JAPANESE AND AUSTRALIAN COMPETITORS JOIN THE NWWS FIELD

Source: RaceScene Media
Date: 11/18/1999

Thirty drivers are preparing their rides on the other side of the Pacific, at the Twin Ring Motegi facility in Japan. This is the final of 14 events scheduled for the 1999 NASCAR Winston West Series. And although NASCAR has held four previous events in Japan this is the first points race held there. This will be the second time NASCAR drivers have visited the Twin Ring Motegi, the first two events were held at the Suzuka road course that the Formula 1 drivers compete on.

Although the NASCAR Winston West event is a points race, only 21 are regular Winston West competitors. The remainder of the field will be comprised of International drivers. There will be three competitors form Australia - Kim Jane, Neville Lance and Terry Wyhoon as well as three drivers from Japan who previously competed in the NASCAR sanctioned events held there as well as on US soil - Hideo Fukuyama, Keiichi Tsuchiya and Manibu Orido.

Driving the T-Marts/Goodyear/Repco-sponsored Chevrolet will be three-time NASCAR Australia champion Kim Jane of Melbourne, Australia. He is the nephew of Bob Jane who built the Calder Park Thunderdome speedway in Australia. Lance, of Perth, Western Australian, has competed in NASCAR Australia at the Thunderdome since 1994 and will be driving the King Koil Chiropractic Beds Ford.

Fukuyama, of Suzuka City, competed in the NASCAR Winston West Series event last year at Pikes Peak International Raceway near Colorado Springs, Colo. while Tsuchiya, of Nagano, competed at a NASCAR Winston West Series race at California Speedway. This year Orido, of Yokohama, raced in his first NASCAR event Irwindale Speedway in Los Angeles, Calif.

Rounding out the field will be three drivers from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Last year the event at Motegi was an exhibition event that included a number of NASCAR Cup drivers. Finishing highest of the NASCAR Winston West competitors was Lakewood, Colo. regular, Scott Gaylord.

Both Gaylord and previous NASCAR Winston West champion Butch Gilliland are the only drivers that have gone to Japan for all four events.

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