Roundup of random thoughts, events

Has anybody ever figured out what a new "Lang Syne" looks like?

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The second annual Legends Helping Legends fund-raiser is set for Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Memory Lane museum in Mooresville.

This year's beneficiary will be 1983-84 Busch Series champion Sam Ard, who is battling Alzheimer's Disease. Last year's event raised money to help pay medical bills for longtime racing announcer Bill Connell.

More than 50 racers and other celebrities were there at last year's event, signing autographs and swapping stories with fans. At least that many are expected for this year's event.

Admission is $8 and that includes a tour of the museum's more than 150 vintage racing and other vehicles. The museum is at 769 River Highway in Mooresville, about 1.5 miles west of Interstate 77 off exit 77. Go to www.memorylaneautomuseum.com for details.

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Speed is gearing up to provide almost daily updates of NASCAR's testing season in January. It plans 22 half-hour shows beginning Jan. 7 leading right up to its 100-plus hours of coverage of SpeedWeeks from Daytona.

Speed will have shows Jan. 7-11, Jan. 14-17 and Jan 21-22 from Cup, Truck and Nationwide series testing from Daytona. It will then air 30-minute recaps of each day's activities on the Sprint/Lowe's Motor Speedway media tour on Jan. 23-25. It will be at tests in Las Vegas on Jan. 28-30 and at California Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Then, Speed will do its team previews Feb. 4-6.

Each of those shows airs at 7 p.m. John Roberts will anchor the testing shows.

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The Station Casinos in Las Vegas have Jimmie Johnson as a 4-1 pick to win the 2008 Sprint Cup title, with Jeff Gordon at 9-2 odds. Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are each 8-1 and Tony Stewart is 10-1. One longer shot that looked tempting to me was Kyle Busch at 22-1.

I don't know how they make odds, but I was thinking the other day about how you'd handicap which manufacturer might produce the champion this year. With Johnson, Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick and the Richard Childress Racing teams also in Chevrolets, you have to make Chevy the favorite, but by how much?

I came up with this, doing it by percentages. I'd say there's a 40 percent chance this year's champion will drive a Chevrolet. With Joe Gibbs Racing in Toyotas, I'll say Toyota is the second choice at 25 percent, then Ford with the Roush Fenway Racing drivers at 20 percent. Dodge would be 15 percent in my preseason forecast. The Penske guys, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman, could do it but Kasey Kahne would really have to have a dramatic rebound to be a factor. He's 38-1 in Vegas, by the way. Juan Pablo Montoya is 75-1.

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It might not be on TV like Barrett-Jackson, but there will be a major auction of sports cars and race cars Jan. 19-20 at the Cabarrus Arena in concord.

Among the items on the block will be racing equipment from Richard Childress Racing and Bill Davis Racing as well as other NASCAR teams. Also for sale will be more than 50 low mileage 2006 and 2007 Hertz Shelby GT-H Mustang coupes and convertibles.