Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Elliott and Unsers Head All-American Team

Stock car driver Bill Elliott, already the winner of more than $2 million and a unanimous choice as Eljer Driver of the Year, added another prize to his growing 1985 collection when he was voted the Jerry Titus Award in balloting by the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. for its Skoal All-America team.

The Titus Award, named for a former race driver-writer from Los Angeles who died in 1970 of racing accident injuries, is presented to the driver who receives the most All-America team votes.

Elliott, a soft-spoken redhead from Dawsonville, Ga., was joined on the 12-member team by the father-son Indy car combination of Al and Al Unser Jr. from Albuquerque, N.M., and the first posthumous selection, short-track stock car champion Richie Evans of Rome. N.Y., who was fatally injured last October in a practice crash at Martinsville, Va.

Elliott won a modern NASCAR record 11 Grand National super-speedway races--including the Daytona 500, Winston 500 and Southern 500--in Harry Melling’s Coors Thunderbird. For winning three of stock car racing’s four major events, Elliott collected a $1-million bonus from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., sponsors of the 28-race series.

Joining Elliott in the stock car category on the All-America team was Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip of Franklin, Tenn., whose consistency in Junior Johnson’s Budweiser Chevrolet enabled him to edge Elliott for the series championship. It was Waltrip’s sixth All-America selection.

The Unsers finished one-two in the CART/PPG Indy Car World Series as the 46-year-old father ended the season one point ahead of his 23-year-old son. The elder Unser, winner of the Titus Award in 1970, was runner-up to Elliott for the same award this year.

At age 53, drag racer Don (Big Daddy) Garlits became the oldest driver ever selected to the team after winning six top fuel finals en route to the National Hot Rod Assn.’s Winston Cup world championship. Garlits, who was named to the team for a record ninth time--breaking out of a tie with Mario Andretti--set a top fuel speed record of 268.01 m.p.h. in a car he built at his own garage in Ocala, Fla.

Also selected in the drag racing category was funny car champion Kenny Bernstein of Newport Beach, who won the NHRA championship and was runner-up in the International Hot Rod Assn. series. Bernstein won eight major events in his Budweiser King Ford Tempo.

Road racing representatives are veteran Al Holbert, 35, of Warrington, Pa., and Wally Dallenbach Jr., 22, of Basalt, Colo. Holbert won 9 of 17 International Motor Sports Assn. races on his way to a fourth Camel GT championship. Dallenbach--son of CART director of competition Wally Dallenbach--won the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am series over his more flamboyant Capri teammate, Willy T. Ribbs, and was also runner-up in the IMSA Camel GTO class.

A new category for short track drivers was added to the All-America team this year with Evans being joined by World of Outlaws sprint car champion Steve Kinser of Bloomington, Ind. Kinser, who won 15 WoO main events and 24 overall, had been selected four times previously as an at-large driver. Kinser won his 150th career WoO feature in September at Santa Maria Speedway. Before his death, Evans won 12 NASCAR modified features to win his eighth straight and ninth overall championship. Evans’ nine titles are a NASCAR record.

Two at-large selections were off-road racer Roger Mears of Bakersfield and road racer Johnny Jones of Canada, the youngest selectee at 20. Mears, 38, elder brother of 1979 Titus Award winner Rick Mears, drove a Nissan pickup to victory in the Grand National Truck championship in the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix series of short-course races and also won the stock car division of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in a Chevy Camaro. Jones, who often shared his ride in the Roush Protofab Motorcraft Mustang with Dallenbach Jr., won the IMSA Camel GTO title while winning six races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Half the team--Elliott, Bernstein, Evans, Dallenbach, Jones and Mears--were first time selectees.

The team will be feted at an AARWBA black-tie banquet Friday night, Jan. 10, aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. The public is invited to attend. Tickets are $45.

MOTOCROSS--Danny (Magoo) Chandler, 25, winner of the 1982 U.S. Grand Prix at Carlsbad and one of America’s most promising international riders, is in Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, paralyzed from the elbows down. Chandler, from Foresthill, Calif., was injured in a crash during a stadium supercross in Paris, France, two weeks ago. . . . Mercedes Gonzales of Arleta, Calif., won her third straight U.S. women’s championship by sweeping both motos in last Sunday’s nationals at Carlsbad. Gonzales, 24, rode a Kawasaki 250. Brian Myerscough of Calimesa, riding an ATK, won the four-stroke national, edging out Warren Reid of Midway City, who was on a Honda, and Willie Simons of Simi Valley, on an ATK. Brothers dominated the sidecar nationals as Pete and Scott Whitney, Honda riders from Carpenteria, defeated Victor and Phil Palfreyman of Santa Monica. Third were Mike Burns and Ty Schlender of Los Angeles.

INDY CARS--Car owners Maurice Kraines of Kraco and Jim Trueman of Truesports were elected to new seats on the CART board of directors and 1985 champion Al Unser was reelected as the driver representative. . . . Actor David Hasselhoff has purchased an interest in the Groenevelt team with Vandervell Rookie of the Year Arie Luyendyk as the driver. It will be known as the Race of Life team.

OFF ROAD--After driving his Nissan King Cab to victory in the Frontier 250, Sherman Balch, 35, announced his retirement from desert racing to concentrate on stadium short-course competition. It was the first desert win in three years for Balch, who has won six SCORE closed course events at Riverside as well as the Baja 1000 and the Mint 400. . . . SCORE International and the High Desert Racing Assn. will hold their joint points awards banquet Jan. 11 at the Anaheim Hilton.

STOCK CARS--The NASCAR Winston Cup point fund will be a record $2 million next year, making it the largest motorsports point fund in the world. The winning driver will receive $400,000. This year Darrell Waltrip received $250,000 for winning the season championship. In addition to the end-of-year awards, a $500,000 pot will be divided among the 10 leading drivers at the mid-year point of the 29-race schedule.