GEARING UP

What’s new in motor sports heading into this weekend:

1 The Champ Car World Series opens its 16-race season Sunday with a new event, a 150-mile race on a temporary 2.44-mile course through the streets of downtown Las Vegas.

The series’ second race is the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 15. It’s another street race, one whose defending winner is Sebastien Bourdais, who also has won the Champ Car title for the last three years.

2 The Formula Drift professional drifting series holds its opening event Saturday on the Long Beach course. Drifting features race cars that compete in pairs and slide sideways, or drift, through corners of a twisty course.

3 Formula One’s Kimi Raikkonen will try to make it two consecutive victories this weekend at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, who moved to Ferrari this year from the McLaren-Mercedes team, easily won the series opener last month in Australia.

4 NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series has Easter Sunday off, but Busch Series drivers will race Saturday in the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee. The Cup series returns April 15 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

5 In local Saturday night racing, the USAC Western Midget Car series returns to Ventura Raceway, and Irwindale Speedway and the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino have multi-race programs featuring late model stock cars. Perris Auto Speedway will be closed.

-- JIM PELTZ