Motor Racing : International Motorcyclists at Long Beach

The newest world champion, Eric Gundersen of Denmark, will make his first start as the new titleholder in Saturday night’s World Team Cup speedway motorcycle competition at Long Beach Veterans Stadium.

In a meet that matches the top four national teams after a series of qualifying events, Gundersen and his powerful Danish squad will be seeking its sixth straight championship against teams from the United States, Great Britain and Sweden.

Joining Gundersen Saturday night will be Hans Nielsen, the man he beat in a 4-lap runoff for the title last Saturday night before 35,000 fans in Vojens, Denmark. The loss ended Nielsen’s two-year reign as world champion. Another Dane, fast-rising Jan O. Pedersen, finished third, making it the first time a country has swept the top three spots since Sweden did it in 1961.

Veteran Tommy Knudsen is the other member of the Danish team, with John Joergensen the reserve.

“It was a tremendous boost for Denmark to finish 1-2-3 in the championship going into the World Team Cup,” Gundersen said. “The American riders will be tough at Long Beach, but we are super confident we can win again.”

Among Denmark’s five team titles is a two-point decision over the United States at Long Beach in 1985. The U.S. team also was the last to beat the Danes, winning the four-nation competition in 1982.

“When you consider that Tommy Knudsen was the leading scorer in 1985 and that Nielsen’s track record of 1:10.15 set the same year has never been approached, you get an idea of how strong Denmark’s team really is,” said promoter Harry Oxley.

Leading the American team will be Sam Ermolenko, who finished fourth in the World Championships, behind the three Danes.

American team captain Shawn Moran has been tuning up on the Southern California tracks this week and has vowed to end the Danes’ supremacy.

“It’s going to be difficult to beat the Danes but I think we can upset them in front of our fans,” Moran said. “I’d like to see everyone in attendance bring an American flag to cheer the boys on. We need all the support we can get.”

The rest of the U.S. team is made up of Shawn’s brother Kelly Moran, Lance King and Rick Miller as the reserve.

Simon Wigg, Simon Cross, Kelvin Tatum, Chris Morton and Gary Havelock will represent Great Britain, and Per Jonsson, Conny Ivarsson, Tony Olsson, Jimmy Milsen and Hendrick Gustafsson make up the Swedish team.

The competition is made up of 20 separate 4-lap races on the 400-meter banked dirt track, with one rider from each team in each heat.

The event is climaxed by the final race, which will pit the top scorers from each team. Points are awarded 3-2-1-0, according to finish position in each race.

In case of ties, runoffs will be held to determine first, second and third places.

MOTORCYCLES--Three members of the American speedway team, Shawn and Kelly Moran and Lance King, will compete tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Speedway, where they will take on Bobby Schwartz, the all-time Ascot winner with 30 victories, and England’s Phil Collins, winner of last week’s scratch main. . . . Schwartz will also compete against Brad Oxley, Alan Christian, Dubb Ferrell and others in Friday night’s racing at Costa Mesa. . . . Motocross racers of the Continental Motocross Club will compete in their regular Friday night program at Ascot Park and then will move to Glen Helen OHV Park in San Bernardino Sunday for the opening race of the Dodge Trucks Trans Cal fall series.

POWERBOATS--Bob Nordskog of Van Nuys will attempt to add another offshore victory to his total Saturday when he competes in the Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing Assn.’s third annual “Race to Save the Historic Ships” in and out of San Francisco Bay. The 140.28-mile race dedicated to San Francisco’s unique Maritime Museum in a non-prize money event that starts and ends at Pier 39.

For most 75-year-olds that would be plenty for one weekend. But not for Nordskog.

On Sunday he plans to attempt to better his record of 7 hours 2 minutes 39 seconds for a run from Pier 39 in San Francisco to Marina del Rey. He will drive his 38-foot Scarab in Saturday’s race and a 39-foot Cigarette in his record attempt.

