Raceway

Under the big, old shade tree near his home in Spartansburg, S.C., the teenage David Pearson listened to the adults talk about Darlington Raceway as they worked on their dirt-track stock cars. "They'd talk about her all the time," said Pearson, now 69, who would go on to become the second-winningest driver in NASCAR history. "About how you had to drive your car right up against her sides and scrape your car all up. They'd talk about how difficult she was and how beat up you'd get. "I thought they were crazy, just crazy.

Ready to try something different? With plenty of open spaces and waterways, Anne Arundel County offers plenty of offbeat recreation - from the sky to deep below the sea. Head to Lee Airport in Edgewater and for $125 take a one-hour introductory flying lesson at the Navy Annapolis Flight Center (www.nafcflying.org). If you like the thought of piloting a plane, the instructors at the flight center will take you through all the training you need to earn private pilot certification. The center, which also provides introductory training in flight to Navy personnel, teaches students to fly in Piper or Cessna aircraft.

In a sports article in Thursday's editions of The Sun about the state's harness racing industry, Beth Trotto was identified as a Rosecroft Raceway board member. She is a member of the board of the Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners' Association, whose members are stockholders of Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc. That entity, which owns and operates the track, has a separate board.

The owners of Philadelphia Park will join with Laurel veterinarian Mark Ricigliano to purchase Rosecroft Raceway, according to a filing made yesterday to the Maryland Racing Commission. Greenwood Racing Inc. was formed in 1989 and bought Philadelphia Park, a thoroughbred track just north of the city, in 1990, according to the company's Internet site. Greenwood also owns and operates Freehold Raceway, a harness track in central New Jersey, in a partnership with Penn National Gaming Inc. No other terms of the filing were available yesterday.

The owners of Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George's County have received 10 bids to buy the harness track, with upfront payments ranging from $10 million to $25 million and offers to share potential slot machine revenue that could add tens of millions of dollars more over time, according to internal corporate records. Gambling experts say Rosecroft, off the Washington Beltway near the Potomac River, is potentially the most lucrative site in Maryland for a racetrack casino if the General Assembly decides to approve slots at horse-racing tracks.

A dozen companies and individuals, including a group led by the son of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos, have submitted bids to buy Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George's County. The harness track, which is just off the Capital Beltway close to Washington and its Virginia and Maryland suburbs, is regarded by gambling experts as potentially the most lucrative site in Maryland for slot machines. Thomas Chuckas Jr., chief executive of Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc., which owns the track, said Rosecroft had received 12 bids by a 5 p.m. deadline yesterday.

SUMMIT POINT, W.Va. - As the Audi S4 sedan screams through the straightaway at 95 mph and into a hairpin turn at 50, the smell of burning tires and brake pads fills the air. "Everybody OK?" asks the man behind the wheel, driving instructor Nic Monterastelli. At the moment, this is a tough question to answer. In the front passenger seat is Andrew Chen, a 33-year-old information technology manager from Newark, Del., who is pinned to his head-rest due to a series of G-forces that have momentarily made it difficult to speak.

The chairman of Maryland's Democratic Party is helping an Indiana-based casino company line up a lobbyist and local investors to pursue a planned racetrack casino venture in southern Prince George's County. Wayne L. Rogers said he sees no conflict in working with Centaur Inc., on the Rosecroft Raceway project - even though the party's gubernatorial candidate adopted a strong "no slots" stance during the election. "I don't think the Maryland Democratic Party has taken a position on slots," Rogers said.

WASHINGTON - For those who visit the nation's capital hoping to take in the hallmarks of democracy, this event might seem a bit out of place: the Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., a three-day production starting tomorrow featuring high-speed car races, motorcycle shows and monster truck rides. So much for gazing at the Lincoln Memorial (mph: 0). This is an attraction for tourists who get impatient with monuments that just sit there, going nowhere. Under an arrangement brokered by the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, the American Le Mans racing series will make Washington a stop on its 10-city tour one weekend a year for the next decade.