Motor Racing : Ascot Salutes Jones’ Indy Win 25 Years Ago

Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 highlights one of the year’s biggest weeks for motor racing. It’s a fact not lost on local tracks.

Ascot Park will have its own Salute to Indy on Saturday night with a 50-lap sprint car race.

The salute will mark the 25th anniversary of Parnelli Jones’ 1963 Indy victory in a car owned by J.C. Agajanian. Parnelli sponsors a series of 50-lap races at the track.

The car, nicknamed Calhoun, will be on the track at Indy Sunday, when Jones is honored before the race.

Jones almost didn’t win the race. He was leading with two laps to go when his car began to spit oil from a crack in an externally mounted oil tank. Harlan Fengler, the race’s chief steward, was about to black flag Jones but Agajanian anticipated that and ran to talk Fengler out of it. Agajanian argued that the seeping would slow once the level of oil had fallen below the crack in the tank.

Fengler allowed Jones to finish the two laps.

Saturday’s 50-lap event is longer than usual. The drivers will salute fans by driving four wide instead of two. In addition, Bubby Jones, who started at Indy in 1977, will be in the race and will be interviewed for the fans.

The other top drivers in the race are Ron Shuman, the California Racing Assn. point leader and Indy entrant, Lealand McSpadden of Tempe, Ariz., and Mike Sweeney, of Carson, who has won four events this year. Sweeney won this event last year.

In another Indy note, Sweeney’s car owner, Alex Morales, also owns the car that will be driven by Howdy Holmes at Indy Sunday.

The ligament damage Ricky Rudd suffered in a one-car crash in The Winston last weekend has resulted in permanent damage to his knee and is expected to slow his driving career for up to nine months.

Rudd, wearing a brace on his left leg, hobbled around the garage area at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He plans to fly to Indianapolis in the middle of the week for an examination by Dr. Terry Trammel. Trammel has worked with several drivers who received leg and foot injuries, including Rick Mears and Shirley Muldowney.

“So far, the doctors have told me it will be a long healing process,” Rudd said. “They’ve told me it will never be 100% again, but it may be 90% if I let it take 6 to 9 months to heal. If they cut on it, it may be 70% to 75%. If I aggravate it, it may never heal right and scar tissue will form.”

Rudd said doctors told him the knee injury is similar to one football players get on artificial turf.

“It’s like a runner getting hit with a chop block,” Rudd said. “My knee not only goes up and down, like it’s supposed to, it also goes sideways.”

If Rudd is able to drive, certain modifications will have to be made to his car.

“We would have to remove the clutch pedal and put in a hand-lever type clutch,” he said. “We would also have to go to a Jerico transmission, since you don’t have to use a clutch with it once the car rolls off of pit road.”

Rudd’s crash occurred on lap 97 of The Winston when the right-front tire failed as he entered turn one.

DRAG RACING--Bill Barney has been perfect in his top alcohol dragster this season. The GTX driver from Citrus Heights has gone 10-0 so far and has a 3,000-point lead over his nearest competitor for the world championships. “Like I said before, we’ve done so well this year because we’ve been lucky a couple of times,” Barney said. “We just hope that all this good fortune continues. We’ve never had a season that has started out so well for us.” Barney will put that streak on the line at the Summer Nationals June 3-5 in Atco, N.J.

STOCK CARS--Three-time feature winner Ron Meyer of Garden Grove maintained his lead in the Pacific Coast Region of the $400,000 NASCAR Winston Racing Series after the sixth of 22 rounds of competition. Meyer has scored 1,415 points in nine races through last Sunday, driving a Chevrolet Camaro. Meyer’s closest pursuer is Bobby Hogge of Salinas with 1,322 points. Hogge, who also drives a Camaro, has six victories but one fewer start than the regional leader. Jeff Silva of Aptos, Calif., in a Pontiac TransAm, is ranked third in the 4-state, 17-track competition with 1,273 points and 2 wins. All but one of the top 10 ranked drivers--sixth place Vern Roberts of Bothell, Wash.--are from California.

The championship, which carries a $10,000 bonus, ends Sept. 12 with each of more than 300 competitors in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington counting their best 20 finishes.

Ventura’s “Slamin By The Sea” enduro was was won by Russ Warren of Van Nuys. Warren, the 1988 Hobby stock champion, beat Steve Sauer by half a length after 150 laps of racing last Sunday. . . . Glen Cummings held off a challenge from two-time champion Dan Press to grab his second straight win in the NASCAR main event last Saturday at Saugus Speedway. The track has races Saturday night, including stock oval and figure eight. Daytona 500 winner Bobby Allison will race at Saugus June 11.

A 250-lap factory stock enduro for full-bodied American cars is set for Sunday at Ascot. . . . A NASCAR Winston Racing Series will be held Monday. The program includes oval cars, figure eights and a demolition derby. . . . Saturday at Shasta Speedway in Anderson is the Pepsi Cola 100 NASCAR Southwest Tour, a 100-lap, 33-mile challenge race. . . . Ventura Raceway, which has had a full program of mini-stocks, will return to the “big” time with a full program Friday night. . . . John Borneman and Dennis Andrews head the field in a 30-lap main event Saturday night at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon.

MOTORCYCLES--Speedway racing begins tonight at Ascot, with Bobby Schwartz trying for his second straight win at the track and his third of the year. Schwartz won 16 of 22 starts at Ascot’s South Bay Stadium last year and a total of 56 scratch mains. Speedway racing continues Friday night at Costa Mesa. . . . Schwartz will also be at the opening of the Speedway USA/Budweiser Series Saturday night at Victorville. . . . CMC motocross is at Ascot Friday night. . . . The U.S. National Four Stroke Championships, for motorcycles and ATVs, is Sunday at Perris Raceway.