Motor Racing : Mandel Delivers in Race Against the Stork

Mike Mandel roared through traffic, veering left, maneuvering right.

He sped past car after car. The speedometer flickered.

A heat race? Main event? The 24 Hours of Le Mans?

No. This purse was much greater. Mandel’s vehicular heroics were staged last Saturday night on the southbound 405 Freeway.

In the passenger seat was his wife Kelly. Their destination: Tarzana Regional Medical Center. Kelly Mandel, her contractions now three minutes apart, was about to give birth to the Arleta couple’s first child.

This was quite a trophy dash indeed.

“We drove very fast,” Mike said. “I don’t know how fast.”

Going into labor in the pits at Saugus Speedway usually involves taking a wrench to a ’67 Chevy. But with their child four days overdue, the expectant parents never considered staying home and practicing breathing exercises.

Mike, 27, a Street Stock division regular who doubles as the track’s tow truck driver, and Kelly, 26, who has competed in train-racing events, are Saugus regulars and track favorites.

“Everyone out there is like family,” said Kelly, who watches from the pits each week. “So, I knew if there was a problem the track guys would help me. It was always a joke between me and all our friends that I would probably give birth at Saugus.”

She almost did. Smack in the middle of the 20-lap Mini Stock main event, what Kelly first believed to be “false labor” soon proved to be no false alarm. Mike, stationed in the track’s infield behind the wheel of a tow truck, received a radio message that informed simply, “It’s time.”

Track officials waved a yellow flag on the race and the Mandels took the green flag and headed for the delivery room.

“The contractions were about three to five minutes apart,” Mike said.

Said Kelly: “I didn’t plan on going into labor at Saugus. Things started coming very quickly and consistently.”

Twenty five minutes later, they arrived at the hospital. At 1:37 a.m., Mike Mandel’s newest fan--and we’re not talking about his radiator--arrived: Marc Edward Mandel weighed in at a healthy seven pounds, 11 ounces.

“It was in the back of my head, but we didn’t expect it to happen,” Mike said. “I told her she can’t have the baby on a Saturday night, a race night. She didn’t listen. They both didn’t listen.”

Ake’s pains: Racing fans would not expect a name like Rock Ake to be synonymous with a pleasure cruise.

Well, last weekend at Ventura Raceway, it wasn’t. In fact, Ake, well, ached all over after caroming across the track all evening like a pinball.

“I had a rough night,” Ake said.

But because of the advanced technology of crash helmets and roll cages, Ake emerged, for the most part, unhurt. The same cannot be said for his Ford Pinto.

Trouble began for Ake, 27, a resident of Moorpark, during the Mini Stock trophy dash. His car slammed into the front straightaway wall, causing extensive front-end and body damage--and a 20-foot gash in the wall.

Said Ake: “I tore it up.”

Ake, however, made the necessary repairs in time to return to the track and finish sixth in a heat race.

Ake’s vehicle sustained more front-end damage after a brush with another car during the evening’s figure 8 main event. Again Ake made repairs in time to compete in the 20-lap oval main.

Five laps into that race, Ake again slammed into the wall, this time his car rolling over back onto the track.

“It was the first time I had ever rolled anything,” Ake said.

The damage included two flat tires, a bent roll cage, a loose rear bumper, steering problems and oil loss.

Remarkably, however, Ake returned to the race. The accident forced a red flag--a signal for every driver to stop immediately--and proceedings were further delayed for 30 minutes while track officials rushed to aid an ailing spectator.

The extra 20 minutes gave Ake the necessary time to make repairs. He returned to the race and finished fourth.

Said Ake: “I had more bad luck that night than I’ve had the whole year.”

Recourse: Ake also has rallied in the season points standings and now trails leader Gary Curtis of Camarillo by 95 points. But that’s partly because Curtis refused to compete for two weeks after an Aug. 4 dispute with track officials.

Curtis, 24, with a 210-point lead over Ake, left in a huff after being stripped of a main-event win because of a driving violation.

“He had his feelings hurt and he was a little unhappy, and he felt like the officials were picking on him,” track manager Cliff Morgan said.

Said Curtis: “I told them what they could do with their track. I got in an argument with everybody out there. I got so mad. I told them they could take their track and stick it.”

Curtis, however, has reconsidered and says that he will stick with racing. At least, he will return for tonight’s program.

“It’s my niece’s birthday and my parents wanted me to race,” Curtis said.

Back on track for good, Gary?

“I’d like to come back and race,” he said. “But it depends. It seems like the officials only see what they want to see.”

Fast Times at Ventura Raceway: The dirt track at Ventura has been enlarged from a one-fifth-mile oval to a quarter-mile oval. But it’s all the same to Charles Utts of Camarillo.

Utts, 28, the track’s Street Stock division points leader, established a track record this season on the one-fifth-mile oval with a one-lap qualifying time of 16.37 seconds.

Shortly after last month’s Ventura County Fair, the track was enlarged. And last week, Utts orbited the track in 16.91 seconds, establishing a track record on the new course.

For good measure, Utts went on to win the 15-lap oval main event--his division-high sixth victory of the season.

Driving for dollars: At least 24 drivers are in the running for Saugus Speedway’s inaugural Sportsman division Clash for Cash, which will begin Saturday night and conclude Sept. 23.

No points will be earned toward the season points race. And not everyone is eligible. The only award, or re -ward, is cold, hard cash.

The program will culminate with a 20-lap, 15-car main event featuring the top drivers in the track’s Sportsman division. The winner will pocket $1,000. Second place is good for $500. Third, fourth and fifth place will earn $250, $150 and $100.

Winners of main events this season already have qualified. They include: Gary Ebeling of Monrovia, Will Harper of Tarzana, Rod Johnson of Canyon Country, Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, Dave Phipps of Simi Valley, Keith Spangler of Northridge and John Watkinson III of Canyon Country.

Also eligible are drivers who posted a top qualifying mark for the season: Gary Sigman of Carson, Rusty Parr of Newhall, Dave Scheidecker of San Bernardino and Bobby Oliver of Granada Hills.

The remaining four entries will be the top four finishers in Saturday night’s 20-lap main event, which will feature the track’s 13 Hard Charger award winners. The Hard Charger award is presented to the driver who advances his position the furthest in the 40-lap main event.