Motor Racing / Shav Glick : As a Drag Boat Racer, Jim Ermshar Is Doing His Thing

Jim Ermshar was a successful drag racer who thought racing boats was “kid stuff” until his brother Don talked him into watching a drag boat race at Long Beach Marine Stadium.

“I didn’t really want to go, but Don talked me into it,” Ermshar said. “It was quite a shock. When I first heard those big boats fire up and make a pass, I was really impressed. I had been strictly an asphalt quarter-mile racer, but it wasn’t long before I was hooked on water.”

Ermshar, 41, is a heavy-equipment operator from Riverside who races weekends, but he has been winning so consistently in his blown gas flat-bottom that he may soon become a boat builder.

“I’ve taken hulls designed by Mike Donnell and motors from Nick Arais and done my own thing with them,” Ermshar said. “I think I’ve developed them to a point where there is a market.”

Ermshar, who will race this weekend in the International Hot Boat Assn.’s In-n-Out Springnationals at Puddingstone reservoir in San Dimas, holds all the records in his class and was named driver of the year in both the IHBA and the rival National Drag Boat Assn.

He set the NDBA record of 153.75 m.p.h. earlier this year at Lake Ming, near Bakersfield, which is also the fastest for any of drag boating’s four sanctioning bodies.

“That’s not bad when you consider that a flat-bottom is not built for racing, like a hydroplane,” he said. “It is built strictly for recreation with a high speed of about 75. We have to wring it out pretty good to get up to 150.”

Ermshar’s chief competition Sunday is expected to be brother Don, a Riverside attorney. In 1984, Don won the IHBA championship and Jim was second. Last year the result was reversed and this year, at the IHBA opener at Charlie Allen’s Firebird Lake in Phoenix, Jim and Don ran 1-2.

“Whatever I’m doing, I always figure Don as my main competition,” Jim said. “As long as we’ve been together, and there is only 18 months between us, we’ve been going at it, knocking heads with model airplanes, go-karts, hot rods, motorcycles, drag boats, you name it.”

Ermshar’s boat, Ivory Hunter IV, is 18 feet long and, weighs 2,500 pounds, including driver. Its 565-cubic-inch Arais engine puts out between 1,500 and 1,600 horsepower.

The name Ivory Hunter is the outgrowth of a racing friendship Jim had with a Chrysler devotee.

“We were both hard-core enthusiasts, me for Chevies and him for Chryslers, so I told him my Ivory Hunter would go after his elephant motor. It seemed like it fit, and this one is my fourth.”

It’s an expensive hobby. An engine costs $27,000 before Ermshar’s modifications and the hulls run between $15,000 and $18,000.

“It’s become our way of life,” Jim’s wife, Fran, said. “When we need a new den, or an addition on the garage, what do we get, a new blower or another hull. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Fran is also a speed freak of sorts. She has a turbocharged Kawasaki motorcycle that she enjoys getting up to 175 m.p.h. when there’s open road ahead of her.

Running fast on water is much more exhilarating than running fast on asphalt, according to Ermshar, who won American Hot Rod Assn. national events in his factory experimental ’63 Chevrolet Camaro before discovering boat racing.

“The sensation of running fast on water is unbelievable,” he said. “When you’re riding the fine line between winning and disaster, the boat wants to take off and fly. The driver’s main concern has to be keeping it, at least part of it, in the water. It’s so easy to have it get away from you.”

Ermshar had one get away in 1979 at Lake Ming.

“I learned a lesson, that’s for sure, not to let my temper run the boat. I got left at the line and I was so mad I let my feeling get the better of me. I hit the throttle and flew the boat like an airplane to catch up. I knew what I was doing, and I pretty much knew what was going to happen, but I was so mad I did it anyway.

“Well, I caught him, but I got airborne, too. I was lucky I got thrown out because the automatic cut-off didn’t work and the boat raced around the lake, bouncing off fences and other boats like a bump ‘em car before a guy jumped in it and cut the engine. I was already picked up and on the shore before my boat quit running around in circles. It was a good lesson. I’ve never done that again.”

Puddingstone, where more than 150 boats are expected to compete in 16 classes this weekend, is one of the better racing surfaces, Ermshar said.

“It will be perfect if we have a mild breeze with maybe a two-inch chop so the boats can hook up. Lots of people think we would prefer calm water, but we don’t like a flat surface. Flat water creates a vacuum beneath the boat and pulls it down to the water.”

Practice and time trials are set for Friday at Puddingstone, with qualifying all day Saturday and eliminations starting at noon Sunday.

Steve Eklund, who suffered through a four-year slump after winning the American Motorcyclist Assn. Camel Pro championship in 1979, will come to Ascot Park this week as the 1986 leader in quest of his ninth career victory in a national TT steeplechase race. The race, Saturday night, will follow Friday night’s 14th annual Gardena Gold Cup, a western regional half-mile race.

Eklund, 30, who lives in San Jose but considers Ascot his home track, has won 16 AMA races. He got off to a fast start on his Harley-Davidson this year by winning at Houston in the season opener.

