Motor Racing : Boating Circuit Starts Saturday at Puddingstone

The International Outboard Grand Prix powerboat circuit will open its 1988 season this weekend at Puddingstone Lake near San Dimas in Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park. It is the first time the organization has competed in Southern California.

Bill Seebold, 47, of Fenton, Mo., heads an impressive list of drivers in the champ boat class, top of the line in the IOGP.

Seebold won the 1986 Harmsworth Trophy race, the premier international powerboat event, and is said to be the “winningest boat race driver in history” with 61 world and national championships since he began at age 10. He won the Duke of York Trophy at Bristol, England, a record six times and in 1982 won the world Formula One championship. His son Mike, 29, is his teammate.

Seebold’s main challenger is expected to be J. Christian Bush, of St. Paul, Minn., who edged out Seebold for the North American championship last year.

Four Southern California drivers are among the champ boat entries: Scott Gillman, a former off-road vehicle racing champion from Anaheim; Don Johnston of Lakeview Terrace, Craig Wendt of Huntington Beach and Jim Johnson of La Palma.

It is partly because of Gillman that the IOGP brought its race to the Los Angeles area.

“I raced the circuit last year and my dad (Bob) went to a lot of the races and became enthused at the excitement,” Scott Gillman said. “One thing led to another and he ended up offering to promote the race.”

Gillman’s first year in powerboat racing started with a crash in Florida, but ended up with enough strong performances to encourage him to try another season.

“These boats are tunnel hulls and get up to 135 m.p.h., but the really exciting thing is their cornering ability,” he said. “They pull 4 Gs in the corners and it’s something when three or four of them go into the corner at the same time.

“We go a lot faster in the boats than we ever did in an off-road car. Dad was involved in off-road racing, too, but now he’d like to see enough interest in boats to bring some international races to Southern California.”

Gillman, who raced with his brother, Mike, in off-roading, won the SCORE Champions Challenge feature race at the 1984 closed-course World Championships at Riverside in an unlimited single seater, and won a stadium race before 65,000 spectators in Montreal.

Three classes of boats will compete at Puddingstone on a 1-mile, 4-turn course. Qualifying is set for Saturday with all finals Sunday, 50 laps for champ boats and 30-lappers for the other classes. Besides the champ boats, there will be MOD-VP and SST-140 class boats.

MOTORCYCLES--Former national champion Steve Eklund and 5-time Ascot Park winner Alex Jorgensen head a field of 70 riders for a TT steeplechase Saturday night at Ascot Park in the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s new national 600 series. It will be the first national TT at Ascot since a 1986 race won by Jorgensen. Also in the field will be 2-time national champion Ricky Graham, Doug Chandler, Ted Boody and Southern California favorite Pete Hames of Palmdale. . . . British Speedway League rider Rick Miller returned home from Coventry this week for his sister’s wedding and will ride in tonight’s speedway feature at Ascot Park and Friday night’s at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Miller will miss the Sunday afternoon program at Speedway USA in Victorville, but Northern California champion Eddie Ingels of Pinole be there to challenge veteran Bobby Ott of Balboa.

MOTOCROSS--The Continental Motosport Club’s 7-race Dodge Truck Spring series will begin Sunday at Glen Helen Park, north of San Bernardino. Three of the events will be at Ascot Park, starting next Friday, and another will herald the opening of a track at Butterfield Park, near Temecula, May 15. The Butterfield track, however, will not be open to public riding but only for racing dates. . . . CMC riders will run their regular program Friday night at Ascot.

STOCK CARS--Winston Racing Series competition will start for Saugus Speedway sportsman drivers Saturday night and Ascot Park pro stocks Sunday night. Saugus will also have street stocks and Figure 8s, with bombers, Figure 8, hobby full-bodied and mini-stocks at Ascot. . . . Ventura Raceway will run stocks Friday night, and regular Saturday night programs will continue at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, Cajon Speedway in El Cajon and Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. . . . The Winston West season will open Sunday at Sears Point Raceway in Northern California with a 50-lap road race featuring defending champion Chad Little, 60-year-old Hershel McGriff and Glen Steurer of Simi Valley, leading driver in the Winston International United States-Australia Challenge Cup. Steurer finished fourth at Calder Park in Australia, but the first three--Neil Bonnett, Bobby Allison and Dave Marcis--are not entered at Sears Point. The challenge winner will receive $10,000 based on results of the two races.

RALLY--Fog halted the Rim of the World Rally after 6 of 10 stages in the Antelope Valley region last weekend, with defending champions Lonnie Peterson of Victorville and Jim Love of Palmdale repeat winners in their 1976 Plymouth Arrow. Stock car winners were Roger Hull and Rob Cherry of Prescott, Ariz., in a Datsun 610.

RIVERSIDE--Walt Carter, former Riverside International Raceway track official, in association with the Sports Car Club of America, has scheduled a 2-day Riverside Grand Prix for the weekend of May 14-15. It is a replacement for the International Motor Sports Assn. event that was recently canceled. Six races will be held on the 9-turn, 2.52-mile short course, featuring a 20-lap Coors race truck event, the first in Southern California. On Saturday there will be a 25-lap main event for the American Cities Racing League Sports 2000 cars. Sunday, besides the racing trucks, there will 25-lap races in the Formula Russell Pro Series and the West Coast Formula Atlantic Series, and 15-lap races for Sports Renault and NASPORT GT sedans.

INDY CARS--Last Sunday’s Long Beach Grand Prix will be shown Saturday at 12:30 p.m. on Channel 7. . . . Ninety-two cars, including nine driven by former winners, have been entered for the 72nd running of the Indianapolis 500 May 29. A Penske-Chevrolet for Al Unser, the defending champion, was entered by Penske Racing.

LAND SPEED--The Bonneville 200 MPH Club will honor three of its female members who have bettered 200 m.p.h. on the Utah salt flats Sunday afternoon at a barbecue at Anacapa View in Moorpark. Honored guests will be Marcia Holly-Vesco, 272 m.p.h. in 1985; Tannis Hammond, 251.7 in 1987; and Sylvia Hathaway, 202.3 in 1987.

MIDGETS--The Pomona Valley Quarter Midget Racing Assn. will hold its fifth annual Ernie Bose Memorial race for quarter midget world records Saturday and Sunday in Pomona.