Motor Racing : Annual Salute to Indianapolis 500 Fitting at Ascot

With the interest of motor racing fans focused on Sunday’s 71st running of the Indianapolis 500, race tracks throughout the country are staging salutes to America’s premier automobile event.

However, it is doubtful that there is any track or racing association with ties to Indy as close or for so long a period of time as J.C. Agajanian’s Ascot Park and the California Racing Assn.

When driver Ed Pimm takes the green flag in Indianapolis Sunday, it will mark the 40th consecutive year that a car carrying the Agajanian No. 98 has been entered in the 500.

It all started in 1948, when the late J.C. Agajanian entered the first No. 98 at the Speedway. For 36 years, until his death in 1984, Agajanian entered cars. Since his death, sons Cary, Jay and Chris have worked with Mike Curb to keep No. 98 in Gasoline Alley.

Curb, who also owns Tom Sneva’s car in the 500, is associated with CRA as the sponsor of Brad Noffsinger, the 1986 CRA champion.

Another with interests in both the 500 and Ascot’s annual Salute to Indy is Alex Morales, a 79-year-old racing patriarch from Anaheim. Johnny Rutherford will start Morales’ car from the middle of the third row in Indianapolis, and Eddie Wirth of Hermosa Beach, the 1985 Indy Salute winner, will pilot Morales’ sprint car in Saturday night’s 50-lap race on the half-mile track in Gardena.

Fittingly, the defending champion in the Salute to Indy race at Ascot is Bubby Jones of Glen Avon, the only current CRA driver who has driven in the 500, that in 1977. Saturday night, Jones will be after his fourth Salute to Indy victory at Ascot and his second in a row.

Then, there is the other Jones--Parnelli--the current sponsor of the CRA season series. It was with that group and at Ascot that he began his rise to racing stardom that includes a 1963 Indianapolis victory aboard Agajanian’s No. 98, affectionately known as Calhoun. That car, the first to qualify at more than 150 m.p.h in 1962, is housed in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

Nine drivers in this year’s 500 are former CRA members--Rick Mears, Dick Simon, Rutherford, Rich Vogler, Gary Bettenhausen, George Snider, Steve Chassey and both Al Unsers. Other 500 entries who have competed at Ascot in past years are A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Pancho Carter, Tony Bettenhausen and Stan Fox.

SPRINT CARS--Mike Sweeney of Carson, the current Parnelli Jones Firestone/CRA point leader, will try to retain his slim lead over Brad Noffsinger (1,431 points to 1,414) in Saturday night’s race. Jones is third with 1,284, followed by Walt Kennedy, 1,268; Gary G. Howard, 1,201 and Wirth, 1,197. Kennedy, the 49-year-old Upland driver ended a couple of long streaks with his victory in last Saturday night 30-lapper at Ascot. When Walt wheeled his Ford-powered sprinter to victory, it was the first time since 1972 that a Chevrolet, or one of its derivatives, had not powered a winning CRA sprint car. It was also Kennedy’s eighth lifetime CRA victory, but his first since June of 1984 at Santa Maria. . . . For winged sprint car fans, Baylands Speedway in Fremont holds a double program this holiday weekend with racing on both Saturday and Monday nights.

STOCK CARS--El Cajon Speedway will hold the 10th annual Ted Kallos Memorial this Saturday night, a 40-lap event for super stocks that honors the memory of the only race driver to die at the San Diego area track in its 27 years of operation. . . . NASCAR sportsman, street stocks and hobby cars will compete Saturday night at Saugus Speedway. The sportsman will race a 40-lapper while the street and hobby cars will compete on both the oval and Figure 8 course. . . . Ron Meyer of Garden Grove will try to hold on to his lead when the Curb Motorsports NASCAR Winston racing series for pro stocks compete Sunday night at Ascot Park. Figure 8 racing and a Destruction Derby are also on the program. Ascot concludes its holiday weekend with a 250-lap enduro for full-bodied American cars on Monday night. . . . The Pro-Mod division returns to action Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale with David Sweet trying to become the first repeat winner of the season.

MOTORCYCLES--The winning streak of Bobby Schwartz has ended at five, but the Costa Mesa rider will still be the man to beat in tonight’s speedway racing program at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium. It took a visit from Sam Ermolenko, on holiday from Wolverhampton of the British Speedway League, to stop Schwartz last Thursday night. Ermolenko, who also won the handicap main from the 50-yard line, was followed by Schwartz, Mike Faria and England’s Phil Collins. Faria, last year’s Rider of the Year in Southern California, and Collins will be back to challenge Schwartz tonight. Most of the same cast will be at Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Friday night, where Northern California ace John Cook will challenge the regulars. Cook, a British Speedway League rider who decided to remain in the United States this year, is also one of the stars of the pro jet-ski circuit as well as the speedway point leader at both Baylands and Auburn tracks in Northern California. . . . Former world champion Bernie Schreiber of La Cresenta and Jonny Anderson of Sweden will headline the field for El Trial De Espana observed trials Saturday and Sunday in the Temecula/Elsinore area off I-15 at Clinton Keith Road. The event is presented by the American Trials Assn.

SPORTS CARS--The Sports Car Club of America will hold a holiday program Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Riverside International Raceway. Practice and qualifying will be held Saturday with seven races on both Sunday and Monday.

MIDGETS--The United States Auto Club Western States midget series continues Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The program also will feature the USAC three-quarter midgets on the fifth-mile dirt track. In the midget half, Sleepy Tripp, winner of last Sunday’s race at Ascot Park, will try to put more ground between himself and runner-up Wayne Bennet in the series standings. In the TQ, Dennis Hart and Rick Gray will continue their point battle. Hart posted a second-place finish last Friday at Ventura and a victory at Ascot Sunday night to take a 12-point lead in the series standings.

SUPERMODIFIEDS--Billy Vukovich, who won last Saturday night’s race at Mesa Marin Speedway in Bakersfield on the final lap for his fifth victory of the year, will headline the field in this Saturday night’s Bill Vukovich Memorial race at Madera, Calif. Vukovich, who passed Mike Swanson for the victory, holds an 89-point lead over Swanson going into the 40-lapper that honors his late grandfather, the two-time Indy 500 winner. . . . Vukovich and Swanson will also continue their season-long battle Monday night when the powerful machines test the 3/8-mile oval at El Cajon Speedway for the first time. A 35-lap main event headlines the program.