Motor Racing : Shuman to Wing It This Weekend at Ascot

Ron Shuman, the Tempe, Ariz., driver who has made a career of running up front with the World of Outlaws in a winged sprint car, will take one of his last flings with the barnstorming organization this weekend at Ascot Park before settling down for his first season with the wingless sprint cars of the California Racing Assn.

“With my boy (Casey, 8) in school, the travel was getting to me, so I sat down and figured it out on paper that I could do as well or better by commuting from Tempe to Ascot every weekend,” Shuman said, explaining the new direction in his career. “During one stretch last year, from April 8 to June 5, I was only home five days and I wasn’t making enough money to sacrifice being gone all that time.”

Shuman will drive Friday and Saturday nights with the Outlaws at Ascot Park in the track’s season-opening event.

The Parnelli Jones Firestone-sponsored CRA season will open March 4-5 at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, but 29 of the 46 races in the series will be at Ascot.

“I think I feel without wings the way Steve Kinser does with them,” Shuman said. “Steve has a lot of confidence with the wing. I have a lot of confidence in my skills as a non-wing driver, so I figured I’d better come and make a splash with CRA before they go to wings, too.”

The CRA is the only major sprint car organization in the country still racing without wings.

Kinser, 32, will be the favorite this weekend along with his cousin, Mark Kinser, 24. Steve has won eight World of Outlaws championships, and 26 of the last 28 WoO feature races, including both 1988 events at Tampa, Fla., and Phoenix. In both races this year, as well as the Pacific Coast Nationals last October at Ascot, Steve and Mark Kinser have finished 1-2.

Shuman’s record at Ascot Park is nearly as remarkable as Kinser’s, although most of it has come in a midget. Shuman has won 6 of 9 United States Auto Club Turkey Night Grand Prix midget events. In sprint cars at the end of last season, he won the CRA Challenge for wingless cars during the Pacific Coast Nationals and ran second to CRA champion Brad Noffsinger in the Don Peabody Classic.

Noffsinger will miss this weekend’s sprint car program as he is leaving for Australia to drive Feb. 28 in a NASCAR Winston Cup-style race at Calder Park, near Melbourne. He plans to return in time to defend his CRA championship, however.

Shuman feels the wingless cars are more dependant on the driver, rather than the equipment.

“With wings you can run almost wide open, and the most important things are a strong motor and a good chassis setup,” he said. “The driver is probably 20 to 30% as far as importance is concerned. Without the wing, the driver becomes maybe 50 to 60% important because you can’t run wide open, and a driver can make up for quite a bit if the car isn’t running right. It becomes important who can drive it in the corner deepest, and that’s where driver skill comes in.”

Shuman will drive this year for Ed Ulyate of Laguna Hills, owner of Three-Day Blinds.

“So far this year, we haven’t done so well,” Shuman said. “We have a brand new motor and it isn’t working right. Last week at Phoenix, it never did run. We’ll come to Ascot on Friday night with two completely different cars. One will be my last year’s car with last year’s motor. The other one will be a new car with the new motor. I’ll decide after hot-lapping which one I want to race.”

In the last five years, Shuman has finished third twice, fourth twice and fifth with the Outlaws. He has 13 career WoO wins. Last year he won $112,390, but only managed to take home between $60,000 and $70,000. The rest went to expenses and to the car owners for whom he drove.

“I talked it over with Ed, and we figured if things go right I can make about that same amount by racing here in California, and I’ll still get to spend most of my time at home,” Shuman explained. “In April or May, we’ll take another look at how we’re doing. If it looks like we have a good shot at winning the $20,000 points fund, we’ll stay and run all the CRA season. If we’re not doing so well, we may pack up and start hitting some of the big-money events as an independent.”

One of the less attractive features of racing in California is the lack of racing other than Saturday nights.

“When we run with the Outlaws, there are races near our show nearly every night, and it gives a guy a chance to pick up some change. The best I can do here is race with my winged car on some Friday nights at Hanford (near Fresno) and have the wingless one ready for Saturday nights at Ascot.

“I know I’m going to miss the Outlaws at some time during the season, but I’d like to give the CRA my best shot this year and then we’ll see about 1989.”

POWER BOATS--The Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing Assn.’s annual Sweetheart Race will be held Saturday off Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey. Defending champions are the husband and wife team of driver Jim and navigator Gayle Stroffe of Newport Beach in Ebb Tide, a 30-foot S-type Scrab, powered by twin Chevrolet engines. Jim is a former All-Southern Section linebacker from West Torrance High who later received an economics degree from Harvard. Ebb Tide appeared often in the TV series, Rip Tide. Also in the 65-mile race between Palos Verdes and Santa Monica will be former Porsche driver Bill Cuddy, who will drive with his son George as navigator. A former Cal Club driver, Cuddy won the International Motor Sports Assn. GTU class at Daytona in 1971 and also competed in the old Can-Am series.

MOTOCROSS--The second round of the Coors Super Crown of Stadium Motocross will be held Saturday night at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Rick Johnson of El Cajon, winner of the inaugural race at Anaheim, will face a hometown contingent that includes Broc Glover and Ron Lechien. . . . Final round of the Continental Motosport Club’s Dodge Truck Golden State Nationals for sportsman riders will be Sunday at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

OFF ROAD--Glenn Harris of Camarillo, who won last Saturday night’s off-road truck race in San Diego in a Mazda, will compete with an eight-man United States team against a French team in the USA vs. France Grand Prix de Paris Feb. 26-27. Among Harris’ teammates will be his father, Wes Harris, and Phil Blurton of Yorba Linda. Glenn made it two wins in a row for his Mazda team when he led teammate Jeff Huber to the wire at Jack Murphy Stadium. Rod Millen, the Anaheim Stadium winner, finished fifth.

INJURY REPORT--Richard Petty, who took a wild ride in last Sunday’s Daytona 500, in which he rolled six times, plans to race his Pontiac Sunday in the Pontiac 400 at Richmond, Va., extending his consecutive streak of Winston Cup starts to 483--which goes back to 1971. . . . Stock car driver Jim Robinson, former Winston West and Saugus Speedway champion, remains in critical condition at St. Joseph Hospital in Phoenix from head injuries suffered Feb. 7 at Phoenix International Raceway.

NECROLOGY--Memorial services for former Indianapolis 500 and midget racing driver Cal Niday, 73, will be held Sunday at the Lobster Trap restaurant, 3605 Peninsula Road, Oxnard. Niday, of Port Hueneme, died of injuries after an accident during a vintage car exhibition race last Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. Niday, a one-legged driver who finished third in the midget national championship season in 1952, was driving the No. 46 midget at Willow Springs, which he drove in his final race in 1961 at San Bernardino. He finished 10th in the 1954 Indy 500 and was running sixth in 1955 when he crashed 30 laps from the finish in an accident that virtually ended his career. For the past five years Niday has been president of the Western Racing Assn., a group of old-time racers. Niday is survived by his wife, Elsie, and a son, Gilbert.