Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Rip Is Roaring in Bid to Overtake Meyer

Rip Williams of Yorba Linda may not have been born to race, but he certainly got a taste of it early. Rip--that’s his given name--was five days old when his racing parents, Bob and Idella, took him to watch his father drive a micro-midget at the old El Toro Speedway.

His mother also drove in powder-puff races, but not that night.

Williams, 34, didn’t do quite as well by his son, Cody Rip, who was born July 2. Cody Rip was six days old when mother Becky took him to Ascot Park to see his father race a sprint car.

For reasons that little Cody Rip had nothing to do with, that night was his father’s poorest race of the California Racing Assn. season. He was caught up in an accident caused by Brad Noffsinger’s blown tire and finished 10th.

In the last 14 races, that was the only time Williams failed to finish in the top three, a remarkable record of consistency that has him sharing second place with defending CRA champion Ron Shuman of Mesa, Ariz., in the Parnelli Jones Firestone series, 93 points behind leader Jerry Meyer of Chino.

Although Williams is the No. 1 driver for former CRA champion Billy Wilkerson of Temple City, his hot streak started in a borrowed car in Arizona last May.

Wilkerson felt the schedule too demanding when it called for races in Hanford, Ascot, Tucson and Phoenix on successive nights over the Memorial Day holiday and decided not to enter his car in the Arizona races. Williams, left without a ride, bummed one from Frank Lewis, whose regular driver, Lealand McSpadden, was out with a broken collarbone.

“That turned out to be just the break I needed,” Williams said. “In Tucson, I led 18 laps and finished second and went to Phoenix feeling great. McSpadden, who lives in nearby Tempe and knows Manzanita Speedway better than probably anyone, set the car up for me and turned me loose and we won.”

It was Williams’ first win in more than a year, although he had 10 victories dating back to 1978, when he was co-rookie of the year with Ric Paronelli.

“The next week I was back in the Wilkerson car, but I used the same basic setup that McSpadden had given me and all we’ve done is fine-tune it from there,” he said.

When Williams won again at Ascot on June 10, it was Wilkerson’s first CRA win as a car owner. He won the driving championship in 1967 and 1970.

Williams won his third main event last Friday night at Kings Speedway in Hanford and will be seeking to stretch his high-finish streak Saturday night when the CRA returns to Ascot Park for a 30-lap main event.

Before he began racing, Williams was better known as a football player. He shared tailback duties with Myron White one season at Santa Ana Valley High and then played at Garden Grove High as a 5-foot-7, 142-pound running back.

McSpadden isn’t the only sprint car legend helping Williams in his quest of his first championship. He and Bubby Jones, one of the sport’s winningest drivers and CRA champion in 1983 and 1984, are married to sisters.

Williams’ boss, Larry Henry, owned one of the first cars Jones drove, back in Danville, Ill., Jones’ hometown. During the day, Williams tests and inspects underground storage tanks for leaks.

“Bubby’s taught me a lot,” Williams said. “He gives me different things to think about, especially about how tracks change. And it helps, too, having a former driver for a car owner because anybody’s who been there, like Billy has, can surely help me.

“The way I look at it, any one of four of us--me, Jerry (Meyer), Brad (Noffsinger) or Shoe (Shuman)--could be ahead when it’s all over.”

Twenty-one races remain in the season, which will end Nov. 18.

SPORTS CARS--The International Motor Sports Assn. ruled Wednesday that Price Cobb won Sunday’s G.I. Joe’s Camel Grand Prix because he was leading when the starter mistakenly waved the checkered flag three laps too soon. Cobb, driving a Jaguar, was passed by Geoff Brabham, in a Nissan, when both continued to race, but Jaguar filed a protest, claiming the checkered flag meant the race was over, and it was upheld by Cameron Argetsinger, acting race director.

STOCK CARS--Defending Winston West series champion Roy Smith of Canada will continue his quest of a fifth championship Saturday night at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway when NASCAR’s top-of-the-line cars race in the American National Bank 200. Smith won both Mesa Marin races last year and after seven of 11 races this year trails Bill Schmitt of Redding by only 1,150 points to 1,144.

Southwest Tour drivers will compete Friday night at Mesa Marin in a 100-lap race on the banked half-mile oval. Mike Chase, a hometown Bakersfield driver, holds the track record of 81.670 m.p.h., and has won two races there this year. He is also coming off a win last week at Eureka.

The Mac Tools 100, final race of a three-race round-robin series among drivers from Saugus, Cajon and Orange Show Speedways, will be held Saturday night at El Cajon. Local favorites include Tobin Whitt, Ed Hale and Larry Lyon. . . . Pro stocks and street stocks will be featured Sunday night at Ascot, Saturday night at Saugus and Orange Show, and Friday night at Ventura.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino will be the site of a qualifying round for the United States championship next Wednesday. Following that, qualifying races will be run at Victorville Aug. 19, Ascot Sept. 7 and Costa Mesa Sept. 8 to set the field for the nationals Oct. 7 at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Greg Hancock of Costa Mesa, who has been riding in the British League this season, has returned home for a week and will ride tonight at Ascot’s South Bay Stadium and Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

POWERBOATS--The Crimson Tide, a 30-foot catamaran owned and driven by Jim Duvall of Long Beach, will be looking for its fourth straight win in a Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing Assn. race Saturday off Santa Cruz.

MOTOCROSS--Three Southern California riders, Rick Johnson and Ron Lechien of El Cajon and Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo have been named to the Motocross des Nations team to represent the U.S. in the World Championships Sept. 10 in Gaidorf, West Germany. The fourth member is Jeff Stanton, newly-crowned Supercross and national 250cc champion, from Sherwood, Mich. The U.S. has won eight straight times, with Lechien, on a Kawasaki, the individual winner last year.

Round 6 of the Continental Motosport Club’s Dodge Truck California Summer Series will be held Sunday in San Diego County at the Barona Oaks track near Ramona. . . . CMC riders will also race Friday night at Ascot Park.

OFF-ROAD--The SCORE Off Road closed course championship races, which have been held since 1973 at now-closed Riverside International Raceway, will not be held this year. The 1989 races, scheduled for Sept. 8-10 at Phoenix International Raceway, have been rescheduled for May 11-13, 1990, to give track operators more time to prepare for the event.

The Fudpucker racing team will put on the Budweiser Superstition 250 on Saturday, starting at the Ancient Dry Lakebed near Plaster City, west of El Centro.

NECROLOGY--Services for Bill Likes, 72, longtime dry lake, midget and stock car racing mechanic, will be held Monday at 11 a.m. in the Manchester Chapel, Inglewood Park Cemetery. Likes, a lifetime resident of Los Angeles, died of a heart attack.