Motor Racing : Little Doubt About Little’s Turning Point as a Driver

Picking out the precise moment when a future champion made the turn that would lead to a successful career is often difficult, many times impossible, but in the case of Chad Little, a Gonzaga University law student who is about to become the Winston West stock car racing champion, it is easy to pinpoint.

Little was 23 years old, a rookie on the West Coast circuit, when he took his Ford Thunderbird to Evergreen Speedway, a five-eighths-of-a-mile banked oval at Monroe, Wash., for a 500-lap race July 13, 1986.

Bill Elliott, who the year before won 11 races and more than $2 million on the major league NASCAR circuit, was in the race. So was series champion Hershel McGriff, who won his first race on the old NASCAR Pacific Coast late model stock car series in 1954--10 years before Little was born.

Elliott started from the pole. Little started in 11th position.

But as the race unfolded, Elliott, the veteran from Dawsonville, Ga., was being challenged by Little, the rookie from Spokane, Wash. It became a two-car race as they swapped the lead eight times in the final 252 laps.

“It was lap 200 before I realized that maybe I could run with Bill,” Little said after winning the race with a record 82.386 m.p.h. speed. Elliott finished second and McGriff third.

About all Little needs do to clinch this year’s championship Saturday night at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield is to show up. He is 42 points ahead of former champion Roy Smith of Canada and with only two races remaining--Mesa Marin and Nov. 8 at Riverside--Little is virtually assured of winning.

“The hunt’s done and Chad’s pretty much won,” said Ruben Garcia, the South El Monte driver who stands fourth in the standings. “The next 6 or 8 guys, though, we’re all going to be in a thrash to salvage something.”

Consistency has been Little’s strong suit. He has won the last two, at Portland Speedway on an oval and at Tacoma on a street circuit, and he has yet to finish worse than third in six races.

“Organization within the team, especially in respect to pit stops and strategy, and my added experience on the road courses, is the difference this year,” Little said. “I had trouble on the road courses last year, but this year we have a first, second and third.

“George Jefferson (crew chief) has helped a lot. He and my father (Chuck Little) work real good together and we have a lot of people involved. We don’t have any sponsorship this year so we involve a lot of people. That may change next year when we have Coors as our sponsor. We will be able to do more things.”

Such as running in three Winston Cup races at Charlotte, Atlanta and Michigan as well as defending his West Coast championship.

Little also learned an important lesson in patience in what amounted to a rematch with Elliott this year at Evergreen Speedway.

“I was leading Bill (Elliott) by a full lap with about 60 laps left when I got impatient trying to pass a slower car,” Little explained. “The guy (Gordon Oberg of Lynnwood, Wash.) was at least 10 laps behind but he wouldn’t get out of my way. I finally bumped him a couple of times and I guess I made him mad because the next thing I knew he spun into me and knocked me off the track.

“I lost four laps getting straightened out and that let Elliott and Roy Smith get by and I finished third. It was a good lesson for me, I guess, not to get too aggressive and be a little more patient. But when I see a guy in front of me who ought to get out of my way, it makes me mad when he blocks the road.”

Little learned to race at his father’s Northwest Speedway, a high-banked quarter-mile track in Coeur d’Alene, Ida., a mile from the Idaho-Washington state line. When Chad was 17 he began running in local street stock races and later also raced at Spokane Raceway Park, a half-mile banked oval.

“Mesa Marin is a lot like Spokane,” Little said. “The banking is higher but otherwise it’s much the same. They’re both neat race tracks and great to race on.”

Down the road, Little would like to take his own team to compete on the Winston Cup circuit, perhaps in two or three years. If not, he will have his law degree with fall back on.

“I would like to give myself a legitimate chance against guys like (Dale) Earnhardt, (Tim) Richmond and (Darrell) Waltrip,” he said. “I would want to be competitive, be able to run in the top 10, at least. If I can do it, I’ll keep on racing. If it doesn’t work out, that’s why I’m finishing up this year at Gonzaga.

“I’m getting one education in class, and another one on the race track. One way or the other, I’ll be ready for whatever happens.”

