Lux Makes Run For The Roses With Viper 50 Years Aafter Dad’s Historic Win
PORTLAND, June 7, 2010 – Aloha, Oregon’s Cindi Lux knows how to honor her racing roots. The professional racer will bring a new 2010 Dodge Viper ACR-X to the 50th Annual Rose Cup, June 11-13 at Portland International Raceway. Lux will help celebrate the golden anniversary of the event’s first winner, Portland International Raceway and the legendary Dodge and Michelin brands in the event. Lux’s father, Dick Hahn – now a successful auto dealer in Yakima, WA. – won the inaugural Rose Cup event in 1961. The event was a celebration of the then new race track. Today, the Rose Cup celebrates the annual Portland Rose Festival.
Lux, a winner of 12 road racing championships and 75 victories including her class here last year at the 1.967-mile, 12-turn facility, will bring a race car similar in ways to her father’s classic Ferrari Testa Rosa. Like the Ferrari, the Viper ACR-X is a front engine, rear-drive, race-bred sports car that has road-going ties. However, the Michigan-built V10 is light years ahead in outright performance to its Italian-born brethren. Earlier in week, Lux helped make the press debut of the ACR-X at a media event near Detroit. The very car which the media flogged around the Gingerman Raceway there has been shipped here to Portland where Lux Performance Group, LLC – the team owned by Lux and her crew chief/race engineer husband, Fred – has entered it in the Oregon race weekend.
The 2010 ACR-X is the newest in the line of Dodge Viper super cars which stretches back to 1991. The ACR-X is the track-only iteration of the Viper ACR, itself an ultra-performance edition of the Dodge Viper. While the ACR is street legal, the new ACR-X is built purely for the track and will be the focal point of a new, single-make, 10-race series which is scheduled to launch at Virginia International Raceway July 7-11.
The Rose Cup weekend puts over 400 drivers in contention across multiple classes of racing. Lux will compete for the overall Rose Cup title just as her father did in the 1960s. Unlike her father, Lux will not enjoy wheeling one of the fastest cars in the event. While the Dodge Viper ACR-X is an amazing race machine, by design it does not have the horsepower of the purpose-built, thoroughbred entries in the “Run for the Roses.” Being street car-based, the normally aspirated V10 will give-up as much as 200Hp to the Trans-Am class entries. The 1999 ALMS-sanctioned Women’s Global GT Champion will have the benefit of a purpose-built Michelin Pilot tire for the Rose Cup. The Michelin racing slick is the same tire on which the ACR-X series will compete this season.
Quotes
Cindi Lux: “Any time I can get behind the wheel of a Viper I feel at home. I am just honored to be part of this historic race event and especially happy to be piloting the new ACR-X in competition. What my Dad did back in 1961 winning the first Rose Cup race is pretty special especially on tiny size tires with lots of horsepower! I think the fans will see a spectacular race on Sunday and maybe with a few fireworks tossed in for good measure! I welcome all fans to stop by our pits prior to the race to say hello.”
Jeff Zurschmeide, Director of the Portland Rose Festival Foundation: “Cindi Lux is among the greatest professional racing drivers ever to come out of Northwest and her family history with the Rose Cup makes her participation in the 50th anniversary race all the more important. We're also pleased that Dodge is bringing the new Viper ACR-X to Portland to compete for the Rose Cup. Frankly, we're honored to have a driver of Cindi's caliber and a car like the Dodge Viper ACR-X on board for this historic event."