Motor Racing : Sprints Open Heavy Holiday Schedule Tonight

The Fourth of July weekend is traditionally one of the busiest in motor racing, and this year is no different.

Ascot Park will be busy four consecutive nights with a variety of activity ranging from the more conventional sprint cars and stock cars to a truck pull and a guy deliberately smashing himself and his motorcycle into a parked car at 50 m.p.h. All this in the name of excitement.

Tonight, Ascot will be the site of the Firecracker 50 for California Racing Assn. sprint cars. Then come pro stocks Friday night, the truck pull and cycle crash Saturday night and a 150-lap stock enduro Sunday night.

Three of the Ascot shows--tonight, Friday and Saturday nights--will feature fireworks. There will be no fireworks Sunday night.

Saugus Speedway and Cajon Speedway will be hosts for the competitive NASCAR Southwest Tour series for Grand American stock cars--Cajon Friday night and Saugus Saturday night.

There will be something for everyone--Speedway bikes at Orange County Fairgrounds, TQ midgets at Ventura Speedway, off-road racing in Barstow, motorcycle road racing at Willow Springs, motocross in Adelanto, sports cars at Riverside Raceway and a motorcycle Grand Prix at Carlsbad.

If that’s not enough, there’s always television, which has Friday’s Firecracker 400 from Daytona on a tape delay Saturday and the Cleveland Indy car race Sunday.

SPRINT CARS--With defending champion Eddie Wirth making a comeback with two straight wins after being blanked for nearly six months at Ascot, tonight’s Firecracker 50 looks like a tight race among Wirth, former champion Bubby Jones and points leader Brad Noffsinger. Jones won the only other 50-lap marathon at Ascot this year, the Salute to Indy 50. Noffsinger’s chances of winning his first CRA championship were helped last week when second-place driver Mike Sweeney lost his ride in car owner Bruce Bromme’s No. 1 machine. Bromme tabbed Jeff Heywood to take over the car driven last year by Dean Thompson, who has retired. . . . The CRA cars also race Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, while the winged sprint-car drivers, including Tim Green, Brent Kaeding and Lealand McSpadden will be at Baylands Raceway Park in Fremont for the Machinists Union Holiday Nationals tonight and Friday night.

STOCK CARS--Saturday night will be the second time at Saugus Speedway for NASCAR’s Southwest Tour. The season’s first 100-lap race last March 29 was also on the tiny one-third mile paved oval. Roger Avants of Littleton, Colo., won the Saugus inaugural after Ivan Baldwin was penalized a lap for rough driving. In four races since, no driver has won more than once. Ron Esau, winner at Riverside, is the points leader. Roman Calczynski, former modified champion at Saugus, is fourth. The same cast will be at Cajon on Friday night for a 100-lap main event. . . . Double points will be awarded in all Curb Motorsports divisions Friday night at Ascot Park, with pro stocks, Figure 8s and bomber oval cars sharing attention. Ron Meyer of Lake Elsinore will be going for his eighth pro stock win in 10 starts.

MOTORCYCLES--National speedway champion Alan Christian will be favored in the Freedom Cup races Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. The all-scratch event features a winner-take-all main event. Other top riders include Brad Oxley, Steve Lucero, Robert Pfetzing and Mike Faria. . . . The American Road Racing Assn. will hold twelve 25-mile races Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. . . . Wednesday, July 9, is Kids Night at Inland Speedway in San Bernardino for an evening of scratch and handicap speedway racing. . . . Ventura track champion Mike Faria won his 45th and 46th races to break the Ventura record of 44 set by Mike Bast. . . . The third Summer Remedy Grand Prix is Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway over a seven-mile loop course. . . . Laguna Seca’s Nissan 200 has a record $100,000 purse for its July 13 events--$50,000 for Formula One, $30,000 to Superbike, $15,000 to Formula Two and $5,000 to the Battle of the Twins.

MOTOCROSS--Racing referee Ron Denny reports that even if Ricky Johnson wins the AMA 500cc championship to go with his stadium supercross and 250cc national series wins, he won’t be the first to win all three major U.S. championships in a single season. Bob (Hurricane) Hannah won the supercross, 250cc national and Trans-Am series in 1978. . . . The Continental Motosports Club opens its California Summer Series on Sunday at Sunrise Cycle Park in Adelanto.

OFF-ROAD--The 15th annual Fireworks 250, with a record 300 vehicles expected, will start at 4 p.m. Saturday from Barstow Community College. The race will consist of three laps on a new 80-mile course in the Mojave desert, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It is the fifth stop on the High Desert Racing Assn./SCORE International desert series.

SPORTS CARS--The California Sports Car Club will hold its 25th annual Fourth of July championships this weekend at Riverside International Raceway. Qualifying is Friday, with seven races each on Saturday and Sunday. Among the competitors will be second generation drivers such as Brian Ongais and Jim Gurney. . . . For the first time since The Times/Ford GP of Endurance last April at Riverside, an endurance race will be part of the International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GT series this weekend at Watkins Glen, N.Y. A 500-mile race for a $204,000 purse will feature nine Porsche 962s, including a new one for Riverside winners Price Cobb and owner Rob Dyson. The Riverside-winning car was wrecked two weeks ago at West Palm Beach. . . . Bobby Unser, 12-time Pikes Peak champion, will return to the Colorado mountain July 12 in a Audi Quattro for the 12.5-mile Climb to the Clouds. Unser recently tested the Quattro at better than 200 m.p.h. at Talladega.

MIDGETS--Races in the U.S. Auto Club’s western regional series will be held Friday night in Hanford and Saturday night in Visalia with Robby Flock continuing to lead Rusty Rasmussen, Sleepy Tripp and Wally Pankratz in points. . . . TQ midgets race Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

DRIVER OF THE YEAR--Michael Andretti, who has won two CART Indy-car races this season, edged out NASCAR points leader Dale Earnhardt in mid-season balloting for 1986 Driver of the Year honors. Young Andretti, whose father Mario won the award in 1967, 1978 and 1984, polled 56 votes to 53 for Earnhardt, followed by Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal with 47, the IMSA team of Al Holbert and Derek Bell, 27; and Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine, 25.