“It all depends on the weather,” Nordskog said. “If we get good weather and conditions, a run of just over six hours is very possible. When I made a run from the Queen Mary to San Francisco, I did it in 6 hours 49 minutes and it’s quite a bit farther, so I believe somewhere near six hours is possible if conditions permit.”

Closer to home, the International Hot Boat Assn. will hold the 9th of 11 IHBA events Saturday and Sunday at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas. A pair of close races in the two fastest classes for season championships will highlight the meet. Ron Braaksma, owner and driver of Madness, leads Tom Black’s Final Effort in top-fuel hydro and John Decker in Kyee’s Aluminum Express has the lead over Tim Capaldi in Shot in the Dark in the blown alcohol hydro class.

STOCK CARS--For the second week in a row, the NASCAR Southwest Tour competitors will be in the Southland, Saturday night at the third-mile Saugus Speedway for a 100-lap main event with former Saugus champion Roman Calczynski holding a six-point lead over runner-up Troy Beebe of Modesto, 2,219-2,213. Defending champion Mike Chase of Bakersfield, winner of last Saturday’s 100-lapper at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway, is in third, with rookies Ken Pederson of Sausalito fourth and another Saugus champion, Ron Hornaday Jr., fifth.

If Chase is to win his second in a row, the drivers he’ll have to beat figure to be Calczynski, who has won the last two Saugus tour races, and Dan Press, a two-time Saugus champion who has won more than 60 races on the third-mile oval. Also on the program will be street stock oval and Figure 8 racing. There will be no Friday night racing at Saugus this week.

Orange Show Speedway will feature a 100-lap race for NASCAR sportsman cars Saturday night that is expected to draw drivers from Saugus, Ascot Park and Mesa Marin to battle the local drivers headed by Dave Scheidecker of Rialto and Dean Huss Jr. of Bloomington for the $13,000 purse. . . . El Cajon Speedway will feature a 50-lap sportsman race Saturday night. Also racing will be street, pony and bomber cars. Hobby and mini stocks race Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

SPRINT CARS--Lealand McSpadden of Tempe, Ariz., will try to stretch his winning streak to six Saturday night when he challenges Arizona neighbor Ron Shuman and Carson’s Mike Sweeney in the Parnelli Jones Firestone/California Racing Assn. series.

McSpadden was perfect over the Labor Day weekend, winning the 50-lapper at Ascot and then taking the main event at Manzanita Speedway, his home track, in Phoenix. Shuman finished second at Manzanita but still lost some of his standings lead over Sweeney when he finished 15th Saturday at Ascot. Sweeney, who was penalized from first to third for passing a lapped car in the infield, wound up third Saturday night and finished fourth on Sunday to trim Shuman’s advantage to 55 points, 2,996 to 2,941.

MIDGET CARS--P.J. Jones and Sleepy Tripp will renew their battle in the United States Auto Club’s Western States series at Ventura Raceway on Saturday night and then at Ascot Park on Sunday evening. In last week’s Arizona swing, Tripp won his 14th feature at Raven Raceway in Tucson, and Jones took his fourth of the year at Firebird Raceway in Chandler. . . . For Sunday’s Ascot program they will be joined by sprint car veterans Ron Shuman and Chuck Gurney. The three-quarter midgets of USAC will also compete on both programs.

OFF-ROAD RACING--More than 200 off-road cars and trucks will compete in the inaugural Nevada 500 Saturday. The event, staged by the High Desert Racing Assn., is the seventh of eight stops in the HDRA/SCORE series. Starting at 7 a.m., the field, led by off-road veterans Steve and Bob Martin of Orange County, will take off from Bob Ruud Memorial Speedway in Pahrump, Nev., about 50 miles west of Las Vegas. The course will take the field 450 miles to Tonopah in Central Nevada and back to the speedway. Among the stops are the historic mining towns of Beatty, Silver Peak and Goldfield.