Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Suspended Marty Tripes Seeking Reinstatement to Race in Gran Prix Final

Off-road racer Marty Tripes, suspended for the remainder of the season last Saturday at Riverside Raceway for using “excessive vulgarity” and threatening to beat up SCORE President Sal Fish, is seeking reinstatement for the final race of the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix series Sept. 14 at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway.

Tripes won the last single-seater race at the Orange Show and had won an earlier one at the Pomona Fairgrounds, and when he finished second in the Coliseum last month he took over the season lead.

He crashed, though, last Saturday during the unlimited stadium car race, opening event of the SCORE Off-Road World Championships, and the accident touched off his troubles with Fish.

“I had just crashed, was still woozy from being knocked unconscious, and I was hot, really hot, because I felt the reason I crashed was because they had changed the track, and the drivers were not informed of it,” Tripes said Wednesday from his home in Spring Valley, near San Diego.

“I don’t remember the crash, but I’ve seen it on videotape, and my car did a triple somersault in the air and came down right side up. I was knocked out, but the car rolled on down the track before someone luckily bumped it out of the way.

“It’s no wonder I was hot. I climb out of the car, still woozy, see that my $40,000 car is wasted, and there is the head guy asking me if I need any help.

“You bet, I yelled some abusive things at him. Probably I said too much, but I felt the reasons I yelled were right. Not only were we not notified of the change at the drivers’ meeting, but we were not given a parade lap. If we had driven over the changed part, we would have seen the difference, but we didn’t get a lap. In practice, it was a fourth gear, high-speed section, and the changes made it about second gear.”

Fish denied that there was a major change made in the track, maintaining that the dirt was only returned to its original configuration after the practice session. Several other drivers, however, said they almost crashed at the same place because the track there had been changed.

Tracy Valenta, whose Rosemead ice house is Tripes’ sponsor, said he hoped there would be a reconciliation before the San Bernardino race. Tripes, a two-time winner of the Superbowl of Motocross before he turned to off-road racing, did not plan to run in the Sept. 8 Frontier 500, next event on the SCORE-High Desert Racing Assn. season.

“No driver is more respected among the single-seat racers than Marty,” Valenta said. “He is not overaggressive and he isn’t argumentative with the other drivers. He’s never been in trouble with the Rough Riding Committee. I want him in that race in San Bernardino, and I hope something can be worked out. The points championship isn’t financially very rewarding, but it would be a feather in Marty’s cap to win it, and as a team we want it, too.”

Thompson, founder of SCORE and president of Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group, promoters of the Gran Prix series, said that he could sympathize with Tripes because he knew the feelings of a race driver at the time of a crash.

“I know what it’s like to crash, and when it happens you’re always mad and frustrated and upset,” Thompson said. “I haven’t talked with the principals, but I’m sure the situation will be resolved before our last race.

“From what I hear, Sal was not aware of the extent of Tripes’ accident, or that he was still dazed from the crash. That doesn’t mean I feel Tripes was not out of line, but it does put a different light on the situation.”

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Riders are going into one of their toughest weekends of the season with U.S. National qualifying tests continuing tonight at Ascot Park, Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and Sunday night at Carlsbad. Defending champion Kelly Moran, who missed the qualifying opener at Auburn because of transportation problems, is attempting to come back after a foot injury to make the final, Oct. 12 at Costa Mesa. Programs consist of 30 scratch races, featuring the top 32 riders in the country. Sixteen will make it to the final. . . . All three divisions will return for handicap and scratch racing next Wednesday at San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway. . . . U.S. qualifying leaders are Alan Christian with 20 points, Lance King with 18, Sam Ermolenko with 17, Brad Oxley with 16, Robert Pfetzing with 14, Mike Delacy with 12, and Steve Lucero and Shawn McConnell with 10 each.

HISTORIC CARS--The re-creation of a 1932 Grand Prix, featuring cars from Alfa Romeo, will highlight the 12th Monterey Historic Automobile Races this weekend at Laguna Seca, on the Monterey peninsula. Juan Manuel Fangio, 74, five-time Formula One champion, will drive on the hillside course Saturday along with other former world champions Phil Hill and Jackie Stewart. Sunday there will be side-by-side racing for more than 300 vintage race cars.

