Motor Racing : American Racing Series May Be New Way to Indy

The dream of nearly every youngster who ever drives a race car is to get to Indianapolis.

The path to the Indy 500 has started in many strange places. For years, it was from the sprint car and midget tracks. A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser all came up that way. Then, after the rear-engine revolution, the path seemed to start in road racing. Mark Donohue, Danny Sullivan and Bobby Rahal started on road courses.

More recently, Super Vees have offered the best opportunity, graduating Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Geoff Brabham.

This year, there may be a new way to start. The American Racing Series seems on its way to becoming the new training ground for would-be Indy car drivers.

“The ARS series offers the next steppingstone between Super Vees and Indy cars,” said car owner Bill Simpson, whose son Dave celebrated his 28th birthday last Sunday by winning his first ARS race at Laguna Seca Raceway. “A driver who has competed in ARS cars for a year or two will arrive at the (Indianapolis) Speedway much better prepared.”

ARS cars are Wildcats, designed after the European Formula 3000 chassis, and are powered by Buick V-6 stock block engines that generate slightly more than 400 horsepower. A Super Vee puts out about 190 horsepower, an Indy car 750.

“With all that horsepower, the feel is much like an Indy car,” said Tommy Byrne, a diminutive Irishman who is second in the series to Didier Theys of Belgium, who clinched the championship with a second-place finish to Simpson last Sunday.

“Setting the car up is very critical,” Byrne continued. “You have to have it right on the nose when you qualify because you have to be in the front row to have a chance. That means you and the crew must know exactly how to set it up to get everything out of it.”

In nine races this year, six winners have led from start to finish.

The series is full of familiar names. Jeff Andretti, winner of two races this year, is Mario’s son--and Michael’s younger brother. Juan Manuel Fangio II, the winner at Mid-Ohio, is the nephew of the five-time Formula One world champion. Dave Simpson’s father, Bill, is a former Indy car driver and safety equipment manufacturer.

Wally Jr. and Paul Dallenbach are sons of another former Indy car veteran and current chief steward of Championship Auto Racing Teams. And Chad McQueen, the newest ARS entry who made his debut last week at Laguna Seca, is the 26-year-old son of the late film star Steve McQueen.

The ARS is the official support series of CART and all 10 races were run on the same weekend as Indy car events, both ovals and road races.

One of Byrne’s wins was at Pocono, on the 2.5-mile oval.

“I liked the challenge in running an oval,” said Byrne, who drove extensively in European formula car races before coming to the United States three years ago. “It is much harder to get the car right on an oval. On a road course you can be 75% right and drive out of it. On an oval you have to be perfectly right.

“But now I know how the Indy car drivers feel. My car handled just as smoothly as theirs did. I could go any place I wanted with no trouble. After I won at Pocono, I wanted to get in an Indy car and try it out.”

Byrne won the British and European Formula Ford 2000 championships in 1981 and when he jumped off to a lead in Formula 3000 the following year, he attracted the attention of Teddy Yip, owner of the Theodore team. Byrne drove five races Formula One for Theodore but finished only two and was dropped after the Las Vegas finale in 1982.

He still managed to win the F-3000 championship, but another Formula One ride failed to materialize, leading to more disappointments for the Irish youngster. In 1985 he decided to try his luck in the United States and, after floundering for a couple of years, joined the Opar Racing Enterprises team owned by Bill Boynton of Borrego Springs.

“I’d been sponsoring Jeff McPherson in Formula 3000, but I didn’t want to go to Europe so I took a look at ARS,” said Boynton, who raced sports cars in the early 50s with Ken Miles, John von Neumann, Phil Hill and Eddie Pollack.

“I’d seen Tommy drive and I liked the way he approached racing. I saw enough to ARS that I know I’d like to run a couple of cars next year.”

Simpson has also announced plans to run two or three cars, with his son Dave and Super Vee champion Scott Atchison of Bakersfield as team drivers. Atchison drove a Simpson-owned Super Vee to the championship.

“Super Vee is a mechanics’ series, but ARS is a driver’s series,” Simpson said. “If a fellow can make it in ARS he’ll have a much, much better chance to make it in Indy car racing. I wish there had been an ARS when I was first starting out.”

Simpson drove in 51 Indy car races, including the 1974 Indianapolis 500, after starting his career in the 1968 Rex Mays 300 at Riverside.

