Motor Racing : In Long or Short Run, Ironman Is Difficult to Beat

Ivan Stewart no sooner completed 9 hours 34 minutes of racing a truck through the desert to win the Mint 400 last Saturday than he started preparing for his next major truck race.

It will be one of less than three miles--in the Rose Bowl May 6. Twelve laps over a 1,260-foot track.

“There’s a big difference, but in its own way, the stadium race is as tough as desert racing,” Stewart said.

“You have to do things to your truck that you learned all your career not to do in the desert, things like standing on the pedal no matter what obstacle you’re approaching, jerking the transmission around, not worrying about banging the wheels and flat-out abusing your machinery.

“In the desert, you try to go fast, sure, but you’re always conscious of caring for your equipment, of nursing it along to make sure you finish. It takes 15 minutes or so to get in the groove in a race like the Mint. In a stadium, it’s all over in 10 to 12 minutes. We run 12 laps in the main event and we get around a lap in less than a minute.

“The stadium truck is quicker and quite a bit more handful to drive. It’s a violent little thing. As soon as you stand on the pedal, it jumps up and really talks to you. The desert truck is not as agile, or responsive, but both are fun to drive.”

Stewart, 42, is equally successful in either type of racing.

He earned his nickname, Ironman, from his feats of driving solo in such endurance tests as the Mint 400 and the Baja 1,000, races in which two or three drivers usually share the wheel. In a career that began in dune buggys in 1973, Stewart has won in his class in nearly every long-distance race held in the southwestern United States and Baja California.

Four times he has been voted off-road racing’s driver of the year.

Since the late Mickey Thompson founded stadium off-road racing in 1983, Stewart has won two truck championships and finished second three times. And he has led Toyota to an unprecedented six consecutive manufacturer’s championships.

Stewart has not won a Mickey Thompson stadium race yet this year, but he is second in points to his youthful Toyota teammate, Robby Gordon, who has won three of the five races this year and finished first in another but was penalized back to third place for rough driving.

“Robby is an extremely good driver who is going to go a long, long way in motor sports,” Stewart praised.

“He is very aggressive, and that’s what it takes, but you must be careful, too. There is a fine line between being aggressive and rough driving, and sometimes it’s hard to know the difference.”

Stewart has never won at the Rose Bowl but said: “There’s a first time for everything. Winning overall at the Mint was a first. Why not the Rose Bowl, too?”

Stewart’s last won a stadium race in the season finale last year, in Las Vegas’ Silver Bowl.

“It was the important one, the one where we passed Mazda to win the championship again,” Stewart said. “We’d been behind them all year, but when we finished 1-2 (Steve Millen was second) we wrapped it up.”

In the desert, Stewart had won various truck classes four times in the Mint 400, but last Saturday’s win was his first overall in what is called “the world’s richest and roughest off-road race.” Stewart drove his six-cylinder Toyota desert truck in Class 1, racing against the light and nimble unlimited single-seater race cars.

“We tried to beat the fast guys in our Class 7 (mini-pickup) truck and win overall, but we couldn’t quite do it so Cal Wells built a truck with that mind, and we did it,” he said. “I think it makes a strong statement for Toyota, that we beat everybody.”

Wells owns and builds all the off-road trucks, both desert and stadium, for Toyota in his shop in Westminster.

“I think our success all boils down to dedication on the part of Cal Wells and the whole team,” Stewart said. “Cal runs the operation, and a driver couldn’t ask for more than we get from him. I just show up and drive, and that’s the way I like it.

“In races like the Mint, Cal flies above the race in his plane, sometimes with my wife as his passenger, and checks on how I’m doing. He watches every move and if something goes wrong, he gets on the radio and tells the pit crew what to expect.”

Wells had an uneventful day last Saturday as Stewart’s truck ran the four 105-mile laps with virtually no problems--except for the dust.

“When you have nearly 400 vehicles start, and the loop is 105 miles, that means you have a vehicle nearly every quarter-mile, and each one kicks up a dust cloud half a mile long,” Stewart said. “That, and the rock garden they talk about, made this year’s Mint as rough a race as I’ve ever driven, but it was the dust that was horrendous.”

The race was close until the last checkpoint on the last lap. Stewart arrived with a flat tire. Frank Arciero Jr., driving an unlimited two-seater with Wells’ father as his passenger, came in at the same time, but when Arciero was ready to leave, his engine wouldn’t start.

