Shuman to Drive at Ascot in Tune-Up for Nationals

Sprint car veteran Ron Shuman will tune up for the $70,000 Pacific Coast Nationals later this month at Ascot Park, an event he has won three times, by competing in next Saturday night’s Kraco-California Racing Assn. program on the Gardena half-mile track.

Shuman, 33, of Tempe, Ariz., is no stranger to Ascot, but has made only a few starts there in the past couple of seasons as he has been a regular on the World of Outlaws circuit, criss-crossing the country. He has three victories on the Outlaws circuit this season and is currently in third place in the series standings.

He competed in the recent Outlaw winged show at Ascot last month, but lasted only 11 of the 30 laps in the main event before being sidelined by mechanical troubles in his Challenger sprinter owned by Oklahoma businessman Lloyd Stephens.

In the Pacific Coast Nationals, Shuman had a fourth in 1974 and two years later took the first of his championships. His other victories in the national came in 1977 and in 1983.

Only Dean Thompson of Carson has been able to match Shuman in victories in the 50-lap national, having triumphed in 1978-79 and 1982. Thompson, is also the all-time Ascot feature winner as 88 of his 99 CRA championship have come there. Last year, Thompson finished third behind winner Bubby Jones and runner-up Steve Kinser of Bloomington, Ind.

While it has been a while since Shuman has recorded a sprint car victory at Ascot, the popular driver has posted an almost unbelieveable record in the track’s annual Thanksgiving night grand prix for midget cars.

In the last six 100-lap events sanctioned by the United States Auto Club, Shuman has posted five victories--and in the other he had a big lead only to be sidelined by mechanical problems late in the race.

Until Shuman’s string, no driver had ever won three Turkey night race, which began back in 1934 at Gilmore Stadium and then at Western Speedway in Gardena before moving to Ascot.

In addition to Thompson and Kinser in the Oct. 23-24-26 nationals, Shuman will face a challenge from the hottest sprint car racer this season--Doug Wolfgang of Sioux Falls, S.D.

Racing mainly in Pennsylvania, Wolfgang has won nearly half of the feature races he has entered. Also, he was the winner of the two biggest sprint car events, a $50,000 victory at Eldora Raceway in Ohio and the annual U.S. Nationals at Knoxville, Iowa.

The Wolf, as he is known, also set a new one season record for victories with 51, breaking his own record of 45 set in 1977 and equaled by Kinser in 1982.