SPEEDWAY MOTORCYCLES--Sam Ermolenko of Cypress, third-place finisher in the World Final two weeks ago, broke his leg and wrist in a crash last Friday at Vojens, Denmark, and will miss the U.S. Final, Oct. 3, at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Ermolenko also has been suspended from the British Speedway League for the 1988 season and fined 400 pounds after he failed to submit to a drug test following a test series match three weeks ago against Great Britain. The ban would not extend to Southern California tracks, according to Harry Oxley, International Speedway Inc. director. . . . Two weekly seasons close this week, Speedway USA in Victorville on Saturday night and the Inland Speedway in San Bernardino on Wednesday night. Riders will return to Inland Speedway, however, for the California State championships on Saturday night Sept. 26. Racing will continue Thursday nights at Ascot Park and Friday nights at Costa Mesa until the Oct. 3 nationals.

MOTORCYCLES--The American Motorcyclist Assn. dirt track season heads West this week with defending champion Bubba Shobert already having clinched the Camel Pro series and its $100,000 prize. The 32nd running of the San Jose Mile is Sunday at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds, followed by a national half-mile Saturday night Sept. 26 at Ascot Park. Shobert became the champion when the Syracuse Mile was rained out last Sunday, leaving him far enough ahead in points that he can’t be caught. . . . Former Grand National champions Gene Romero, Gary Nixon and Dave Aldana will be among the old-timers riding Saturday in La Carrera III, a 115 mile Baja California vintage race from San Felipe to Ensenada. The father-son team of Wes Cooley Sr. and Jr. will also ride. Racing starts at 10 a.m. with vintage cars also welcome.

STOCK CARS--Tim Richmond, winner of the last two NASCAR Winston Cup races at Riverside International Raceway, will not defend his Winston Western 500 title on Nov. 8 because of after-effects from a bout with double pneumonia last winter. Richmond resigned from the Hendrick Motorsports team and announced he will not race again this season after withdrawing from the Southern 500, in which he was also the defending champion. Richmond’s place on the Hendrick team will be taken by Ken Schrader. . . . Saugus Speedway nears the close of its season Saturday night with modified and sportsman cars sharing the spotlight. Ron Hornaday Jr. and Dave Phipps have already clinched championships in the two major divisions. Hobby and foreign stocks and jalopies close their season Friday night at Saugus. . . . Bob Fox, 39, a garage owner from Bremerton, Wash., won the Pacific Coast region of the NASCAR Winston Racing Series by winning 21 races in a 22-week season. Mark Norris, of El Cajon, the Cajon Speedway champion, finished fifth, with Ron Meyer of Garden Grove sixth and Dick Altman of Hawthorne 10th. . . . Roman Calczynski, who won his fourth Southwest Tour event last Saturday night at Saugus Speedway, seeks to increase his points lead Saturday night at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield.

UNLIMITED HYDROPLANES--The turbine-powered Cellular One, which was wrecked July 5 when Steve Reynolds flipped during the Indiana Governor’s Cup on the Ohio river, will return to racing this week in the Miller High Life Thunderboat Regatta at San Diego’s Mission Bay. Larry Lauterbach, a limited Grand Prix driver from Portsmouth, Va., will pilot Cellular One. Activity at the 2.5-mile Bill Muncey Memorial course will begin Friday with qualifying at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. . . . The Lake Mead course for the Sept. 27 Budweiser Las Vegas Silver Cup, final event of the season, will be cut from the traditional 2.5 miles to 2 miles.

SPRINT CARS--When Eddie Wirth won his third California Racing Assn. feature in a row last week at Ascot Park, it was win No. 121 for 79-year-old car owner Alex Morales. This moved Morales and his Tamale Wagons to within seven wins of Bruce Bromme, the all-time CRA car owner leader. Wirth will try to close the gap even more Saturday night at Ascot. Bromme’s driver, former CRA champion Bubby Jones, is taking a few weeks off and has been replaced by Stan Atherton.

MOTOCROSS--The Continental Motosports Club’s Trans-Cal series will be at Sunrise Valley Park in Adelanto on Sunday, following the weekly CMC show Friday night at Ascot Park.

MIDGETS--Ron (Sleepy) Tripp has won 11 races to six for Rusty Rasmussen, but because he has missed so many races while competing in the East and in Australia and New Zealand, the former United States Auto Club champion from Costa Mesa holds only a 10-point lead in the USAC Western States regional series. The pair resume their battle for the championship Sunday night at Ascot Park. Also on the program will be a USAC three-quarter midget main event.

DRAG BOATS--Racing friends of drag boat driver Jerry Fulgham, 31, who suffered a broken neck and severed right arm in a 200 m.p.h. accident last Sunday at Puddingstone Lake, have opened a fund for Fulgham and his family to help cover rehabilitation expenses. The address of the fund is: Jerry Fulgham Recovery Fund, P.O. Box 2057, Big Bear City, CA 92314.