Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Champion Johnson Seeks First Coliseum Win

The Superbowl of Motocross, which started the stadium motorcycle racing craze at the Coliseum in 1972, will be held for the 15th time Saturday night at the Coliseum as the season-ending event in the $100,000 Nippondenso supercross series.

Rick Johnson of El Cajon has already clinched the championship with five wins in the 11 previous motos and has also won the national 250cc outdoor motocross title, but he will be after his first Coliseum win on the newly designed course set around the stadium’s football field.

A trademark of promoter Mike Goodwin’s Superbowl has been the run up 29 rows of seats at the peristyle end of the Coliseum, followed by a U-turn under the Olympic arches and a jump back down to the playing field from the concourse level.

For Saturday night’s program, Goodwin has added a bridge at the base of the jump, giving the riders a wider landing ramp for side-by-side flying through the air. While riders are landing, other riders will be speeding through a 20-foot tunnel beneath the bridge.

“The track is going to be more technical and challenging than ever before,” Goodwin said. “I think the best track we have ever had was at Anaheim this year, and we are putting in some of the ideas we used there, plus the peristyle jump.”

Johnson is not the only top-rated rider who will be seeking his first Coliseum win.

Bob (Hurricane) Hannah, winner of 26 supercross races and three season championships, is still without a win in the granddaddy of all stadium events. Hannah, an aging veteran of 29, will lead a four-rider Suzuki factory team that also includes two former national minibike champions, George Holland of Kerman, Calif., and Erik Kehoe of Granada Hills, along with A. J. Whiting of Burbank.

Two former Coliseum winners, Honda’s David Bailey of Axton, Va., and Kawasaki’s Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo, last year’s Supercross season champion, will be back. Ward won in 1984, Bailey last year. Both have won this year, Bailey at Anaheim; Pontiac, Mich., and Dallas, and Ward at Houston and Seattle.

Ward also won the Rodil Cup international motocross at the Coliseum last November, a season-ending series that included races in Europe. The Rodil Cup has been canceled this year, however.

Other favorites Saturday night are Honda’s Johnny O’Mara of Simi Valley, third behind Johnson and Bailey in points; Yamaha’s Keith Bowen and Jim Holley, and Kawasaki’s Ron Lechien. Holley, a Woodland Hills rider, was the Rodil Cup series champion.

Besides the 250cc main event, there will be a support moto for western regional 125cc riders. Two Kawasaki entries, Donny Schmidt of Bloomington, Minn., and Tyson Vohland of Irvine, are leading in the series.

Season standings:

NIPPONDENSO 250cc--1. Rick Johnson (El Cajon), Honda, 255 points; 2. David Bailey (Axton, Va.), Honda, 228; 3. Johnny O’Mara (Simi Valley), Honda, 194; 4. Jeff Ward (Mission Viejo), Kawasaki, 171; 5. Keith Bowen (Auburn Hills, Mich.), Yamaha, 164; 6. Broc Glover (El Cajon), Yamaha, 133; 7. Jim Holley (Woodland Hills), Yamaha, 129; 8. Ron Lechien (El Cajon), Kawasaki, 121; 9. George Holland (Kerman, Calif.), Suzuki, 108; 10. Alan King (Troy, Mich.), Kawasaki, 88.

CASTROL 125cc--1. Donny Schmidt (Bloomington, Minn.), Kawasaki, 144; 2. Tyson Vohland (Irvine), Kawasaki, 130; 3. William Surrat (Canyon Country), Honda, 127; 4. Robert Naughton (Phoenix), Honda, 102; 5. Bader Manneh (Lakeside), Yamaha, 99; 6. Craig Canoy (Capistrano Beach), Honda, 95; 7. Ray Sommo (Capistrano Beach), Yamaha, 82; 8. Carroll Richardson (Fort Worth), Kawasaki, 80; 9. Bryan Bruner (Scottsdale, Ariz.), Kawasaki, 65; 10. Drey Dircks (Phoenix), Honda, 60.

