IROC

IROC At Talladega - Day 1

Talladega, AL - The True Value IROC team took to the track this morning in their first day of preparation for race-two this Saturday at the Talladega Superspeedway. Test drivers Dave Marcis, Jim Sauter and Dick Trickle put the fleet of IROC ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Talladega, AL - The True Value IROC team took to the track this morning in their first day of preparation for race-two this Saturday at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Test drivers Dave Marcis, Jim Sauter and Dick Trickle put the fleet of IROC Pontiac Firebirds through initial "shakedown" testing. Similar to a qualifying run, each of the seventeen cars, of which three are dedicated practice vehicles and fourteen are candidates for the twelve car race, are tested for initial speed and handling. The test drivers will make an initial shakedown lap to make sure everything is mechanically sound, and then do three timed laps at full speed.

Each car is equipped with a radio allowing the crew and driver to communicate lap times and handiling comments. The drivers hop out of one car and into the next, repeating the process until all the cars have been run.

Said Sauter of the initial testing, "they all feel great 'out of the box' individually, but now we need to get the three of us out there in our practice cars and do some side-by-side running."

The three drivers hit the track eager to race each other. All was going well until Dave Marcis, in the red practice car, cut down a tire coming out of turn-four and took a wild ride, spinning every which way through the tri-oval. Skillfully, he wrestled the car to a stop without making contact with the wall. Marcis said he must have ran over something that punctured the tire. "The car was perfect. We were running three-wide and racing each other pretty hard when the tire went."

Northern Light Indy Racing League drivers Mark Dismore and Greg Ray are expected to practice on Wednesday. Fellow IRL driver Eddie Cheever Jr., is expected to arrive on Thursday.

This Saturday's True Value IROC race will air on ABC Sports Sunday, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, immediately following the DieHard 500 Winston Cup event.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Daytona IROC Race to Air This Sunday on ABC

Next article True Value IROC Race 2 - Talladega

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's top Martinsville moments

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

42 min

Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's top Martinsville moments

MotoGP responds to Yamaha’s Qatar GP withdrawal

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Malaysian GP

1 h

MotoGP responds to Yamaha’s Qatar GP withdrawal

Yamaha boycotts Qatar Grand Prix amid ongoing Middle East war

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Malaysian GP

1 h

Yamaha boycotts Qatar Grand Prix amid ongoing Middle East war

F1 2026 qualifying head-to-head: Mexico GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

F1 2026 qualifying head-to-head: Mexico GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts