bodine-built bobsled to a two-person gold medal in the 2002 Olympics, while the U.S. men rode his four-man bobsled to silver and bronze medals. Bodine
said he'll soon announce that 10 NASCAR drivers will race his bobsleds the
first week of January in a special televised event.
But the visit is not strictly about promotions and autograph-signing. Car
owner Steve Burke is putting a new engine under the hood of the Chevy so
Bodine can
race hard, just like in the old days.
"I understand I'll have a pretty good car," Bodine said of the vehicle
usually driven by rookie Craig Brown. "But I know the guys who are used to
the cars and the
equipment at Langley are going to have the upper hand."
Langley's regulars say it's going to be a thrill to go door-to door against
a driver ranked among the 50 best in Cup history.
"What's really cool is that Bodine is taking this race seriously," said
Shawn Balluzzo, who is third in Late Model points this season. "I have a lot
of respect
for him. He's a great driver who's done a lot for the sport and
has experience here at Langley."
Bodine ran in eight Busch Series events early this season for an owner with
little money, after racing five times in Cup last season for a small-budget
outfit.
But given decent wheels, Bodine can still get around with the best of them.
In 2002, he finished third in the Daytona 500 racing for a part-time team.
"If a good opportunity came along, I'd love to be racing again," he said.
"But in today's world, teams and owners want younger guys. I'm what you'd
call an
experienced driver."
Heck, in the increasingly youth-oriented Nextel Cup universe, Bodine
would've been considered ancient the night he beat Hutchins. He was 31 then,
in the days
when driving ability trumped marketability as entry to stock car
racing's big time.
"I had some great battles at Langley, against guys like Hutchins, Tommy
Ellis, Jack Ingram, Sam Ard and Jack Bland," he said. "It's going to be a
heck of a lot
of fun to come back there."
THIS JUST IN..............NASCAR Drivers Bobsled Race
The Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project announced Monday that it will organize a bobsled race involving 10 NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series drivers. The event will
take place Jan. 5-9, 2006 in Lake Placid, N.Y.
NASCAR veteran Geoff Bodine created the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project in 1992 after watching the 1992 Winter Olympic Games on television and noticing that USA
Bobsled athletes competed with
European-made sleds. At that time, the USA team had not won a medal since the
1956 Winter Games in Cortina, Italy.
Bodine set out on a quest of a “Made in America” sled project that would provide
USA Bobsled athletes with sleds designed involving NASCAR technology. He
contacted good friend Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics to design the new sleds, hence the name Bo for Bodine and Dyn for Chassis Dynamics. At the 1994
games in Lillehammer the USA teams used the new Bo-Dyn sleds but still had no medal results. In 1998, the USA teams missed a medal by two hundredths of
a second.
The USA teams broke the drought at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games by winning both silver and bronze in the four-man competitions, along with gold in the
women’s competition. The USA team is now a constant medal winner on the World Cup circuit and the Bo-Dyn sleds are known as one of the best in the world,
with their signature quietness when they are compared to other sleds coming down the mountain.
Bodine now feels that it is time for his fellow NASCAR drivers to have a chance to drive a sled like he has and he wants to use the race as a fundraiser for the
Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project Inc. “With another track being built for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, I need to take the project to the next
level, “says Bodine the 1986 Daytona 500 winner along with 18 other NASCAR wins. “Like NASCAR, the sport is about racing, rules and changes in technology,
which mandates research and development and costs money. I need some other NASCAR people to assist me with the project. The best way is to get them into a bobsled environment and give them a feel for the sport. They will not be disappointed.”
The drivers will not be going from the top of the track with the standard Bo-Dyn sleds, but from the two-thirds start in training sleds that will still see speeds of 50
miles per hour. The sleds will be painted in the colors and with the sponsors of each driver.
Following the competition, the Geoffrey Bodine Bobsled Fantasy Camp will begin giving NASCAR fans a chance to drive these same sleds, adding to the weekend’s festivities.
Bodine also feels that with the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy just a month after the event, the timing is perfect, as it will drive NASCAR interest in
watching the United States compete in his Bo-Dyn sleds.
“It’s also a great weekend for both NASCAR teams, drivers and fans to come together in a different type of racing”, added Bodine. “Just after Christmas and the
New Year, the NASCAR family is, in general, looking for some way to get back out and compete”.
Bodine has spoken to many drivers and received very positive feed back. One of the drivers, Boris Said, is very excited and stated that he could not wait for the opportunity.
“
My father (Bob Said) was an Olympic bobsled driver at the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Japan,” remarked Said. “I used to ride sleds in Lake Placid and it is the fastest
and most exciting racing experience I have ever had without a motor.”New York Olympic Regional Development Authority President and CEO Ted Blazer added, “We are very excited to have this event at our venue. We feel that Lake
Placid is to
bobsledding what Daytona is to auto racing. The drivers and fans will be
welcomed here with open arms.”