Weekend Tests His Endurance : Races Take Driver All Over the State

Endurance was the name of the game this weekend at the eighth annual L.A. Times/Ford Grand Prix of Endurance at Riverside International Raceway.

One driver who surely qualified for the endurance award was R.K. (Bob) Smith of Riverside.

In the space of three days, Smith practiced and qualified for the Sports 2000 preliminary here, flew to Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., where he practiced later Friday and then competed in a Sports Car Club of America six-hour endurance race Saturday night, and then flew back to Riverside to compete in the Sports 2000 race that opened Sunday’s activities.

Despite the hectic schedule, Smith managed to finish second in both of the races, but it wasn’t easy.

How did Smith manage to get himself into such a strenuous situation?

“It certainly wasn’t planned that way, it just seemed to happen,” said Smith, who is the majority owner of the firm that built the Swift Sports 2000 car that he drove here.

“We really didn’t plan to do the Sports 2000 race, since I am committed to run the whole SCCA endurance series in a Corvette that is owned by Powell Motor Racing of Toronto.

“But when we lost the last 2000 race to a different make of car we decided to put one together and try to see why,” Smith said.

“We put the Swift together and it never turned a wheel until Thursday in practice. On Friday I practiced and then qualified. The car felt good, and I pulled out of the qualifying session early as I had a chance to get a ride to Napa (near Sonoma).

“The Cook-Morrison team had two cars running at Riverside and three at Sears Point, and they offered to give me a ride in their airplane up North.”

After arriving in Napa, Smith drove to Sears Point, where he practiced that night for Saturday night’s event that ran from 4 to 10 p.m.

“Things went well in the race, and we were leading after two hours when I turned the car over to my co-driver,” Smith said. “He later had troubles, and we had to settle for second.”

That was the least of Smith’s problems. He still had to get back to Riverside. After driving to San Francisco, he caught a plane to Los Angeles, but by the time he reached Riverside it was 2 a.m., and he had to be at the track for an 8:15 practice.

When he got to the track he found out that he had the pole position for the 30-minute sprint.

After leading for the first nine laps, Smith was passed by San Clemente driver Bill Fickling, who went on to win the 13-lap event, with Smith second.

“We just couldn’t match him in straight-line speed, and the rear end got looser and looser and the driver got tireder and tireder,” Smith said.

“Second is OK, but you race to win. At least it was one of our cars that beat me.”

In fact, with the exception of third-place finisher Scott Atchison of Bakersfield, Swift racers swept the top 10 spots.

“It is a good car, but we have some more ideas we want to try to make it better,” Smith said. “We’ll use it as a test bed.”

Speaking of beds, it is something that Smith didn’t see much of these past few days.