Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Phoenix Plays Host to Formula One Race

Formula One racing comes to the Southwest this week for the first time since 1983 in Long Beach when it plays in Phoenix, but considering the way Indy car racing is progressing, it may be superfluous.

Emerson Fittipaldi’s thrilling win in last Sunday’s 73rd Indianapolis 500 completed the foreign cycle that has permeated Indy car racing in recent years. Formula One once was the only opportunity for Americans to see how the Europeans and South Americans raced in top-of-the-line open-wheel cars, but now we see it all year.

Fittipaldi, the brilliant Brazilian who won two world F1 championships before joining the American Indy car circuit, was one of 13 foreign-born drivers among the 33 who competed last Sunday. And the number might have been 14 had the latest foreign entry from Alfa Romeo been ready. Its driver is Roberto Guerrero of Colombia and he and the new car are scheduled to race in two weeks at Detroit.

Only the driver had been the missing foreign factor in Indy cars. Chassis, engines, engineers and crew chiefs have mostly been imports on the Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit, plus the United States Auto Club-sanctioned Indy 500.

The Penske PC-18 that Fittipaldi and pole-sitter Rick Mears drove, was built in Poole, England, in a factory built originally to handle the Penske Formula One cars of the mid-70s. The chassis was designed by Nigel Bennett of England, who brought his ideas from the Formula One shops of Lola.

The Chevrolet engine, so named because that is where most of the financing comes from, was built in Brixworth, England, from the design of Englishman Mario Ilien, although some of its black-box electronic secrets come from the Delco plant in Goleta, Calif.

Since Long Beach traded in its Formula One contract for Indy cars in 1984, the only F1 race in the United States has been in Detroit. When Detroit had enough and made the same switch this year, Phoenix stepped into the breach.

Promoter Jack Long of Redondo Beach, one of the original Long Beach Grand Prix operators, has a five-year contract with the Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile, the Paris-based sanctioning body for Formula One, for the Phoenix race.

The big difference between Indy cars and Formula Ones is that Formula Ones race on road courses only, while Indy cars must run on ovals, too.

Fittipaldi, who claimed he finally felt like an Indy car driver when he qualified for the front row at last week’s 500, says he finds the Indy car circuit more challenging. He has driven Indy cars for five years after driving in Formula One for 11 seasons.

“I think a driver has to be much more versatile because of the variety of courses,” Fittipaldi said. “There are the big ovals, like Indianapolis and Michigan, and the short ovals like Milwaukee (where Indy cars run Sunday) and Phoenix, that are totally different from anything a Formula One driver sees.

“Indy is the greatest motor racing in the world, of that I’m sure. Every driver in the world would like to experience that. Winning is something extra special. Just being there is special.”

Formula One will have a different look this year at Phoenix than it did at Detroit--and not just because the Arizona desert has become the backdrop instead of the Detroit River.

Turbochargers, which are still used on Indy cars, have been banned. The switch to fuel-injected engines of 3.5-liter displacement was expected to take the edge away from the McLaren-Honda cars, but not much has changed.

After losing the first race, McLaren driver Ayrton Senna of Brazil won three in a row, climaxed by a pole-to-pole victory last Sunday in the Grand Prix of Mexico. Senna and teammate Alain Prost of France won 15 of 16 races last year in one of the most lopsided seasons in Grand Prix history.

Prost is the all-time Formula One winner with 35 checkered flags to 27 for Jackie Stewart.

Sunday’s United States Grand Prix will be over a 2.36-mile course laid out in downtown Phoenix. Practice and qualifying Friday and Saturday will determine the 26-car field for Sunday’s race.

OFF-ROAD--The annual Presidente SCORE Baja Internacional race Saturday will have a new site this year. Instead of starting and finishing in Ensenada, the race has been moved across the Baja peninsula to San Felipe to appease irate ranchers in the Ensenada route area. The new circuit will consist of three 130-mile loops spanning desert wasteland and foothills west of San Felipe.

