Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Southland Tracks Help Give NASCAR a Boost

Short-track stock car racing, the grass roots of NASCAR, is expanding on the Pacific Coast in record proportions.

NASCAR estimates for the coming season project more than 700 drivers competing in 400 races on 15 tracks for $3 million in prize money.

“Without our weekly tracks, we would end up not having a Winston Cup,” said Dick Beaty, director of racing for stock car’s top-of-the-line series. “Every major sport needs a farm system, and the short tracks are ours.”

Four Southern California tracks, Ascot Park, Saugus Speedway, Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino and Cajon Speedway near San Diego, will be heavily involved in NASCAR’s programs. This will be the first year in the NASCAR fold for Orange Show promoter Dick Steinbeck.

All but Cajon Speedway, where Grand Americans will run, will be involved in the Pacific Coast Winston series for sportsman cars, in which drivers at tracks from San Diego to the Canadian border will compete for a $25,000 point fund. Drivers will count their 20 best finishes in a 22-week season that runs from mid-April to mid-September, and the one with the best record will get $10,000. He will also become eligible for the national championship, which pays an additional $20,000.

“The Pacific Coast series brought out a lot of new cars and drivers last year,” said Ray Wilkings, Saugus Speedway owner-promoter. “A few years ago we had trouble filling a field with sportsman cars, but that’s no longer true. We used to have 12 to 15 cars, and now we expect around 45 cars for each show.”

Doug McCoun, formerly of Prunedale, won the Pacific Coast title in 1985 and 1986 and also won the national championship in 1985. In the last three years, McCoun has won 52 races on tracks at Watsonville, Merced and Antioch. McCoun recently moved to Marietta, Ga., where he will compete in NASCAR’s late-model sportsman series. Joe Kosiki of Omaha, Neb., is the defending national champion.

Ron Meyer of Lake Elsinore, the Ascot track champion, finished fourth on the Pacific Coast last season, becoming the first Southern California driver to finish in the top 10 since the series was inaugurated in 1982.

Other track champions back to defend their titles this year are Michael Ayers of San Fernando at Saugus, Mike Hagerman of Lakeside at Cajon, and Johnny Lathrop of Torrance at Orange Show.

The Southwest tour, which will open March 28 at Saugus, is for Grand American cars and drivers. Defending champion Ron Esau of Lakeside has an arm in a cast, the result of a fall from a ladder, but he expects to be ready to drive by opening night. Roger Avants, of Arvada, Colo., won both Saugus races last year, and will be back looking for his third in a row.

There will be 15 races--12 on oval tracks and 3 on road courses--with $275,000 in prize money. Two will be at Saugus, on the third-mile paved oval; two on the quarter-mile paved oval at Orange Show Speedway and one on Cajon’s paved three-eighths mile. Two of the road races will be at Riverside International Raceway, June 20 and Nov. 8, in conjunction with Winston Cup races the following day. The other road race will be April 29 at Sears Point.

Saugus will also run its popular modified stock car series, which this year will be NASCAR-sanctioned for the first time. Defending two-time champion Ken Sapper of La Crescenta won only one main event during the season but had nine other top-five finishes and won the title.

The 29th consecutive season at Saugus will start Friday night, March 6, with hobby stocks, foreign stocks and jalopies. Ascot Park will open its stock car season March 22, with Orange Show opening night April 4.

SPRINT CARS--The California Racing Assn. will open its 42nd season Saturday and Sunday at the California Mid-Winter Fair in El Centro with Parnelli Jones Firestone as the new sponsor for the 44-race season. Defending CRA champion Brad Noffsinger will be in the Jack Gardner No. 1 machine, with his major challenge expected to come from among Eddie Wirth in Alex Morales’ Tamale Wagon No. 5, veteran Bubby Jones in Bruce Bromme’s No. 2, and Mike Sweeney in Frank Lewis’ No. 91. There will be main events both days at noon as part of the Imperial Valley festival.

WILLOW SPRINGS--Michael Andretti, driving a Cosworth-powered Kraco ’86 March Indy car, broke the Formula One monopoly on the Willow Springs track record with a lap of 1 minute 6.05 seconds around the 2.5-mile road course. For five years, nothing but an F1 car has been listed among the 10 fastest laps. Andretti bettered the 1:06.3 by Nigel Mansell of Brazil. The old Indy car record was 1:07.5 by Danny Sullivan in a Penske powered by an Ilmor-Chevrolet engine. . . . In addition to the road course, a 3/8-mile clay oval track is now open at Willow Springs for practice and testing.

POWERBOATS--Defending champion Dick Sherrer of Seal Beach will face a field of 80 in Sunday’s 25th annual Parker Enduro, a seven-hour marathon on the Colorado River. The race will start at 8 a.m. from La Paz County Park, approximately seven miles north of Parker, Ariz. . . . The International Hot Boat Assn. will open its season this weekend at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., with the Sprite Winternationals. For the first time, the 220-m.p.h., top fuel hydros must be equipped with a driver protection device, either a roll cage or a safety pod that will eject from the boat in case of an accident. The new safety rule was prompted by the death of top fuel hydro champion Billy Todd during a race last year at Castaic Lake. The IHBA will be at Puddingstone Lake May 2-3 and Castaic Lake May 16-17.

ROAD RACING--Indy 500 champion Bobby Rahal will drive a Porsche 962 with Jochen Mass of West Germany in the Miami Grand Prix Sunday. The three-hour race, around Bicentennial Park, will also have teams of A. J. Foyt and Danny Sullivan in another 962, Geoff Brabham and Elliott Forbes-Robinson in a Nissan GTP, Scott Pruett and Pete Halsmer in a Mustang GTP and Sarel Van der Merwe and Doc Bundy in a Buick Hawk. . . . The California Sports Car Club will open its season March 14-15 at Riverside International Raceway.