Motor Racing / Shav Glick : At 23, Davis Is a Veteran in Sprint Ranks

The World of Outlaws, which opened its winged sprint car season in February at Ascot Park, will conclude the $2.75-million, 54-race national championship series next week, again at Ascot, in the Pacific Coast Nationals.

The three-night run will start next Thursday and conclude Oct. 25. The cars are distinguishable from the California Racing Assn. non-winged cars, whose home base is Ascot, by their huge billboard-like wings--as big as 25 square feet in the rear and 6 square feet in front.

Steve Kinser, the King of the Outlaws from Bloomington, Ind., has 15 wins and is virtually assured of his seventh championship, and Sammy Swindell, of Bartlett, Tenn., has won the last three winged car races at Ascot Park. But waiting in the wings to take over in case either falters will be Bobby Davis Jr., brightest of the younger generation of sprint car drivers.

Davis, though only 23, is a veteran racer. He left Memphis, Tenn., six years ago to tour the country with his father, a longtime sprint car owner, in search of competition and experience.

Davis was only 19 when he won his first World of Outlaws feature in 1982, and two years later joined the barnstorming group as a regular driver. He finished third in 1984 and second last year, both times behind Kinser.

This year, driving in his first season for Florida car owner Paul Morgan, Davis has won five main events and is again second to Kinser, trailing the champion by 260 points with three events remaining--Saturday night at San Jose, Sunday night at Calistoga and the Pacific Coast Nationals at Ascot. His earnings are already $136,000 and a $20,000 bonus is likely to be his as the series’ second- place finisher.

This will be Davis’ fourth visit to Ascot’s half-mile dirt oval. His first was as a 17-year-old in a race for non-wings and he failed to make the main event. Last year, in the Pacific Coast, he finished fifth, and last February, in the World of Outlaws opener, he was second to Swindell.

“I like Ascot,” Davis said by phone during a fuel stop while en route from a race last Sunday in Syracuse, N.Y., to San Jose. “It reminds me of a lot of tracks in Pennsylvania, only a little flatter. It’s a racy little race track.”

Davis, after two years of traveling with his father, went to Pennsylvania to race in 1982-83 where he won 28 races and two track championships.

As might be expected, he sees Kinser and Swindell as the drivers to beat in next week’s $90,000 show.

“It’s the same every night we race,” Davis said. “I look over at Steve and Sammy and know they’re the ones I’ll have to reckon with, and I’m sure they’re looking over at me, thinking the same thing. At a lot of tracks, we meet local guys who know their way around and can surprise us, but the guys at Ascot don’t run winged cars all year so they’re at a bit of a disadvantage when we come in with our wings.”

Swindell has won 12 races this season but has not raced for Outlaw points because he has been trying his hand at NASCAR stock car and Indy car racing. He finished a surprising ninth in the Pocono 500 while driving one of A. J. Foyt’s Indy cars.

Swindell’s sprint car owner is Raymond Beadle, who will be busy himself next week, driving a funny car dragster in the National Hot Rod Assn.’s World Finals at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona.

INDY CARS--Bobby Rahal leads Michael Andretti by nine points going into Sunday’s Circle K/Fiesta Bowl 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. Danny Sullivan has an outside chance at the CART/PPG championship with 131 points to 159 for Rahal and 150 for Andretti. Only one race, Nov. 9 at Miami, remains after Phoenix. Rahal’s win last Sunday at Laguna Seca was his sixth of the season.

SPEEDWAY CYCLES--Bobby Schwartz and Rob Pfetzing, who were in a runoff for the United States Speedway championship last Friday, will have a rematch tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium. Schwartz, who rode in the British League during the year, won his first national championship at the Orange County Fairgrounds after he and Pfetzing tied in points. . . . Josh Larsen of Newport Beach won the AMA national junior championship over Trinon Cirello of Newport Beach and David Busby of Balboa last weekend at Ascot.

MOTOCROSS--The final race of the Continental Motosports Club’s Dodge Dakota Trans-Cal series will be run Saturday night at Ascot Park with 180 pro riders competing. Willie Suratt of Canyon Country, defending 125cc champion, holds a one-point lead over Bader Maneh of Santee going into the final round of the seven-event series. Jeff Stanton of Bridgeport, Mich., riding a Yamaha, has clinched the 250cc title and is leading Terry Watts of Bird Crossing, Ky., by 11 points in the 500cc class. . . . More than 500 sportsman riders are expected to compete in the amateur phase of the Trans-Cal Sunday, starting at 9:30 a.m. at Ascot. . . . A regular weekly CMC program Friday night will give out-of-state riders an opportunity to learn Ascot’s stadium course. . . . The 11th annual CMC Golden State Nationals, slated for early 1987, will have a full international sanction, according to Ed Youngblood, president of the AMA, and Stu Peters, president of CMC.

STOCK CARS--Ventura Raceway will hold the third race of the four-race Western States championship series Sunday night. The race will be 100 laps on the fifth-mile clay oval. The series, which earlier raced at Saugus Speedway and Ascot Park, concludes Oct. 25 at Tahoe-Carson Speedway in Carson City, Nev. . . . Cajon Speedway will close its season Saturday night with a pair of bomber and factory stock enduros.

ROAD RACING--Max Jones of Long Beach and Tom Kendall of La Canada Flintridge won the Sports Car Club of America’s Firestone Firehawk endurance championship last Sunday when they teamed up in a Nissan 300ZX Turbo to win a 6-hour race at Riverside. Kendall, 19, started the weekend one point ahead of Jones, 31, but his teammate picked up a point by winning the pole as fastest qualifier. . . . Defending champion Paul Newman will try for his fourth national championship this weekend in the SCCA’s Valvoline Road Racing Classic at Road Atlanta. . . . The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold a series of races Saturday and Sunday at Riverside International Raceway.

DRAG RACING--Former world top-fuel champion Gary Beck has resigned from Larry Minor’s team and sat out last Sunday’s Fallnationals in Phoenix. He expects to have a ride for the NHRA World Finals next week at Pomona. Minor attempted to sign Darrell Gwynn, but Gwynn decided to go with Kenny Bernstein’s team, which includes veteran mechanic Dale Armstrong. Minor is rumored to have offered Armstrong $1 million for three years to join his Hemet-based team, but Armstrong is staying with Bernstein, the world funny car champion. Minor is said to be looking at Dick LaHaie or funny car driver Mike Dunn as a replacement for Beck next year.

SPRINT CARS--California Racing Assn. drivers will compete Friday and Saturday nights at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

LAND SPEED--Don Carr, driving the Carr & Kaplan AA fuel lakester, posted the fastest time of last weekend’s SoCal Timing Assn. meet at El Mirage dry lake. Carr ran 238 m.p.h. The final SCTA event will be run Nov. 9 at El Mirage.

OFF-ROAD RACING--Odyssey driver James Cook of Long Beach suffered a severe whiplash when his car overturned during Saturday night’s Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix finale at Fairplex Park on the L.A. County Fairgrounds at Pomona. Cook was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance after the event for a checkup and was released when no other injuries were found.