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The Legend Cars
Legends car racing is a style of race car, designed primarily to promote exciting racing and to keep costs down. The bodyshells are 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s, powered by a Yamaha motorcycle engine. The sanctioning body for Legends car racing is called INEX. INEX stands for inexpensive racing.
Legends Cars are a "spec" series, meaning all cars are mechanically identical, with the exception of 3 styles of car (Standard coupe, 34 Coupe, and Sedan) available with 10 types of body styles. (New cars are currently offered with only 7 body styles, however many used cars exist with the "older" styles).
In 1992, Charlotte Motor Speedway (formerly Lowe's Motor Speedway) officials noticed a need for lower cost racing cars with little maintenance time and cost. They found such a car existed, in the guise of the motorcycle-engined Dwarf Car, a 5/8-scale, steel-bodied & fenderless '35 Ford coupe, which was being manufactured by the Dwarf Car Company in Phoenix, AZ. As the coupe concept wasn't exactly in line in what they were looking for and deeming steel replacement bodywork too costly, they adapted the Dwarf Car concept to fit their needs, creating cars resembling those of the 30s and 40s which competed in the early NASCAR Modified Tour races. To this day, the primary difference between the two cars is the Legends have fenders over the tires, whereas the Dwarfs have no fenders. The first Legend car was unveiled in April 1992 at Lowe's by track President and General Manager Humpy Wheeler and road racer Elliott Forbes-Robinson. Legends Cars are produced by US Legend Cars International. (Formerly 600 Racing, Inc.) in Harrisburg, North Carolina. They are the largest mass producer of race cars in the world.
(www.uslegendcars.com/)
Legend car racing around the world
Although the cars originated from the USA, other countries including Canada, England and Scotland also host championships. Each November, the World finals are held in the USA.
USA
Drivers can be classified into four different divisions. The Pro Division is for the experienced drivers. The Masters Division features drivers 40 years and older. The Semi-Pro Division is for drivers with less than two years of experience in a Legend, featuring the drivers that are new to the INEX Legend Car or have been inactive in other forms of racing for a while. Finally, there is the Young Lions Division, which is designated for drivers between the ages of 13 and 16. There are separate nationals for dirt and asphalt cars.
Legends Car drivers who have raced in NASCAR include Reed Sorenson, David Ragan, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, and Kurt Busch.
"Legends 86 Troy Hoff of Flasher ND" by Royalbroil - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
UK and Ireland
Running since the late 1990s, Legends Racing UK visit tracks all over the British Isles, and ran a 15 round championship, however they did not visit Scotland this year.
3 races are held – 2 heats and a final – at a round of the championship, the heats lasting between 7 and 12 laps depending on the circuit, with the final a few laps longer. The grid for race 1 is drawn by lots, with the reverse for Heat 2, and in the final the grid is formed by the reverse of the drivers points in the previous two races – meaning the most successful driver will start at the back. In each race however, all rookies start at the back of the grid.
Historically, Legends racers from the UK have performed well at the world finals, winning Semi-pro (Glenn Burtenshaw), Pro (John Jon Higgins) and masters divisions (Peter Morton).
In 2010, Simon Belcher and John Mickel finished 4th and 5th respectively in the World Finals Pro Division.
"Croft Circuit 1" by Mike Buck - Photo by Mike Buck. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Scotland
Brought to Scotland by Aly Hunter, and with only 6 cars taking to the grid in April 2000 at Knockhill, it is now the norm to find around 20 cars taking part, with 25 competing in the support races at the 2007 BTCC meeting. 2007 saw all of the races took place at Knockhill, but the series has organised “away” rounds at Croft, Oulton Park, Donington Park, Cadwell Park and Anglesey in recent years. The series observes the same race format rules as the UK Legends, however the races are 8 and 10 laps long for the heats and final respectively.
Legends are available for race or track hire at Knockhill.
Northern Europe
Legends have been racing in Finland since 1999 and Legends Trophy series have existed since 2000. The first cars came to Finland from defunct Swedish series. Since then, over 60 cars have been imported to Finland. Legends is currently the most popular racing class in Finland with over 40 cars in the grid regularly. In 2010 Seinäjoen Vauhtiajot street racing event saw the record breaking 54 Legends cars in the entry list.
The most successful racer in Finland is Pasi Matintupa, who won the Trophy three times in 2005–2007. In 2007 Rory Penttinen won the Legends Car World Finals at Infineon Raceway in pro class.
There's also an ice racing series for Legends Cars in Finland. Earlier Legends have been raced in rallycross and rally sprinting too.
Legends Cars Baltic racing run a FIA Northern European Zone cup, consisting mostly of Finns and Estonians. 2007 was the only season of this series. Currently in the FIA Northern European Zone there are Legends cars championships in Finland, Russia and Denmark, but no NEZ series.
Central Europe
Legends have been raced in France since 2004. and have supported the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours; also in Belgium and Spain
Georgia
In 2012, Legends national championship has started in Georgia at newly rebuilt Rustavi International Motorpark in 10 km from the country capital Tbilisi. The 2012 season consisted of 8 races of the Championship of Georgia and one international race where 18 drivers from Georgia, Russia, Belarus and Germany took part.[8] For 2014 season 7 races are scheduled from April till November.
Australia
For a number of years Legends raced on Australian oval tracks, surviving as a minor category, as the popularity of oval track racing "down under" is not what it is in the United States. Mainly Legends was a Speedway category racing on dirt and clay ovals, but also briefly became a tarmac category, racing as a support category with the Australian NASCAR series, mainly racing on the Calder Park Thunderdome superspeedway. Phil Ward, a former Touring car racer, recognized the potential for this type of economical racer, and developed the Aussie Racing Car, with a focus on road racing. The Aussie Racing Cars retain the same Yamaha motorcycle engines. The classic Legends style bodyshape of old Fords and early Holdens have been gradually supplanted by imitations of modern road cars for commercial purposes. The category has visited many of the major events across Australia including the Clipsal 500, ING Australian Grand Prix, Gold Coast's Super GP and Sydney's brand new street race, Sydney 400. While high grid numbers have long been a feature of the class, calendars have fluctuated wildly as category management has clashed with event promotors. Another very similar category Future Racers also emerged during the 2000s technically very similar although the bodywork was more Sportscar in nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_car_racing
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The Legend Cars20 Settembre2014 |
