Geoff Bodine arrived at Watkins Glen International Friday, but he wasn’t looking for a ride. Instead, he was recruiting NASCAR’s brightest stars to drive for him. Bodine and John Morgan have put together the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Challenge, which will take place Jan. 4-8, 2006 at Lake Placid, pitting race car drivers against each other on a downhill half-pipe with 90-degree turns. So what better place to find a bunch of speed freaks in New York state than the Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen? Bodine said drivers Boris Said, Kyle Petty and Jeff Burton have ex-pressed genuine interest in the event, but the Chemung native was just getting his recruiting tour underway. “We haven’t had much support,” Bodine said of previous fund-raising efforts. “We have a lot of great American athletes buying sleds from Europe out of their own pockets.” In the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, Bo-Dyn sleds took a gold medal in women’s competition and silver and bronze in the men’s runs. The sleds are now among the best in the world, but to even keep them at that level requires funding. Bodine’s goal is to sign up 10 racers, possibly with participation by their backers. “We want to jazz these things up,” Bodine said, adding he’d like the get sponsorship decals on the sleds, “to make ’em look like Nextel Cup cars.” Bodine said there would be an open division for a limited number of pedestrians to attempt sled runs … if they dare. “It’s an out-of-control feeling and I like it,” he said.(Corning Leader)(8-13-2005)