MOTOCROSS--A World Motocross Final has been scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9, in the Coliseum, as part of a three-event Rodil Trophy series. Other motos are scheduled Aug. 31 in Goteborg, Sweden, and Oct. 5 in Barcelona, Spain. Competition will be in both 125cc and 250cc classes. . . . Kawasaki’s Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo, who clinched the Supercross stadium championship last Saturday night with a second-place finish in the Rose Bowl, will attempt to win the national 250cc championship Sunday in the season finale at Washougal, Wash. Ward has 401 points to 381 each for Rick Johnson and Johnny O’Mara, who won the Rose Bowl motocross. . . . Honda’s Ron Lechien, 18, of El Cajon, has clinched the national 125cc crown with one event to go. . . . The Otay Pro-Am International Motocross is scheduled Sunday on the University of Baja campus, three miles into Mexico from the Otay Mesa border crossing.

ASCOT POTPOURRI--If variety is what you want, Ascot Park is the place to be Saturday night. Six types of racing are scheduled: U. S. Auto Club western regional midgets, National Midget Racing Assn. three-quarter midgets, mini-sprints, Enduro compact cars, and SoCal Independent Drivers Assn. sprint buggies and mini-stocks. Sleepy Tripp, who will drive in the USAC midget race, won $5,000 in the Midget Nationals last week in Belleville, Kan.

SPRINT CARS--The Kraco-California Racing Assn. series moves to Santa Maria Speedway for the third and final time this season Saturday night. Dean Thompson won both previous 30-lap features on the high-banked -mile clay oval.

MOTORCYCLES--The Motorcycle Dealernews benefit fund raised $6,000 for national superbike champion Wes Cooley of Ramona, who was seriously injured May 18 at Sears Point Raceway. The veteran rider broke both legs, a hip, his neck and a finger in the accident. . . . Larry Roeseler, winner of the SCORE Off-Road World Championship motorcycle race, is skipping the Sept. 7 Frontier 500 to ride in the International Six-Day Enduro in Europe. Roeseler has won five gold and two silver ISDE medals.

OFF-ROAD--The Nov. 8-9 Baja 1,000 will follow much the same route used in 1981, according to SCORE President Sal Fish. The 820-mile race will start and finish in Ensenada. Next year, the 1,000 will return to its traditional route from Ensenada to La Paz. . . . Fears that the departure of K.J. Howe, Mint 400 race director, from the Las Vegas hotel may mean the end of the world’s richest off-road race may be premature. If Mint officials do not retain the event in 1986, Howe hopes to continue it with other sponsorship and make it part of the SCORE-High Desert Racing Assn. season.

STOCK CARS--Women drivers will be spotlighted Saturday night at Saugus Speedway with a powder-puff street stock race and a women’s destruction derby, in addition to the regular modified main event. . . . The Curb Motorsports Winston pro stock series will continue Sunday night at Ascot Park, along with bomber Figure 8s and a demolition derby. . . . Bakersfield Speedway will be closed Saturday night as car owners prepare their equipment for Labor Day weekend races Saturday night, Aug. 31, and Monday Sept. 2.

ROAD RACING--The final round of the Lucas Challenge Sports Renault series will be held Sept. 1 as part of the California Sports Car Club’s Labor Day weekend regional and national championship program at Riverside International Raceway. Rick Anderson, winner of the season opener at Firebird Raceway, near Phoenix, has a seven-point edge over Terry Gough. A Formula Mazda race is scheduled for Labor Day.

NEWSWORTHY--Former San Bernardino racing entrepreneur Warner Hodgdon, who owned cars, teams and racing facilities and sponsored races in his own name, has been discharged from his multimillion-dollar bankruptcy but still must divest himself of such remaining properties as the Richmond, Va., race track and the Junior Johnson NASCAR racing team. He is half-owner of both. . . . Andy Granatelli ran 241.731 m.p.h. in a street-legal Camaro during Speed Weeks at the Bonneville Salt Flats to further his claim of having the world’s fastest passenger car.