It’s a Blast to Drag Racing’s Past
Nostalgia drag racing -- which actually includes many new, powerful machines made to look like the front-engine dragsters of the ‘60s and ‘70s -- returns to the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona this weekend.
The ninth annual Goodguys Pomona Nitro Nationals runs today through Sunday with more than 400 cars racing in 14 classes, including top-fuel dragsters that reach speeds of 250 mph.
Hundreds of hot rods and custom cars also will be on display, and there will be car-equipment vendors and a swap meet.
The competitors include two second-generation drag racers, Adam Sorokin, 39, of Santa Monica and Sean Bellemeur, 24, of Fullerton.
Sorokin is the son of Mike Sorokin, who drove the “Surfers” top-fuel dragster in the 1960s. He was killed in a racing accident at the old Orange County International Raceway when Adam was only a year old.
Bellemeur’s father, Gregg, raced dragsters from 1970 to 1983 and is now a team owner and crew chief in the series. His mother Nancy worked for several Southern California racetracks.
Adult admission is $25 on Friday and $30 on Saturday and Sunday, with $75 weekend passes available. Admission for children 7 to 12 is $10 a day, and kids 6 and under are free. Gates open at 8 a.m. daily.
NASCAR Notes
* Soaring gasoline prices are taking a toll on sales of food and souvenirs at NASCAR races, according to executives of Speedway Motorsports Inc., whose tracks include Las Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol, Tenn.
“Gas is probably the thing that’s affecting us more than anything right now,” company president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler told Wall Street analysts this week.
“Race fans will get to the track, but they’re not going to spend; a lot of them won’t spend the extra money” for food and souvenirs, he said.
But fans who drive gas-guzzling recreational vehicles, and then camp at the racetracks for the weekend, aren’t being deterred by high pump prices, he said.
“Our camping continues to be strong and continues to grow,” Wheeler said. “Campers are your really hard-core race fans. They’re going to get to the track and do whatever it takes to do that.”
* As Toyota Motor Corp. prepares to join the Nextel and Busch series next year with its Camry, it’s also joining Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge in developing its version of NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow.”
The Car of Tomorrow will be gradually introduced into the sport starting next year, and will feature a more common design to reduce costs for racing teams. But the similarities could come with a price for the automakers: A body shell so common that it’s hard for fans to tell one company’s car from another.
That could dilute the brand identity that the automakers are selling to the public, and that they hope the fans carry from the racetrack to dealers’ showrooms.
“It’s an issue that is being discussed quite a bit among NASCAR and the individual manufacturers,” said Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager in Torrance.
“If you go overboard” with building the cars alike, “then what you don’t want, from a manufacturer’s perspective, is for them to all look alike,” he said. “That’s one of the things that’s still out there trying to be resolved.”
* Despite rumors that the Nextel Cup series could soon have a new name, Sprint Nextel Corp. says no decision has yet been made.
NASCAR’s top series was the Winston Cup for 31 years until 2004, when it was replaced by Nextel. Then Nextel merged with Sprint last year, sparking talk that the Nextel name might be replaced.
But “we’re still evaluating” the idea, company spokesman Kurt Culbert said in an e-mail. “It will likely be into the summer before a decision has been made.”
* Sterling Marlin celebrates his 30th anniversary -- and his 685th start -- in NASCAR Cup racing when he takes the green flag Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.
Last Laps
* The 3,000-mile, eight-day Gumball 3000 rally race that includes Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other exotic cars -- along with plenty of more pedestrian vehicles -- reaches the finish line Sunday on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
This is the eighth running of the event, which was inspired by the road-race movies of the 1970s such as “Cannonball Run” and “The Gumball Rally.”
* Nicky Hayden is the first American to lead the MotoGP World Championship motorcycle series since 2000 after finishing third in the Grand Prix of Turkey last weekend.
It was the seventh consecutive podium finish for the rider from Owensboro, Ky. The series makes its U.S. stop at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix on July 23 at Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca, a race Hayden won last year.
* Points leader Chad Jones of Temecula headlines the late-model racing at Perris Auto Speedway in Riverside County on Saturday night. Jeff Dunham of Murrieta is second in the series.