Motor Racing : Thompson Given Anaheim Stadium Exclusive

Mickey Thompson and his MT Entertainment Group of Bradbury will promote all motor racing events at Anaheim Stadium next year after receiving an exclusive contract from the Anaheim City Council.

This will include the annual motocross, which has been promoted for the last 13 years by Mike Goodwin, the founder of stadium motocross. The Supercross, sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Assn., has been a sellout for most of its 13 years.

Three of the top 6, and 5 of the top 10 largest crowds in Anaheim Stadium history have been produced by Goodwin-promoted motocross, including the all-time motocross record for any stadium of 68,382 of Jan. 28, 1984.

The contract was originally granted July 21, but the motocross portion was protested by Goodwin because of an alleged breach of contract that contained a non-competition clause prohibiting Thompson from promoting motocross events in any county where Goodwin’s Stadium Motorsports Corp. did motocross events.

The Anaheim City Council, at its Aug. 18 regular meeting, decided to stick with its original agreement with Thompson.

Goodwin in turn filed suit in Orange County Superior Court against the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group--the latest in a long list of suits and countersuits by the two former promotion partners.

“I can’t believe that the city of Anaheim could cut us off after our record of filling the stadium,” Goodwin said. “Thompson has not promoted a single Supercross event and cannot obtain an AMA sanction for this one. Without the sanction, there won’t be any factory riders competing.”

Goodwin claims an exclusive contract with the AMA for sanction of area motocross events for the next two years, which would prohibit Thompson from obtaining a national championship sanction for his event.

Thompson, however, faced a similar situation two years ago when he promoted a non-AMA event in the Rose Bowl and got such leading riders as national champions Rick Johnson and Jeff Ward, who rode as individuals without factory support.

“We would prefer to have an AMA sanction but if we don’t, it won’t matter,” Thompson said. “We might not even call it supercross. We held some similar races this year and called them ultracross. It doesn’t matter what they’re called as long as the fans know what they’re going to do.”

Thompson’s other events, all of which will be held in January, include the Off-Road Gran Prix, a stadium race for automobiles and trucks that he founded three years ago; a truck and tractor pull, complete with mud bog; and perhaps a motorsports expo.

SPRINT CARS--When unheralded Jerry Meyer, 27, won last week’s California Racing Assn. race wire to wire at Ascot Park, it was first time he led a single lap in the Parnelli Jones Firestone-sponsored series. The Brea driver, CRA Rookie of the Year in 1985, was in 58 consecutive races without getting to the front. He will be back Saturday night at Ascot to see if he can do it again. . . . The winged sprinters of the California Golden State series will be at Santa Maria Speedway Saturday night. Defending champion Steve Kent of Fresno is the series leader with four races remaining.

MIDGETS--Sleepy Tripp of Costa Mesa and Rusty Rasmussen of Fresno will continue their battle in the United States Auto Club’s western regional series Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. The USAC doubleheader will also include three-quarter midgets.

STOCK CARS--Ron Hornaday Jr. holds a 42-point lead over Ken Davis in the Saugus Speedway modified class and could clinch the Olimpic Racing Assn. championship in Saturday night’s 40-lap main event. Last Saturday night, Hornaday entered the sportsman race and drove father-in-law Wild Bill Foster’s No. 9 Plymouth to its first win since Oct. 13, 1973, when Foster won a 150-lap Grand Prix on the paved one-third mile oval. Saturday night’s show will conclude with a destruction derby. . . . The Meyer brothers, Ron and Bill, will return to Ascot Park Sunday night in hopes of repeating last week’s double win when Ron won the Curb Motorsports series main event and Bill won in the bomber cars. Ron became the first five-time track winner and extended his lead to 18 points over Don Wright Jr., 1985 champion.

SPEEDWAY MOTORCYCLES--World finalist Sam Ermolenko of Corona has been temporarily banned from British League competition. He refused to take a doping test last Friday night after a USA-England team match. The ban, however, will not affect his appearance in the World Finals, Sept. 4-5, in Amsterdam. John Cook is the only other American in the finals. . . . The United States, led by Shawn Moran, upset world champion Denmark in a World Team Cup series match, 43-37, with England and Czechoslovakia trailing. . . . The fifth of six qualifying events for the U.S. Nationals will be held tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium in Gardena. Ronnie Correy of Fullerton, who has been racing in the British League, will return home in hopes of gaining a spot in the 16-rider nationals Oct. 3 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Correy finished second to Bobby Schwartz in a qualifying round at Victorville and tied for second with Brad Oxley at Long Beach. The final qualifier will be run Sept. 11 at Costa Mesa. . . . Jack Milne of Pasadena, who won the World Finals 50 years ago, Sept. 2, 1937, will be honored Wednesday night at San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway.

MORE MOTORCYCLES--Honda’s Rick Johnson of El Cajon and Micky Dymond of Yorba Linda clinched their second straight American Motorcyclist Assn. 500cc and 125cc championships, respectively, last Sunday at Millville, Minn. . . . Willow Springs Raceway will hold a 24-hour national championship race Sept. 5-6 with the winner expected to race 2,250 miles at about 94 m.p.h. Wes Cooley, who was seriously injured in a 1985 crash at Sears Point, will make his comeback at Willow Springs. . . . Larry Roeseler of Bloomington has been named to the U.S. team for the International Six Days Enduro test in Poland Sept. 21-26. The U.S. team has dedicated its effort to the memory of Dick Phares, a Husqvarna team manager from San Diego, who died of cancer July 20.

DRAG RACING--DonGarlits survived an upside-down crash with only two broken ribs but his top-fuel dragster, Swamp Rat XXXI, was destroyed in an American Hot Rod Assn. meet last Friday night in Spokane, Wash. The accident knocked the eight-time U.S. Nationals champion out of next week’s competition at Indianapolis Raceway Park and also out of the remainder of the National Hot Rod Assn. season.

NEWSWORTHY--Supermodified driver Billy Vukovich, whose hopes of bettering A. J. Foyt’s USAC record of seven straight features in a single series was dashed by Wally Pankratz two weeks ago, will attempt to start a new string in the USAC supermodifed main event Saturday night at Madera. . . . Bill Huth, whose Willow Springs track has already had one C.A.T. Thundercar race this season, has given his Nov. 1 date to Phoenix International Raceway for the big Can Am-type cars. The Thundercars will be part of a two-day program that also will feature USAC championship dirt cars on the paved mile oval. . . .Indy car driver Dick Simon of San Juan Capistrano had surgery on his right wrist and will miss the rest of the CART series this year. Simon, 53, was sixth in the Indianapolis 500.