Motor Racing : Top Level Auto Racing Is Not a Sport for Young

Who ever said automobile racing was a young man’s sport?

A look at the 1984 Skoal All-American racing team would indicate that the art of going fast is like a rare wine--the older the better. It doesn’t seem to matter if the drivers are wheeling 200 m.p.h. Indy cars, 3,600-pound full-bodied stock cars, sleek one-of-a-kind sports cars or fire-breathing drag racers--age and experience apparently are more valuable than youthful nerve and courage.

Five of the 11 members of the team, selected by the American Automobile Writers and Broadcasters Assn., are 40 or older. Drag racer Don Garlits, chosen for a record eighth time in the 15-year history of the balloting, is 52, Mario Andretti, champion of the CART/PPG World Series of Indy Car Racing, like Garlits an eight-time first-team choice, will be 45 next month. Versatile Tom Bigelow, the U.S. Auto Club midget racing champion, is 45. Stock-car racer Harry Gant will be 45 next Thursday, and drag racer Joe Amato, the National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel champion, is 40.

The only drivers under 30 are NASCAR stock-car champion Terry Labonte, the baby of the team at 28, and Sammy Swindell, World of Outlaws sprint car driver, who is 29. Labonte is the second-youngest Winston Cup champion in NASCAR’S 36 years. Only Richard Petty, who was 27 when he won in 1964, was younger.

The 1984 team, as selected in five categories: Open wheel--Andretti, 44, of Nazareth, Pa., and Tom Sneva, 36, Paradise Valley, Ariz. Stock Car--Labonte, 28, Trinity, N.C., and Gant, 44. Taylorsville, N.C., Road racing--Tom Gloy, 37, Lafayette, Calif., and Al Holbert, 38, Warrington, Pa. Drag racing--Garlits, 52, Ocala, Fla., and Amato, 40, Old Forge, Pa., At-large--Steve Kinser, 30 Bloomington, Ind.; Swindell, 29, Bartlett, Tenn.; and Bigelow, 45, Winchester, Ind.

There are 11 members on the usual 10-men team for the first time because of a tie in the voting for the second at-large position. Balloting behind Kinser was so close that Bigelow and Swindell tied for a first-team spot, and two other drivers, rally champion John Buffum and Super Vee champion Arie Luyendyk, fell only one vote short.

Six of those selected--Labonte, Gant, Gloy, Amato, Swindell and Bigelow--were named for the first time.

The team will be honored Tuesday night in ceremonies aboard the Queen Mary at which time the Jerry Titus Award as AARWBA Driver of the Year will be presented to the driver who received the highest number of votes. The award is named for a former professional journalist and race driver from Hollywood who was killed in a racing accident.

Andretti, who won the Titus Award in 1977 and 1978 as a road racer, is expected to become the first three-time recipient. Only the late Mark Donohue, who won in 1971 and 1972 and Johnny Rutherford, in 1974 and 1980, have also won it twice.

Driving the Budweiser Lola for actor Paul Newman and Chicago businessman Carl Hass, Andretti won races at Long Beach, the Meadowlands, the Michigan 500, Road America, Mid-Ohio and again at Michigan, winning his fourth Indy car championship and setting an American auto racing single-season record for winnings at $913,307. A former Formula One world road racing champion, Andretti won the pole at all seven CART road races and won four of them. He led all 100 laps at the Meadowlands.

Sneva, runner-up for the CART championship, set a qualifying record of 210.29 m.p.h. for the Indianapolis 500 and won races at Phoenix, Milwaukee and Caesars Palace in the Mayer Racing Texaco Star March. This is his second first-team selection.

Labonte, with wins at Riverside and Bristol, waged a season-long battle of Chevrolets with Gant, who won at Dover, Pocono and the Southern 500 at Darlington, for the Grand National championship. Labonte edged Gant on the basis of 17 finishes in the top five in 31 races.

Gloy won the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am series, driving the 7-Eleven Capri to wins at Detroit, Trois Rivieres and Caesars Palace. He also finished second six times.

Holbert, although finishing only fourth in the International Motor Sports Assn.’s Camel GT series, won races at Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Road America and Pocono to make the team for the fourth time. Holbert also ran a full Indy car schedule and finished fourth in the Indianapolis 500. Randy Lanier, the Camel GT champion, was named to the second team, along with Derek Bell, Holbert’s co-driver in endurance races.

Both drag race selections, Garlits and Amato, are top-fuel drivers. Garlits, returning to full-time competition after several years’ absence, won the NHRA’s two most prestigious events, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis and the World Finals at Pomona.