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- BUSINESS, Page 56Business NotesENTREPRENEURSAn Ancient New Sport
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- What is made of sleek composite fiber glass and rockets
- around a track like a wayward cruise missile? Not a race car or
- a bobsled. No, it's a high-tech chariot powered by two Arabian
- horses. Welcome to an ancient new sport. "Chariot racing is very
- fast, very colorful and very exciting," says Jim Hall, an
- Arabian horse farm owner, who has teamed up with engineer Phil
- Lawrence to launch Chariots International to promote the sport.
- The two Michigan natives spent the past year developing eight
- 350-lb., $6,000 chariots. In late September, professional
- harness drivers raced four of the chariots for the first time
- -- without a spill. Hall and Lawrence hope to find sponsors for
- individual races or a series so they can develop chariot racing
- into an "entertainment event" much like TV's American
- Gladiators. "The ultimate goal," says Lawrence, "is to have each
- country at the '96 Olympics represented with a chariot at the
- opening ceremonies." It never hurts to think big.
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