Aussie set to unmask for Vegas
NASCAR rallied around the series’ only full-time black driver yesterday, a day after a noose was discovered hanging in his stall at Talladega Superspeedway ahead of the Geico 500 in Alabama.
Drivers showed their solidarity by pushing Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 Chevrolet to the front of the field. It was an emotional display that involved team members walking behind the vehicle to the starting line, where Wallace was in the No. 24 position.
“Together,” Wallace tweeted, along with a photo of him and his fellow racers standing together.
Wallace has led racing’s movement to ban Confederate flags from racing events.
The noose incident on Sunday night (local time) has drawn a strong rebuke from the racing community, including NASCAR legend and Wallace’s team owner, Richard Petty, and led to an FBI investigation.
“I’m enraged by the act of someone placing a noose in the garage stall of my race team,” Petty, 82, said in a statement.
“There is absolutely no place in our sport or our society for racism. This filthy act serves as a reminder of how far we still have to go to eradicate racial prejudice and it galvanises my resolve to use the resources of the Richard Petty Motorsports to create change.
“The sick person who perpetrated this act must be found, exposed, and swiftly and immediately expelled from NASCAR.”
Andrew Moloney stood inside Las Vegas’s MGM Grand casino yesterday with an Australian flag and his WBA super-flyweight belt draped over his left shoulder, a mask on his face and disposable, blue covers on his feet.
With Top Rank boxing promoter Bob Arum going to extreme lengths to stage a series of fight cards at the MGM during the COVID-19 pandemic, Moloney and his Texan challenger, Joshua Franco, came mask-to-mask.
Moloney will defend his WBA belt this morning (AEST) against Franco.
On Friday (AEST), Moloney’s identical twin brother, Jason, a top-five rated bantamweight, takes on Mexico’s Leonardo Baez at the MGM.
Arum has created a “bubble” inside a secured section of the MGM, with entry restricted to boxers and other support staff who pass COVID-19 tests and agree to wear a mask.
Fights will take place without spectators and be televised on ESPN in the US and Fox Sports in Australia.
The Melbourne-born Moloney brothers, 29, spent the past month living in a Las Vegas house and working out in a sanitised Top Rank gym before moving into the MGM bubble at the weekend.
“Tomorrow night I get the chance to show the world why I’m world champion,” Andrew Moloney said after the weigh-in.