Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Harris Got Lots of Support but Not a Free Ride

Glenn Harris, the off-road racing champion, may have been destined to become a race driver. He was named for Glenn (Fireball) Roberts, one of the legendary pioneers of stock car racing. His father, Wes, raced against Roberts during the early days of NASCAR in Islip, N.Y., and still races mini-stocks at Ventura Raceway.

Young Harris, now 28, has been driving in off-road events since he was 15 and an honor student at Camarillo High. He won the first race he entered, for novices and beginners, the day before the 1974 Borrego 150. He drove a desert buggy he and his father had built in their backyard.

“I washed dishes in a Chinese restaurant to earn the money to buy the parts for that buggy,” Harris said. “My parents have offered me guidance and support from the first day I said I was interested in racing, but my dad told me I had to earn my way. Looking back, I’m grateful for that attitude. It helped me work hard, and the harder I worked the better I seemed to get.”

When he was 21, Harris formed his own team, California Gold Racing, which now campaigns factory-supported rotary engine Mazda pickup trucks. Harris brought Mazda its first off-road win earlier this year in a stadium event at the Rose Bowl, then later added wins at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in the SCORE Canada Autocross, and in the SCORE World Championships at Riverside International Raceway in the Mini-Metal Challenge.

“I’d been either reading about or going to Riverside since I was a small boy,” Harris said. “Winning there is the ultimate for an off-road racer. Everybody who is anybody always races at Riverside, so if you win there you know you’ve accomplished something special.”

Harris’ teammate is Rod Millen of New Zealand. At Montreal, Harris won on Friday night and Millen on Saturday night. Seconds before Millen took the checkered flag, it was announced that the Montreal Canadiens had won the Stanley Cup.

“The noise was deafening,” Harris recalled. “Even over the engine noise you could hear the cheering. Everybody in the stadium was standing when Rod pulled in. He had a big smile and said to me, ‘I never had such a hand for winning a race before.’ I had to tell him, ‘Sorry, Rod old chap, the cheering was for the Stanley Cup, not you.’ ”

The prizes were different at Montreal, too. Each winning driver was paid off with a pound of gold.

Harris hit the low point of what has been his finest season at the Coliseum, where he was fined $1,000 for over-aggressive driving.

“I was running eighth, looking for a chance to move up when the leaders got hung up trying to get around a slower truck,” Harris said. “It was on a hairpin turn and I saw a chance to get around all of them along the outside. I saw an opening and went for it, but by the time I got there it wasn’t big enough for my Mazda and I got hung up on top of Tom Halliburton’s truck. If I’d made it, I would have been in contention, but instead all I did was give the crowd a big thrill.”

Harris, who won the Mint 400 in a buggy he shared with Bobby Ferro in 1979, will have an opportunity to display his versatility the next two weekends. Saturday, in the Frontier 500 he will drive a Ford truck with Ron Clybourne through the mountains and desert southwest of Las Vegas. He and Clybourne finished second to Walker Evans in this year’s Mint 400.

A week from Saturday night, at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway, Harris will be back in his Mazda for a stadium race.

“Steve Millen (Rod’s brother) just about has the individual championship sewed up, but if Rod and I can finish 1-2 in the last two races, we could win the manufacturer’s championship,” Harris said. The final race is Oct. 11 at the Pomona Fairgrounds.

“I like the combination of pavement and dirt at San Bernardino,” he said. “It makes a good challenge for the mechanics and drivers because you have to find the right compromise for your tires and your settings. I think the reason I won at Riverside is because Nye Frank and I hit on the right set of tires for the race.

“We went for a conservative pattern for a fast track while a lot of the guys went for mud tires because the track was watered down before the start. We felt it would dry out in a couple of laps and that’s what happened. Having a chief mechanic like Frank who is so experienced has helped my team tremendously.”

STOCK CARS--Ken Sapper holds a comfortable lead in the standings with only two points races remaining at Saugus Speedway but Dan Press, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Bob Lyon will be out to beat him in Saturday night’s 40 lap main event. Also on the program will be NASCAR sportsman, street stock and Figure 8 main events. . . . Hobby stocks will race Friday night at Saugus.

SPRINT CARS--Brad Noffsinger is doing so well in Jack Gardner’s sprint car that he appears to be driving himself out of an Indy car ride. Sponsor Mike Curb had planned to put Noffsinger in an Indy car for last week’s Mid-Ohio race but because the Huntington Beach youngster is on such a hot streak he decided to keep him at Ascot to win the California Racing Assn., championship. Noffsinger responded with his 11th victory, and Saturday night he will be going for No. 12. Curb has said he plans to put Noffsinger in an Indy car next year. . . . While the wingless sprinters are racing at Ascot, the winged World of Outlaws will be at Baylands Raceway in Fremont this weekend. Ron Shuman will be looking for his third straight win on the three-eighths mile clay oval against such Outlaw veterans as Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell and Jac Haudenschild. There will be racing tonight and Friday night, with the $50,000 30-lap main event Saturday night.

MOTOCROSS--The Continental Motosport Club will open its Trans-Cal season Sunday at Sunrise Valley Park in the San Bernardino-Victorville area. The CMC will also conduct its weekly series Friday night at Ascot Park.

MIDGETS--Tommy White of El Monte, former United States Auto Club western regional champion who recently defeated the cream of USAC midget racers at Erie, Colo., and Belleville, Kan., will return to Ascot to challenge Noffsinger, Robby Flock and Rusty Rasmussen in a regional race Sunday night. White also won last week at Ventura Raceway. Noffsinger has won the last three races on Ascot’s quarter-mile track. Three-quarter midgets will also race Sunday at Ascot after a Saturday night show at Ventura.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--During a lull in Friday night’s program at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, daredevil Jeff Weinke will drive a motorcycle head on into a parked car and launch himself 60 feet into the air, hoping to land on a pile of cardboard boxes. The last time Weinke tried the stunt, at Ascot, he broke his leg when he missed the landing area. . . . Speedway fans at San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway donated $1,000 last Wednesday night to the family of racer Mark Dwyer, whose mother Patricia was shot and killed by a passing motorist while riding home from a race in Costa Mesa in the family van. Mrs. Dwyer had been Corona’s first policewoman.

NEWSWORTHY--Bobby Unser, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, has been elected president of Vintage Racing of Redondo Beach from a board of directors that includes Bob Bondurant, Art Evans, Sam Hanks, Innes Ireland, Stirling Moss, Rodger Ward and Clifford Jones.