Hornaday to pilot bobsled in annual Bodine Challenge
Champions Carlson, Logano and Lia will also participate
Lake Placid, NY — Three 2007 NASCAR Champions have joined the list of drivers participating in the 3rd Annual Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, presented by Whelen Engineering, January 3-5 at the Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Craftsman Truck Series Champion Ron Hornaday, NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Champion Steve Carlson, and NASCAR Grand National Busch East Series Champion Joey Logano have joined NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Champion Donny Lia, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour Champion L.W. Miller, Nextel Cup driver and three-race Bodine Challenge winner Boris Said, and NHRA driver and previous Bobsled Challenge competitor Morgan Lucas, in the field of racecar drivers piloting bobsleds down the icy chute.
“This year’s event is becoming a race of champions with the inclusion of Steve Carlson, L.W. Miller and Donny Lia,” said Phil Kurze, vice president of motorsports for Whelen Engineering and president of the Bo-Dyn bobsled project. “These short-track champions will have the chance to show the rest of the competitors how talented they are.
“This year part of the rewards of being a champion in a Whelen sponsored NASCAR Series is the invitation to be part of the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge. Each and every one of the champions jumped at the opportunity. Remember, it was a short-track racer (Mike Stefanik) that finished with a bronze medal last year.”
Hornaday is a three-time Truck Series Champion and two-time most popular driver award winner. He has been racing for 28 years, competing in regional NASCAR tours, Busch Series, Cup Series and the Truck Series. Hornaday won his first truck title in 1996, followed by one in 1998. He currently drives the No. 33 truck for Kevin Harvick Inc. and lives in Mooresville, N.C.
Carlson won this year’s Whelen All-American Series national title by collecting 862 points, finishing a mere six points ahead of Woody Pitkat and 18 points in front of defending champion Philip Morris. The 50-year-old native from Black River Falls, Wis., finished with eight wins and 21 top-five finishes in 23 starts. Carlson also won five titles in the former NASCAR Elite Division, Midwest Tour.
“I’m looking forward to this event,” Carlson said. “I’ve talked to some of the other drivers who participated in it previously — like Dick Trickle, who told me it was quite an experience and a lot of fun. I’ve seen some bobsledding events on television but this would be my first chance to participate.”
A 17-year-old driving sensation from Middletown, Conn., Logano has been racing for 12 years. The teenager was hired by Joe Gibbs Racing and moved up to the NASCAR Grand National Busch East Series just this year. Logano has already racked up numerous wins as well as regional and national championships, including national titles in the Bandolero Bandits Series and Pro-Legend divisions. Logano also holds age records for the youngest driver to win a feature race in the INEX Legends Series (age 10), compete in the Allison Legacy Series (age 10), and at age 12 turned pro, making him the youngest ever to compete in the Pro Legends Series.
Lia won his first Whelen Modified Tour Championship for car owner Bob Garbarino, who has been an owner since the early 1960s, but had no title until Lia’s.
Miller recently won his first NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour Championship, which was not decided until the last lap of the last race of the season. This is the third year for this series and L.W. is the second driver to claim the championship.
Said, son of Olympic bobsled driver Bob Said, has won three of the four individual Bodine races held over the first two years of the event.
Lucas posted the fastest heat time in the final race of the Bodine Bobsled Challenge last year, finishing second to Said. Lucas and sponsor Lucas Oil will lead a contingent of NHRA drivers against the NASCAR drivers in this year’s Bobsled Challenge.
Lumber Liquidators and Columbia Sportswear are also sponsoring sleds, and the drivers will be named at a later date.
After watching the 1992 Winter Olympics, Bodine became interested in helping the U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team create and design their own sleds instead of relying on the old or outdated bobsleds purchased from other countries. Bo-Dyn Bobsleds (“Bo” for Bodine, “Dyn” for Chassis Dynamics) was created later that year by Bodine and his friend and chassis builder, Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics, located in Oxford, Conn. Bodine founded the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc. to help create a winning bobsled for the U.S. teams.
The U. S. National Team first used Bo-Dyn sleds in 1994. Ten years after Bo-Dyn’s inception, the U.S. team won three medals in Bo-Dyn Bobsleds during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, including a gold medal in women’s bobsled. The women’s team also captured a silver medal in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. In 2006-07, the U.S. bobsled team won two World Cup season-ending gold medals and two silver medals, as well as 17 World Cup medals (seven gold, nine silver and one bronze) and two World Championship medals.
For more information on the 2008 Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, log on to www.bodynbobsled.com.
Sources: Geff Bodine Bobsled Challenge PR