Riverside Off-Road Races : Mears Gets His Biggest Victory Since His First

Glenn Harris’ Mazda and Walker Evans’ Dodge won the main events Sunday at the 14th annual SCORE Off-Road World Championships, but the happiest driver at Riverside International Raceway was Roger Mears.

Mears, who has driven in all 14 SCORE events, won his 20th SCORE race, and the victory meant more to the Bakersfield veteran than all but perhaps his first one back in 1974. That was the year he outran his idol, Parnelli Jones, in a duel of unlimited single-seat buggies.

Sunday’s win, in a Nissan V-6 in the desert mini-pickup class, was special to Mears because it was his first as a team owner/manager/driver. The victory also ended an 18-month odyssey trying to make his own Roger Mears Racing Team a winner. And it also ended a three-year drought here at Riverside on a track where he was once unbeatable.

“That first win, running against Parnelli and all that, was very special, but this was certainly as satisfying,” Mears said. “This was my own creation and for the V-6 to win the first time out is a definite turnaround for me.

“We struggled a year-and-a-half for this and now maybe we can put together a string of long-distance desert wins.”

Mears’ next starts in his new truck will be the Frontier 500 Sept. 6 in Nevada and the Baja 1,000, from Ensenada to La Paz, in November.

“That first win against Parnelli Jones opened a lot of doors for me,” Mears said. “I even drove a Blazer for P.J. after that. Beating him got my name associated with his, and that turned everything around for good in my career.

“I guess, looking back, it would be hard to choose between that one and today, but they’re both something very special.”

A crowd estimated at 25,000 sat in 100-degree weather for what track officials say will be the last off-road race ever held here.

Mears’ try for win No. 21 later in the day in the Nissan Mini-Metal Challenge was thwarted by Harris--and later by SCORE’s rough-driving committee, which dropped Mears from second to fourth in the final results.

The committee claimed that Mears hit the rear end of Rod Millen’s Mazda on the second switchback of the first lap, causing Millen to roll over. Millen was running second at the time behind teammate Harris.

Drivers were nearly unanimous that the 1.5-mile course was the roughest they had ever faced here. Not surprisingly, the winners said they liked it that way.

“I like it rough because the driver has to make adjustments,” Mears said. “You can’t just put your foot down and haul over the rough stuff or you’ll end up on your head.”

Even though Mears finished more than the length of Thompson’s Ridge ahead of second-place John Swift, he said he worried until the end.

“I was really talking to that truck the last few laps,” he said. “I was even talking Japanese to it. We were lucky we weren’t pressured because I could feel the transmission about to let go. It was a spooky feeling.”

In the Mini-Metal race, Harris jumped in front at the start and held off all challengers for the eight laps. Mears, who was fourth at the start, appeared ready to make a move on Harris late in the race but it ended when a tire went flat halfway through the final lap.

“I’m just honored to beat this man,” Harris said, pointing to Mears. “I learned how to beat him by getting whupped by him.

“This was my most satisfying win at Riverside. Winning this race is equal to winning every race in Mickey Thompson’s stadium series. This is the ultimate short-course race.”

Evans’ victory was his 12th on the course he originally built in 1974, and he echoed the feelings of the other winners.

“It was the roughest, toughest, hottest and most pleasing win I’ve ever had here,” the 48-year-old Evans said. “I think when it’s the toughest, and you win, it has to be the most gratifying.”

Evans’ wife, Phyllis, drove the 15 miles of jumps, bumps, slides, mud bogs and high-speed ridges with her husband.

“Phyllis didn’t ride during any practice, and everyone told her it would be too rough for her, but she said she would be OK,” Evans said. “On the parade lap, before we got in position for the start, she said, ‘Pull over, let me out,’ but I told her it was too late.”

For a few laps, the Heavy Metal race was its usual battle of Dodges between the two-wheel-drive of Evans and the four-wheel-drive of Rod Hall. Evans led off the line, Hall passed him when Evans got sideways on the first series of rough moguls, but before the first lap was over Evans was back in front to stay, thundering down Thompson’s Ridge at better than 95 m.p.h.

A bit of fisticuffs between members of the Arciero team and the Pence team from Blue Mound, Ill., occurred after Frank (Butch) Arciero Jr. accused Devin Pence of putting him into the wall.

Pence was driving a 4,000-pound truck in a race for 1,800-pound desert buggies.

“He pushed me right into the wall,” Arciero said. “Some guys come out here and don’t understand that this is racing, not a destruction derby. I went over and told him what I thought of him when it was over, and some fisticuffs ensued, I’m sorry to say.

“There is no place for fighting at the race track, and I’m the first to apologize, but there’s also no place for the kind of tactics he displayed. He not only put me into the wall, he also ran right into Mike Lund.”

Arciero came back later to win the stadium buggy race. It was the first win for the Orange County racing family since they started coming here in 1973.