NHRA Funny Car driver Ron Capps made a little oval-racing history this week, testing an IROC Firebird at Talladega Superspeedway, where the second round of the 2003 International Race of Champions Series will be run on Saturday. Capps, who has raced on ovals in sprint cars, worked with IROC test driver and driving school teacher Andy Hillenburg on Tuesday and quickly got up to speed. “I’m in the car and the radios are hooked up together and Hillenburg and I are having a conversation at 180 mph about how he wants me to pull up closer to him,” Capps said. “I said, ‘Andy, are you sure about this?’ I’d only been out there about 10 laps. We were going wide-open and he had me following him all over the place. We ran down around the apron for a few laps and then he said we were going to explore other parts of the race track and, before you know it, he had me running 180, about a foot away from the wall. If that doesn’t get your heart pumped, I don’t know what will.” Capps went out for one more session, but this time in a four-car draft with IRL driver Felipe Giaffone, World of Outlaws champion Danny Lasoski, and IROC test driver Dick Trickle. Capps was last in line, drafting with Trickle, when suddenly Trickle shot up to the wall between turns one and two and passed Giaffone and Lasoski. “I started to go with him and then remembered, ‘I’m not that good yet.’ It was exactly like in ‘Days of Thunder,’ ” Capps said. “He did an excellent job,” Trickle said. “We had him up front, behind us, three-wide and he had great car control the entire time. Very impressive.” Capps, who would love to get a chance to really race in the all-star series, said, “The drag racing community has been going wild since this got out about me testing an IROC car. I’ve gotten more interview requests about this than I do when I win a race.” Currently, IROC includes driving stars from NASCAR, the IRL and the World of Outlaws.( ThatsRacin.com /AP/ IROC PR )(4-3-2003)
