Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Wayne Rainey, King of Road, Returns to Dirt

Motorcycle road racing champion Wayne Rainey, who got his start as a teen-ager racing on the dirt at Ascot Park, will return to Ascot and the dirt Saturday to ride in the 10th annual Grand National half-mile championship race.

Rainey began the season by winning the Daytona 200, the most prestigious road race of the season, and last year was runner-up to Fred Merkel of Huntington Beach in the Camel Road Race Series for superbikes.

Last year, Rainey won seven of nine races but was penalized a lap in one for passing a lapped rider during a caution period. That was enough to give Merkel the championship by two points.

“I knew the rule, but (the lapped rider) was going so slow it was a question of passing him or ramming him in the rear end, so I passed him,” Rainey said. “They docked me a lap and that cost me the win and the championship.”

Rainey, who lives in Norwalk, has not ridden on the dirt since the Sacramento Mile in 1985, when he finished second to Scott Parker by two inches.

When Rainey was 14, he rode in a pilot program at Ascot with Eddie Lawson, then a teen-ager from Upland and now the two-time world road racing champion.

“When I got old enough, I rode as a novice and won all 12 races I ran,” Rainey recalled. “Then I moved up to junior and won eight out of nine. After my rookie year, I decided to go road racing, and that was the end of dirt tracking until that one race at Sacramento.”

Rainey is returning to the dirt because of a new Camel Pro series bonus of $100,000 to the rider with the best record in a combined nine road and nine dirt-track events. Saturday night’s race at Ascot is not part of the 18-race series, but Rainey is using it to warm up for the rest of the season.

“I have to ride a Honda on the dirt because I’m a Honda team rider on the road, but I’m strictly a privateer on the dirt,” Rainey said. “I had to buy my own bike for about $18,000 and I’m paying all the other bills.

“I figure it’ll be worth it if I can collect that bonus. I got off to a good start by winning Daytona and I figure to do well in the other road races.”

Bubba Shobert, the AMA Grand National dirt-track champion, is also in the series. Shobert has never won on the half mile oval at Ascot. Chris Carr, a Harley-Davidson team rider even though he is not yet 20, won the Sacramento Mile last Sunday and will also be at Ascot.

After Saturday’s race, Rainey will leave for England and the America vs. England match races at Donnington Park and Brands Hatch.

“I don’t know if I’m looking forward to that or not,” Rainey said. “I hear it’s about 40 (degrees) over there and sleeting. In England they ride in the rain, sleet or whatever. If they didn’t, they might never get a race finished.”

Rainey rode for two years in Europe, 1983 and ‘84, but decided to return to the United States two years ago to ride on the AMA road circuit.

“I think it’s more difficult to race on the road (than dirt) because the margin of error is so much finer,” he said. “On the dirt, you can make a mistake and power through it. On the asphalt, it you miss a braking point by five or six feet, you’re going so fast that you’re in danger of sliding off the track. The road has made me a smarter rider, but the dirt keeps me sharp.

“Riding in the daytime will pose an extra problem at Ascot because there will be only one groove, one black line, through the corners and we’ll have to stick to it. At night, the groove gets wider because of the dampness of the dirt. I’m looking forward to it ‘cause I haven’t ridden a daytime half-mile since I was 15 years old, and I’m 26 now.”

Racing will start at noon to accommodate TV. The program will be shown on Channel 7’s “Wide World of Sports” at 4:30 p.m.

TIMES GRAND PRIX--Former Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones will sponsor two events--the Firestone Firehawk Endurance Challenge and the Sports 2000--and will drive in the three-hour Firehawk race as part of the Times Grand Prix of Endurance, April 25-26, at Riverside International Raceway. Jones, who drove in the 1985 Firehawk race, will be co-driver of a Nissan 300ZX with Steve Johnson of La Verne. Both Parnelli Jones-sponsored races are scheduled for Saturday, with the Camel GT main events on Sunday.

STOCK CARS--When Ron Hornaday Jr. won last week’s Saugus Speedway opener, it was his first win on the tiny oval since 1983. Hornaday, son of a former Saugus track champion, will be back Saturday night for the modified main event at the same track. . . . Don Wright Jr. and Ron Meyer resume their rivalry Sunday night at Ascot Park in the Curb Motorsports pro stock series. Ascot will also have a chain race on the Figure 8 course. . . . Cajon Speedway in El Cajon will open its weekly NASCAR Winston series Saturday night with a super stock and sportsman show. . . . A new track, the Willow Springs stadium oval, will open Sunday with hobby stock and mini-stock racing featured on the 3/8-mile banked clay oval. There will racing the second and fourth Sunday of each month.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--United States champion Bobby Schwartz will ride tonight in the season opener at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium, and will also ride Friday night at Costa Mesa when the Orange County Fairgrounds tries for a second time to open its 19th consecutive season. Rain washed out last week’s program. . . . Speedway USA in Victorville will open its season Sunday with the High Desert Invitational, a 32-rider event with a drag racing format in which the first two finishers in each heat move into the next round until four riders remain for the championship race. Schwartz, former national champion Alan Christian and Speedway magazine’s rider of the year Mike Faria are entered. Racing will start at 2 p.m. The weekly Speedway USA season will be contested on Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. starting April 25. . . . Ronnie Correy, a two-time junior champion from Fullerton, has joined Sam Ermolenko of Corona on the Wolverhampton Wolves team in the British League.

DRAG RACING--Earnie Adams, a cycling daredevil from Shelbyville, Tenn., will attempt to jump 22 cars as part of Saturday night’s drag racing program at the L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale. Adams hopes to add two cars a week until he clears 26 cars--180 feet--on Easter Sunday. If he makes it, the jump would break the record of 176 feet by Gary Wells.

INDY CARS--The same cast of car-driver combinations that opened the season in last Sunday’s Long Beach Grand Prix, headed by winner Mario Andretti, will be in Phoenix this week for Sunday’s Checker 200. The big differences will be that the Phoenix race will be on an oval, which will bring out four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt for his season debut. Because Arizona does not observe daylight-saving time, the race will start at 1 p.m., instead of the previously announced 2 p.m.

MOTOCROSS--Weekly CMC competition will continue Friday night at Ascot Park.

VINTAGE CARS--The second running of the Mexican La Carrera Classic, a one-day revival of the old Carrera Pan American Mexican road races, will be held Saturday on the highway between Ensenada and San Felipe in Baja California. Former Indy 500 winner Rodger Ward is entered in a 1958 Maserati and former Trans-Am veteran Ted Roberts will drive the Matlock Javelin, a 1969 model that finished second last year.

SPRINT CARS--Santa Maria Speedway has joined five Northern California tracks in an 11-race series for winged sprint cars called the California Golden State championship series. The series will open Saturday at Baylands Raceway in Fremont and will be at Santa Maria May 30 and August 29. . . . CRA drivers will be at Manzanita Raceway in Phoenix Saturday night.

NEWSWORTHY--The SoCal Timing Assn. will hold its 50th anniversary picnic April 26 at Prado Regional Park in Chino. The anniversary will feature old cars as well as old folks.

NECROLOGY--Darlene Ayers of San Fernando, chief scorer at Saugus Speedway for the last 20 years, died Wednesday of cancer. Her husband, George, is the starter at the speedway and her son, Michael, is the sportsman stock car track champion. Survivors include her husband and three sons, Rory, Michael and James. Services will be Saturday at noon at Oswald’s Mortuary in San Fernando.