Vasser Wants to End Career as a Champ

Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART, might be riding to its final roundup Nov. 2 at California Speedway, but durable Jimmy Vasser, one of its champions, is looking forward to being there. And he wants to be in on whatever direction new ownership takes the troubled open-wheel racing series in the future.

“I’ve dabbled around in a lot of things this year, even took a long look at NASCAR, trying to sort out what I want to do,” Vasser said. “The more I thought about it, despite all the negative talk, I decided I wanted to finish my career as a champ car driver.”

Vasser, who will turn 38 on Nov. 20, has driven in 181 consecutive CART races, more than any other active driver. Al Unser Jr., who switched to the Indy Racing League a few years ago, had 192 in a row when he left.

CART, though, wasn’t Vasser’s only competition. He drove in two NASCAR races in the Busch series, the Indianapolis 500 in the IRL and the Baja 1000 with lifetime friends and former CART drivers Mike and Robby Groff.

He’ll drive again in next month’s Baja and hopes to make his ninth Indy 500 next May, but his main focus is CART, the three races remaining this year and into 2004.

“Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way, with all you hear and read about CART, but I think it’s all positive from what I’ve heard about the direction the new owners are planning.”

Open Wheel Racing Series LLC, a holding company owned primarily by Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven and Paul Gentilozzi, has agreed to purchase CART and privatize the publicly owned company. The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the transaction, and once it is acceptable to the government, the stockholders will vote on the change. There are not expected to be any major dissenters.

“Open Wheel Racing Series intends to fulfill its commitment to fans by keeping its current format of ovals, road races and street courses,” Gentilozzi said when the sale was announced.

Vasser said, “I don’t see it happening next year, but the two series [IRL and CART] have to get together in a positive manner before either the public or the sponsors will support open-wheel racing the way it should be supported.

“If one series kills off the other, it will leave a negative feeling toward the sport. To work, the merger has to be harmonious.”

In the meantime, Vasser has three more races to think about -- at Mexico City on Oct. 12, Australia on Oct. 26 and Fontana -- before looking at 2004.

For a driver who won the CART championship in 1996, has won 10 races and eight poles in his 12-year career, 2003 has not gone well. Driving this season for Stefan Johannson’s American Spirit team, Vasser has two fourth-place finishes, at Long Beach and last Sunday at Miami, and is 13th in the champ car points. Only once before, in 2001, has he finished out of the top 10.

“We were strapped all season, having to run the Reynard chassis,” he said. “We were told that there would be some aerodynamic changes, but they never came. We had 300 pounds less downforce than the Lolas, and that’s too much to make up.”

If there is one place the Reynard might have a chance, it is on the two-mile California Speedway track, where Vasser has had remarkable success. He won there in 1998 and 2002 and was second in 1997. He also won the U.S. 500, the anti-Indianapolis 500, at Michigan in 1996.

“With the superspeedway aero package, the Reynard may have a chance at Fontana because it will have less drag on the long straightaways because of less downforce,” Vasser said. “And in 500 miles, we have a number of pit stops when we can make changes. I don’t know why I’ve had such success at 500-milers, but I’d like one more next month.”

For 2004, Vasser hopes to remain with Johansson, but sponsorship remains an issue.

“I really can’t believe that our team, with the only two American drivers running the full schedule, can’t find an American sponsor,” he said.

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Irwindale Pair Honored

Rip Michels of Mission Hills and Todd Burns of Riverside, Irwindale Speedway track champions in super late model and late model, respectively, have won national honors in NASCAR’s Dodge Weekly Series Sunbelt Region championship. Both will be feted Nov. 1 in Nashville.

Michels will collect nearly $45,000 as NASCAR’s short-track champion, and Burns will pick up $10,000 as champion of a second tier of racing that includes modifieds, sportsman, street stocks, limited late models, pro trucks and hobby stocks.

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Nostalgia Time

The 12th annual California Hot Rod Reunion this weekend at Famoso Speedway in Bakersfield will spotlight early front-engine dragsters from the 1960s, including some that had to be push-started. Thirty historic dragsters are expected to compete in quarter-mile eliminations.

Honored racers include John Bradley, Bruce Geisler, Glen Stokey, Gary Cochran and Pete Millar. Co-grand marshals are Bob Muravez and Floyd J. Lippencotte Jr.

More than 600 people are expected for the Legends of Ascot reunion festivities Saturday at Perris, arranged by Don Weaver. Honorees will be Parnelli Jones, Allen Heath, Ray Sheetz and former promoters J.C. Agajanian Jr. and Harry Schooler.

The dinner before the Sprint Car Racing Assn. races at Perris Auto Speedway is sold out.

The late J.C. Agajanian’s name and familiar Stetson will be memorialized in a perpetual trophy honoring winners of the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix, a race Aggie saved from extinction and promoted into one of the sport’s most prestigious events. The new trophy will be introduced Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway, current home of the Thanksgiving night event.

Michael Lewis, winner of last year’s Turkey Night midget race, will return to Irwindale Saturday night to run in a U.S. Auto Club main event that will serve as a tuneup for the Nov. 17 100-lapper.

Also on the program will be USAC sprint car and Ford Focus races, plus a Grand American modified Twin 25.

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Passings

Don Tuttle, former announcer at Santa Ana Drag Strip in the 1950s, has died after a long illness.

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Last Laps

Off-road racing legends Rod Hall and Walker Evans and vehicles entered in the Baja 1,000 will be on hand at the Off Road Expo, the nation’s largest off-road show, Saturday and Sunday at the Pomona Fairplex. Show hours are 10-6 Saturday, 10-5 Sunday.

Andy Granatelli and Bob Bondurant will be inducted into the San Diego Automotive Museum’s Hall of Fame on Thursday in Balboa Park.