NASCAR

For car racing enthusiasts, the Silver State Classic Challenge may seem too good to be true. An open-road race on a closed public highway? And I can drive my street car as fast as I want? But it is true, and car enthusiasts from around the world flock to Ely, Nev., every year to live that dream. In many ways, the town offers a dreamlike setting for this very unique event.

Business is kind of like a horse race. When you line them up at the starting line, the horses all look good. They are all fast, just some are faster than others. Some of them have better odds than the others. Nevada is a betting state, so I will ask you some betting questions.

There is absolutely a little bit of everything this weekend. There’s somewhere to volunteer, somewhere to eat some fundraising pancakes, join in an Asian New Year Lion Dance Parade, Beer Crawl in downtown Carson City, and get your Zumba on. I think the eclectic mix of happenings is one of my favorite things about our corner of the world. Whether it’s the International Film Festival, the Vagina Monologues, or telescope viewing at the WNC Observatory: you can’t tell me there is nothing to do.

SATURDAY:

Motorcyclists, ranging from expert and four-time U.S. champion Jimmy Filice to first-timers, used the weekend to break in the track for Carson City’s inaugural flat track races.

“It’s an American sport that started in the early 1900s, similar to NASCAR,” Filice said. “It’s like apple pie.

A blockbuster gathering of 90 major sports and entertainment stars — including Charles Barkley, Justin Timberlake and five NFL starting quarterbacks — have signed on for the 27th annual American Century Championship, July 19–24 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course. The 54-hole tournament will be televised live on NBC Sports and NBCSN.

Have you been naughty or nice this year? You’ll have no problem finding Jolly Old St. Nick this weekend. At Debug Computers where, in exchange for a donation to Holiday with a Hero, you can get a photo with the man in red. The Santa Train at the Nevada State Railroad Museum is a good place to grab a candy cane, some hot cocoa, and tell him what you’d like to find under the tree. Photographs with Santa are available at the Carson Mall Wednesday through Sunday. Genoa’s annual Breakfast with Santa has three seatings beginning at 8:30 a.m.

SATURDAY:

Jimmie Ray’s Black Train – A Tribute to Johnny and June, Trains, America and some friends – A Musical Journey Back in Time – The Man, The Music, The Memories - Is coming to the Piper’s Opera House for the third year; this time as part of a fund raiser for the Kiwanis Club. Theater.

This show is designed to more than a concert but an experience. In 2003 the world has lost both American roots legends, Johnny Cash and the beloved June Carter Cash.

Fans of NASCAR, the Electric Daisy Carnival or the Burning Man countercultural event held every year in the Black Rock Desert in far Northern Nevada could soon have to pay a bit more to get their groove on....

Duncan Golf Management has named Joe Kelly to the position of director of golf operations. Kelly comes to the job with 40 years of experience as a PGA golf professional in southern Nevada along with an impressive list of credentials including being a 2015 inductee into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.

Kelly has been with Walters Golf, a division of the Walters Group, in Las Vegas for the past 16 years. He was responsible for golf operations at all Walters owned and operated courses including Bali Hai Golf Club, Desert Pines Golf Course and Royal Links Golf Club.

Here's is a roundup of Carson High volleyball and soccer, plus news about Mackena Bell from Carson City who will race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in Phoenix on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. You can follow Bell on her Facebook page here and her website here.

Saturday August 16, the Vegas to Reno Race got underway. With 300 entries, 125 Bikes, 175 Cars and trucks, 9 countries, 25 states and 535 miles of the roughest, siltest, twisted, Nevada Desert to run on.

The BEST IN THE DESERT, Vegas to Reno Race is the longest and richest Desert Race in the United States. Veteran Race Organizer, Casey Folks, said "This was a great race, fantastic weather, so happy to have these amazing Sponsors and world class Racers out having a good time, there is nothing like it."

From the Carson City Library on April 14 at 6 p.m. a group of six engineers are slated to cut the grand opening ribbon on a traveling exhibit supported by the National Science Foundation, titled Discover Tech: Engineers Make a World of Difference.

Nevada State Engineer Mr. Jason King, P.E. as well as five previous Nevada State Engineers who served in the top post starting from 1967 through 2010 will join King to celebrate arrival of the engineering-focused interactive exhibit.

Carson City Library will welcome Dr. Leslie-Pelecky, author of The Physics of NASCAR as special guest on Tuesday, April 15th, at 6:00 p.m.

This National Library Week highlight will take place in the Bob Boldrick Theater, 851 East William Street, at the Carson City Community Center. National Library Week highlights the value of libraries, librarians and library workers in our community and brings featured programs to your library.

