Motor Racing / Pat Ray : Labonte Looks to Riverside Magic Once Again

When things are going bad for driver Terry Labonte, as they have been in recent weeks, a trip to California has been the magic cure and the NASCAR driver hopes that is the case again this weekend.

“We need a shot in the arm, and I think we will get it at Riverside,” said Labonte, who will be seeking his third straight victory in the $366,945 Budweiser 400 this Sunday on the 2.62-mile road circuit.

“For the past couple of years, Riverside has given us the lift we needed, and I feel it’s going to happen again. I just feel very confident when we go to Riverside.”

And well he should. Labonte has won the last two Budweiser 400s. In 1984, the victory was his first of the season and last year it was his only victory of the season.

“And with a break or two at the end of the race, we could have won both races here in the fall,” he said. In last year’s Winston Western 500, Labonte finished second, a car length behind Ricky Rudd. And in 1984, he finished third behind Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond when he wrapped up the Winston Cup series championship.

In addition, he has won the pole position in three of the last four Riverside races. So, when qualifying begins Friday afternoon, Labonte will be trying to better his track record of 116.938 m.p.h. set last November.

Earlier in the year, Labonte had visions of going for his third or fourth victory of the year by the time the tour reached California, but a recent series of engine failures did away with those hopes.

“We started the year so well that I thought this was going to be our best year ever,” said the 1984 Winston Cup champion. “It still can be, but we need a win to get back on the right track.”

Labonte opened the season with a second in the Daytona 500 and followed it up with a victory at Rockingham, N.C. Then came a third at Atlanta and a seventh at Bristol, Tenn.

Following Bristol, Labonte was in second place in the standings behind Darrell Waltrip. Then came the series of engine problems and he currently finds himself in sixth place behind leader Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace.

“This run of bad luck has really hurt as far as the first-half bonus deal from Winston,” Labonte said. “We can still win the championship, but it’s going to be almost impossible to catch Dale and Darrell by Daytona.”

The point fund is worth $2 million in 1986, with $500,000 of it being distributed at the midway point (the Firecracker 400 on July 4). The points leader following the Daytona race will collect $150,000 and second will get $100,000 with the top 10 sharing the rest. The No. 10 driver gets $10,000.

“The $150,000 is as much as I won from Winston when I won the title,” Labonte said. “And that was only two years ago.”

Qualifying to determine the top 20 starters will be held Friday.

Time trials also will be held Friday for the companion Von’s 200, a 200-kilometer event that is the third stop on the NASCAR Southwest Tour for All American Challenge Series stock cars. Duke Hoenshell of Orange will be bidding for his third straight “200” victory at Riverside in his Pontiac Firebird. His top challenger figures to be Hershel McGriff of Bridal Veil, Ore., a four-time “200” winner, who will debut a brand new Camaro. Also entered is Vince Giamformaggio of Covina, who holds the one-lap record of 118.381 m.p.h. set last November.

The Von’s 200, a 48-lap (125.76 miles) event will start at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The Budweiser 400 (95-laps, 400 kilometers) starts at noon on Sunday.

SPRINT CARS--The old and the latest in state-of-the-art sprint cars will be on display Saturday night at Ascot Park when the Gardena facility holds its 11th annual Antique Race Car night along with a complete program of California Racing Assn. sprint car racing. Walt James, former CRA president and currently promotional director of the recently formed group of owners and former drivers, expects more than 40 old-time sprinters and midgets to take a few laps around the half-mile track. Cal Niday, 71, will drive an Offy midget, Roy Prosser, 70, will be at the wheel of a Kurtis Ford midget. Joe Gemsa, 70, will be at the wheel of the Miller-powered machine that Francis Quinn drove at Legion Ascot in 1933. Rosie Rousell, 63, will pilot a 1932 Winfield rocker arm car while James, 63, will be at the wheel of a 1932 4-port Riley sprinter. . . . In the regular CRA program, point leader Brad Noffsinger and runner-up Mike Sweeney will try to get the better of veteran Bubby Jones, who, despite a sore knee, scored a wire-to-wire win in last Saturday night’s 50-lap salute to Indy race in Alex Morales latest “Tamale Wagon.” The win was No. 69 for Jones in CRA competition.

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will hold its Winston 100, a 100-lap open competition event on the third-mile paved oval that will pay the winner $4,000, on Saturday. A destruction derby and an exhibition of a car-crushing fire engine also will be on the program. Fans can get a preview of the action on Friday night when Saugus will hold a practice session from 6 to 10 p.m. with admission free to the grandstand. . . . Mike Norris, who took over the season point lead with a victory last week, will try to put some ground between himself and his rivals in Saturday night’s super stock races at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon. Street and bomber stocks also will share the program.

MOTORCYCLES--Alan Christian of Huntington Beach, the U.S. champion in 1985, and Bobby Schwartz, the senior U.S. performer in the British Speedway League, will stage a rubber match in tonight’s speedway races at Ascot South Bay Stadium. Christian lost to Schwartz at the Gardena track in April, but when Schwartz flew in from England last week, he had to settle for second. Christian, winner of Ascot’s point title as well as his first U.S. title last year, also became the first double winner of the year. . . . Most of the same cast moves to Orange County Fairgrounds on Friday night. . . . The weekly CMC motocross races are scheduled for Friday evening at Ascot Park. . . . The legendary Bob (Hurricane) Hannah will join the field for the Superbowl of Motocross at the Coliseum on June 7, the windup of the 1986 Supercross Series.

MIDGETS--Ascot Park will hold a dual program Sunday night featuring the full midgets of U.S. Auto Club and the three-quarter machines of the National Midget Racing Assn. Robby Flock of the City of Industry will be shooting for a double. Flock, the current point leader in the USAC Western Regional series is also a former NMRA champion. However, the driver to watch in the full midgets in Ron (Sleepy) Tripp of Costa Mesa, the defending USAC series champion who scored his first victory of the year last Saturday night at Ventura. The win moved Tripp into fifth place in the standings behind Flock, Ron Rasmussen of Fresno, Tommy White of Anaheim and Wally Pankratz of Yorba Linda. Gary A. Howard of Long Beach is the current point leader in NMRA. He and Pankratz were the winners on June 27 at Ascot Park.

NEWSWORTHY--Derek Warwick of England has been named to replace the late Elio De Angelis on the Brabham Formula One team and will make his first start in the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix.