Motor Racing : Record Entry for Amateur Finale at Riverside

Members and alumni of the California Sports Car Club and affiliated regions of the Sports Car Club of America--eager to drive the Last Lap of Riverside--have swelled the entry for this weekend’s final amateur racing weekend at Riverside International Raceway to a record of more than 700 cars.

Cal Club officials said that the number may go above 800 before the first national championship race is held Saturday. The program calls for six national races Saturday, five regional races Sunday and two Monday.

Tom Marx, fresh from a victory in the Firehawk endurance series at Watkins Glen, N.Y., will drive a Nissan 200 SX in the first race Saturday and then turn the car over to actress Sandra Bartley for Sunday’s first race.

After Monday’s races, the Cal Club has planned a nostalgic program highlighted by former track champions from the 1950s and ‘60s taking the Last Lap of Riverside. Among those expected to bid the famous road racing course farewell are Phil Hill, former Formula One champion; Parnelli Jones, 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner; Carroll Shelby, Chuck Daigh, George Follmer, Richie Ginther and Scooter Patrick.

Hill won the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside in 1959, driving a Ferrari. Jones won a Times Grand Prix there in 1964, a Motor Trend 500 stock car race in 1967 and a Trans-Am in 1970. Shelby won the Herald-Examiner Grand Prix there in 1960 in a birdcage Maserati. Daigh won the inaugural Times Grand Prix in 1955 in a Scarab-Chevy. Ginther won the Los Angeles Cup in 1957. Patrick won a Times enduro in 1964 and the Pennzoil 100 for sports cars in 1967.

Four men who drove in the first race ever run at Riverside, on Sept. 21, 1957, will drive again Monday. They are Andy Porterfield, Frank Monise, Bob Kirby and Bob Snow.

Many modern-era drivers who had hoped to be at the final event, such as Dan Gurney, John Morton, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Chris Cobb and Dennis Aase, will instead be at Watkins Glen for an International Motor Sports Assn. event this weekend. However, some of them indicated they may make it to the nostalgia party late Monday afternoon.

Still coming at Riverside are an antique car event July 16-17 and the SCORE closed course world off-road championships Aug. 13-14.

SPRINT CARS--Lealand McSpadden, the West Coast’s hottest sprint car driver, will go for his fourth straight California Racing Assn. victory Saturday night at Ascot Park in the annual Firecracker 50. McSpadden has won seven main events in the Parnelli Jones Firestone-sponsored series, including the most recent 50-lap main event at Ascot, the Salute to Indy on May 30. Standings leader Ron Shuman and perennial challenger Mike Sweeney, both with six CRA victories this season, will be out to stop McSpadden’s streak.

MIDGETS--After his Saturday night sprint car race, Shuman will return to Ascot Park Sunday night to drive in the United States Auto Club’s Jolly Rancher western states series. Shuman has won USAC’s traditional Turkey Night 100-lap midget grand prix six times in the last nine years on the same track. He will race Ron (Sleepy) Tripp of Costa Mesa, two-time national champion and western states champion three times in the last five years.

P. J. Jones, Parnelli’s son, will also be racing Saturday and Sunday nights at Ascot Park. Jones, after completing a 30-day suspension for rough driving in a midget race at Saugus, won last week’s USAC feature at Ventura Raceway over Tripp. Also on Sunday night’s program will be a three-quarter midget main event. . . . The USAC race scheduled Saturday night at Ventura has been canceled.

STOCK CARS--The Becker Family Challenge Monday night at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino will feature 70-year-old Chuck Becker, his three sons, Chuck Jr., Randy and Rick, plus grandsons J. R., Randy Jr. and Robbie in a 25-lap feature for $1,000, winner take all. Antique midget and sprint cars will also race.

Saugus Speedway will give hobby oval and Figure 8 drivers a Saturday night program of their own, instead of the usual on-again, off-again Friday night show, and follow it Monday night with a 150-lap factory enduro and a destruction derby. Ascot Park will also have a Monday night show with the Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series for pro stocks, plus a demolition derby.

Cajon Speedway in El Cajon will have sportsman and street bombers Saturday night, followed by a 150-lap factory enduro Monday night. . . . Street stocks and Figure 8s will run Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway. . . . The Coors Light Firecracker 50 will be run Friday night at Ventura Raceway. . . . The late-model program Saturday night at Santa Maria Raceway will be augmented by a California Dirt Car race featuring New Mexico champion Richard Griffin.

OFF-ROAD--Paul Simon, a Ford Ranger driver from Fallbrook, will continue his effort to become the first mini-truck driver to win the overall High Desert Racing Assn./SCORE championship when he competes Saturday in the 17th annual Soutars-Budweiser Fireworks 250 in the Mojave Desert south of Barstow. Simon won consecutive races in the Nissan Mint 400 and the Presidente Baja Internacional to take the lead from Nissan driver Spencer Low in the stock mini-truck class.

Veteran desert racer Roger Mears will be in the modified mini-truck class in the Fireworks 250, trying to catch standings leaders Larry Ragland, in a Chevy, and Manny Esquerra, in a Ford, and then will head for Pikes Peak, where he will debut his Nissan stadium truck in the hillclimb July 10. “It’s like driving around a card table at 100 m.p.h. and trying to hang on,” Mears said of the 12.5-mile course with its 156 curves and no guard rails.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--National champion Brad Oxley and former champion Bobby Schwartz will continue their season-long battle for the No. 1 spot in Southern California this week at Ascot Park, Orange County Fairgrounds, Speedway USA in Victorville and Inland Speedway in San Bernardino. Oxley has 3,743 points to 3,580 for Schwartz, who is more than 900 ahead of third-place Steve Lucero.

MOTORCYCLES--The Continental Motosports Club will hold its weekly motocross Friday night at Ascot Park. . . . An ATV motocross to benefit injured rider John Hemme of Lancaster will be held Saturday at Glen Helen OHV Park in San Bernardino. Hemme, who was leading the national points race at the time, suffered a broken back in a crash at Mt. Morris, Pa. . . . The Doublecross MC will sponsor a Paul Revere grand prix Sunday and Monday at Glen Helen Park with more than 400 entrants expected. . . . The Western Eastern Racing Assn. will hold a series of sprint races this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway along with a Suzuki National Cup race.

POWERBOATS--The Great American Jet Ski Challenge will be held Saturday and Sunday at Long Beach Marine Stadium with competition in slalom, freestyle and drag racing. World champion Jeff Jacobs and two-time former champion David Gordon are entered.