Good medicine for motorsports

In a testament to the force of his influence in the world of racing, Don Panoz garnered a lot of attention at the recent SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference & Exposition-and he wasn't even there. The Panoz story and other highlights from the November 14-16 conference follow.

For a guy who invented time-release transdermal technology as used in the nicotine patch and some heart drugs for gradual absorption of medicine into the circulatory system, Don Panoz has a lot of motorsports blood in his veins. The founder of Panoz Motor Sports is a clogged artery of interests, including pharmaceuticals, motorsports, wine, real estate-and perhaps others that his top motorsports lieutenant, Scott Atherton, simply ran out of time to cite.

Atherton, President and CEO of Panoz Motor Sports, was the lead-off speaker at the 2000 SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference & Exposition held November 14-16 in Dearborn, MI, filling in for an ill Panoz. It's uncertain whether any self-portrait Panoz drew would have been as colorful as the picture Atherton painted of his boss. Despite his many other interests, Panoz-a relative newcomer to motorsports-takes racing seriously, according to Atherton.