Lake Speed to Team Up With Ernie Irvan UPDATE: Former Winston Cup winner and international karting champion [and Cup driver] Lake Speed has confirmed his participation teaming with another former Winston Cup champion, Ernie Irvan, in the Endurance Karting Charlotte 400, 8-hour race Saturday, April 20, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Speed’s karting career began in his home state of Mississippi, and soon the young driver was winning national events all over the country, resulting in six U.S. Karting National Championships in single and twin-engine competition. Speed graduated to the international scene representing the USA across Europe and regularly competed with many drivers who became better known in full-size international motorsports like Grand Prix Formula One and World Sportscar racing. Speed was the first American to triumph in the World Championship of Karting at LeMans, France, in 1978. Speed won the championship over no less than future Formula One Champion, Ayrton Senna, who finished second. Speed began a career in Winston Cup in 1980 and in 19 years started 402 races resulting in a win at Darlington in 1988, and no less than 16 top fives and 75 top ten finishes. Irvan’s team is showing tremendous depth with the two former Winston Cup winners joined by Irvan’s ARCA protégé and veteran of ASA and Legends Car competition, Kevin Conway and an unknown, but rumored to be exceedingly fast young driver by the name of Tom.(Endurancekarting.com)(4-17-2002) UPDATE: One of NASCAR’ 50 Greatest Drivers of All-Time, Ernie Irvan, and former NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver Lake Speed have joined together with two up and coming drivers, Kevin Conway and Neal Lewis for the Charlotte 400 Endurance Karting event on Saturday, April 20th. Irvan, a 15-time NASCAR Winston Cup Series winner started his career by racing karts throughout southern California. That foundation launched the career of one of the most popular and successful drivers in the history of NASCAR. It really is a lot of fun to be able to go back to the roots of my career and do something like this, said Irvan. Speed was the first American to triumph in the World Championship of Karting at LeMans, France, in 1978. Speed won the championship over no less than future Formula One Champion, Ayrton Senna, who finished second. Speed began a career in Winston Cup in 1980 and in 19 years started 402 races resulting in a win at Darlington in 1988, and no less than 16 top fives and 75 top ten finishes. Irvan’ protégé and driver for his newly formed ARCA ReMax Series team Kevin Conway will be competing on the same team with Irvan and Speed. It is funny to think that I was born the same year that Ernie won his first track championship and Lake won the World Championship in 1978, stated Kevin. Conway, a Lynchburg, Virginia native, began racing at an early age and has competed in AMA Motocross, WKA go-karts, NMMA midgets, Legends Cars, NASCAR Late Models, ASA, and the ARCA ReMax Series. For more information on Endurance Karting events, please log onto www.endurancekarting.com.(Ernie Irvan Racing PR)(4-18-2002)
