Motor Racing : Vessels Isn’t Just Horsing Around
Scoop Vessels can’t decide whether he wants to breed horses, run a golf course, be an entrepreneur or race trucks for a living. So he does them all.
Frank Vessels Jr., who has been called Scoop for longer than he can remember, once helped his mother, Millie, run the Los Alamitos Race Course, which his late father founded.
After the Vessels family sold the track, Scoop moved to Bonsall, in north San Diego County, where he developed San Luis Rey Downs, a multipurpose facility that has a 700-acre breeding farm, a 250-acre training center for thoroughbred horses and a par-72 golf course that was once the site of an LPGA championship tournament.
Motor racing started out to be a hobby, but it blossomed into another business enterprise recently when Vessels formed his own company, Frontier Fabricators, to build his state-of-the-art racing Chevrolet trucks in Temecula.
Vessels was first in his class--full-sized two-wheel drive utility vehicles--in the Baja 500 last June. He also finished fourth overall.
His next outing will be Aug. 22-23 in the SCORE Off-Road World Championships at Riverside International Raceway, where he will drive in the Hungus Heavy Metal Challenge, a feature event for full-sized pickups, sedans and four-wheel drive vehicles.
“Riverside is a whole different show from Baja,” Vessels said. “Baja took more than eight hours and Riverside is 10 laps around a mile-and-a-half track. At Riverside I’ll have to take the lead off the starting line and stand on the gas until the checkered flag. I can’t afford to have one thing go wrong or I’ll be out of contention.”
Vessels, 35, got the racing bug from his father. In 1972 the two of them drove a Bill Stroppe-prepared Ford van in the Baja 1,000, going nonstop from Ensenada to La Paz in 27 hours. Two years later he was voted SCORE’s rookie of the year and in 1977 won his first class championship.
In 1978, sharing a Chevy Blazer with Bob Gordon, Vessels won the unlimited single-seater class and was voted off-roadsman of the year. The next year he switched to two-seaters and again won his class title.
For the next three years, Vessels dropped out of racing to devote his energies to developing his thoroughbred horse farm. Then, after driving in races with friends for a couple of years, Vessels decided to form his own racing team in 1985 and hired Cal Wells to build him a racing truck.
Last year he finished second in the Baja Internacional and the Frontier 500, setting the stage for this year’s Baja win.
So why is he called Scoop?
“I guess my folks wanted me to be a writer,” he usually answers with a laugh. “Or maybe I was named for a horse named Scoop Bam that was my parents’ first big winner about the time I was born.”
MIDGETS--After an Eastern swing that brought him wins in United States Auto Club races in Erie, Colo., and Lincoln, Neb., plus the open competition Belleville Nationals in Kansas, Ron (Sleepy) Tripp will return to Ascot Park Sunday night to protect his lead in the USAC Western States series. Tripp leads Rusty Rasmussen, winner of the last USAC Ascot race, 608-580. P. J. Jones, Parnelli’s son, won last week at Ventura and will be trying to win his first one at Ascot. Three-quarter midgets will share the Sunday night billing.
SUPERMODIFIEDS--Billy Vukovich, grandson and namesake of the two-time Indy 500 winner, can establish a USAC record of eight straight feature wins in a single series if he can win Saturday night at Madera Raceway. Vukovich tied A. J. Foyt’s record with a win two weeks ago at Madera. Foyt won the first seven Indy car races in 1964. . . . The supermodifieds will be at Saugus Speedway on Oct. 10.
MOTOCROSS--An all-Southern California team of Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo, Rick Johnson of El Cajon and Bob Hannah of Quartz Hill, will represent the United States in the Motocross des Nations, which will be held in this country for the first time Sept. 13 at Unadilla Sports Center in New Berlin, N.Y. David Bailey, a member of the winning teams in 1982 through 1986, will act as team captain and Roger DeCoster will be team manager. Alternates are Micky Dymond of Yorba Linda, Ron Lechien of El Cajon and Johnny O’Mara of Simi Valley. . . . CMC riders will race Friday night at Ascot Park. . . . Georges Jobe of Belgium, riding a Honda, clinched the world 500cc championship last week at the Luxembourg Grand Prix.
STOCK CARS--Dan Press, Saugus Speedway champion in 1978 and 1982, is on a roll again. Press has won two straight modified main events on the tricky third-mile, flat oval and will try for three on Saturday night. Press, who won his first Saugus main event on April 20, 1974, has won 57 times at that track. Sportsman, street stocks and ego challengers will also compete Saturday night.
SPRINT CARS--Veteran John Redican will attempt to hold off Jack Gardner’s two-driver team of Brad Noffsinger and Rip Williams in the final event of the Budweiser American Sprint Car series Saturday night at Ascot Park. Redican has 117 points to 111 for Noffsinger.
DRAG RACING--The SoCal Pro Gas Assn. will hold its fifth race of a six-race season Sunday at Riverside International Raceway.
SPEEDWAY BIKES--The can-you-stop-Bobby Schwartz campaign will continue this week at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium tonight and the Orange County Fairgrounds Friday night. Speedway USA in Victorville will take the week off as riders compete Saturday night in Auburn, Calif., in a national championship qualifying program. Schwartz, the national champion, has won 40 main events this season. . . . Inland Speedway in San Bernardino will hold its 7-Up Challenge next Wednesday night with all races at scratch.
INDY CARS--Al Unser Jr., winless in this year’s CART season, will return to Galles Racing of Albuquerque, N.M., next season. Little Al will continue to drive the final six races this season for Doug Shierson Racing of Adrian, Mich. Unser drove for Galles in 1983 and 1984. Galles’ current drivers, Geoff Brabham and Jeff MacPherson, are expected to negotiate rides with other teams next year.