“I gave them a push, but the engine wouldn’t turn over,” Stewart said. “It turned out their battery was dead. It would have been quite a finish. It’s funny, Frank is my teammate in stadium races and that morning the three of us had breakfast together. Then, 10 hours or so later, we pull into the last checkpoint at the same time.”

Stewart finished 24 minutes ahead of Arciero. The driving team of Arciero and Bob Gordon, Robby’s father, won the two-seat Class 2 title. Gordon drove the first two laps.

STOCK CARS--The NASCAR Southwest Tour will be at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino for the President’s Cup 100 Saturday night, and fans will be admitted free as part of the National Orange Show celebration. Dan Press, a two-time Saugus Speedway modified champion who has won the last two Southwest Tour events, and 1987 series champion Mike Chase, a three-time winner at Orange Show Speedway, are favored in the $21,700 main event--100 laps over the quarter-mile paved oval. Spectators will also be admitted free for Sunday night’s 150-lap enduro.

The Winston West series will open Saturday night with the Budweiser 200 at Madera Speedway, north of Fresno. Hershel McGriff, 61, is seeking to regain the championship he won in 1986. Four-time champion Roy Smith of Canada is defending series champion. . . . NASCAR sportsman, street stock ovals and Figure 8s will run Saturday night at Saugus Speedway, followed by a destruction derby.

Fans leaving Cajon Speedway last week thought Ed Hale had won his third consecutive Winston Racing Series sportsman main event, but later he was penalized a lap for unsafe driving and the win was given to Tobin Whitt. The same cast will be back at the three-eighths-mile paved oval Saturday night. . . . Pro stocks will run Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

The Meyer family of Orange County is beginning to dominate Ascot’s Sunday night NASCAR Winston Racing Series. Ron won his third pro stock main last week to close in on standings leaders Marcus Mallett and Don Wright Jr., and brother Bill Jr. took over the lead in the bomber division. And Tony Zaffino, driving Bill’s car, won his fourth Figure 8 start. They will all race again Sunday night.

MIDGETS--Ron (Sleepy) Tripp, who won 18 of 56 United States Auto Club Western States races at Ascot Park the last six seasons, has yet to win this year in the ESPN Caterpillar Thunder Series, but he won the feature at Porterville last Saturday night and will be looking for another checkered flag in this afternoon’s TV main event at Ascot. Rich Vogler, five-time national champion, will be after his third win in the series. Also part of the 5:30 p.m. program will be a TQ main event. . . . Both USAC full midgets and TQs will also be at Ventura Raceway on Saturday night.

SPRINT CARS--When Brad Noffsinger, two-time California Racing Assn. champion, won last week’s main event at Ascot Park, he became the seventh winner in nine races in the Parnelli Jones Firestone series. The CRA cast will make its final Ascot appearance for two weeks Saturday night before embarking on a seven-race tour of the Midwest.

DRAG RACING--The refurbished Bakersfield Raceway, formerly Famoso, will open this weekend with a National Hot Rod Assn. District 7 event in the Winston series. Qualifying Friday and Saturday will set the fields for Sunday’s eliminations in all professional categories.

Eric Reed Dowd, 26, in only his third year of competition, became the first black driver to reach an NHRA national event final round when he lost in the funny car finals to Mike Dunn in the Southern Nationals at Atlanta Raceway. Dowd eliminated Winston champion Kenny Bernstein and John Force to reach the finals.

INDY CARS--Geoff Brabham, International Motor Sports Assn. champion, has lost his ride in the Indy 500 in one of Pat Patrick’s Penske cars. When Emerson Fittipaldi, Patrick’s No. 1 driver, destroyed a new Penske during practice at Phoenix, it caused the team to cancel its plans to run a second car.

Bobby Unser, three-time Indy 500 winner, will drive the pace car, a Pontiac Trans Am, in the May 28 race. He will be the 10th former winner to handle the pace car chores. . . . The Long Beach Grand Prix will be shown Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on Channel 7, spotlighting the incident involving winner Al Unser Jr. and Mario Andretti.

SPORTS CARS--Formula Toyota Atlantic and Russell Pro Series races will be held Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.

MOTORCYCLES--Speedway racing is scheduled tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium, Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and Saturday night at Victorville. . . . CMC motocross riders will race Friday night at Ascot Park.