Drag racing legend loves pets, too

Surely, most know Shirley Muldowney as an auto racing legend. But, she?s as committed to animals and pet adoption as she is to drag racing.

Muldowney, ?The First Lady of Drag Racing,? will be in Salt Lake City tonight to help raise awareness for the Utah Animal Adoption Center.

Rocky Mountain Raceways general manager Mike Eames remembers Muldowney?s top fuel exploits at the old Bonneville Raceway. ?She accomplished so much in her racing career and broke through so many barriers en route to all of her success.?

RMR and the Utah Animal Adoption Center will host an evening with Muldowney today at the racetrack convention center. All proceeds benefit the Utah Animal Adoption Center.

For ticket information, visit www.utahanimals.org.

Top 50

Earlier in the week, Weber State celebrated its No. 39 ranking in the ESPN.com?s top 50 college basketball programs over the the past 50 years.

BYU was ranked No. 36 overall. And in the last couple of days, Utah checked in at No. 20, tied with Purdue among the elite programs.

Need for speed

Friday was the second ?Ab Jenkins Day,? honoring the auto racing legend and his famed ?Mormon Metor.?

The documentary, ?Boys of Bonneville,? ? which chronicles Jenkins racing exploits out on the Bonneville Salt Flats ? was recently released on DVD.

Actor Patrick Dempsey narrates the documentary, which has won several regional film awards.

Tidbits

Kudos to the Oakridge Country Club grounds crew, who lost more than 380 trees to wind damage earlier this spring, but tuned up the golf course for this week?s Utah Open. Fans report the course looks awesome. ...

PRCA officials say veteran pickup man Calvin Amy, who was seriously injured Aug. 18 while working in the arena at the Davis County Fair & Rodeo. Amy, 54, ended up with seven broken ribs, a partially collapsed left lung and a concussion, but is doing OK. ...

Utah State track and field coach Gregg Gensel announced that former Idaho Vandal Andrew Blaser and former USU Aggie Steve Strickland will be new assistant coaches. ...

Southern Utah University?s gymnastics squad earned its 12th academic national championship after leading the nation with a team GPA of 3.843 during the 2011-12 season. In all, 12 Thunderbird gymnasts earned All-America citations. Utah (3.664) was fourth overall. ...

Dan McKeever, director of the Miller Performance Schools at Miller Motorsports Park, has been selected by to be part of Team BFGoodrich in its third annual ?Select-the-Seats? program. He is one of 20 drivers hoping to earn a spot in the legendary Baja 1000.

Chris J. Miller is sports editor for the Standard-Examiner. He can be reached at 801-625-4261 or cmiller@standard.net.

Source: http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/08/24/drag-racing-legend-loves-pets-too

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