Visger Masters Camel Grand Prix : Last Ride in Fiero Brings Sixth Victory in Seven Races

Even in the flush of victory, Terry Visger felt a tinge of regret.

By winning the 45-minute Camel GT for GTU sports cars at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Sunday, Visger finished the season with six victories in the past seven races. On the minus side, however, this was the end of the line for the Pontiac Fiero that had served him so well.

Visger, 38, from Santa Clara, expressed his mixed feelings after outracing the Kendall brothers of La Canada, Tom and Bart, in the secondary feature of Del Mar’s first auto racing program in 23 years. Tom Kendall, who already had clinched the season championship, finished second.

“I feel happy, because it was a nice farewell for my Fiero,” Visger said. “I’ve got a sweet little car there. It’s too bad I won’t be driving it anymore.”

Beginning next year, Pontiac will concentrate its tour sponsorship on cars with engine displacements of 3 liters or more, which means GTOs, GTPs and GTP Lights. Fiero’s have engines smaller than 3 liters.

“It looks like I’ll be driving a Light in ‘88,” Visger said.”

Visger finished third in the season standings, and had to break a tie with Bart Kendall Sunday to do that. Amos Johnson of Raleigh, N.C., wound up second, despite ignition trouble that left him in 16th place Sunday in the 18-car field.

Although the Kendall family home is in La Canada, the driving brothers like to say they are from Del Mar. They spend their vacations between college terms at their parents’ summer home here. Bart, 22, is a senior at Stanford; Tom, 21, a senior at UCLA.

“We’re thrilled to race here,” Bart said. “People ask me if I’m jealous of Tom, because he has done more than I have, but I’m probably his biggest fan.”

Visger started on the pole after leading Saturday’s qualifying at 78.473 mph. Tom Kendall, who started second, beat Visger to the first turn and led until he went into a spin on the 14th lap. As Kendall spun, Dick Murray of Chandler, Ariz., passed both him and Visger. But Visger regained the lead on the 17th lap and kept it, winning by 1 minute 1.769 seconds. His average speed for the 57.6 miles (36 laps around the 1.6-mile course) was 74.724 mph.

Tom Kendall said of his brief fling in front, “I decided that my only chance was to go like heck at the start. It worked for a while, but it put too much heat on my tires.”

Murray lasted only 28 laps before dropping out after brushing a concrete wall and developing a steering problem.

Visger had a five-race winning streak until the Columbus 500 on Oct. 4, when he ran into a car driven by Lyn St. James of Dania, Fla. He was determined to avoid a rerun of that fiasco.

“I decided to stick around this time,” he said. “I made up my mind that instead of trying something stupid, I’d let other people do something stupid.

“My radio went out early, so we had to go back to the old-fashioned pit board. I think I had flat tires for the last five laps--at least one seemed to be coming apart--but I kept on going.

“I won because I had the Fiero (the Kendalls drove Mazda RX-7s). Either of the Kendall brothers could have won with this car. You just get behind the wheel and turn on the gas.”

Up until Visger’s late-season run of success, he had won only one of 37 previous races since he joined the tour in 1982. Sunday, he earned $9,000. Tom Kendall pocketed $4,000 and Bart Kendall $2,500.