A Rocket (or two) Bound For Mars!
Elk Mound, Wisconsin-December 27, 1999- Jimmy and Chris Mars have
announced that they will be fielding the Rocket Chassis by Mark Richards Racing
Enterprises for the 2000 racing season. The ParkerStore sponsored team will be making a
trip to West Virginia the second week of January to assemble the two new cars.
"We are going down to help finish the cars with Mark Richards", said Jimmy. "We want to get a better feel for the new cars and also develop a working relationship with Mark and his team. Mark provides a lot of support to the drivers and he has proven that he can build winning cars. He’s always at the track for support and he’s hungry for wins as much as we are."
The Mars
brothers are going to open the new millenium with the Hav-A-Tampa racing series and try to
stay in the top ten in points. If they can maintain a top ten position after the first
several shows, they will continue to run the rest of the series. "There are a lot of
benefits to staying in the top ten. If we have some misfortunes to start the year,
we’ll have to go run the money shows," added Jimmy.
"We’re really happy to have Jimmy in our cars," said Mark Richards. "Jimmy and Chris put forth a real good effort with their racing program and they’re the kind of people we want driving our cars. We’re working on Jimmy’s cars right now, and we’re actually a little ahead of schedule. We’re going to take the knowledge that we learned last year, and hopefully have Jimmy and Chris up to speed for Florida."
Jimmy Mars Racing, Inc., has
also purchased the bright yellow S&S Welding rig (known as "Chiquita" to
some people) from Bart Hartman. If the team’s T-shirt sales ever slow down, they
should be able to make a small fortune selling bananas. "There’s no doubt that
people are going to see this rig coming down the road or pulling in the pits," said
John Mars, Jimmy’s father. "People never know who is pulling in with the black
or white rigs, but they’ll know who this is! The color fits perfect with the
ParkerStore scheme."
The new rig will help the
team stay with the tour for extended periods of time. This is the first time they have
been able to take two complete cars on the road. "We can carry plenty of supplies
with us now", stated Jimmy. "You need a lot of tires to be able to run with
Hav-A-Tampa. This rig is a lot bigger than what we are used to, it’s sweet!"
Check back for more details about the Mars 2000 racing season. The ParkerStore team will be opening the season on February 4-5 in Brunswick, GA, before heading to East Bay Raceway near Tampa, FL for the Speedweeks events.
(John Strand)