“I’d really like to break the record in TT,” said Eklund, who is tied with Dick Mann, now retired, in TT victories. “It’s my favorite form of racing because it takes more rider ability to win. A mile race takes more horsepower, but a TT takes more rider. And I’d like to get the record at Ascot I’ve been racing there since I was a rookie in 1970.”

A TT steeplechase contains at least one jump and has both right- and left-hand turns. Ascot has one jump and two right-handers to go with the usual left-hand cornering.

Eklund will also ride Friday night in an attempt to become only the third rider to score consecutive wins at Ascot. Dave Aldana did it first in 1973 and Doug Chandler did it in 1984.

Alex Jorgensen of Stockton will also be going for a TT record in the same race. Jorgensen and Gary Scott have each won four national TTs at Ascot, and Jorgensen, who was leading last year when he fell on the last turn and Bubba Shobert got the win, hopes to be the first to make it five.

INDY CARS--Only 25 cars have been entered for Sunday’s Dana 200, opening event of the 17-race CART/PPG Indy Car World Series, at Phoenix International Raceway. Entrants include defending CART champion Al Unser, in a Chevy-powered Penske PC-15, and A. J. Foyt, who is starting his 30th year of racing. This will be the first 200-mile Indy car race on the paved one-mile oval since Nov. 1969 when Unser won. . . . The American Racing Series, a new training ground series for potential CART drivers, will make its debut with a 75-mile race. All drivers will be in Buick-powered Marches. The series has attracted some veterans, such as Jim Trueman and Desire Wilson; some newcomers, such as Jeff Andretti, Juan Manuel Fangio III, Mike Groff of Northridge and the Bren brothers of Irvine, Steve and Cary; and two sprint car champions, Sammy Swindell and Billy Boat. . . . Dick Rutherford of Newport Beach has been named president of the American Racing Series. Rutherford has been involved with Pat Patrick’s Indy car team since 1970.

CELEBRITY RACE--Dan Gurney will celebrate his 55th birthday April 13 by driving in the pro-celebrity race during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Other professional racers will include Chip Ganassi, Steve Millen and Parnelli Jones. Celebrities include Lorenzo Lamas of “Falcon Crest,” Perry King of “Riptide,” David Hasselhoff of “Knight Rider,” Dutch Mandel, West Coast editor of Autoweek, and David Wilson, owner of Toyota of Orange.

OFF-ROAD RACING--The Great Mojave 250, second race of the SCORE/High Desert Racing Assn. season, will be run Saturday in Lucerne Valley. Manny Esquerra, who won the mini-truck class last year in Bill Stroppe’s Ford Ranger, will attempt to win his second straight this year after taking the opener in Parker, Ariz. . . . The next Mickey Thompson stadium race will be May 3 in the Rose Bowl. Events in Dallas and Seattle have been canceled.

ROAD RACING--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Camel Grand Prix, final race on the International Motor Sports Assn. schedule before the Los Angeles Times/Ford Grand Prix of Endurance April 26-27 at Riverside, will be run this weekend at Road Atlanta. Defending champions are Brian Redman and Hurley Haywood in a Jaguar. It was the only IMSA race not won by a Porsche 962 last year and Porsches have won all three races this season. Since Al Holbert introduced the 962 at Charlotte in 1984, the car has won 23 of 30 Camel GT races.

VINTAGE RACING--The Classic Auto Racing Series will begin its season with the Riverside Vintage Car Gran Prix Sunday at Riverside. Featured will be cars from the formula, GT, Trans-Am, FIA makes and Can-Am groups, representing the last three decades of racing. Racing will start at 11 a.m. . . . The La Carrera, a vintage car race of 145 miles from Ensenada to San Felipe, has been moved from May 3 to May 10 to avoid a conflict with Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Former motorcycle champion Gary Nixon has entered the two-wheel race and will ride a Triumph.

DRAG RACING--When Don Garlits ran his record-breaking 272.56 m.p.h. in the semifinal round of the Gatornationals last week in Gainesville, Fla., he and former quarterback Dan Pastorini ran the fastest side-by-side race in drag racing history. Garlits covered the quarter mile in 5.409 seconds to 5.491 for the rapidly improving Pastorini, who eliminated Shirley Muldowney in the first round.

STOCK CARS--Cajon Speedway in El Cajon will open its season Saturday night with a 150-lap factory enduro. Cajon has joined the NASCAR sanctioning body for 1986. . . . Also opening Saturday night will be Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield with a super modified and street stock doubleheader. Mesa Marin will run every other Saturday night this season.

MIDGET CARS--Sleepy Tripp, defending Western States champion, will open defense of his crown Sunday night in a 30-lap race on Ascot Park’s half-mile dirt oval. Challenging Tripp will be Rusty Rasmussen, last year’s runner-up, and Robby Flock, winner of six races last season.

MOTORCYCLES--The second race of the 10-event U.S. Suzuki Spring Motocross Classic will be held Sunday at Sunrise Cycle Park in Adelanto. . . . Ascot Park will open its long track speedway season tonight and the USA Speedway in the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds at Victorville will open Saturday night for weekly races.