Mark McMillen of Chula Vista will be seeking his seventh overall win in major Baja races in his Chenowth-Porsche. McMillen has won one Nacional and five Baja 1,000s overall, plus several other class wins.

Because of the necessity of making the Internacional a loop race, SCORE officials have banned motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.

SPRINT CARS--Ron Shuman, with wins last week at Hanford and Tucson, took a big step toward defense of his California Racing Assn. championship by moving from sixth to third place behind Jerry Meyer and former champion Brad Noffsinger. Meyer has 1,933 points to 1,762 for Noffsinger, who won Ascot’s Salute to Indy, and 1,734 for Shuman. The Parnelli Jones Firestone-sponsored series will resume Saturday night at Ascot Park.

Quin Epperly, the Gardena Valley Chamber of Commerce’s motor sports man of the year, will be feted during Antique Race Car and Oldtimers Night in conjunction with Saturday night’s CRA main event. Sam Hanks and Parnelli Jones, former Indy 500 winners with whom Epperly was associated as a car designer, and Rodger Ward, are expected to appear along with 40 vintage cars from the Western Racing Assn.

MIDGETS--The final race of the ESPN Caterpillar Thunder Series today at Ascot Park has attracted a stellar field that includes Rich Vogler, eighth-place finisher in last Sunday’s Indianapolis 500; Shuman, six-time winner of the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ascot; Sleepy Tripp, four-time United States Auto Club Western Regional champion; Robby Flock, current regional series points leader; and Wally Pankratz, winner of last week’s non-televised main event at Ascot. TQ midgets will also be on the program. . . . The USAC regional series--without TV--will also run Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway.

MOTORCYCLES--Nine British League speedway riders who originally came from Southern California, nine local riders and two Canadians will compete Saturday night in the Nissan American Speedway Final at Long Beach Veterans Stadium. Only four will advance to the next round leading to the World Championships Aug. 26 in Munich, West Germany.

Sam Ermolenko of Cypress, who won the American Final last year, and Shawn Moran of Apple Valley, leading rider in the British League this season, are favored. The leading Southern California rider is Billy Hamill of Monrovia.

Regular weekly speedway racing will continue this week, in addition to the American Finals.

The American Trials Assn. will hold a two-day trial Saturday and Sunday at Big Bear. . . . Grand Prix road racers will compete Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway in the Western Eastern Racing Assn.’s Formula USA Grand Prix series.

MOTOCROSS--If Jeff Stanton finishes 11th or better Saturday night in the Camel Supercross race in Oklahoma City, he will clinch the stadium championship before the 15-race series closes June 10 in the Coliseum. Stanton, from Sherwood, Mich., holds a 40-point lead over Honda teammate Guy Cooper of Stillwater, Okla.

POWERBOATS--The Ventura Channel Dash, third event of the Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing Assn., will start Saturday at 11 a.m. from Ventura Harbor Village. The charity race will aid more than 500 athletes of the Ventura County Special Olympics, according to Bob Nordskog, president of POPBRA.

Nordskog, 75, will be favored in his new 40-foot Powerboat Magazine Special, a V-hull, staggered-engine craft, in the 110-mile race to Santa Barbara and back. More than 30 offshore racers are expected to enter.

STOCK CARS--Ron Meyer, Ascot pro stock champion three of the last four years, and Don Wright Jr. will attempt to break their tie as leaders of the Curb Motorsports Winston Cup Series Sunday night at Ascot Park. They have 234 points each to 196 for Marcus Mallett and Chris Laney in the tightly bunched standings.

Defending sportsman champion Dave Phipps will be going for his third win Saturday night at Saugus Speedway in another Winston Racing Series competition. . . . Street stocks will run Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

DRAG RACING--Jet dragsters and alcohol funny cars will compete Saturday night at the L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale.

VINTAGE CARS--The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold yet another farewell to Riverside International Raceway this weekend on what is left of the famous racing facility.

INDY 500--For the first time since 1984, co-rookies of the year were named for last Sunday’s race. Bernard Jourdain of Mexico, who finished ninth, and Scott Pruett of Roseville, Calif., who finished 10th, were both honored.