Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Off-Road Racers Now Affordable
When the phrase, off-road racing, was first used 20 years ago, it referred to passenger cars or motorcycles running across the desert, usually in Baja California.
In time, as the sport mushroomed, the competition included Baja Bugs, dune buggys--later to be known as unlimited single-seaters and two-seaters--mini-pickups, four-wheel drives, full-sized pickups and three-wheelers.
Now along come quads and Odysseys.
When Mickey Thompson and Sal Fish brought off-road racing in from the desert and transformed it into a spectator sport in the SCORE International world championships at Riverside International Raceway and in stadiums such as the Coliseum, it became an expensive sport. Sponsors and manufacturers, quick to reap the benefits of publicity generated by a new breed of racing sportsmen, began escalating costs.
For instance, the Nissan pickup truck that Roger Mears will drive Sunday in the 14th annual SCORE race at Riverside, would list somewhere between $150,000 and $175,000, if you could find one on a dealer’s lot. An unlimited single-seater, which once was the product of backyard mechanics, now costs upward of $45,000 with its Porsche engine.
Quads and Odysseys are the answer for someone without a big-bucks budget who wants to go off-road racing.
A quad--which gets its name from the Suzuki Quadrunner--is a four-wheeled cycle that runs in the all-terrain vehicle race against the three-wheeled ATVs. It could be described as a four-wheeled motorcycle. Quads are built by Suzuki and Honda, cost about $2,700 stock and can be made race ready for less than $4,000.
An Odyssey is a scaled down, much slower version of a single-seat buggy, complete with roll cage. It costs $3,500 from Honda.
A quad is reminiscent of an old buckboard, with the driver sitting up front on a flat platform, but it goes faster than any buckboard ever did. On a straightaway, a quad can reach 75 m.p.h.
David Chappell, 16, a sophomore at Apple Valley High, rides a quad with an eye toward a career as a professional race driver. He is already No. 1 in the All-Terrain Racing Assn., a group of about 170 who compete once a month in the Mojave desert, and will test his skills Saturday against the more experience factory-supported riders when the three-wheelers and quads race in a pair of 10-lap motos on Riverside’s 1.5-mile course.
“I like the quad better than the three-wheelers because the fourth wheel gives you more support,” Chappell said. “You don’t feel like you’re going to tip over every time you go around a corner. One thing I don’t want is to have one of these things falling on me.”
Chappell weighs 155 pounds, about half the weight of his quad.
Chappell began riding when he was 12 after becoming interested in racing as a spectator with his father, an Apple Valley tractor operator. Young David is also proficient on a tractor and last year, before he was old enough to drive the family car, bulldozed out his own quarter-mile track on the family’s five acres in Apple Valley.
“I had to race at Ascot to qualify for the Coliseum and I liked the track, so I tried to pattern my track after the one at Ascot,” he said. “It has one straight-off jump, three little jumps, some whoop-de-doos and fast berms.
“I prefer longer races in the desert to the stadium, but I think I’ll like Riverside because it is longer than the ones at the Coliseum or the Orange Show Speedway. All of our races in the All-Terrain Racing Assn. are 20 miles, just a little longer than Riverside.”
Chappell, who will be on an ’86 quad that his father bought in January, has won all four all-terrain races he has entered. The monthly races are family outings. David’s father races an unsuspended Odyssey 350, his mother, Sharon, a suspended Odyssey and his younger brother, Brian, last year’s Quad. Brian recently won in the 125cc youth class and Sharon is the club’s Powder Puff leader.
In Saturday’s races, Chappell, who turned 16 on June 7, will be the youngest competitor. Among the quad favorites will be factory riders Steve Wright of El Cajon, who runs an ATV school, on a Honda, and Gary Denton of Chino, last year’s Riverside winner, on a Suzuki. Rodney Gentry of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Coliseum winner, is a late scratch after injuring his ankle last weekend.
SPRINT CARS--Rookie Clark Drake continues to impress in California Racing Assn. competition at Ascot Park. Last week, he posted the track’s first 18-second lap in qualifying this year. It was also the first 18-second lap for a first-year driver. Drake, who will be back at Ascot Park with the CRA regulars Saturday night, finished sixth in the 30-lap main event, won by defending champion Eddie Wirth last week.
STOCK CARS--Former Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte will be named within the week to replace current champion Darrell Waltrip as driver of Junior Johnson’s car in next year’s NASCAR series. Waltrip recently announced plans to join a new Rick Hendrick Motorsports team with Waddell Wilson as crew chief and engine builder. . . . Modifieds will headline Saturday night’s program at Saugus Speedway, which will start with an ego challenge for non-race drivers over the flat, one-third mile oval. Hobby stocks will run Friday night at Saugus. . . . Sgt. Dave Thomas of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept., will lead a group of 19 South Bay lawmen against the Ascot Park regulars in the fifth annual Cops and Robbers charity demolition derby Sunday night at Ascot. Joining Thomas, last year’s winner, will be deputies from the Lomita, Lennox and Lakewood divisions, plus officers from the L.A., Torrance and Manhattan Beach police departments. Their activities will follow a pro stocks main event.
SPEEDWAY CYCLES--Qualifying for the U.S. Nationals will start Saturday at Auburn, Calif., and continue Aug. 19 at Ventura, Aug. 20 at San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway, Aug. 21 at Ascot Park, Aug. 22 at Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and Aug. 23 at Victorville. The top 13 riders will earn spots in the 16-rider final Oct. 11 at Costa Mesa. Alan Christian, the defending champion, and Lance King and Sam Ermolenko have been seeded into the final. Ermolenko also will be riding in the World Finals Aug. 30 at Kotowica, Poland. . . . Keith Chrisco, winner of last Thursday’s Ascot main event, is shooting for an unusual double. Chrisco hopes to win tonight’s speedway feature at Ascot, then come back Saturday night and win a sprint car race.
MIDGETS--Mel Kenyon continues to lead United States Auto Club standings in search of his eighth national championship, but Californians Tommy White and Sleepy Tripp dominated last weekend’s Mile-Hi Classic in Erie, Colo., as each won a main event. The USAC feature Tuesday at Lincoln, Neb., was rained out. . . . Three-quarter midgets will race Saturday night at Ventura.
MOTOCROSS--The Hollister Hills track in Northern California, which will replace Carlsbad on the world Grand Prix circuit next year, will be the site of the Nissan Nationals, next-to-last round of the 500cc championships, on Sunday. Defending series champion David Bailey will attempt to maintain his lead over 250cc and Supercross champion Rick Johnson. The track is located seven miles south of Hollister. . . . Ascot Park will have a CMC motocross Friday night.
POWERBOATS--The Bowden brothers, Fred of Monrovia and Larry of West Covina, drove their California Gold to a national championship win for MOD-VP boats in the International Outboard Grand Prix last Sunday in St. Louis. . . . Steve Moore of England won the 121-mile Catalina water ski race in 59 minutes 34 seconds. Marsha Mier was the women’s winner in 1 hour 10 minutes.
ONTARIO--The last vestiges of the $30-million Ontario Motor Speedway, which opened in 1970 and closed in 1980, disappeared this week when bulldozers flattened the dirt berm that overlooked the front straightaway. The berm had been all that remained after Chevron Land and Development Corp., bought and dismantled the facility in 1980.
