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Buzz Calkins Finishes 725th at Chicago

© by Seth Ronald Eichhorn

The racing season may be over for the Indy Northern Light Racing Series, but it hasn't ended for one IRL driver. On Sunday, October 22, Buzz Calkins traded in his Firestone Firehawks for an unnamed brand of running shoes, as he competed in the Chicago Marathon. Calkins, who has run in several marathons in the past, finished the race in the time of 03:41:01. This computes to an average speed of a blazing 6.9 mph and a 725th place overall finish.

In other IRL news, sometime in the next two weeks we should know if the Eddie Cheever, Jr. team will add Scott Goodyear as its second driver. Goodyear has stated that he is considering the offer from Cheever to drive a second car for the team in the 2001 season. If he does accept, this would make a virtual "super team" with two of the winningest drivers on the IRL circuit working together for the first time.

Cheever and Goodyear have won a total of seven races and finished in the top 5 a total of 30 times. On the track they are fierce rivals, the last round of their rivalry being the final race of the 2000 season, when Goodyear edged out Cheever in the Excite 500 on October 15. Overall for the season, Cheever finished second behind Buddy Lazier and Goodyear finished third.

Both drivers began driving Indy cars in 1990 and in an interesting note, Goodyear's team manager that year, Dick Caron, is now the team manager for Cheever Racing. Goodyear and his wife are friends with Caron and his family and this could enter into a decision. Goodyear has earlier announced he would retire, but strong finishes at Kentucky and Texas at the end of the season, combined with the long period between races may have given him time to reconsider.

Finally, several teams used the weekend following the end of the season to test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in preparation for the 2001 season. Most notable of these was the Roger Penske Team which evaluated a new IRL specifications car in preparation for a possible return to Indy for the 2001 Indy 500. Other teams that tested were the Hemelgarn Racing Team with Buddy Lazier, the Kelley Racing Team with drivers Scott Sharp and Mark Dismore, the Treadway/Hubbard Racing Team with drivers Davey Hamilton and Shigeaki Hattori and Team Menard with driver Greg Ray. For these teams, the 2001 season has already started.