INDY AFTERMATH--Television receipts, which were expected to swell the Indianapolis 500 purse, apparently didn’t help much in the final payoff. Bobby Rahal’s winner’s check for $581,062 was only $64,000 more than Danny Sullivan got from last year’s race, which had no live TV. This year’s total purse of $4,001,450 was almost exactly what CART had projected it to be in its preseason purse structure although the Indy 500 is not a CART race. It is the season’s only Indy car race still sanctioned by the United States Auto Club. . . . Mike Nish, who missed the race when he crashed after running a qualifying lap at 211 m.p.h., received the Jigger Award as the month of May’s hard luck driver. The award is made before the race, which is probably all that kept Kevin Cogan from getting it after losing in the last five miles to Rahal. . . . Mario Andretti, Al Unser and the late Johnnie Parsons, all 500 winners, were added to the Auto Racing Hall of Fame at the Indy 500 Oldtimers’ banquet, along with car owner Lew Welch and race official Eddie Edenburn.

SPRINT CARS--Bubby Jones, former California Racing Assn. champion, got off to a late start this season and is only eighth in CRA standings but the 44-year-old former barber is the hottest driver around. Jones, with two straight main event wins, will go for three in a row Saturday night at Ascot Park. . . . While the wingless CRA cars are at Ascot, the winged crowd will be at Baylands Raceway Park, in Fremont, Calif, for a $28,000 two-day Summer Showdown with Lealand McSpadden, Lee James and Chuck Gurney set to battle touring World of Outlaw stars Ron Shuman, Jimmy Sills and Craig Keel, who have open weekend on the national tour.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Rick Miller and Bobby Schwartz, Southland riders who are competing in the British League this season, will return to race Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Schwartz recently gave up his berth on the U.S. team in the World Pairs final to Kelly Moran so that Kelly can ride with his brother Shawn in the June 15 finals at Pocking, West Germany. After that, the Moran brothers will ride in the American qualifying round of the world individual championships June 21 at Long Beach Veterans Stadium. . . . Bobby Ott, who broke his collarbone five weeks ago, will return Friday night at Costa Mesa. . . . The Inland Speedway in San Bernardino will hold the third annual Speedway Magazine Cup June 11, with national champion Alan Christian trying to win for the third time against the top 16 riders in Southern California. . . . Robert Pfetzing and Brad Oxley will headline tonight’s race program at Ascot’s South Bay Stadium.

OFF-ROAD RACING--An entry of 237 vehicles will take off Saturday in the grueling SCORE Baja Internacional, a 500-mile run starting and ending in Ensenada. Favorites include Ivan Stewart, Jim Temple, Malcolm Smith, Rod Hall and Larry Roeseler. . . . Jason Myers, 40, of Buena Vista, Colo., winner of the 1985 SCORE/HDRA four-wheel-drive sports wagon championship, was killed in an airplane crash last weekend in his hometown. Myers, who had planned to be co-driver and crew chief of Don Adams’ Jeep in the Baja Internacional, had raced off-road for 15 years. He was killed while piloting a plane in an air show promotion.

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will have a 150-lap factory enduro, a destruction derby and an ego challenge Saturday night, after an evening of hobby stocks and foreign stocks Friday. . . . Ron Meyer, with five wins in his last six starts, and Marcus Mallett will continue their battle for pro stock points in the Curb Motorsports NASCAR series Sunday night at Ascot Park. Meyer leads Mallett, who has only one win but four seconds and one third, by four points.

UNLIMITED HYDROPLANES--Lake Mead will be the site of an unlimited hydro race for the first time since 1960 when the big boats close the season there Sept. 28, one week after the traditional Thunderboat Regatta in San Diego’s Mission Bay. The Gold Cup race will be held June 29 in Detroit. . . . Lance Morris of Newport Beach is the new team manager for the Miller American national championship boat driven by Chip Hanauer.

DRAG RACING--The third in a series of five alcohol funny car races will be run Saturday night at the Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale. A VW Challenge Cup race will be held at the same site Sunday night. . . . The Coors ET race for top gas and pro gas classes will be Saturday at Bakersfield’s Famoso strip.

NECROLOGY--Johnnie Tolan, 1952 national midget car driving champion and a three-time competitor in the Indianapolis 500, died Monday of cancer at the South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach. Tolan, 67, lived in Gardena for the last 15 years. Services are scheduled Friday at 10 a.m. at McConaty’s Mortuary in Denver. . . . Memorial services for automotive engineer George Hurst, who died last week in Redlands, will be held Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the Church of Religious Science, 907 Nob Hill Ave., Redondo Beach.