Motor Racing : Million Dollar Mile Is Now Just Million Dollar 1/16 Mile

The Million Dollar Mile drag race that Chuck Foster once planned for a downtown street in San Bernardino is down to 1/16th of a mile on a sand drag strip in the Glen Helen Off-Highway Vehicle Park.

Only the price, $1 million, winner take all--payable at $20,000 a year for 50 years--and Foster’s unfailing enthusiasm have remained the same during the last 18 months.

There have been so many glitches surrounding the promotion that there is speculation as to what will actually happen on the 110 yards of sand Sunday where the racing is scheduled to unfold on Don Brown’s off-road racing facility.

What is supposed to occur at the end of the day is a handicap match race between a celebrity or an amateur driver in a Mustang 302 V-8 automatic equipped with paddle tires against a professional sand drag racer.

The handicap will be determined by qualifying times during eliminations Saturday and Sunday. That’s the way Foster has it planned, anyway. But few of his plans have worked recently.

Some of the bigger glitches:

The race was to have been the standard quarter-mile drag distance on Arrowhead Avenue, which borders the National Orange Show grounds. The San Bernardino City Council had given its approval unanimously.

They even repaved the street to make the asphalt race-ready.

“I thought everything was set,” Foster said. “The impossible dream was in place.”

Then Orange Show authorities informed him he needed $10 million in insurance. Which, Foster says, was $5 million more than any company would write.

That ended the Arrowhead Avenue race.

Foster’s next move was to build a drag strip in Glen Helen Park and hold the race as planned.

When residents near the site heard of the plan, they objected so strenuously that the county rejected Foster’s permit request--even though other types of racing are held on the grounds regularly.

Move No. 3 was to an existing sand drag strip, substituting United Sand Drag Assn. drivers for National Hot Rod Assn. asphalt racers.

“It’s not what we wanted, but we think it has an exciting aura to it and should attract a good crowd,” Foster said.

Then he got more bad news. The County Sheriff’s Dept. asked for $28,000 to police the area if the event attracted the 20,000 or more spectators that Foster had hoped for.

Foster turned them down, but in doing so had to agree to restrict the crowd to 5,000.

Some of the glitches had a more humorous touch.

--The 7-Up Bottling Co. distributed 140 million cans of soda to markets from Visalia to San Diego with information about the event on the sides of the cans. But they all had San Bernardino spelled wrong: San Bernadino.

--The slick-paper brochure that Foster produced to announce his event has a picture of a busy street on the cover, with the words San Bernardino superimposed on the main street. Only the street isn’t in San Bernardino--it is the Las Vegas strip, with the names of the hotels painted out.

Seven drag racers, who competed last weekend in the NHRA World Finals, are entered, along with four other celebrity drivers.

The idea so fascinated World top-fuel champion Big Daddy Don Garlits that he will fly back Friday from his home in Florida to compete.

“It’s a crap shoot,” Garlits said. “Anyone can win it, but if it’s only 330 feet, reaction time is really important. The winner’s gotta cut a good light, but a million bucks is worth taking a shot at.”

The money is being put up by Pioneer Takeout in the form of an irrevocable prepaid insurance annuity.

Two other NHRA world champions, funny car driver Kenny Bernstein and pro stocker Bob Glidden, are also entered. Other drag racers include Tom (Mongoose) McEwen, Larry Minor, Ed McCulloch and Gary Ormsby.

Celebrities include Parnelli Jones, 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner and veteran off-road racer; Bruce Penhall, two-time World speedway motorcycle champion, and entertainers Lorenzo Lamas and Linda Blair.

“One of the professionals might take home the million, and then again some Walter Mitty amateur might win it,” Foster said. “That’s the appeal. With the handicap, you never know what might happen.”

As Garlits said: “It’s a crap shoot.” Only it’s in the dirt, on a little-known OHV park at the foot of Cajon pass, about 12 miles northwest of San Bernardino.

The track is off I-215, using the Palm/Kendall off-ramp.

MOTORCYCLES--The American Road Racing Assn. will conduct a dozen 25-mile races Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. . . . State speedway champion Bob Ott will face U.S. champion Bobby Schwartz in a match race tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium. . . . Newly crowned Trans-Cal champion Bader Meneh and 1985 champion Willie Surratt will face off Friday night in the Continental Motorsports Club motocross program at Ascot Park.

SPRINT CARS--California Racing Assn. competition resumes Saturday night at Ascot Park after a week with the World of Outlaws.

DRAG RACING--National Hot Rod Assn. officials were so enthusiastic about the record crowds last weekend for the World Finals that they will add 15,000 seats to the L.A. County Fairgrounds strip for next February’s Winternationals. . . . When pro stock driver Bob Glidden won his 50th national event in the Chief Nationals, Chief Auto Parts gave Bob and his wife Etta--she’s also his crew chief--two round-trip tickets to Hawaii--the 50th state. “We’re finally going to have the honeymoon Bob promised me 23 years ago,” Etta said.

DRAG BOATS--The 22nd annual Drag Boat Nationals will be held this weekend at Lake Ming, near Bakersfield. Finals are set for Sunday at 9 a.m.