Motor Racing / Shav Glick : With 2 Races Left, McGriff Seeks His First West Series Stock Car Title

Hershel McGriff won the first Mexican road race in 1950, drove in NASCAR’s first superspeedway race a week later at Darlington, S.C., has won 29 Winston West stock car races and has won 14 times at Riverside International Raceway.

But the 58-year-old driver from Bridal Veil, Ore., has never won a series championship.

This may be the year.

With only two races remaining--Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway in the Suncrest Motorhomes 200 and Nov. 16 at Riverside--McGriff is a point ahead of rookie Chad Little, a 23-year-old law student at Gonzaga University, and nine points ahead of two-time champion Bill Schmitt, a 50-year-old logger from Redding.

“We’re right on schedule,” McGriff said. “If you’re ahead, your chances are better, but it’s so close that anything can happen.”

McGriff took the lead from Little by winning the last two races, both on road courses--at Portland, Ore., and at Tacoma, Wash., where NASCAR stocks raced over a temporary course through city streets for the first time.

McGriff, a former lumber mill executive who is now involved in Arizona copper mining, will drive a Pontiac Grand Prix in the 200-kilometer (125-mile) race around Willow Springs’ nine-turn course. Ivan Baldwin, winner of last Saturday night’s main event at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, will be his crew chief.

Adding to the feeling that McGriff appears headed for his first championship is his record on road courses. He has won 5 of 12 road races held since 1982, is the defending champion in Sunday’s race and is the winningest driver at Riverside, where the season will end with the Winston Western 500.

“Willow Springs is a pretty good driver’s course,” McGriff said. “I really like the uphill and downhill section. I’d like to qualify first and lead every lap so nobody else gets any lap-leader points. I want to keep someone else from leading, but it’s probably not going to happen.”

Victory in Sunday’s race is worth 60 points. The maximum a runner-up can score is 54, 49 for finishing second and an additional 5 if he leads a lap.

By the time the race gets under way at 2 p.m., McGriff probably will be well acquainted with Willow Springs. He is also scheduled to drive Baldwin’s Ford Thunderbird in a 100-kilometer race for Grand American cars as part of the NASCAR Southwest tour. It is the same car that Baldwin won with last week.

Ron Esau of Lakeside holds a 40-point over Troy Beebe of Modesto with two races remaining in the Southwest tour.

Little, a road race novice who was raised around an oval track that his father runs in Spokane, won the Washington 500 in a George Jefferson-prepared Ford T-Bird on an oval in Monroe, Wash. Consistently high finishes, however, have made Little the series money leader with $42,815. McGriff has won $36,929. The series champion will collect a $10,000 bonus.

“I wish I wasn’t in second place,” Little said. “Especially, I wish I wasn’t in second place behind Hershel. Ever since I started racing, he was someone I looked up to. I don’t want him to win, but if I can’t win, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have win.”

Schmitt, who won the Winston West title in 1977 and 1979, hasn’t won a road race since 1981. He drives a Chevrolet prepared by his son, Jim. Ruben Garcia of South El Monte, whose Suncrest Motorhomes is sponsoring the race, is also a potential winner, although he is only sixth in the standings. Garcia finished second last year to McGriff at Willow Springs after setting fast qualifying time.

Time trials to set a 24-car field will be held Saturday. The Willow Springs track is approximately 90 miles north of Los Angeles, six miles west of Highway 14 off the Rosamond/Edwards Air Force Base exit.

HYDROPLANES--The last time unlimited hydroplanes tried to race on Lake Mead--in the 1960 Gold Cup--they were blown away by high winds. When the race was stopped and declared no contest, it was the only time in the 36-year history of the Gold Cup that it had been canceled. Four earlier races were held on Lake Mead, and three of them were hampered by bad weather. Mira Slovak won the 1959 Lake Mead Cup in Bill Boeing’s Wahoo. The unlimiteds will try again Sunday in the revived Budweiser Las Vegas Silver Cup. The race will determine the national championship being contested by defending champion Chip Hanauer of Seattle and Jim Kropfeld of Cincinnati. Hanauer, driving the Miller American, has a 269-point lead, 7,569 to 7,300, over Kropfeld and Miss Budweiser. There are 1,200 points available in Sunday’s heats and main event.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Former national champion Shawn Moran, who last rode in the United States in June when he won the American Final at Long Beach despite a broken foot, will return this week to ride in Saturday night’s California state championship races at the Inland Speedway in San Bernardino. The top 16 riders in the state will compete in the 19th annual event, including defending champion Steve Lucero, former champion Bobby Schwartz and 1986 standings leader Mike Faria. Moran will also ride tonight at Ascot Park and Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

SPRINT CARS--The California Racing Assn. series will return to Ascot Park Saturday night after a week’s visit to Phoenix. Defending CRA champion Eddie Wirth, riding a three-race winning streak, will go for No. 4 at Ascot against standings leader Brad Noffsinger, who has won nine main events this season.

MIDGETS--While Ron (Sleepy) Tripp was racing in a United States Auto Club western regional race at Ventura last week, his wife, Erin, and 8-month-old daughter, Shay, were in Indianapolis to acknowledge Sleepy’s induction into the AAA/USAC Midget Racing Hall of Fame at the Indianapolis Speedrome. Tripp, 33, is the youngest driver ever inducted. A former All-Southern Section football player from Newport Beach, Tripp won the USAC national championship in 1975 and 1976 and the western regional in 1983 and 1985. Also inducted were Rich Vogler, Frank Kurtis and Harry McQuinn. Tripp’s next regional race will be Oct. 12 at Ascot Park. . . . Dennis Hart of Ventura won the three-quarter midget championship at the Ventura track.

SPORTS CARS--When the International Motor Sports Assn. race scheduled for Del Mar Nov. 9 was canceled earlier this month, Al Holbert was assured of his second straight--fifth overall--IMSA championship. Derek Bell, Holbert’s teammate in the Lowenbrau Porsche, can clinch his second World Endurance Championship by finishing in the top six at the Fuji Grand Prix in Japan on Oct. 5. . . . A race through the streets of Reno and Sparks, Nev., next October will pay $1 million to the winner, according to an announcement by promoter Don Rackemann of Newport Beach. A 200-mile race, held on a 3.2-mile course, will be open to any type of race car.

STOCK CARS--The first of a four-race series for the western states championship for NASCAR sportsman cars will be held Saturday night at Saugus Speedway. The 100-lap race will share top billing with another 100-lap event for modified open competition cars. There will also be a 30-lap hobby stock Figure 8 event and a destruction derby as part of Saugus’ 12th annual Fall Spectacular. . . . Michael Ayers of San Fernando clinched the Saugus sportsman championship last week with his third straight main event win. Ayers is the son of long-time Saugus Speedway starter George Ayers. . . . Ascot Park will hold a 150-lap international enduro Sunday night on the track’s infield road course. . . . Mike Hagerman clinched the Cajon Speedway superstock title with his eighth win last week but competition will continue Saturday night for other track positions.