Motor Racing : Half the Battle in U.S. National Is Getting There

Getting into the U.S. Speedway National may be as difficult as winning it, since a rider must maintain his poise and determination through six nights of qualifying to gain 1 of 16 berths in the final Oct. 11 at Costa Mesa.

Actually, only 13 spots are available to the 32 contenders because Alan Christian, the defending champion from Huntington Beach, and British League veterans Sam Ermolenko of Corona and Lance King of Fountain Valley have been seeded into the final.

The competition started last Saturday night in Auburn, Calif., where Mike Faria of Colton scored a perfect 21 points, then continued Tuesday night in Ventura, where Faria scored another 21, and Wednesday night in San Bernardino.

Remaining are three more qualifying programs--tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium, Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and Saturday night at Victorville. Riders with the most points from the six nights will be in the national.

“The idea of a national championship is to present the top 16 riders in the country and not have some trick qualifying system that will knock the best riders out and let the others in,” said Harry Oxley, promoter of the U.S. National. “This way, by having a series of races, a rider can have an engine failure at one track and still make it through to the nationals.”

After two events, Faria had 42 points, followed by Steve Lucero of Riverside with 31, Jim Sisemore of Woodland, the Northern California point leader, with 30, and Robert Pfetzing of Garden Grove with 29.

Gene Woods of Costa Mesa was disqualified when he failed to show up for the opener at Auburn. It was learned later that he rode that night in a second division race at Victorville, and now Woods faces suspension for the rest of this season and the first six months of next season.

Former state champion Bobby (Boogaloo) Schwartz of Balboa, who has done most of his riding this year in England, just made it into the qualifying round as the last of Southern California’s 24 eligible riders. Not competing this year are the Moran brothers, both former national champions. Shawn has international commitments, and Kelly was injured in a non-racing accident and is out for the season.

Three East Coast riders, Warren Diem, Tuff McBride and Scott Brown, are among the 32 entries. There are also eight Northern Californians, but if tradition holds true, most of the 16 finalists will be from the Southern California contingent of Faria, Lucero, Pfetzing, Brad Oxley of San Clemente, Shawn McConnell of Brea, Mark Dwyer, Gary Hicks, Rocky Robinson and Rich Sweaney of Riverside; John Sandona of Reche Canyon, Ronnie Correy of Fullerton, Ed Castro of Santa Ana, Bob Ott of Oceanside, Jeff Johnson of Norco, Andy Northrup of Ontario, Walt Farnum of Ventura, Keith Chrisco, Gene Woods and Tim McCasland of Costa Mesa; Jeff Jones of Agoura, and Schwartz.

Sandona, 31, is the oldest and Correy, 19, is the youngest.

The first eight qualifiers will also be seeded into next year’s American Final at Long Beach, the first round of races leading to the 1987 world championships.

MOTOCROSS--Honda teammates David Bailey of Axton, Va., and Rick Johnson of El Cajon will race for the American Motorcyclist Assn. 500cc championship Sunday at Washougal, Wash., in the final meeting of the season. Defending champion Bailey has a seven-point edge, 231-224, over Johnson, the national 250cc and stadium champion. Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo is third at 183, but with no chance at the title. Two motos Sunday will be worth 25 points each to the winner. Last week in Hollister, Calif., Bailey and Johnson finished 2-1 and 1-2. The 125cc championship will also be at stake with Micky Dymond of Yorba Linda the expected winner. Dymond leads George Holland of Kerman, Calif., by 39 points. . . . CMC riders will compete Friday night at Ascot Park.

SPRINT CARS--Mike Sweeney and Eddie Wirth, defending California Racing Assn. champion, will continue what is looking more and more like a futile chase of point leader Brad Noffsinger when the summer season continues Saturday night at Ascot Park. Noffsinger won his ninth main event last week and leads Sweeney, 2,455 to 2,249, with Wirth only seven points behind Sweeney.

STOCK CARS--Saturday will be Trucker’s Night at Saugus Speedway with a special trucker’s ego challenge for everything from minis to big rigs. Modifieds headline a busy program of four main events. . . . Ron Meyer has won 10 pro stock main events in the Curb Motorsports series at Ascot Park and defending champion Don Wright Jr. has won only two, but Wright has closed to within 46 points of Meyer. Consistency paid off for Wright last year, too, when he won only twice but finished ahead of five-time winner Jerry Johnson. . . . Last week’s Cops ‘n Robbers demolition derby at Ascot raised $5,000 for the Lomita-Harbor City Kiwanis Club’s youth activities program.

MIDGETS--Robby Flock, Rusty Rasmussen and Wally Pankratz head the entries for a United States Auto Club western regional 30-lap championship race Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. A three-quarter midget show will share the billing. A name to remember, P.J. Jones, son of Parnelli, was the semi-main winner last Saturday night.

DRAG RACING--The International Hot Rod Assn. will make its debut in SoCal this year according to an announcement from Chuck Foster of San Bernardino that he and the IHRA will put on a $1-million drag race somewhere in San Bernardino Nov. 2, a week after the National Hot Rod Assn.’s World Finals at Pomona. The IHRA event will be either on the Orange Show grounds or at the Glen Helen recreational park.

OFF-ROAD RACING--Mickey Thompson has added another race to his stadium series, which will now end Oct. 11 on a new track in the Pomona Fairgrounds race track infield. The next stadium race is scheduled for Sept. 13 at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Stadium. . . . Bob Gordon, who was dropped from second to seventh in last weekend’s SCORE stadium buggy race for alleged rough driving, has been reinstated to second position behind winner Greg George. Gordon also won the desert buggy race. A similar charge against Roger Mears, who was dropped from second to fourth in the Mini-Metal Challenge for running into the back of Rod Millen, was upheld by SCORE’s rough-riding committee.

VINTAGE CARS--Mercedes-Benz will be the honored marque this weekend at Laguna Seca for the 13th Monterey Historic Automobile Races. Seen for the first time in this country will be the 1937 W125 and the 1939 W154, both from the Grand Prix era when Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union made Germany the powerhouse of racing. In addition, five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio is scheduled to come from Argentina to drive the car in which he won two of his Formula One championships.

FORMULA ONE--Defending world champion Alain Prost’s win in last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix moved him into a second-place tie with Fangio for victories with 24. The Frenchman is only three shy of the mark set by Jackie Stewart. Prost now trails England’s Nigel Mansell by only two points with four events remaining in the 16-race series.

POWERBOATS--The distance of the Catalina water ski race two weeks ago was 62 miles, not 121 as reported, which makes the winning times of Steve Moore, 59 minutes 24 seconds, and Marsha Mier, 1 hour 10 minutes, more believable.