Jones-Thompson Duel to Continue

Sprint car veterans Bubby Jones and Dean Thompson, rumored to be on the brink of retirement, will be back at it again this year in the Kraco-California Racing Assn. series. They have won the last five championships, Jones in 1983 and 1984, and Thompson in 1980, 1981 and 1982.

The CRA, the oldest sprint car association in the country, will open its 40th season this weekend at the California Mid-Winter Fair on the Imperial County Fairgrounds’ 3/8-mile dirt oval in El Centro. Both Jones and Thompson will be there in new cars, Jones in a new BJ chassis owned by Frank and Kathy Lewis, and Thompson in a new California Gambler owned by Bruce Bromme.

The races, Saturday and Sunday afternoons with the Mid-Winter carnival as a backdrop, are the only daytime events on the schedule. This will be the 29th year that the CRA has raced as part of the Imperial County festivities. Billy Garrett and Jack Gardner won the first year, 1956. Fairgrounds racing preceded CRA competition, however, as front-engine Indy cars raced on the original mile dirt oval in the early ‘30s on the Pacific Southwest’s AAA circuit. When Ernie Triplett, a five-time competitor in the Indianapolis 500, and two others were killed in an accident March 4, 1934, racing ended on the mile oval.

The track was shortened to a half-mile when the sprint cars began running there in 1956, then last year the track was shortened again.

Both Jones, in 1983, and Thompson, in 1976, have won Mid-Winter races, joining an illustrious list that includes Jim Hurtubise, Parnelli Jones, Jim McElreath, Bobby Olivero, Ron Shuman and Al Unser Jr. Last year’s winners, Mike Sweeney and Eddie Wirth, are expected back this weekend. Only six drivers, Chuck Gurney, Hurtubise, Gordon Wooley, the late Clark Templeman, Shuman and Bob Hogle, have swept both ends of the two-day show.

Lealand McSpadden, who finished second last week in the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway, is coming from Tempe, Ariz., to battle the CRA regulars. McSpadden won a Mid-Winter in 1979.

This will be a landmark year for the CRA. Its drivers will venture East for the first time to compete in the CRA-U.S. Auto Club National Sprint Car Series, besides running the 40 regularly scheduled races on the West Coast. Races at Terre Haute, Ind.; Wichita Falls, Kan.; Lawson, Okla.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Dallas are all scheduled in May, with one more site to be announced. All will count in the CRA points race.

The CRA-USAC series will start March 9-10 at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, and will be part of the Ascot Park opening night March 16.

OFF ROAD--Ironman Ivan Stewart and his Toyota teammate, Frank Arciero Jr., will start from the front Saturday in the second annual Laughlin Challenge, second event in the newly formed High Desert Racing Assn.-SCORE International combined series. The 240-mile race will be run on a 60-mile course west of Laughlin, Nev., about 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas, on the banks of the Colorado river. Stewart, driving a modified truck, will be competing in the unlimited, single-seat class. Arciero, also driving a truck, is in the unlimited, two-seater class.

SPEEDWAY CYCLES--Daytime racing is a novelty for speedway riders in the U.S., but Sunday at San Bernardino the season will open with a 2 p.m. program at Inland Motorcycle Speedway, featuring U.S. champion Kelly Moran and California state champion Bobby Schwartz. It is part of the Coors Spring Classic, a three-race series that will start Friday night at the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds and conclude March 9, at Long Beach Veterans Stadium. Also set this week is a season preview Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The weekly speedway season will open March 29 at Costa Mesa.

POWERBOATS--The Parker Enduro, a seven-hour race on the Colorado river, will start Sunday at 8 a.m. at La Paz County Park, seven miles north of Parker, Ariz., on Highway 95. More than 75 boats are expected to compete in one of racing’s most grueling events over a 16-mile course between La Paz Park and Bluewater Marina. Defending champion is Jimbo McConnell of Wonder Lake, Ill., who averaged better than 100 m.p.h. for the seven hours. . . . San Diego’s Miller High Life Thunderboat Regatta earned the American Power Boat Assn.’s safety and rescue team award for the 1984 unlimited hydroplane season.

NEWSWORTHY--The Drag Racing Assn. for Women, founded to help defray medical expenses of Shirley Muldowney and other drivers injured during competition, raised $20,000 for the fund during the Winternationals. . . . More than 80 drivers, including former Formula One champion Phil Hill, offshore boat champion Betty Cook, and Paul Page, the radio voice of the Indianapolis 500, will have their only stopover in the 8,500-mile One Lap of America rally Monday evening at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach. Cars will be a display in the parking lot until noon Tuesday, when the competition will be resumed. . . . The Eddie Sachs Memorial Award, one of the most prestigious involving Indy car drivers, has been canceled because its sponsor, the American Red Ball Transit Co., has new ownership. . . . Cary Agajanian, Ascot Park operator, was honored by the Racing Promoters Workshop for “devotion to racing.”