If one is in the newsgathering business, there’s no place in the wide world of motorsport as fruitful as the gigantic lobby of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria during NASCAR’s Champions Week. Sponsors, track owners, promoters, team owners, drivers, mechanics, press agents, track workers and racing biz wannabees all pass through — in droves. Here’s what our notebook shows from a 2-1/2 hour Thursday sit-down in one of the lobby’s plush sofas: Joie Chitwood, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway: “New paving on our infield road course for next year’s MotoGP race is now complete.” J.D. Gibbs, head man of Joe Gibbs Racing: “We’ll have our first Toyota on track by Jan. 1.” Ed Clark, head man at Atlanta Motor Speedway: “We have 50 full-time employees on staff, but on race weekends we employ 5,000.”  Smiling Chris Jurgensen, whose catering company serves great food to suites at NASCAR tracks: “We had another great year.” Speedway Motorsports chieftain O. Bruton Smith, on being congratulated for elevating Jerry Gappens, former NSSN and Lowe’s Motor Speedway staffer, to the top job at newly acquired New Hampshire Motor Speedway: “It’s the only way I could get him out of town.” Bob Bahre, who sold NHIS to Smith was asked if he would put the $340 million he will get into auto racing. His emphatic NO! was so loud everyone in the lobby heard it. Joe Mattioli III with his wife, Love, asked what’s new in their promotional world: “We’re gearing up for a big 50th anniversary season at Music City Motorplex,” the State Fair short track Joe III promotes in Nashville. Al Pearce, recently named as winner of the Pocono Spirit Award by the National Motorsport Press Ass’n for his charitable endeavors, reporting he had just flown to Mario Andretti’s home to get the signature charity helmet signed by Mario (and all living F-1 drivers) and was asked how Mario’s wife, Dee Ann, was doing: “She looked great, sitting there smoking cigars.” AP’s Mike Harris: “My wife and I are staying in a $169 a night hotel on 17th Street as the AP refuses to pay Waldorf’s room prices.” The $519 nightly “friendly price” for ye ed’s single room jumped close to $600 due to the daily addition of $72.92 in tax and ancillary charges! Jack Cassidy, long a judge on the FIA International Court of Appeals: “I’m off to Paris soon to consider the Team McLaren appeal.” Wolfgang Hustedt, motorsports manager for the world’s largest auto parts supplier Robert Bosch: “Traction control devices are now so small, they can be carried in the pocket of a driver’s suit.” Walt Czarnecki, No. 2 man to Roger Penske at most of his corporations: “We now have 70 obsolete Nextel Cup cars to sell and have assigned one man to do this job. He has no other responsibility.” Czarnecki also allowed, “Helio (Castroneves) is on cloud nine after winning the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ competition.”

Cup engines were a popular New York topic among members of Ford teams, as FoMoCo’s newest NASCAR powerplant has been rejected by the sanctioning body. All of Ford’s competitors now have new engines either in hand or due soon. Jack Roush told this column “Two new Ford submissions” are now in NASCAR’s hands awaiting approval. The general feeling seems to be that NASCAR wants all Cup engines to be alike, regardless of manufacturer. The new horsepower standard seems to be 875, according to Robert Yates and Roush, who smilingly say, “I’d rather have 900.”

NASCAR’s Championship Awards Dinner in the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom, the largest dining room in this country’s largest city, again drew a capacity crowd. Our guess is that more than 1,000 broke bread. It was preceded by Thursday’s Myers Brothers luncheon at which $1.2 million in awards were made — essentially to shorten Friday night’s show. The Friday banquet was well emceed by Jerry Punch and moved along faster than ever before, finishing shortly after 10 p.m. Seeing N.Y. Governor Spitzer talking racing on stage was a surprise, as was watching TV news icon Tom Brokaw and hearing him laud auto racing. Ye ed’s balcony seat allowed a look down at 73 tables of 10 with nary a vacant chair. And all the double-row balcony row tables were filled to capacity as well. Surprising was the distinct impression left that more than a few bald men use polish on their hairless knobs.    

Topless no more. After the issues raised in last week’s column about male fans at New Jersey’s Giants Stadium taunting female spectators at half-time to bare their breasts, at the following week’s Giants Stadium game there were 25 State Troopers and 50 security guards on duty, seeing to it that the practice ended. Authorities said no arrests were made.  

At the Homestead NASCAR finale, Toyota driver Brian Vickers was asked if he was sorry to see the era of “real race cars” end, in that the Car of Tomorrow will henceforth be standard equipment for NASCAR’s premier series. Vickers’ surprising reply: “To be completely honest with you, a real race car is probably a Formula One car.” He then opined, “They don’t put on a good show because they are fighter jets on wheels.”

In the days leading into that same Homestead finale, Jeff Gordon, when reminded that Jimmie Johnson had said he would race Gordon “clean,” was asked “What would the late Dale Earnhardt do if he was racing you Sunday?” Admitting he never raced against Earnhardt, but had seen him in action on TV, Johnson replied, “I would be shaking in my driving shoes.”  

Developers who plan a $100 million “dream track” and entertainment complex in far north New York State report acquired 920 acres of land for the project in Brasher. Town Supervisor Jim Dawson says the first order of business for Northway Island Associates is development of a site plan and its design, addressing noise and traffic issues.  

The final night of “Dancing With the Stars” TV program, in which two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and his professional dancing partner Julianne Hough took top honors, attracted almost 25 million viewers for the ABC network, Nielsen records show.

Speaking of ratings, the Craftsman Truck Series was seen by more viewers in 2007 than in any previous season since moving to Speed in 2003. According to Nielsen Media Research, an average viewership of 686,000 tuned in for telecasts of the series.
 
Do you own a home and pay property taxes? I do, so I am bedazzled by newspaper and TV reports from South Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward counties that 71,000 residential property owners failed to pay their 2006 real estate taxes, and such delinquencies are on the rise this year! Interested in a South Florida home? Watch for foreclosure sales.

Don’t forget to log on to www.gomotorbids.com and look for National Speed Sport News and CARA items. The bidding for the autographed helmet ends Dec. 16 and you might want to see the other items available — all for charity.
 
The United Racing Club, affectionately known throughout the Mid-Atlantic States as URC, a big car (as opposed to midgets) organization, will celebrate 60 years of sanctioning races at a Saturday night, Dec. 8th awards banquet at the Lancaster Host hotel in Lancaster, Pa. Call Bob Miller, (215) 327-3115 for tickets. Since URC’s 1947 founding, the Offy engine has never been allowed, hence its popular Gasket Club nickname.  

A racing team owned and run by stockholders? Certainly rare in today’s motorsport, but one such team plans to campaign the Rolex Grand-Am Series next year. Christened Fortune Market Racing, it is the former Sigalsport team and its founder Gene Sigal remains on board as a VP and director of this new ownership entity. Sigal also plans to share driving duties with yet-to-be-named co-pilots in the team’s 2007 St. Petersburg-winning BMW Daytona Prototype.  Key figures in the parent company, Fortune Market Media, based on the West Coast, are David Levy and Ryan Tomlinson. No symbol as yet for the common stock of this new company.