Michael Hollander succumbs

Automotive writer Michael Hollander lost his battle with cancer and passed away on Sept. 25. He was National Vice President of the American Auto Racing Writers, Broadcasters Association and served as webmaster for the organization.

Hollander most recently operated his own automotive newswire service, Racing Information Systems, and was Manager of Information Resources at PR firm, PCGCampbell.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, at
Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 W. Centinella Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045. [9/25/08]

See Scelzi test new Challenger Saturday on ‘Test Drive’

Last month Gary Scelzi took to El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in the Mojave Desert in California to test drive a new Dodge Challenger SRT8 and its 6.1-liter SRT Hemi SMPI engine for the show Test Drive, hosted by four-time SCCA Trans-Am champion Tommy Kendall. The 30-minute episode is scheduled to air on SPEED TV this Saturday, Sept. 27, at 6:30 p.m. ET.

The show will also feature appearances by late-night host and car aficionado Jay Leno, actress Carmen Electra and NASCAR driver Kyle Petty.

Scelzi's goal? To see if the Challenger would reach a speed of 165 mph. You'll have to watch the show to find out if the goal was accomplished.

"The car was extremely stable. The riverbed was smooth, but if you went too far it was extremely rough. And we found that out on a 50-mph test run when we hit the rough stuff. I mean, it was out of nowhere and the car was bouncing off the ground and we thought we did some damage to it. But, fortunately, we didn't.”

Scelzi admitted that he entered this shoot with some trepidation. "I had no regrets at all," he said, "but sometimes you get roped into these things and then when you start thinking about it you wonder what could possibly go wrong, and then you find out that there's a lot of things that could go wrong. Actually, we were pretty smart about how we planned this thing out. It could have turned into a pretty ugly situation if you didn't know where to shut the car off."

The Dodge Challenger show will be featured on SPEED VOD beginning in mid-October. [9/25/08]

The Agent is going to have to break open the piggy bank and head to Wynnewood, Oklahoma, for the first Elite Motor Sports Inventory Reduction Auction on Saturday, Oct. 4. According to the press release, trailers, race cars, engines, and most importantly three Super Stock Hemi Barracudas will be up for grabs to the highest bidder.

“These three are among the nicest Super Stock Hemi Cudas every built, and one of them is believed to be the last BO29 car ever built,” said IHRA Pro Stock driver Richard Freeman. 

“We will obviously have reserves on some items, but many items will be sold without reserves,” Elite Motor Sports spokesman and former Top Fuel team owner and driver Michael Brotherton said. “We have purchased many complete race teams and a lot of the expensive little parts and support equipment do not sell very quickly. An auction is the perfect format to liquidate that inventory.” [9/25/08]