MOTOR RACING : Wingless Shuman Favored to Win Sprint, Midget Titles at Ascot Park

For the first time since 1985, the Pacific Coast Nationals for sprint and midget cars this weekend at Ascot Park will be a non-winged show, all on the half-mile dirt oval.

The World of Outlaws, with their winged sprinters, have dominated the Nationals the last four years, but this year the program will include only California Racing Assn. sprint cars and United States Auto Club midgets.

Ron Shuman, the Tempe, Ariz., veteran who recently regained the lead in quest of a second consecutive CRA championship, will be a favorite in both races.

Shuman will be after his fourth Pacific Coast Nationals win in a wingless sprint car in Saturday night’s 50-lap main event. He won in 1976, 1977 and 1983.

A win would also pad his lead, with only three races remaining, in the Parnelli Jones Firestone-sponsored series. Shuman has an 18-point lead over Rip Williams of Yorba Linda, with Jerry Meyer of Chino, who led for most of the season, trailing by 34 points.

Shuman has already won two 50-lap CRA main events this season.

He will be challenged in the sprint car finale Saturday night by USAC champion Rich Vogler of Indianapolis and USAC Silver Crown dirt track champion Chuck Gurney of Livermore, Calif., as well as the CRA regulars.

The midgets of the Jolly Ranchers Western States series will have a 20-lap feature Friday night and a 30-lapper Saturday night. There will also be sprint car qualifying Friday night.

In midgets, Shuman has won six Thanksgiving Turkey Night races in the last 10 years at Ascot and finished third last year behind Gurney and Vogler.

Vogler will also be in the midget field, as will Indy 500 veterans Stan Fox of Janesville, Wis., and Billy Vukovich III of Fresno, and former USAC champions Kevin Olson of Rockford, Ill., and Ron (Sleepy) Tripp of Costa Mesa.

Tripp will be trying to overtake Robby Flock of City of Industry as the midget series draws to a close. Flock, a former Western States champion, has a 55-point lead over defending champion Tripp. Also returning to the midget wars after a suspension for rough driving will be P. J. Jones, eldest son of the series sponsor.

Willow Springs Raceway, 90 miles north of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert, will be the site of the final Machinists Union American IndyCar series races this weekend.

Robby Unser of Albuquerque, N. M., 21-year-old son of three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, has won 11 of the 14 races and will be favored to bring his Lola-Chevrolet home in front on the 2.5-mile road course. In the AIS series, two championship-points races are customarily run on race day. Qualifying will be on Saturday.

Bill Tempero, the series founder and former champion, will be looking for his first 1989 win in the final two races. Tempero, of Ft. Collins, Colo., drives a March-Chevrolet.

Another interesting entry is that of Bill Scott, of Wheeling, Ill., who drives a March-Chevrolet fueled by corn-based ethanol. Other cars run on methanol, the fuel commonly used in other forms of Indy car racing.

AIS cars are the same Lola, March and Penske chassis that run in Indy car races, but they are powered by stock block engines similar to those used in NASCAR Winston Cup stock cars.

The first of the two 100-kilometer races will start at 1 p.m. Sunday.

DRAG RACING--Qualifying for the 25th annual Winston Finals, final event of the National Hot Rod Assn. season, will start today at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds track in Pomona. Time trials for the $400,000 event will continue Friday and Saturday, with eliminations in all professional and sportsman classes starting Sunday at 11 a.m. . . . Kenny Bernstein and Don (Snake) Prudhomme, both longtime funny car champion drivers who are switching to top fuel next year, will make their final funny car pass together during pro time trials today at 2 p.m.

RIVERSIDE--Famed Riverside International Raceway, which first announced it was closing in 1984, is finally going to shut the doors for good. The final event on the road course will be a California Sports Car Club Solo I championship this weekend. Homes that have been built where the Bosch bridge once stood on the back straightaway, are due to be occupied Nov. 13.

STOCK CARS--Dan Press came up 20 points short of winning the NASCAR Southwest Tour championship last week at Bakersfield so he will have to wait until the season’s final race Nov. 4 at Phoenix. All the Frazier Park driver needs to do is start the AC-Delco 300 to become the 1989 champion. His car lost a rear end and he finished 19th at Bakersfield as Mike Chase out-dueled Jim Thirkettle for the win. . . . Ventura Raceway will hold a street stock program Friday night.

MOTOCROSS--Two Southern California riders, Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo and Mike Kiedrowski of Canyon Country, have won the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s national 500cc and 125cc championships, respectively. Ward, on a Kawasaki, became the first rider to win all four AMA championships: 125cc, 250cc, 500cc and Supercross. . . . The Southland Racing Assn. will hold a Grand Prix at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino on Sunday.

SPORTS CARS--Rick Johnson, former national motocross champion who missed most of the season with injuries, finished seventh after moving up from 12th in his auto racing debut in the Barber Saab feature last Sunday at Del Mar. Rob Wilson of England won the race, beating series champion Robbie Buhl of Grosse Point, Mich., who had won six consecutive races. Buhl collected $100,000. Motorcyclist Eddie Lawson, world road racing champion who would like to drive cars, too, was an interested spectator.

NEWSWORTHY--Members of the Fabulous Fifties Assn. will hold a memorial reunion Saturday night in honor of former race driver Richie Ginther, who died last month. The gathering will be at the Proud Bird, near the Los Angeles airport, at 7:30 p.m. . . . The American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. will honor the members of its 20th All-American racing team Saturday night, Jan. 6, at the Airport Marriott Hotel. Also honored as recipient of the Jerry Titus Award will be the AARWBA’s driver of the year.