Motor Racing / Pat Ray : Top Drivers Get Competition in Sprint Car Series

For most of the season, only three drivers--Ron Shuman, Lealand McSpadden and Mike Sweeney--were able to win at Ascot Park in the Parnelli Jones Firestone/California Racing Assn. sprint car series, but suddenly there appears to be a host of drivers to challenge them.

John Redican of Sepulveda was the first to break the monopoly three weeks ago, and he was followed a week later by Walt Kennedy, who became the first driver to win in a Ford-powered car.

Then, in last weekend’s two-night program at Baylands Raceway Park in Fremont, two more challengers suddenly appeared. They are Eddie Wirth of Hermosa Beach and Jerry Meyer of Brea, no strangers to the Ascot half-mile dirt oval.

Wirth, who had been on an extended leave of absence from CRA racing while plying his regular trade as a movie technician on the East Coast, returned to the ranks last weekend and turned in third- and fifth-place finishes in a new Jack Gardner Shrike machine.

Meyer, who stands third in the CRA standings behind Shuman and Sweeney, took over the ride in Bruce Bromme’s car and turned in the fast time Saturday night. He was the second-fastest qualifier on Sunday and finished a solid fourth behind Brent Kaeding, a Northern Californian who won his second CRA race in as many tries this season. Despite his high berth in the standings, Meyer is still winless this year.

On Saturday, Wirth, the 1985 CRA champion and the holder of Ascot’s one-lap record for non-winged sprinters at 96.092 m.p.h. (18.732 seconds), set in 1983, will be looking for his second Ascot win this season and the 31st main event victory of his career. He took the checkered flag on April 2 before heading east for his movie assignment.

Shuman, who has moved to a 106-point lead over Sweeney in the standings, recorded his 10th victory last Saturday night at Fremont, taking the lead with a daring move from third to first. McSpadden, who is not running for the championship, finished second both nights, and Sweeney settled for a sixth and an eighth.

STOCK CARS--Roman Calczynski, Troy Beebe and Mike Chase will continue their tight battle for the season championship in the NASCAR Southwest Tour series Saturday night at Cajon Speedway. Going into the 100-lap event on the 3/8-mile paved oval, Calczynski leads Beebe by 12 points, with Chase, the defending series champion, 41 behind Beebe. In the 16 races run so far this year, 11 drivers have won. Also on Saturday night’s program is an open-competition event for street stocks.

Saugus Speedway’s Saturday night racing will feature a 150-lap factory stock enduro race along with a destruction derby. As many as 100 cars are expected to start the event, which is open to any stock American sedan, 1960 or newer, with a maximum wheel base of 108 inches. . . . Hobby and mini stocks will race Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

OFF-ROAD RACING--A brother-vs.-brother battle for championship honors will highlight Saturday night’s action as Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road Gran Prix concludes its eight-race series at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas. Steve and Rod Millen, former rally champions from New Zealand who now make their home in Southern California, are the key figures in the standings for both individual driver honors and the manufacturers’ cup in the featured grand sport truck class.

Toyota driver Steve, 38, holds a 12-point edge over Mazda driver Rod, 37, in the battle for the driving championship. But Rod and teammates Glenn Harris and Jeff Huber have a 22-point edge over Steve and his teammate, Ivan Stewart, in the manufacturers’ race. Also up for grabs are class championships in the Unlimited Super 1600 buggies and Stadium Super Lites. Other classes competing include Ultrastock, UltraCross and four-wheel ATV.

MIDGET CARS--Having proven once again that he can defeat Ron (Sleepy) Tripp of Costa Mesa, the United States Auto Club’s Western States series leader, P.J. Jones of Rolling Hills, will try once again to score his first victory at Ascot Park when both the full midgets and three-quarter class of USAC combine for a doubleheader Sunday night. Jones led all the way last Saturday night and defeated Tripp in the 30-lap main event at Tulare for his fifth victory of the year. Now he will try to do it at Ascot, where Tripp has scored 6 of his 17 victories this season. Also scheduled to compete is CRA sprint car leader Ron Shuman.

In the three-quarter class, defending champion Dennis Hart and Gary Schroeder will continue their battle for the 1988 championship. Hart holds a 572-551 edge, and Ricky Gray is third at 447.

MOTORCYCLES--Bubba Shobert of Carmel Valley, Calif., who has already wrapped up the Camel Pro Series title, will try to win the Superbike championship as well in Sunday’s final race of the series at Sears Point International Raceway at Sonoma. Shobert and his Honda lead runner-up Doug Polen of Suzuki, 105-97, and can wrap up the title by finishing third or better in the finale on the 2.52-mile road course.

Continental Motorsports Club riders will have a busy schedule this weekend. On Friday night, they compete in the regular weekly races at Ascot Park. Then they will travel to Chowchilla in Central California for a two-night program that is part of the TransCal fall series.

More than 400 riders are expected to compete Sunday in the 29th running of the Hopetown Gran Prix at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino. The races, sponsored by the Dirt Diggers Motorcycle Club, will be held on the Glen Helen 3-mile motocross and off-road course. Racing begins at 8 a.m., with the last race scheduled for 3 p.m.

In speedway competition, Bobby Schwartz, the leading rider by a wide margin in the four years of racing at Ascot Park’s South Bay Speedway, will shoot for his first track championship in tonight’s season finale. Closest to Schwartz this year in scratch average is England’s Phil Collins, who has competed this season in Southern California.

Collins does very well in the championship-style program, which will feature the top 16 riders who have appeared in eight or more races at South Bay this year, riding in 20 4-lap heats. Other leading entries are Steve Lucero of Riverside, last week’s scratch winner; U.S. champion Brad Oxley of San Clemente and Bart Bast of Auburn.

Friday night, the Orange County Fairgrounds will have a regular program and the annual “Legends of Speedway” program that features speedway stars from yesteryear. Among the legends who will attend the track’s regular-season wrap-up are former world champion Bruce Penhall, Rick Woods, Danny Becker, Sonny Nutter, Bill Cody and Dennis Sigalos. Next Saturday night, the U.S. Nationals will be held on the Costa Mesa track.