If you were to encounter a pretty, petite blonde named Samantha Schultz in the hallways of Carson High, your first thought might be “cheerleader.” You certainly wouldn’t think “racecar driver,” but Schultz just became the first female track champion in the Strictly Stock division at Diamond Mountain Speedway in Susanville. The ironic thing is that at 17 she doesn’t have her driver’s license yet, and is driving on a learner’s permit.

A day after NBA basketball player Jason Collins came out as gay to Sports Illustrated, a former NFL coach and an Oakland Raider record-setting placekicker believe the NFL is ready to accept a gay football player.

"I don't think the NFL is going to have a problem," said Herm Edwards, former Kansas City Chiefs head coach, now an NFL analyst for ESPN. "Is there going to be a vote of confidence in the locker room? For some of the younger and immature players, but the veteran players — they get it."

With all the latest news of widespread doping and cheating in professional bicycle racing, it really got me thinking of how much racing has influenced today’s cycling. Most of us have never even raced, or have only dabbled in competition.  Yet I find it interesting that we that call ourselves cyclists have probably at one time or another been influenced by racing, whether it be a bicycle purchase, new parts, a flashy jersey, or an uncontrollable urge to go tackle a mountain pass after watching a stage of the Tour de France.

If there is such thing as an Easter Bunny naughty list, I’m pretty sure that David Reutimann will find his Easter basket full of rotten eggs tomorrow morning. He is definitely on Hendrick Motorsports’ bad list after ruining an almost certain 200th win and a probable 1-2-3 finish for the organization. Reutimann was limping around to try and stay in the top 35 in points when his car died at the end of the front straightaway, bringing out the caution. A wreck on the restart took out leaders Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon and damaged Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car.

Local race fans will soon get a taste of live racing, as two dirt tracks, a road course, and a drag strip all begin their seasons this month. Next Saturday night the quarter mile dirt oval at Fallon’s Rattlesnake Raceway will open their season, with Hobby Stock, Pro Stock, GenX, Rat Mod, Super Four, and 360 Sprint divisions in action, as well as four divisions of Outlaw Karts. General admission is $10, with $5 tickets for seniors, kids less than 64” tall, and kids under 5 years old free.

The two biggest topics in the racing world this past week have NASCAR fans fired up. The first event was the surprise reversal of the penalties levied against Hendrick Motorsports and the 48 team at Daytona. While Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook reversed the ruling of the three-member appeals panel on points and suspension penalties, he let the $100,000 fine for crew chief Chad Knaus stand. He modified the suspensions for Knaus and car chief Ron Malec to probation.

We expected a 24-hour race at Daytona in January. What we did not expect was a 36-hour race in February, but that’s what we got. It was almost exactly 36 hours from the scheduled start of the Daytona 500 until the checkered flag flew for Matt Kenseth. It was perhaps the most snake bit race I have ever seen, with an unprecedented cancellation for rain. A second-lap accident took several drivers out of contention, including rookie Danica Patrick and five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

This weekend saw two more tragedies for the motorsports world with Nevada connections.

Most people have already heard about or seen the video replays of the horrific IndyCar crash in Las Vegas on Sunday that claimed the life of two-time Indy 500 champion Dan Wheldon.

The same day, off-road racer Rick Huseman was killed in a plane crash in California after taking off from North Las Vegas.

Reno-Fernley Raceway has wrapped up its first season of competition under NASCAR sanctioning. Shawn Natenstedt of Fernley is the champion in the Modified Division, with Carson City's Tom Purcell fi...

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Danica Patrick on Thursday confirmed the rumors that have been flying all season. She will run a full NASCAR Nationwide series schedule in 2012, leaving IndyCa...

Last weekend I saw two of the weirdest race finishes in a while. Well, technically one of them happened on Monday, as once again NASCAR elected not to utilize Goodyear's treaded rain tires for the ...

Good news for all you NASCAR Ford fans.Carl Edwards, despite rumors of a big salary and $10 million signing bonus dangled by Gibbs Racing, has renewed his contract with Roush-Fenway Racing. Meanwhi...

I sat in on a conference call on Tuesday with the ESPN broadcast team for the NASCAR Sprint Cup broadcasts. Beginning with Sunday's Brickyard 400, they will televise the rest of the 2011 season. Al...

As a road-racing fan, this is one of my favorite NASCAR weekends, with the Sprint Cup series at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma and the Nationwide series running at Road America in Wisconsin. However, h...

Reno racer and University of Nevada journalism student Dallas Colodny is driving in the NASCAR Auto Club Late Model series at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, California. Colodny started at the tail end of the field (13th of 14 cars) last Saturday due...