http://www.speedvisionwc.com/news/04press70.html

See you out at Lime Rock!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KING MOTORSPORTS RETURNS TO SCCA SPEED TOURING CAR

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 20, 2004) – King Motorsports announced it will return to the SCCA SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship with veteran driver Bob Endicott behind the wheel of the No. 64 King Motorsports/Mugen Power Acura RSX.


Endicott scored his first STC win at Mid-Ohio in 2003. (Weber photo)

The team plans to make its 2004 debut in the SPEED Touring Car race at Lime Rock Park, as part of the Road Racing Classic Featuring the Mohegan Sun Grand Prix & Busch North 200 May 28-31.

“I wouldn’t have any other person driving the car other than Bob [Endicott],” Scott Zellner, owner of King Motorsports, said. “I think he is the finest front-wheel drive sedan driver out there.”

“I have high expectations,” Endicott said of his return to the series. “It’s such a competitive series. World Challenge is tough, that’s why I like it.”

Although Endicott and King Motorsports captured a win in 2003 at Mid-Ohio, the team made a number of changes to the car in the off-season. And, with the SPEED Touring Car series competing on the new Toyo Proxes RA-1™ DOT-approved race compound tires this season, look for the King Motorsports entry to be even more competitive.

“We’ve made a number of changes to the car and to the race program for 2004, which I am very excited about,” Zellner said. “We completely reengineered of the car over the winter. We really regretted having to miss the first race. But, it was best for development on the car and getting things ready for 2004. Since the new tires are an unknown to us, we’re just going to have to do the best we can with what we’ve got. But, we are very excited about the changes we’ve made to the car over the winter. I think a strong top-10 finish is the best we could hope for at this first race.”

“I’m really looking forward to driving on the new tires,” Endicott added. “I think we’re going to have a pretty good handling car if I can get it dialed in in short period of time. We haven’t done any testing with the new tires. We only have a few practice sessions and qualifying to get the car dialed in. But, historically, unless we are way off base in our original guess, we tend to get that done pretty quickly. I think we’ll be pretty well dialed in at Lime Rock. I’m expecting a good result there. And, Mugen has been doing a lot of development work on the engine and I am really excited about that.”

In addition to the car changes, the team also hired Duane Wickham as the new crew chief. The former lead mechanic and fabricator at RealTime Racing brings a wealth of knowledge to his new team.

“We named Duane Wickham as the crew chief,” Zellner said of his new hire. “We’re real excited to have Duane bring his skill set to our team and hopefully help us in 2004.”

“I am very excited to join King Motorsports,” Wickham said of his new position. “I’ve known them for about six years. I am excited about working with Bob Endicott. He is one of my favorite drivers in the series. I got to work with him once last year and really enjoyed it. He is a top-notch driver. He is really good at giving driver feedback. I am also looking forward to working with Scott [Zellner] as a team owner.”

“We’ve got a real good crew this year,” Endicott added. “This year they’re really experienced. They’ve been doing a lot of work on the car the last couple of months. It is a much better car than it was last year.”

For more information about SPEED World Challenge Touring Car, visit http://www.world-challenge.com. For more information about King Motorsports, visit http://www.kingmotorsports.com.

 

Duane -

 

Awesome, Glad to see King back in the World Challenge

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ausmith &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">http://www.speedvisionwc.com/news/04press70.html

See you out at Lime Rock!

</TD></TR></TABLE>


J00 guys need any pit monkeys?

 

Awesome ... Pete & I will stop by the Pits at Lime Rock.

 

cool. i didn't even realize they weren't in the race at Sebring!!

I'll stop by the pits too. Not that you'll know who I am anyways but that car just looks awesome and the fabrication and work put into it is insane.

Too bad the foo fighter isn't in it this year. It's not gonna be the same at LRP or in the series without him.

s

 

Very nice...Duane was an extremely courtious person when he spoke with us at Sears Point, he spent a fair amount of time answering our questions, and just general car guy questions. I even have the Duane's Realtime business card in my wallet.

So...Sears Point is the weekend before the itrEXPO(weekend of Oregon race), I'd like to attend this year, but the itrEXPO has a crunch on the funds... LOL

Good to hear that Bob is back in the car, and Scott is ready to take on the big guys again, we were really upset when they got the DQ last years at Sears Point, Bob drove his *** off.

Austin

 

NICE! if i dont go to MD for the drag race that weekend this may be an option! GO KING!
-Roger

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stevel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cool. i didn't even realize they weren't in the race at Sebring!!

I'll stop by the pits too. Not that you'll know who I am anyways but that car just looks awesome and the fabrication and work put into it is insane.

Too bad the foo fighter isn't in it this year. It's not gonna be the same at LRP or in the series without him.

s</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ditto what Steve said.

 

Excellent news! I hope you guys are able to make it to th WC race at Road America as well

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mugen Mike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Excellent news! I hope you guys are able to make it to th WC race at Road America as well </TD></TR></TABLE>



See you King guys there if not sooner.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ausmith &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">See you out at Lime Rock!</TD></TR></TABLE>
I see you there.

I will be the pit monkey for cars #96 and #97.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Willard &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I see you there.

I will be the pit monkey for cars #96 and #97. </TD></TR></TABLE>

team/sponsor?

s

 

im gonna try to make it out to a mid ohio race.. i love that car.

 

My tickets are on the way...can't wait

 

Thanks for the kind words guys. I am glad to be back in SWC and to be working with Bob, Scott and Rich is an added bonus. I have always noticed that you guys support the King Motorsports team and I we all appreciate that. I will do everything I can to deliver some good results. Come by and say Hey. You're always welcome at our trailer.
Hope to see you at the races,

Duane Wickham

PS please introduce yourselves at the track and let me know your H-T user name so I can finally start putting faces to names on here.

 

Really nice to see guys at what I consider a decently high level of motorsports posting to a grassroots level site. I was able to meet Scott Zellner at Phoenix Intl back around 2000 or so. Super nice guy. With all that he had going on he chatted with me about my then hondaprelude.com site and said he had even heard of the site. He told me about the 2nd gen Prelude they used to campaign back before the switch to the CRX and emailed me pics and info later. Guys like him are why I made the switch from track days to WTW racing.

Chris