IMSA Grand Prix of Southern California : Old Rivals Ribbs, Pruett Will Start Side by Side

As Willy T. Ribbs and Scott Pruett sat next to one another in the interview room, one might have thought they were the best of friends.

As the fastest qualifiers, they’ll line up in the front row of today’s GTO race at the Camel Grand Prix of Southern California, an appropriate conclusion to the most spirited personal rivalry in that subculture series of auto racing.

“Frazier and Ali couldn’t have done it any better,” Ribbs said, joking.

Next year, Pruett, the 28-year-old GTO champion from Roseville, Calif., will switch to the coveted Indy car Truesports ride vacated by Bobby Rahal, and Ribbs, 29, of San Jose, will move up to the GTP class in International Motor Sports Assn. competition.

“Scott’s had everything handed to him on a silver platter,” Ribbs has been quoted as saying.

Four times in the last 4 years, Pruett and Ribbs have been involved in racing incidents that earned one or both fines, suspensions or probation. Apparently, each has been at fault twice, making this, potentially, the rubber match.

After a race at Portland, Ore., last year, TV announcer Bruce Jenner was driving Pruett and his girlfriend away from the track when they came upon Ribbs, walking. According to witnesses, Ribbs reached into the car across Jenner trying to punch Pruett but struck his girlfriend, instead.

Friday, both downplayed that and other incidents.

“Things happen too fast out there to plan anything like that,” Pruett said.

But one thing is different this time. Ribbs, turning a lap of the slick 1.62-mile track at 77.033 m.p.h., broke the Jack Roush team’s monopoly on poles for the first time in the 12 GTO races this season.

Pruett, winner of 6 poles and 2 races in his Mercury Merkur XR4Ti, clocked 76.486. Teammate Pete Halsmer, winner of 5 poles, was next at 75.377 but will have to defend that position in final trials this morning. Only the first two spots are locked in.

Virtually all of the drivers complained about the track being too slippery, although Englishman Martin Brundle complained least after he and Jaguar teammate Jan Lammers had led the featured GTP pack with top practice laps of 83.004 and 82.687.

That bettered the efforts of GTP champion Geoff Brabham, whose Nissan led the first two sessions at 81.787 in an early morning run until the Jags moved ahead in the final afternoon round.

Brundle said: “There’s not a lot of grip, but this is normal for a street course. I like the track a lot. It’s a technical challenge.”

Ribbs, driving a Toyota Celica, said: “The track is difficult. In fact, I think it’s the most difficult track known to man. It’s probably in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records.’ It’s a tight course and it’s difficult to pass another car. It’s so tight that you need Vaseline to get through.”

Event organizer Chris Pook’s reaction? “Drivers always complain about the track.”

But when speeds got slower as the day progressed--except for the Jaguars--and it became evident that there really was a problem, Pook said, “We are concerned.”

The top speeds Friday were well off those of last year’s inaugural event, when the track’s configuration was virtually the same. Chip Robinson was the fastest GTP qualifier last year at 90.213 m.p.h., and Jack Baldwin led the GTOs at 82.603.

Derek Daly of Ireland, driving the second Nissan GTP, said: “I’ve driven in the rain and had more grip than this. We have wheelspin in 3rd gear on the straightaways.”

Greg Pickett of Alamo, Calif., driving a GTO Corvette, was among the first to peg the problem when he said, “It feels like it was sealed with some oily substance.”

In fact, a sealant was applied to the track 3 weeks ago, but Pook said: “We sealed this racing surface with exactly the same sealer we have used at Long Beach for the past 14 years. We are somewhat mystified that the track appears slippery. The engineers tell us there shouldn’t be any difference.”

Apparently, the sealer is seeping back up to the surface, where the cars’ tires pick it up as a greasy glaze within a couple of laps.

Nobody seemed to have an immediate solution, but Pook said, “The conditions are the same for every single competitor.”

Earlier, Pruett had talked about his Indy car assignment, in light of comments by Brabham that, as an Australian, he would have gotten the ride if Truesports’ major sponsor, Budweiser, had not preferred an American driver.

“I don’t know the exact politics of why I got the ride and he didn’t,” Pruett said. “The bottom line is, if (team manager) Steve (Horne) didn’t think I could do the job, I wouldn’t have the ride.”

Despite what Ribbs also may think, Pruett has earned his shot by winning 4 driving championships in the last 3 years.

Stepping into one of the better Indy car rides, he said: “I’m in a fabulous position for a rookie. If there was a team for me to go with, that was the best one because of their testing schedule. I’ll be on the (Indianapolis) track quite a bit before the race.”

Is he awed by the prospect of running in the 500 next May?

“A lot. This is the big time.”

Whether Al Holbert’s Porsche IMSA campaign will continue without him remains unsettled.

Holbert, 41, was killed Sept. 30 when the private plane he was flying crashed on takeoff from Don Scott Airport at Columbus, Ohio, site of the previous IMSA event.

He was director of Porsche Motorsport North America and owned the Porsche 962 prototypes being driven in the GTP series by Chip Robinson and Derek Bell. Robinson and Bell, running 8th and 10th in the standings, were withdrawn from the Columbus event and came to Del Mar just to watch.

Holbert was the IMSA Camel GT leader in victories with 49 but had curtailed his own racing the last 2 years to develop the Porsche factory’s Indy car program. Derrick Walker left Roger Penske’s team to take over the latter operation, but speculation is that Holbert’s family will sell his IMSA operation--possibly to Bell.

Bell’s 20-year-old son Justin, incidentally, will make his West Coast debut here in the Barber-Saab event for open-wheeled, 2-liter cars late Sunday afternoon. He was fastest in practice Friday 74.457 m.p.h.

Bob Carlson of Porsche Cars North America issued a statement Friday that Porsche Motorsport North America will continue to operate as normal, with assistant director Peter Schmitz assuming Holbert’s position. But that didn’t clarify the Holbert team’s future IMSA involvement.

It seems unlikely that the operation will be dissolved, since Holbert recently had signed another 3-year sponsorship agreement with the Miller Brewing Co.

Another rumor had Penske buying the operation. Penske already has a connection with Miller, which sponsors Danny Sullivan’s Indy car.

IMSA Notes

UCLA senior Tom Kendall, 22, of La Canada, won the pole for Sunday’s GTU race with a speed of 75.753 m.p.h. He is the 3-time series champion. . . . Chevy Beretta teammate Max Jones, at 73.914, will start alongside him. The other spots will be determined today.