Motor Racing : Noffsinger Gives Up Racing Sprint Cars for Chance on NASCAR Circuit

Weekly Saturday night racing returns to Southern California this weekend with sprint cars at Ascot Park and stock cars at Saugus Speedway, but the cast of characters won’t be the same as last season.

Brad Noffsinger, defending two-time California Racing Assn. champion from Huntington Beach, is abdicating his sprint car throne to drive a Winston Cup stock car on the NASCAR circuit. He will make his first appearance in Mike Curb’s 1988 Buick in Sunday’s Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta, replacing Ed Pimm in the No. 98 car.

Noffsinger, 28, also drove for Curb and Jack Gardner in the CRA/Parnelli Jones Firestone sprint car series. Rip Williams will take over Noffsinger’s car Saturday night. Bubby Jones, Williams’ brother-in-law and two-time CRA champion, is coming out of retirement once again to drive Williams’ old car.

Noffsinger won eight CRA races last season, winning his second straight championship by 126 points over Sweeney.

The Atlanta race will be only Noffsinger’s fourth in a stock car. He finished 14th in a Winston West race at Mesa Marin last year, failed to make the Winston Western 500 starting field last fall at Riverside, and raced with the leaders for 80 laps of a NASCAR-style race last month in Australia before he became involved in a multicar accident.

Noffsinger earned the Atlanta ride during a trial last weekend, when he ran consistent laps in the 166-m.p.h. range on the Atlanta International Raceway’s 1.522-mile high-banked oval. Bill Elliott, a three-time winner at Atlanta, tested at 171.8 m.p.h. on the same day. Noffsinger is signed for 16 Winston Cup races, making him eligible for NASCAR’s rookie-of-the-year award.

Ron Shuman, veteran World of Outlaws driver from Arizona who is staying home this year to contend for the CRA championship for the first time, will be at Ascot in the role of series leader after winning the first two races in Phoenix. Also entered will be Shuman’s neighbor and longtime rival, Lealand McSpadden, who scored a sprint car-midget double win last week in Arizona.

In other sprint car changes, 1985 champion Eddie Wirth will drive for Frank Lewis, last year’s car owner champion and the new CRA president, and Mike Sweeney, runner-up to Noffsinger the last two years, has the ride in Alex Morales’ Tamale Wagon. Morales, 80, is going for his seventh CRA car owner championship with Sweeney, who finished third and second in the two races in Phoenix.

Saugus will open its 8-month season of Saturday night racing with a 150-lap factory enduro plus a destruction derby on the one-third mile paved oval. Hobby stocks, foreign stocks and jalopies will race at Saugus on Friday night.

The Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series for stock cars will open Sunday night at Ascot Park with a full program of pro stocks, bomber, Figure 8, hobby, full-bodied and mini-stocks. The Winston Racing Series will get under way at Saugus on April 2.

Saugus and Ascot also will hold an 8-race series for sportsman division drivers from Saugus and pro stock pilots from Ascot. Another 8-race series will match modifieds--top-of-the-line at Saugus--against super stocks from Cajon Speedway in El Cajon.

The competition was made easier after all three tracks became part of the NASCAR stock car umbrella. Also running with NASCAR this season will be the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino and Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale.

NASCAR’s Southwest Tour for All-American Challenge series sedans will expand to 20 races and for the third consecutive season will start at Saugus on March 26.

“When the first tour race was held two years ago at Saugus, we only had 23 cars show up, and this year we have 150 cars registered,” said Owen Kearns Jr., West Coast field director for NASCAR. “We expect more than 40 to be on hand for the Miller 100 to start the season.”

Several Saugus favorites, including Ken Sapper, former three-time modified champion, and Chuck Pittenger, will leave the hometown track to campaign with the Southwest Tour along with two other Saugus champions, Dan Press and Roman Calcyznski.

Something else will be new at Saugus this year. A raccoon mascot will appear at all events and a contest to name him will be held through the first four races.

ROAD RACING--The Jaguar vs. Porsche shoot-out in International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GT racing will continue Saturday at Sebring in a 12-hour race on the central Florida airport circuit. Jaguar won the 24-hour season opener at Daytona, but Porsche came back to take the Grand Prix of Miami. Eight Porsche 962s are entered against two Jaguar XJR-9s. . . . Although the May 1 IMSA races at Riverside Raceway have been canceled, Willow Springs Raceway owner Bill Huth advises that his 9-turn, 2.5 mile course in Antelope Valley will hold the opening event of the inaugural 10-race American Indy Car Series on that date. The AIS features non-turbocharged American stock block V-8 engines.

MOTORCYCLES--Three-time Camel Pro champion Bubba Shobert of Carmel Valley will ride a Honda in the United States International Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey April 9-10. It will be the dirt track specialist’s first Grand Prix, although he won a Superbike road race last year at Laguna Seca. . . . The Formula USA road series will resume Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. . . . Continental Motosport Club will conduct a motocross Sunday at Sunrise Park in Adelanto.

VINTAGE CARS--The third running of the La Carrera Classic, a 124-mile race from Ensenada to San Felipe in Baja California, is scheduled Saturday. Patterned after the old Mexican Road Races of the ‘50s, the Carrera features vintage and classic cars at least 10 years old. It is sponsored by the Vintage Club and the Rally Club of Mexico.

KARTS--The Championship Kart Racing Assn. will conduct races Sunday at the Adams Kart Track in Riverside. Tom Nields of Monrovia, winner of nine Grandnational championships, will be favored in the feature division. Racing starts at noon.

DRAG BOATS--The International Hot Boat Assn. will open its season this weekend at Firebird Lake, south of Phoenix, with racers in 16 classes competing for more than $30,000 prize money. Favorites include IHBA top-fuel hydro champion Ron Braaksma in Madness and blown alcohol hydro champion Tim Capaldi. The IHBA will be at Puddingstone Lake, near San Dimas, April 9-10.