Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Holbert-Bell Team Heads 72 Entries for Six-Hour Endurance

Al Holbert and Derek Bell, defending Camel GT champions, are among 72 entries filed with the International Motor Sports Assn. for the Los Angeles Times/Ford Grand Prix of Endurance April 27 at Riverside International Raceway. So are John Morton and Pete Halsmer, defending race champions, but not as a team.

Holbert and Bell, who won the 24 Hours of Daytona and are leading the GTP standings after four races, will be in a Porsche 962 entered by Holbert Racing of Warrington, Pa. Holbert has never won an IMSA race at Riverside, but Bell won in 1983 with John Fitzpatrick and David Hobbs.

Morton and Halsmer, however, have broken up. Morton, a veteran campaigner from El Segundo, will drive with Jim Busby of Laguna Beach in a 962. Halsmer has shifted to the Ford team and will drive with Lyn St. James in a Mustang Probe entered by Team Zakspeed USA.

Busby, who was his team’s manager last year, was also one of the drivers--with Rick Knopp--who chased the Morton-Halsmer team car across the finish line in the closest finish in IMSA history. The margin was .138 of a second.

Busby is also team manager this year, with Jochen Mass of England and Daren Brassfield of Los Gatos in the second car.

The Times/Ford event will be a six-hour endurance race involving all four types of Camel GT cars: GTPs, the big exotic prototypes; Camel Lights, Camel GTO and Camel GTU. The six-hour race is a return to its original format. Last year it was 600 kilometers, which took less than 3 1/2 hours.

Porsches have won five of the seven Times endurance races and had a streak of 16 straight IMSA wins snapped last week at Road Atlanta when Serel Van der Merwe of South Africa and Doc Bundy of Gainesville, Ga., drove a Chevrolet Corvette to victory. It was the first time the Corvette had finished a race in seven starts. Van der Merwe and Bundy averaged a record 110.627 m.p.h. for 500 kilometers.

In the three other IMSA races this season, at Daytona Beach, Sebring and Miami, Porsches finished 1-2-3, and they won 17 of 18 races last year. At Road Atlanta, Porsches did not even finish second. That position went to a Buick Hawk driven by John Paul Jr. and Whitney Ganz, who also are entered in the Times/Ford six-hour race.

MOTORCYCLES--Harley-Davidson, once the dominant cycle in American Motorcyclist Assn. racing, has been upstaged in recent years by Honda, but the H-D may be on its way back. A Harley hasn’t been first in a national TT steeplechase at Ascot Park since Gary Scott won in 1975, but Scott Parker, this year’s leading rider, hopes to change that Friday night when the rain-delayed Silver Anniversary TT is held on Ascot’s zig-zag track. Parker, a Harley-Davidson factory rider, won the Sacramento mile last week and won the Houston TT a year ago, proving his ability on the steeplechase course. Also riding a Harley will be Chris Carr, a second-year expert who is second to Parker in the ’86 standings, against defending national champion Bubba Shobert and TT specialists Steve Eklund and Alex Jorgensen. . . . Bobby (Boogaloo) Schwartz will return from riding in the British Speedway League to race next Wednesday night at the Inland Speedway in San Bernardino and other SoCal tracks. . . . Mike Faria, Steve Lucero and Bob Ott are still looking for their first speedway wins this season at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa where racing continues Friday nights. . . . The Ventura Fairgrounds weekly speedway season opened Tuesday night after several rain postponements. . . . The U.S. Suzuki spring motocross series will move to Sunrise Park in Adelanto for a Sunday race.

SPRINT CARS--Services for Kirk Sturgeon, who was killed in an accident last Saturday night at Ascot Park, will be held today at Douglas Mortuary, 500 E. Imperial Blvd., El Segundo. Sturgeon, 24, was in his sixth California Racing Assn. season. His death was the first at Ascot since 1983 when CRA rookie Larry Markey, 45, died of injuries he suffered in a sprint car accident. . . . The CRA will continue its season championship series Saturday night at Ascot Park with point leader Brad Noffsinger looking for his second straight 30-lap main event win.

STOCK CARS--Six main events, including the new NASCAR sportsman division, will provide Saugus Speedway with 150 laps of racing Saturday night. . . . Cars of the Curb Motorsports NASCAR Winston Racing Series will race Sunday night at Ascot Park. . . . A 40-lap open competition race will be held Saturday night at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway.

DRAG RACING--The California Injected Funny Car Assn. will open its series Sunday at Riverside International Raceway. . . . The second annual VW spring competition will be held Sunday at the Famoso strip, north of Bakersfield. More than 200 cars are entered.

OFF ROAD--Jim Fishback and Marty Tripes will hold the first of five stadium-type races Sunday at Glen Helen Park near San Bernardino. . . . Scott Child, SCCA divisional pro rally champion, will drive a Dodge Turbo Omni in the Rim of the World pro rally April 26 in Lancaster.

INDY CARS--Eight rookies, who are among 67 drivers hoping for a berth in the Indianapolis 500 May 25, will take rookie orientation tests starting April 26. The group includes Phil Krueger, Randy Lanier, Rick Miaskiewicz and five foreign drivers--Roberto Moreno of Brazil, Jan Lammers of Holland, Jacques Villeneuve of Canada, Rupert Keegan and Ian Ashley of Britain.

MIDGETS--A weekly three-quarter midget racing program is being held Saturday nights at the Ventura Fairgrounds.