SPRINT CARS--The fans didn’t like it when Brad Noffsinger took over a teammate’s car after failing to make the main event last Saturday night at Ascot Park, but the ploy helped extend the defending California Racing Assn. champion’s lead over runner-up Mike Sweeney to 21 points. Noffsinger’s car finished sixth in a heat, then quit in the semifeature. He took over teammate Rip Williams’ car, started on the pole and won the main event--all in accordance with CRA rules. Sweeney finished second. . . . Rookie driver Kim Craft, 27, of Hacienda Heights, remained in a coma Wednesday. He was injured last Saturday night at Ascot. Craft was knocked unconscious when his car flipped violently after hitting the wall during the main event. Attending physicians at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Carson said that Craft was breathing on his own and was stable. . . . The World of Outlaws will begin their West Coast invasion this weekend at the San Jose Fairgrounds Speedway and then head for Ascot Park and the three-night Pacific Coast Nationals for winged sprint cars starting Thursday Oct. 22. Steve Kinser, of Bloomington, Ind., is well on his way to an eighth Outlaws championship, but is still after his first Pacific Coast title. Other challengers in the $93,000 event include Sammy and Jeff Swindell of Memphis, Tenn., and defending champion Brad Doty of Fredericksburg, Ohio.

MIDGETS--Ron (Sleepy) Tripp’s bid for a sixth straight United States Auto Club western regional win, which was rained out last week, is now scheduled for Sunday night at Ascot Park. The distance for the Jolly Rancher Grand Prix has been increased from 30 to 50 laps. Jac Haudenschild, a World of Outlaws sprint car driver from Millersburg, Ohio, will join local favorites such as Rusty Rasmussen and Wayne Bennet who will challenge Tripp, a former two-time USAC national champion. Denise Bennet, Wayne’s wife and one of the top women drivers in the country, will also be in the midget race, although she has been suspended in the USAC three-quarter midget division for rough driving. Dennis Hart, who won his seventh main event last Saturday night in Ventura, will be attempting to clinch the season TQ championship at Ascot.

SUPER MODIFIEDS--Bill Vukovich III set an all-time Saugus Speedway record of 87.39 m.p.h. by lapping the one-third-mile oval in 13.73 seconds during qualifying last Saturday night but the 1987 USAC champion coasted into the infield with a dead engine after only six laps in the main event. The race was won by Mike Swanson, who also won the May race at Saugus.

MOTOCROSS--The CMC Trans Cal series will conclude Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway, after a weekly Friday night program at Ascot Park.

SPORTS CARS--A number of Southern California drivers, representing the Southern Pacific Division of the Sports Car Club of America, will compete this weekend in the Valvoline Runoffs, the Olympics of amateur road racing, at Road Atlanta. Southern Pacific champions:

GT-1--Andy Porterfield, Newport Beach, Camaro; GT-2--Alan Hilly, Granada Hills, Mazda RX7; GT-3--Tom Notey, Topanga, Toyota Corolla; GT-4--Henry (Tex) Guthrie, Paradise Valley, Ariz., Ford Cortina; GT-5--Bill Gilcrease, Costa Mesa, Mini Cooper; E Production--James Gregory, Ridgecrest, MGB; F Production--Larry Moulton, Sandy, Utah, Turner; G Production--Ernie DeJacomo, Cerritos, Datsun Roadster, and Robert Snow, Orange, Bertone X1/9, tied; H Production--Steve Lang, Mission Viejo, Sprite;

Formula Atlantic--David Ramsey, Capistrano Beach, Ralt RT5; Formula Continental--Tom Ballantine, Newport Beach, Bunce March; Formula Ford--Brian Ongais, Long Beach, Swift; Formula Vee--Mark Edwards, Los Angeles, Glamdring; Formula 440--Kurt Jechel, San Juan Capistrano, Red Devil;

Showroom stock GT--Rick Jackson, Redondo Beach, Corvette; Showroom stock A--Sue Stoney, Phoenix, Dodge Omni; Showroom stock B--Steve Bostic, Mesa, Ariz., Honda CRX; Showroom stock C--Ron Haase, San Pedro, Honda CRX; C Sports Racing--Rob Rosebrugh, Thousand Oaks, Ralt RT1; D Sports Racing--Kerry Lee Rauch, San Diego, Astech; Sports 2000--Peter Hastrup, Fresno, Tiga; Sports Renault--Vern Bowen, Alpine, Calif.

VINTAGE RACING--More than 125 historical and antique cars will compete Saturday and Sunday in a kickoff to the Camel Grand Prix of Southern California at Del Mar. Cars ranging from Formula Ones to the Can Ams of the ‘70s will race over the same 1.6-mile temporary course that the GT cars will use the next weekend in the richest race on the International Motor Racing Assn. schedule. Also scheduled Sunday is a Formula Russell race.

DRAG RACING--Big Daddy Don Garlits’ Swamp Rat XXX, the first top-fuel dragster to exceed 270 m.p.h. in a quarter mile from a standing start, will be presented to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History next Tuesday in Washington. The car that Garlits drove to the National Hot Rod Assn. world championship in 1986 will become part of the Smithsonian’s new Material World exhibition scheduled to open next spring.